Author: Matthew Westphal

Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.09.18

What You Need to Know
Community engagement and its potential for enhancing the viability of arts organizations is too often poorly understood or just plain misunderstood. It is conflated with other tasks and minimized by people who cannot envision its … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-01-09

Should museums have free admission?
A common refrain is that the museum can “afford” to have free admission for all, either through better management of costs, or through increased donations from the very rich. I don’t doubt this. But is it a good idea? … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2018-01-09

Maurice Peress, 1930-2018
Maurice Peress, a conductor who served as a link between jazz and classical music, died over the weekend at his home in New York. He was 87. Peress collaborated with Duke Ellington … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2018-01-09

Oprah, Donald Trump, and The Man Who Saw Them Coming
There has been, of course, an enormous amount of talk about Oprah Winfrey since her truly impressive speech at the Golden Globes Sunday night, and some have proposed her as the ideal candidate for … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2018-01-09

 

Why ‘Hamilton’ Is Timely In London, Too

“The most knowing laughter came at King George’s caution to the newly independent colonies: ‘Oceans rise / Empires fall / It’s much harder when it’s all your call / All alone, across the sea / When your people say they hate you, don’t come crawling back to me.’ Was this a prophecy of Donald Trump’s spiralling isolationism – the travel ban, the broken accords, the looming wall – or an admonition to Brexit leaders fumbling?”

Does The ‘Seeing Slowly’ Method Of Looking At Modern Art Work?

The technique (if that’s the word) that art dealer Michael Findlay recommends in his book Seeing Slowly: Looking at Modern Art is to stand in the middle of the gallery room, pick a work that catches your eye, and simply look at it for at least three (and up to 15) minutes. No reading the wall text or listening to the audio guide. Elena Goukassian gives the method a try to find out if it helps her appreciate better an artist whose work she’s never related to or liked.

*All* Museums, Not Just The Met, Should Be Free

“When museums are free we can see one painting every day on our lunch breaks. We can come back again and again to see all of the things we’d miss in just one visit. We can go on cheap dates. We can take our children and not worry about wasting our vacation budget if they throw a tantrum after 10 minutes. Students can come on school trips and learn not just about art or history or science, but also about experiences and institutions – museums themselves – that might otherwise feel closed off to them.”

In These Days Of #MeToo, Some Classic Musicals Have Some Awfully Uncomfortable Moments

“Reviving the hallmarks of our musical theater heritage is such a widespread practice on the American stage that the mores of bygone ages are going to be dredged up and played out, for some spectators who remember, maybe even cherish the originals – and others who are going to wonder: What the heck were these authors thinking?” Peter Marks considers some examples.

Should Museums Display Human Remains From Other Cultures? The Debate Hits Germany And Austria

“The newly opened Weltmuseum in Vienna has come under fire for displaying a severed head from Brazil – a war trophy that had belonged to the Munduruku people. … The discussion in Germany and Austria follows similar debates in France and the UK over the past 15 years, sparked by a rise in the number of demands for the return of human remains to their communities of origin, usually non-European and often former colonies.”

Has A Lost Leonardo Turned Up In Massachusetts?

“This spring, the Worcester Art Museum … will put the complex process of identifying a Leonardo at the heart of a new exhibition. The Mystery of Worcester’s Leonardo (10 March-3 June) makes the case that a work that has been in the museum’s collection since 1940, A Miracle of Saint Donatus of Arezzo (around 1479-85), should be credited to the Renaissance master.” Judith H. Dobrzynski reports.

Tim Rollins, 62, Made Art Stars Of South Bronx Teens

“[He] devoted almost all of his 35-year career to his unusual combination of art-making and teaching, and to the group, which exhibited as Tim Rollins + K.O.S.” (It stands for Kids of Survival.) “In a classroom with a barely functioning sink and broken windows boarded up with plywood, Mr. Rollins and his most interested students had begun to function as a workshop when they hit on the idea of using books for both inspiration and material.”