-
Seeing Red: Matisse's The Red Studio At The Museum Of Modern Art
On a recent trip to New York and its summer environs, I was struck by what was in some ways a small exhibition centered on just one painting, quite well known, that is more than 110 years old and that has been part of a museum collection for more than 75 years: Matisse, The Red Studio which is on view through September 10, 2022. The Red Studio is an iconic Matisse work: The large (6’ X 7’) painting is suffused… -
If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Auschwitz: On Jerry Stahl's "Nein, Nein, Nein! One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust"
Nein, Nein, Nein! One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the HolocaustONE TIME, AT A friend's 50th birthday party, I appeared in a black unitard and heels, cued up the music, and performed Beyoncé's dance to "Single Ladies." I did the bit because I knew it was foolproof: just the sight of me in the unitard (I am neither young, nor slim, nor shapely in the way of Queen B) was sure to provoke laughs,… -
Of Madeleines And Butchery: Paris Police 1900
I"ve been spending a good amount of time in Paris 1900. For most of this year, my online reading group of high school friends has been making our way through Proust (The Modern Library Revised English Edition) in this the centennial of Marcel Proust's death on November 18, 1922.In keeping with this theme, I"ve just watched Paris Police 1900, a 2021 French-made drama series whose first eight-episode season begins streaming on MHzChoice (MHzChoice.com) on September 20th (you can add MHzChoice… -
Shantell Martin: Where The Line Takes You
"I always thought being an artist," Shantell Martin told me recently in her Los Angeles studio, "allowed you to do anything you want. It's a freedom to create whatever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want."That is certainly true for Martin whose life and career has never followed a straight line. Martin has found expression in a multiplicity of mediums, materials, venues, and in artistic collaborations and outlets all over the globe.Martin's work is improvised, a spontaneous black... View… -
The Timeless Shimmer Of Beatrice Wood
Sometimes a gallery show can remind you not just of an artist but of a rare personage.This is the case with Beatrice Wood: Drawings, Prints, Ceramics, which opened on September 21 at L.A. Louver in Venice, CA., and runs through October 29, 2022. I am sorry I didn"t get to this exhibition sooner, but it's worth seeing before it closes.Wood, who was called "the Mama of Dada", was born in 1893 and lived to 1998, when she was 105. She… -
R.I.P. Jerry Lee Lewis
You shake my nerves and you rattle my brainToo much love drives a man insaneYou broke my willBut what a thrillGoodness gracious, great balls of fire!Jerry Lee Lewis, the enfant terrible of Rock "n Roll, one of Sun Records million dollar quarter, the rocker whose career was momentarily cancelled when it was revealed his third wife, Myra, was thirteen years old and was his cousin, has died age 87.Jerry Lee Lewis was, as he would surely have been the first… -
The Joys And Oys Of Being A British Jew - One-Woman Show Comes To Santa Monica
"It's hard to be a Jew" is a Yiddish expression popularized by writer Sholom Aleichem as the title of his comic play that premiered at New York's Yiddish Art Theater on October 1, 1920.It could also be an alternative title for Suzanne Levy's one woman show, Dress British, Think Yiddish, directed by Stacie Chaiken, that is being performed next weekend for three performances only at the Santa Monica Playhouse (Saturday November 12, 2022, at 7:30 PM and Sunday November 13… -
Works By Egon Schiele Restituted To The Heirs Of Fritz Grünbaum To Be Auctioned In New York City
Tonight in New York, Christie's will hold their 20th Century Evening Sale at Rockefeller Center.Among the works being offered for sale are two works on paper by Early 20th Century Austrian Expressionist artist Egon Schiele, from the collection of Viennese film and cabaret star Fitz Grünbaum. Grünbaum was not unlike Joel Grey in Cabaret, famous for his biting comments as a Master of Ceremonies.And although this is not really for me to say, I hope the works sell for a… -
Rhapsodizing Khatia Buniatishvili
Several years ago, in 2017, I found myself at Tsinandali in the Republic of Georgia for the launch of their music festival. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta was performing. They were joined by Khatia Buniatishvili, a dark-haired Georgian pianist who interpreted Schumann with great finesse and other selections dramatically with great gusto. It was a memorable evening, and a memorable performance. Buniatishvili who was born in Batumi in 1987 has been performing since s... View Original Article -
Robert Longo's Art of The Now
There is an Ocean wave gathering strength, filled with ominous portent, set to come crashing before us. It began with Ferguson, but it's always been there, only now it's gained the weight and heft of a Death Star, a collection of all the AR-15 bullets fired in a year of mass shootings. It is Albrecht Durer's "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" come to life during the pandemic, with its resisters at the Women's March, at Gun Control protests, at… -
The Art of Lisa Edelstein
During the pandemic, Lisa Edelstein, the actor best known for her roles as Abby McCarthy in Girlfriends" Guide to Divorce, Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the popular medical drama series House, and as Alan Arkin's wayward adult daughter Phoebe on The Kominsky Method, took to painting. Seriously. Seriously and so well that her paintings are being exhibited at art consultant Lisa Schiff's exhibition space, sfa Projects, at 45 White Street in New York's Tribeca.The paintings in the exhibition, Lisa Edelstei... View… -
Lorna Simpson’s Certainty: Art Is ‘Everrrything”
October 12, 2021 By Tom Teicholz Lorna Simpson, Reocurring, 2021© LORNA SIMPSON, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND HAUSER & WIRTH, PHOTO BY JAMES WANG Lorna Simpson’s Everrrything at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles presents the wide spectrum of work Simpson produced during the pandemic – paintings, sculptures, collages, assemblages of found photos – and if there is one thing that unites them it is Simpson’s certainty: She is an artist at the top of her game, fully confident in her artistic instincts…