I caught only part of last night's country music event at the White House: it was streamed live, and but by the time I tuned in, Charley Pride and Alison Krauss & Union Station had already performed. Brad Paisley, however, was charming -- performing a love song and a hard-luck song, and talking about some changes the U.S. has gone through. At one point, he referred to Michelle Obama's great- or great-great grandfather, a slave, and the camera captured her emotional reaction. Mrs. Obama, in contrast … [Read more...]

Just so you know -- a news collection that needs little or no comment (the boldface is mine):  The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported on the construction of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art: "Museum officials on Friday opened a temporary lookout and a 1 1 /2-mile pedestrian and bicycle trail that crosses the museum property...the museum expects people to realize the scope of the building and be more patient for it to open, said Sandy Edwards, the museum's associate director." (more) From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: … [Read more...]

New York's Old Master dealers used to have a week every winter, coinciding with the auction sales, that was filled with Sunday openings, evening hours, receptions and dinners. They'd put out their best art, and collectors would make several nights of it. Camaraderie was rampant. I don't know exactly what happened to it, but it shrank long before the recession set in, although some drawings dealers have been keeping the idea alive. This year, London dealers tried something similar, to coincide with the July Old Master … [Read more...]

This is country music week at the White House! Get ready to hear Brad Paisley (top) and Alison Krauss (bottom) and Union Station -- the top modern bluegrass band (she has 26 Grammys) -- in the East Room and the State Dining Room. The show begins Tuesday at 2 p.m., when Jay Orr moderates an educational workshop with the musicians for 120 middle- and high school students from around the country (40 are coming from Nashville, which is a little like coals to Newcastle, no?). The students are supposed to "learn about the craft of … [Read more...]

Yet another reason to visit Williamstown, Mass. this summer: The Prendergast In Italy exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art, which I mentioned here in passing several weeks ago, was unveiled this weekend. I drove up for the opening on Friday. Disclosure: I am a lender of a small, very atypical work in the exhibition -- the first and probably the last time that will occur. At the dinner for lenders, I was seated among the curators -- Nancy Mowll Mathews, the chief organizer of the exhibition; … [Read more...]

When I learned that the George Eastman House was mounting an exhibition of photographs by actress Jessica Lange, I thought "Oh, no, yet another case of a celebrity getting attention for mediocre work just to attract attention." Think of all those actors and actresses (Katie Holmes in All My Sons, P. Diddy/Sean Combs in Raisin In the Sun) who get stage roles on Broadway simply because they'll attract crowds. And we won't even discuss book contracts. But while I haven't seen the show -- 50 Photographs by Jessica Lange opens … [Read more...]

Don't you love academic kerfuffles? In June, I wrote here about the "Enduring Questions" grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grants were all about $25,000, and they went to professors developing undergraduate courses on such weighty matters as "what is happiness?", "what is the meaning of life?" and "what are the dangers of individualism?" The goal was to promote critical thinking. Twenty courses were chosen as winners, involving a wide range of academic disciplines. Philosophers, in turns out, … [Read more...]

Cezanne hardly ever lacks for attention, but this may be his year -- especially with regard to his influence. Following the fabulous Cezanne and Beyond at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (which I wrote about here), the Montclair Museum of Art will open an exhibition on Sept. 13 called Cezanne and American Modernism. The museum says it's the first show to "examine fully the influence of Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) upon modern American artists from 1907 to 1930." It will explore the critical way American artists and critics helped … [Read more...]

Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice has been on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,* since mid-March, and reviewed with high praise elsewhere. But I was able to go to Boston to see it for myself just this week, so I'll simply concur with any and all of that praise. It's a lush, revealing exhibit, not to be missed if you can get to the MFA before Aug. 16, when the show closes and moves to the Louvre. As Holland Cotter said in his review, the exhibition consist of "56 grand to … [Read more...]

The news regarding the Lawrence Salander fraud just keeps getting worse. Today, Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau's office arrested the Upper East Side dealer again, and added three new counts to the 100-count indictment handed up last March. Bloomberg has the news. Morgenthau's office upped to total of Salander's thievery from collectors, artists and investors to more than $92 million. Salander-O'Reilly declared bankruptcy in November 2007, as did Salander, his wife, Julie, and his defunct gallery, Salander-O'Reilly, have all … [Read more...]