With mash-up masters like Girl Talk and Kanye West in the spotlight of today's music world, it might appear that the singer-songwriter (? la Bob Dylan) is a thing of the past.
Today, we give drawing a level of importance in the visual arts that it never had in the past. Particularly in the Renaissance, when sketches were just plans for immaculately finished pieces, artists like Michelangelo would not want their drawings shown; the only thing that mattered was the final outcome. Today, we treasure these unfinished, dashed off studies for their immediacy and their insight into the artists' working process. "Drawing: A Broader Definition" at the MFA looks past drawing as just a plan for other works. The show presents sketches, ceramics and miniatures from 3850 B.C. to the 1950s, by artists ranging from Hokusai to Picasso, in a way that shows drawing as a medium of its own.
Commercial work is often equated with selling out in the minds of those who fancy themselves as art buffs. But commercial art and art inspired by the commercial world are on the rise. It's definitely something that should be dealt with in a time dominated by materialism and corporate influence. "Branded and On Display," now open at the Tufts University Arts Gallery, showcases a collection of work that plays with the concept of commercialization. Some of the artists approach commercialization as the subject of their work, while others use it as a framework for more conceptual pieces.
Remember that time in high school when you skipped last period and sports practice to go shopping? You probably either coerced your friend to forge a note from a doctor or parent or just did it yourself, struggling through several unrealistic practice signatures before signing your poorly faked note with a nervous flourish.
Like many artists, Spencer Finch seeks to grasp what we ourselves can't reach. His installations combine poetry and beauty with science, investigating the limits of perception in a kind of experimental process that may seem unfamiliar at first, but becomes a generous and accessible opportunity to expand our own horizons through art. Finch is an alchemist of representation, turning visual impulses into physics and back into sculpture. He turns dreams into drawings, transforming them into a Freudian excavation of an artist's subconscious.
With 2007 gone forever, one might think it's time to wind up the latest British Invasion, which included mostly female artists such as the hot mess Ms. Amy Winehouse and "Oops-I'm-Pregnant" Lily Allen, as well as many neo-new-wave bands such as Klaxons. But to do so would be to act far too quickly.
Along with the cold New England weather, endless shopping and glistening decorations, this season also brings with it a plethora of new Christmas CDs. All of these albums cover the classic favorites, and some even attempt to create the newest Christmas hit. The problem with the genre is that its market is so limited - between the fan base and restricted sale period - yet artists still take the plunge on compilation Christmas CDs.
The fracturing of Chinese artistic tradition within the past 50 years is a complex but beautiful result of the Cultural Revolution. The Sackler Museum at Harvard is hosting "Tradition Redefined: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Ink Paintings from the Chu-tsing Li Collection." The exhibit is divided into five parts, each focusing on one of the various ways that artists adapted their work to the changes in their homeland.
The art market is overheated. Prices are rising, as is interest from deep-pocketed investors, and, simply put, art is becoming trendy again.
The Hives, despite having enjoyed some measure of success in the past, seem to overestimate their "rocking" status. In comparison to fellow Euro rockers who broke the mainstream bubble, The Hives have yet to garner the level of success their attitude alludes to - let's just say that this isn't The Clash we're talking about.
Long before Andy Warhol produced his infamous silk-screen prints of Marilyn Monroe, artists during Japan's Edo period were creating woodblock prints of the supreme sumo wrestlers of the day.
Jim Lambie is a Scottish artist with a penchant for found objects and sculptural relief. His new exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts is a striking example of his signature style.
The Boston Museum of Fine Art's newest collection, "Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800-1815," immediately presents an imposing aura of wealth and power to viewers.
Simple, elegant, harmonious: These words do not seem to be in Cliff Evans' vocabulary. Instead, words like "complex," "busy" and "cacophony" are better suited to describe the artwork of this young artist, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museums' artist-in-residence.
A golden carpet greets visitors walking into the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard. As eyes adjust to the shimmering mass of color, the shape becomes a clear rectangle, a sharply delineated plane. Upon moving closer, the field of gold coalesces into a tumble of shapes until it finally becomes apparent what the installation is made of: candy!
When Fred Mascherino left Taking Back Sunday at the end of October, diehard fans of the pop-punk outfit were upset and confused. Why would the lovable screaming backup vocalist and guitarist of the band suddenly drop all ties with the group? After being a critical part of Taking Back Sunday for over four years, Fred has (foolishly) decided to split with the band to focus on his solo project, entitled "The Color Fred."
Avenged Sevenfold is a band usually brushed aside by rock fans and critics alike. While some may argue that this is rather unfair, after listening to the band's newest self-titled effort, it seems that perhaps this discrimination is well warranted.
New Jersey native Armor for Sleep made waves with its first two independent releases, "Dream to Make Believe" (2003) and "What to Do When You Are Dead" (2005), albums full of whiny emo anthems about how terrible life is in affluent suburbs. While these two releases aren't completely awful, they definitely left room for growth from the fairly young group.
Just as Diagon Alley blends into its surroundings, so does the Howard Yezerski Gallery on Newbury Street. Situated between Akris and Juicy Couture, this two-room gallery introduces a world radically and magically different from the commercial and material world of Newbury. The stunning photographs of teenagers in classrooms and on the streets of Harlem reflect the humanism absent from the mega-shopping district surrounding the gallery.
Stark contrast repeats itself over and over again in Kara Walker's exhibit at the Fogg Museum at Harvard. Large lithographs hang in bold, black splashes to interrupt sterile whitewashed walls. The images themselves - altered reproductions of Civil War illustrations from Harper's Weekly - utilize only strong blacks on a white background, using marks to indicate depth and form. Walker's alterations appear in contrast - figural silhouettes superimposed over the original lithographs.
