Rantings of a New Yorker » art

Fox News: libraries can’t show anti-religious art

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:45:35 +0000

This guy says that this art is in a public law library and that it shouldn’t be allowed because of separation of church and state. However, if you peruse his website, he is on a crusade to keep “In God We Trust” on the US dollar.

Classic hypocrisy. While I agree with him that the government should neither be hostile towards, nor in favor of, religion, he’s trying to have his cake and eat it too.

According to CBSNews, it was a part of a collection and the law library has no control over what is displayed. Because it was part of a bigger display, the painting becomes an issue of free speech, not an issue of religion. Since no other part of the display was targeted, you can’t remove one piece of a collection. Just because a few people are offended, doesn’t mean that every time someone is offended we should act. That road leads to censorship.

Free Metropolitan Museum of Art Podcast of Michelangelo’s First Painting

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:36:30 +0000

Keith Christiansen, the Jayne Wrightsman Curator of European Paintings, and Michael Gallagher, Conservator in Charge of Paintings Conservation, discuss their research and conservation of the first known painting by Michelangelo Buonarroti (Florence 1475–Rome 1564), believed to have been created when he was twelve or thirteen years old. Recently acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum, the painting The Torment of Saint Anthony has undergone conservation and technical examination at the Metropolitan Museum, leading to this new attribution.

You can hear it in iTunes, MP3, or Real audio. To download the podcast, please click here. Other podcasts are also available on the site.

Iran from the inside out at the Chelsea Art Museum

admin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:13:52 +0000

If you’ve got $8 ($4 for students and seniors) to spare between now and September 5th, go to the Chelsea Art Museum where they have an incredible displace called, Iran From the Inside Out.

Curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, Iran Inside Out is an examination of the means through which a young generation of artists is reconciling the daily implications of cultural and geographical distances with the search for individual artistic expression. The exhibition offers an unexpected insight into the artistic energy of a culture that is constantly evolving as Iranians living both in and out of the country, come of age living and working in contentious societies. While half of these artists such as Vahid Sharifian, Barbad Golshiri, Farideh Lashai and Jinoos Taghizadeh reside in Iran, the other half including artists such as Shirin Neshat, Shahram Entekhabi, Mitra Tabrizian and Shoja Azari has been interspersed in the Diaspora.

You won’t regret it. It’s well worth the $8 to see the exhibit.