Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) is known for pretty pictures of women and children, the kind of pictures that make people smile and sigh a lot. But what many don’t know is that, as a working female artist living in late 19th-century Paris, she was a maverick. A driven woman who personally balked at convention, she remained single and childless, apparently by choice, so that she … [Read more...]
Cornell’s pinball exhibit evokes a lost America
As video killed the radio star, so did it kill the pinball machine. And as a new exhibit of nostalgic Americana at the Cornell Museum of Art and American Culture in Delray Beach makes clear, the rise of computer technology and video have sent pinball machines down the road of forgotten Americana: the automat, the Victrola, the jukebox, the 1959 Chevy. Pinball machines … [Read more...]
M.C. Escher retrospective fascinates, overwhelms
A young man stands looking at a picture of a ship in the harbor of a small town with its little turrets, cupolas and flat stone roofs, upon one of which sits a boy, relaxing. Two floors below him a woman gazes out of the window from her apartment, which sits directly above a picture gallery, where a young man stands looking at a picture of a ship in the harbor of a small town. … [Read more...]
Out among the quirks at Art Basel
The larger-than-life, realistic sculptures by the Canadian artist Evan Penny caused a stir at last year's Art Basel, with his nude self-portrait selling within the show's first days. At this year’s Art Basel, Penny is proving just as provocative. Penny’s sculptures aren’t simply lifelike reproductions, even though it may seem so when you first see them. From a different … [Read more...]
Art Basel ‘09 showcases innovation
From established artists to newbies, Art Basel is a place where one can see the innovators of contemporary art, and the annual Miami Beach version of this European art stalwart gets under way formally tonight. But the action associated with the festival started up at the beginning of the week, and on Wednesday afternoon, VIPs were lined up at the Miami Beach Convention Center … [Read more...]
Segal sculpted with compassionate eye, Norton exhibit shows
Four tractor-trailers hauled thousands of pounds of George Segal’s sculptures from Dallas to West Palm Beach. This is worth noting because an exhibition of his work, now at the Norton Museum of Art, presents 16 installations in a modest corner gallery of the museum’s first floor. For all of its physical weight, George Segal: Street Scenes is not a sprawling sort of show, the … [Read more...]
Exhibit shows Rockwell’s art a gift in difficult times
By Gretel Sarmiento Little girls with ribbons. Smiles hidden behind melting ice cream. Summer trips. Family quality time. Nobody remembers an America like this, devoid of sadness, depression and poverty. Whose America is this? Without hesitation, some would say Norman Rockwell's. They wouldn't have been wrong, but they would have missed a large part of what this singular … [Read more...]
Morikami’s kettles, prints evoke classic Japan
Readers of Yasunari Kawabata's novel Thousand Cranes will have some idea of the significance of the tea ceremony in Japanese life, of how each element of the ritual, from kettle to the tea itself, is fraught with meaning. An exhibit at the Morikami Museum west of Delray Beach offers a glimpse into the rituals of tea over the past few centuries through a display of more than … [Read more...]
Folk artist celebrates Americans in their 90s
A self-proclaimed contemporary folk artist who used to create faux-Pompeii scenes for a South Beach nightclub is currently paying tribute to nimble nonagenarians in a series of paintings on exhibit this month at Fort Lauderdale City Hall. JoAnn Nava's Living Treasures series honors four Americans in their 90s, including a fishing guide on the Canadian boundary waters named … [Read more...]
Butcher exhibit at Boca offers insight into our wild places
Many of us may never wade into the alligator- and snake-infested swamps of South Florida or hike into the mountain wildernesses of the West. But through Clyde Butcher’s photographs, we can get a feeling of what we would see and of the great beauty that awaits in our natural environment. Through November 8, visitors to the Boca Raton Museum of Art can vicariously travel from … [Read more...]