Art: Few forms of art are as cheeky and yet communicative as Pop Art, and this weekend, the Boca Museum of Art opens a three-month exhibition of works by artists who not only have come to define the movement but are well-known by non-specialists as well: Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, among others. They made careers out of adopting the styles and sometimes the … [Read more...]
The View From Home 56: Alain Resnais, the Vietnam War and the Nouvelle Vague, agitprop from Italy, and a lyrical neo-Western
You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet: You can’t watch Alain Resnais’ You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (Kino Lorber, $27.98 DVD) without thinking of the very first full line of dialogue spoken in a motion picture: Al Jolson’s boast that “you ain’t heard nothin’ yet” in 1927’s The Jazz Singer. As befitting its title, the innovations in Resnais’ singular new movie are more visual than auditory, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 4-5, 2014
Theater: Opening on Tuesday evening at West Palm Beach’s Kravis Center is that great folk opera, Porgy and Bess, reclaimed from elitist opera houses and reconceived as a Broadway-scale musical by director Diane Paulus, who has owned the Best Revival Tony Award for the past three seasons (Hair, Porgy, Pippin). In this case, the DuBose Heyward script has been shaken up by … [Read more...]
Looking back: Booming Art Basel full of energy, surprise
When the Art Basel Miami Beach week ended Dec. 8, more than 75,000 people had visited the show in the Miami Beach Convention Center, and many of those 75,000 had visited the five main fairs that have sprung up around it: Art Miami, Design Miami, NADA, Pulse and Untitled. There was plenty of star power, too. At Art Miami’s opening Dec. 3, a horde of no less than 13,500 VIP … [Read more...]
Violinist Perlman to open Festival of the Arts Boca
BOCA RATON -- Violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman will open the 8th Annual Festival of the Arts Boca in early March, festival officials said today. The legendary Israeli-born violinist is one of the best-known classical musicians in the world, and is an annual visitor to South Florida, giving three recitals this week in West Palm Beach and Miami. He also appeared twice previously … [Read more...]
Sundays: The end of an idea
By Myles Ludwig I am wondering if America’s grand illusions have become America’s grandiose delusions. Have we passed the best-used-by date of that lovely and sacrosanct idea of American Exceptionalism: An idea so long the comforting quilt of nationalistic narcissism that warmed past generations, a vanity that expressed itself in the political rationale for genocide in the … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘The Lion in Winter,’ ‘Annie’
Two solid productions have arrived for the holidays, each prominently featuring the Christmas season in its plot. The Lion in Winter is salted with plenty of humor and (spoiler alert!) none of the dysfunctional Plantagenets assembled for a Christmas reunion to decide who will inherit the crown from aging King Henry II gives his life during the cutthroat war of words. So James … [Read more...]
Northwest rockers The Thermals show some Florida love
By Hilary Saunders The Thermals’ sound is fitting for Wynwood’s aesthetic. The Portland, Ore.-based trio is scuzzy and malleable, and its most recent album, Desperate Ground, is its darkest opus yet. But The Thermals have a sing-along (or at least shout-along) quality that gives the band a semblance of accessibility. And like Wynwood, there’s a reason people keep coming … [Read more...]
Dover Quartet makes brilliant opening at Kravis Young Artists
It is almost as though the members of the Dover Quartet, all in their early 20s, holed themselves up with 1960s-era recordings by the Guarneri Quartet, so seamless, elegant and perfect is their playing. But there should be some room for wider variety and contrast amid all that, and so while one could make the case for this young foursome already being one of the finest … [Read more...]
The View From Home 55: Killer whales, radical philosophers, brave presidents, and chess masters
Computer Chess: The very fact that Computer Chess (Kino Lorber, $22 DVD) exists is an inspiration. The film is proof that a black-and-white experimental film —bdirector Andrew Bujalski called it an “existential comedy” — with no stars and the geekiest subject matter imaginable can still make nearly $100,000 at the box office. Which doesn’t sound like a lot until you consider … [Read more...]