Category Archives: Arts & Literature

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Previews, Reviews

Art Exhibitions: ‘Georgia O’Keeffe -To See Takes Time’

April 10, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Georgia O’Keeffe. Evening Star No. III. 1917. Watercolor on paper on board: 8 7/8 x 11 7/8" (22.7 x 30.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Donald B. Straus Fund

The Museum of Modern Art (April 10, 2023) – “To see takes time,” Georgia O’Keeffe once wrote. Best known for her flower paintings, O’Keeffe (1887-1986) also made extraordinary series of works in charcoal, pencil, watercolor, and pastel.

Georgia O’Keeffe – To See Takes Time

April 9 to August 12, 2023

Reuniting works on paper that are often seen individually, along with key paintings, this exhibition offers a rare glimpse of the artist’s working methods and invites us to take time to look.

Best Photos of the Day — Installation view of Georgia O’Keeffe: To See Takes Time, on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York from April 9 through August 12, 2023. Photo by Jonathan Dorado.

Over her long career, O’Keeffe revisited and reworked the same subjects, developing, repeating, and transforming motifs that lie between observation and abstraction. Between 1915 and 1918, a breakthrough period of experimentation, she made as many works on paper as she would during the next four decades, producing progressions of bold lines, organic landscapes, and frank nudes, as well as the radically abstract charcoals she called “specials.”

Even as she turned increasingly to painting, important series—including flowers in the 1930s, portraits in the ’40s, and aerial views in the ’50s—reaffirmed her commitment to working on paper. Drawing in this way enabled O’Keeffe to capture not only nature’s forms but its rhythms: tracing the sun’s spiraling descent in vividly hued pigment, or committing to velvety black the shifting perspective as seen from an airplane window.

Discover the important role working on paper played in Georgia O’Keeffe’s life and career.

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Previews, Reviews

Exhibits: ‘Sarah Bernhardt – And The Woman Created The Star’, Petit Palais, Paris

Video April 9, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Sarah Bernhardt, (1844-1923), was an emblematic figure who spanned the 19th and 20th centuries. The “Divine Sarah”, who was an artist as well as an actress, takes center stage at the Petit Palais in an exceptional exhibition to mark the centenary of her death.

Sarah Bernhardt

And the woman created the star

14 April 2023 to 27 August 2023

The museum holds important collections of works linked to the actress, including the spectacular portrait of her that was painted in 1876 by her friend Georges Clairin and donated by her son Maurice.

With over four hundred works, the exhibition traces the life and theatrical career of this “sacred monster”, as Jean Cocteau dubbed her. A legendary performer of the greatest roles from Racine, Shakespeare, Edmond Rostand and Alexandre Dumas fils, among others, Sarah Bernhardt went from triumph to triumph in theaters all over the world.

The exhibition evokes her greatest roles through the costumes she wore on stage, photographs, paintings, posters and other memorabilia. Her “golden voice” and her tall, slender figure – unusual in those days – held the public in thrall, as well as the artistic and literary world, who simply venerated her. She was the friend of painters such as Gustave Doré, Georges Clairin, Louise Abbéma, and Alphonse Mucha, but also of writers like Victor Hugo, Victorien Sardou and Sacha Guitry, as well as musicians and composers like Reynaldo Hahn. She was an artist herself, and an entire section of the exhibition focuses on this lesser-known aspect of her life.

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Previews, Reviews, Videos

Exhibits: ‘Art Deco Glass’ – Fort Wayne Art Museum

Video April 8, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Fort Wayne Museum of Art (April 6, 2023) – Curators take you on a new gallery tour each month, offering unique perspectives on all FWMoA exhibits. For April 2023, we explore the exhibit Art Deco Glass from the David Huchthausen Collection, on view from April 1 – August 6, 2023.

Art Deco Glass from the David Huchthausen Collection

April 01, 2023 – August 06, 2023

Art Deco Glass: The David Huchthausen Collection – Museum of Glass

The Art Deco period (c. 1910-1940), with its focus on simplified forms and captivating repeating surface treatments, was revolutionary. Inspired by other burgeoning modern art movements of the time including Cubism and Fauvism, the philosophy behind this style aimed to introduce high quality design to a broader market.

