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Lawrence Langer, unblinking scholar of Holocaust literature, dies at 94
NEW YORK, NY.- Lawrence L. Langer, a literary scholar whose unblinking assessment of the Holocaust as an event so vast and evil that it defies moral framing helped deepen scholarly and popular understanding of the atrocity, died Monday at his home in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He was 94. His son, Andrew Langowitz, said the cause was rectal cancer. Across some 15 books and monographs, Langer insisted on a searing interpretation of the Holocaust as a moral black hole from which not even meaning can escape. He rejected words like survivor, hero, martyr and tragedy when applied to the Holocaust because, he said, they hinted at the possibility of a redemptive silver lining. In the decades after the war, there was pressure to make the Holocaust fit a moral framework, Ruth Franklin, a biographer and literary critic, said ... More

'Not a Pretty Picture': A director's unflinching response to trauma
NEW YORK, NY.- