This summer, Artblog dove into the Philadelphia Museum’s Creative Africa show — and into the wonderful summer program, Art Splash, that introduces moms, dads, and kids of all ages to the great art on view, and facilitates art making by the viewers, right there in the museum.
Read MoreEarlier this year, I was invited to curate a week of content on Curate This, the peppy new online arts publication whose mission — like Artblog’s mission — is to tell the whole wide world that the Philadelphia art scene has great art and artists. Curate This, started by writers/artists Amanda Wagner and Julius Ferraro, is now almost one year old, and I sat down with them recently to talk about how their publication is coming along and what they’re excited about. Curate This is a platform for artists and writers to speak their minds about issues involved in the arts (yes, there is some complaining).
Read MoreDo you love the Toynbee Tile Mystery like I do? I saw new tiles placed on South Broad St. (at Sansom and Walnut, East side crosswalks) that are so new they’re still mostly covered with the tar coating on top. Here’s a story in Philly Voice. And more about this from our movie review of Resurrect Dead (2011), the great movie by Jon Foy, starring Justin Duerr, which is available on Netflix.
Read MoreHoning in on the small body of work left to us by Hieronymus Bosch (some 25 paintings in museums across the world), the film opens with a series of luscious details of paint. Although cracking with age, the surface of the paintings still bears witness to the agile brush and even more agile mind of the artist. Lovingly detailed brushwork brings an almost jewel-like precision to the perverse devils and monsters that populate Bosch’s paintings, their forms dissolving into abstractions of color, line, and shape through the magnifying lens of the camera. The film is a paean to close looking, the sort of slow and deep observation that so few people seem to engage in–after all, recent studies have suggested that the average museum visitor spends about 15–30 seconds looking at a work of art.
Read MoreArtblog contributor, Donald Hunt emailed about his participation as an Artist Scholar at the Marian Anderson Historical Society. Donald, who writes about music for Artblog and was our graduate assistant on Artblog’s Artist and Social Responsibility (ASR) project, will perform in a special concert Aug. 27 at the Ethical Society–congratulations, Donald! And for you Daniel de Jesus fans, Donald says Daniel will be playing in the concert as well!
Read MoreI’ve been watching a lot of The Office (U.S.) lately. The heavy heat and caustic politics of the summer demanded a light touch and comedic reprieve. For me, the driving conflict of The Office was always the quiet struggle of the Dunder Mifflin employees to remain human in an inhuman environment. Their work world is formed by a toxic and invisible atmosphere designed to suffocate any and all aspirations to dignity, compassion, and individuality.
Read MoreJulie Dash’s The Great Migration observes the closing of one chapter of history for many African Americans–life in the unforgiving South–and the beginning of another–an arduous journey North towards an uncertain future. The opening scene of the film, a beach at first light shot in soft muted color, is a fitting metaphor for this transition. A solitary suitcase sits on the sand, a totem for countless histories both individual and communal. At this point of departure where land ends and sea begins, the memories of these emigrants bridge all physical borders, and as the sole remaining traveler, the suitcase is our window into a narrative whose roots run deep and whose branches continue to grow.
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