The lasting influence of this period can still be seen in today’s Studio Glass movement in style and technique. For many decades, glass artist and collector David Huchthausen has collected with a keen and practiced eye. The quality and depth of his collection would be difficult, if not impossible, to replicate. His collecting history begins with the first pieces acquired while working as a graduate assistant to Harvey Littleton and continues today.

The FWMoA is proud to display his remarkable collection of over 120 Art Deco glass works, which includes many major studios and artists of the period (René Lalique, Steuben Glass Works, Daum Nancy, and Pierre D’Avesn) concurrent with our permanent collection of contemporary glass. This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA.

Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review – April 9, 2023

April 7, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The New York Times Book Review – April 9, 2023:

It’s Like ‘Little Women’ — but With Basketball

This is a series of six small drawings of men and women dressed in white, standing in a hilly rural landscape. — Credit…Kristina Tzekova

In “Hello Beautiful,” Ann Napolitano puts a fresh spin on the classic story of four sisters.

“It is your God-given right as an American fiction writer,” Ursula K. Le Guin once said, to change point of view. But “you need to know that you’re doing it,” she warned, and “some American fiction writers don’t.”

Osamu Dazai, With Help From TikTok, Keeps Finding New Fans

A black-and-white photograph of the author Osamu Dazai, who is resting his chin on his hand and looking to his left. — The Japanese novelist Osamu Dazai.

The enduring appeal of a midcentury Japanese novelist who wrote of alienation and suicide.

The first thing you hear is an eerie synth tone, followed by a portentous, insinuating voice. “Tell me, Dazai,” it says. “Why is it you wish to die?”

“Let’s turn that question around,” someone earnestly replies. “Is there really any value to this thing we call … living?” Then a beat drops, accompanied by distorted shouts.

Real People, Reincarnated in the Pages of New Novels

This is an illustration featuring six coin-like drawings in orange, teal, purple in pink, layered over a monochromatic street scene. — Credit…Michelle Mildenberg

These hefty books explore the lives of a former poet, a polarizing artist and a Scottish rebel from unexpected angles.

One of the great attractions of historical fiction is its ability to approach the past from unexpected angles, allowing us to consider famous figures in surprising ways. It’s a tactic that pays off brilliantly in Stephen May’s elegantly acerbic SELL US THE ROPE (Bloomsbury, 240 pp., paperback, $18), which features a thuggish former poet who calls himself Koba. The world will later know him as Stalin.

Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Films, Museums, Photography, Videos

San Francisco Arts: ‘Ansel Adams + Richard Misrach: Exploring Legacies’ (2023)

Video April 7, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (April 7, 2023) – “Ansel Adams + Richard Misrach: Exploring Legacies” is the latest installment of the award-winning short documentary series “FAMSF Presents.”

Featuring archival footage of Ansel Adams, as well as interviews with Berkeley-based photographer Richard Misrach and FAMSF curator Lauren Palmor, this film examines the impact of Ansel Adams’s prolific photography in the Bay Area and beyond. “Ansel Adams in Our Time” is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in partnership with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

It is on view at the de Young museum from April 8 until July 23, 2023.

Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Previews, Reviews, Tours

Exhibitions: ‘Ramses And The Gold Of The Pharaohs’

April 7, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

FRANCE 24 (April 7, 2023) – As the “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs” exhibition opens in Paris, we bring you a special show dedicated to the celebrated king who ruled the Egyptian empire over 3,000 years ago. The exhibition’s centrepiece is the pharaoh’s sarcophagus, which is on special loan to France.

It’s a gesture of recognition from Egyptian authorities after French scientists saved the mummy of Ramses II from a devastating fungus in 1976. Our Culture Editor Eve Jackson went to check out the once-in-a-lifetime show, while Lyana Saleh of FRANCE 24’s Arabic channel spoke with renowned Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass about the fight to repatriate Egypt’s ancient artefacts.

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Podcasts, Reviews

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

Audio April 7, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

April 6, 2023: This week: Ben Luke talks to Melanie Gerlis about the recent turbulence in the banking sector, as US banks go under, an ailing Credit Suisse is acquired by UBS and Deutsche Bank shares fall at one point by 14%.

What are the implications for the art world? Melanie also explains the figures in the latest Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. The Baltimore Museum of Art in the US this week opens the exhibition The Culture: Hip Hop & Contemporary Art in the 21st Century.

