Art: Here’s one way of tying together a lot of disparate work: the alphabet. Tomorrow, the Norton Museum of Art opens From A to Z: 26 Great Photographs from the Norton Collection, which is exactly what it sounds like – a group of photos arranged by photographer’s names from A to Z. The “X” photographer is Chinese-born Xiaoze Xie, and the “Z” photographer in this exhibit is … [Read more...]
The View From Home 22: New releases on DVD
Around a Small Mountain (Cinema Guild) Release date: March 8 Standard list price: $26.99 Could it be that French director Jacques Rivette, the New Wave lion who just turned 83, is finally slowing down? What else can we make of the fact that his latest feature, which could very well be his last, is a scant 84 minutes? For Rivette, Around a Small Mountain is the equivalent of … [Read more...]
Hudson River painters captured glory of a rising nation
In the final room of the exhibit Hudson River School Masterpieces from the New-York Historical Society, now on view at The Society of the Four Arts through Sunday, there are two striking portraits of the men considered to be the fathers of the movement: Thomas Cole and Asher Durand. One could also pronounce them the fathers of American art because, during their lifetimes, they … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 11-13
The film industry has been one of the best things ever to happen to the symphony orchestra, and tonight at the Festival of the Arts Boca, both will be together again. Restoration specialist John Guberman is bringing the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz to the Count de Hoernle Amphitheater tonight, to be screened to the accompaniment of live music from the Boca Raton … [Read more...]
Two small shows at Boca museum reveal deep riches
Two of the current shows at the Boca Raton Museum of Art are easy to miss. But you don’t want to. One gives us the dramatic touch of Goya, the playful Miró and the erotic side of Picasso. The other is a good bite of Latin American art. And I’m not talking Diego Rivera, Amelia Pelaez or Frida Kahlo. Believe it or not, Latin America has more where they came from. More than … [Read more...]
The View From Home 21: New releases on DVD
Sweet Smell of Success (Criterion) Release date: Feb. 22 Standard list price: $21.99 Ahead of its time in 1957, Sweet Smell of Success is, like Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, one of Hollywood’s most sordid exposes of the entertainment/media complex. It dismantles the promotion industry as an intractably corrupt system, while tapping into deeper, more sinister subtext in … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 18-20
Music: The music of Spain has long been a favorite of the conductor Philippe Entremont, and for this weekend’s concert by the Boca Symphonia, he’s commissioned new arrangements of familiar and not-so-familiar masterworks from the land of Cervantes. The Argentine-born mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack is the guest soloist for Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo on a program that also … [Read more...]
God of ‘Cassadaga’ is in the photographer’s details
The interstate is really the one road that leads to Cassadaga, I-4 to be exact, and it takes travelers from both the east and west coasts of central Florida to this small hamlet of spiritualists, mediums, psychics, and healers. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this 116-year-old Volusia County community draws both believers and naysayers, those seeking … [Read more...]
The View From Home 20: New releases on DVD
Santa Sangre (MPI) Release date: Jan. 25 Standard list price: $21.99 So Santa Sangre, one of cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s most controversial films, is finally released on a beautiful Region 1 DVD, ensuring all of the red paint spilling forth from the body orifices will look as vivid as it should. Jodorowsky has an intensely devoted following of adventurous … [Read more...]
Music roundup: A powerful premiere at Lynn; evocative Ravel at PB Symphony
Lynn Philharmonia/Gunther Schuller (Jan. 29, Wold Performing Arts Center, Boca Raton) “I am Chiayu!” the small woman wearing a red dress jacket almost shouted to the audience at the Wold Performing Arts Center as she took the stage at Lynn University in Boca Raton to introduce her new composition. Chiayu Hsu, a Taiwan-born composer who earned her doctorate at Duke University, … [Read more...]