Portrait of Mlle. Hortense Valpinçon (c. 1871), by Edgar Degas. I recently got to walk inside the Norton Museum and ask something I rarely get to ask: Where to the van Gogh and the Degas? It felt good. I can understand why any museum that owns a masterpiece makes use of its bragging rights every change it gets and despite the local crowd’s tendency to take it for granted. … [Read more...]
At the Four Arts: The lost glory of a Southern capital, recaptured
An ongoing exhibition at the Society of the Four Arts tells the story of how the golden era of Charleston, S.C., came and left, while its fruits went everywhere. An Eye for Opulence: Charleston through the Lens of the Rivers Collection consists of more than 200 mahogany furniture pieces, silver objects and fine art representing the city’s enviable prosperity during the … [Read more...]
At the Morikami: Compelling art arises from pain, tragedy
We are often moved by art, but what is art moved by? Tragedy. Joy. Death. Life. Two dramatic exhibitions now on view at the Morikami Museum feature artworks born out of ashes and out of the necessity to cope with loss. Running through Jan. 31, Wendy Maruyama: Executive Order 9066 revives a particularly sad time to mark the 70th anniversary of the closing of the last … [Read more...]
The great-grandfathers of our comedy: Gilded Age cartoons at the Flagler
A man tells his friend he lost $27 in Wall Street. The friend replies that he read the stock market news in the paper and asks: “Who got it – Gould or Sage?” This was brave humor in 1900. Jay Gould and Russell Sage were well-known railroad executives at the time. The joke derives from a 1900 cartoon by Louis W. Dalrymple that suggests such powerful financiers controlled … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2015-16: The season in Palm Beach County art
Think of a bento box and you will get the picture of what art in Palm Beach County looks like this season: traditional with a few twists. Among them is an exhibition of provocative works by a performance artist who is also an activist, and another show dedicated to the little-known works of a reclusive Italian-American artist who died in Rome 11 years ago. Packing tape, golf … [Read more...]
Creatures and robots enliven summer at Morikami
If I told you the first hotel run solely by robots just opened and it features a dinosaur concierge, where in the world would you picture it? It counts if you mention anywhere in Japan — though, technically, it opened in Nagasaki. The Land of the Rising Sun is also proving to be the most machine-loving, with an invigorating robot culture and a robotic technology that is … [Read more...]
Cultural Council Biennial heavy on color, nature
With all the recent dialogue challenging longstanding notions of gender, race and marriage, one would expect to find these themes daringly reflected in art. And they are — just not so much in Palm Beach County. The Cultural Council Biennial 2015, running now through Aug. 29 at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County’s Lake Worth locale, sounds promising. One finds a … [Read more...]
The ageless Everglades, old and new, at the Norton
No landscape carries the beauty and the beast within it better than the Florida Everglades. More than 200 images capturing its changing habitants and moods compose an ongoing exhibition titled Imaging Eden: Photographers Discover the Everglades. I know what you are thinking. Shouldn’t this read Imagining Eden? No. The photography exhibit organized by the Norton Museum has … [Read more...]
Pictures of Cuba: Before all is lost
It has begun. The sense of urgency in all things Cuba related. The pressure is on to taste the real cuisine, before the fast-food plague arrives, and to enjoy the beaches before a Private Property sign claims the water, the seashells, the sand… For photographers, the rush is to capture a land before it undergoes drastic changes and becomes like everywhere else: modern and … [Read more...]
Flagler features art of an enigma-less master
In true dramatic fashion, he went from being the trendy artist everyone desperately copied to being something like the universal symbol for what to avoid. What else is new? The fame, popularity and recognition enjoyed by French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau in the 19th century no doubt landed him in the history books. When else have America and Europe been on … [Read more...]