Arts

0 Arts & Entertainment Maduna was born Dennis Didley in Cambridge on Oct 22, 1940. He went on to study at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and live in Boston. Press Release Desk , News Partner Posted Reply Press release from the City of Cambridge: January 19, 2021 "People gather strength through their roots," Vusumuzi Maduna—who died in 2007, at age 66—once said, "and it is through art that we hear our ancestral voices." In August, Maduna’s “Inner City Totem I,” 1981, a wood and steel sculpture outside the Cambridge Community Center that resembles a monumental African mask, was vibrantly restored by Greg Curci of Winthrop for Cambridge Arts. Curci replaced rotted wooden pieces, painted to match the original; cleaned and varnished rusted steel; and replaced worn fasteners. Curci completed restoration, including repairs to significant structural damage, of a companion piece, “Inner City Totem II,” 1983, at the … [Read more...] about Cambridge Arts Restores Monumental African Mask Sculptures By Vusumuzi Maduna

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 NEW YORK - Whenever I see the word "identity" in an exhibition title, I have an urge to vanish into the soothing nebulousness of a steamed-up bathroom. On the other hand, I am interested in how artists respond to national defeat and disaster. So I recommend "Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in Nineteenth-Century Danish Art." The show, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, sounds unprepossessing. Danish art from the early 19th century? "Identity and place"? Unless you are a big fan of "Borgen" and eager to know what Birgitte Nyborg meant when she said, in the current season's final episode, that "modern day Denmark was born of defeat," you might be inclined to give it a pass. Reconsider. A lot of terrific art emerges from national trauma. Impressionism would not have taken the form it did without the Franco-Prussian War and the civil war inside Paris of 1870-71. Dada and art deco … [Read more...] about Scarred by defeat, they gave birth to a golden age of Danish art

Stephanie Seymour‘s greatest fashion muse is her late son, Harry Brant. The veteran supermodel recently opened up to the Wall Street Journal about loss and healing in her first interview since the death of her youngest son with businessman and publisher Peter Brant . Harry Brant, a rising model and socialite who frequented New York’s art and style scenes, died in January 2021 after struggling with addiction and accidentally overdosing on prescription drugs. He was 24. “If I think that Harry would love something, I do it, and it does help me with my grief,” Seymour told the Journal. Entertainment & Arts Harry Brant, New York socialite and son of model Stephanie Seymour, dies at 24 Harry Brant, son of supermodel Stephanie Seymour and businessman Peter Brant, has died of a prescription drug overdose. He was 24. Advertisement One way Seymour has been able to cope with the loss of her son is by wearing his favorite outfits. … [Read more...] about Stephanie Seymour pays homage to late son Harry Brant by modeling his clothes

See the article in its original context from June 13, 1994 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Although the 20th century is all but dead and gone, its musical achievements remain daydreams of the distant future for most major opera companies. The Chicago Lyric Opera is valiantly swimming against the tide with its ambitious projects in contemporary opera, which have included one recent or new American opera each year as part of its Center for American Artists series. On Friday … [Read more...] about Review/Opera: Orpheus Descending; The Orpheus Legend Puts On a Modern Face

The operafication of American literature goes on. On Wednesday evening the Juilliard Opera Center offered the premiere of "Miss Lonelyhearts," composed by Lowell Liebermann to a libretto by J. D. McClatchy on a commission honoring the centennial of the Juilliard School. In 1933, Nathanael West's pitiless novel of the same name acted as a kind of hand grenade thrown into the middle of American religious morality. The consolations of Christianity were left more or less in shreds. "Miss Lonelyhearts" concerns a Depression-era "Dear Abby" columnist gradually done in by the unhappinesses to which he is required to respond. This operatic version of the novel exhibits both the joys and the sorrows of transferring art from one set of surroundings to another. Some of "Miss Lonelyhearts" the opera works quite well; some of it doesn't. The larger question is, Why do it in the first place? Both composer and librettist declare their enormous admiration for West's original. One can argue that … [Read more...] about A Nathanael West Novel Gets Its Turn on the Opera Stage

In 1979, the artist Ming Smith arrived at New York’s Museum of Modern Art with a portfolio of her photographs. She had been living in the city for a few years, nurturing her obsession with photography, when she heard that the museum had announced an open call for submissions. As Smith walked into the building, prints in tow, the receptionist thought she was a messenger. A few days later, the department of photography’s then chief curator, John Szarkowski, and assistant curator Susan Kismaric bought two of Smith’s pieces, making her the first Black woman photographer to have her works acquired by the museum. Even before gaining institutional recognition, Smith had faith in her art. “I didn’t care if I fit in,” she said to me in her quiet, Midwestern-inflected voice. “Photography was my sacred space.” It was an overcast day in January, and we were sitting in Smith’s home studio, a compact apartment in a tall residential building in central Harlem, surrounded by her work. … [Read more...] about The Ecstatic, Elusive Art of Ming Smith