We speak to Asma Naeem, the director of the BMA and co-curator of the show, about what she’s called “the second pop art movement”. And this episode’s Work of the Week is The Calling of Saint Matthew by the 17th-century Afro-Hispanic artist Juan de Pareja. He is best known as the subject of one of the greatest ever portraits, by Diego Velázquez, the artist who enslaved Pareja for two decades before his manumission in Rome in 1650.

David Pullins and Vanessa K. Valdés, the curators of a new exhibition about Juan de Pareja at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, tell us about the painting.The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Baltimore Museum of Art, until 16 July; St Louis Art Museum, 26 August-1 January 2024.Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, until 16 July.

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Previews, Reviews

New Art Exhibitions: ‘John Craxton – Drawn To Light’, Meşher Studio In Istanbul

April 6, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Meşher, Istanbul’s leading multidisciplinary art space, is to celebrate the life and work of the painter and designer John Craxton (1922–2009). The late British artist’s first solo exhibition in Türkiye will run April 5–July 23, 2023.

John Craxton: Drawn To Light

5 April – 23 July 2023

Meşher will have the honour of exhibiting the biggest and the most comprehensive display of Craxton’s artworks ever to be showcased. John Craxton: Drawn to Light, curated by Ian Collins, friend and the biographer of the artist, brings together a diverse selection of works spanning the artist’s long career.

John Craxton: Drawn to Light - Announcements - e-flux

Featuring nearly 200 works, the exhibition offers a wide-ranging presentation of Craxton’s artworks including a monumental tapestry, paintings, drawings, prints, book designs and personal effects. The exhibition charts a joyful creative life moving from war-time darkness into light and from monochrome to brilliant colour. The window display features an example of the vintage motorbikes the artist loved to ride.

In addition to loaned works, Meşher’s John Craxton: Drawn to Light exhibition features 44 artworks from the Ömer Koç Collection, whose holding of Craxton works is second only to the John Craxton Estate. Photographs by the American photographer Robert McCabe and the London-born painter Nicholas Moore also enrich the John Craxton: Drawn to Light exhibition. First travelling to Aegean in 1954, McCabe’s photography focuses on its landscape and people, providing a close parallel with the art of John Craxton. Nicholas Moore’s photographs show scenes from his 1985 trip to Istanbul with John Craxton. A frequent visitor and an admirer of Istanbul, Craxton’s revelatory exhibition invites art lovers to explore his art and life in the lands he loved best.

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – April 17, 2023

April 6, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

A courtroom drawing of Donald Trump at his arraignment on April 4 2023. — Art by Jane Rosenberg – April 5, 2023

The New Yorker – April 17, 2023 issue: Truth is stranger than fiction: for the first time in its long history, The New Yorker is publishing a courtroom sketch on the cover.

America’s First Indicted Ex-President Is Very Sorry—for Himself

A photo of Donald Trump speaks in a MaraLago ballroom hours after being arraigned.

Notes on Donald Trump’s day in court.

By the time Donald Trump marched out from behind a phalanx of American flags and emerged into the gilded Mar-a-Lago ballroom to speak to cheering supporters on Tuesday night, America’s first indicted ex-President hardly seemed chastened by his historic day as a defendant in a Manhattan courtroom.

Alvin Bragg, Donald Trump, and the Pursuit of Low-Level Crimes

Alvin Bragg steps out of a car on March 27 2023. — *The fact that Donald Trump has finally been brought to court for an alleged crime relating to paying hush money may well contradict Alvin Bragg’s key contention.*

Following the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation, the former President was arraigned on felony charges stemming from hush-money payments.

Arts & Literature, Culture, History, Magazines, Nature, Previews

Preview: Iceland Review Magazine – April/May 2023

April 5, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

ICELAND REVIEW MAGAZINE (APRIL/MAY 2023):

The Dip

FICTION the dip by Örvar Smárason

When my fingers started falling off, it became harder and harder to put my

From the Archive: The Changing Face of Iceland

From the archive: In this 1971 article from Iceland Review,

Haraldur Sigurðsson delves into the history of Icelandic cartography. Note

Frost

Individually, snowflakes are fragile, easily broken, dissolving into droplets of water at the mere touch of a finger or a breath of air, while en masse, they’re capable of wreaking havoc on the city streets and causing catastrophe when avalanching down a mountainside.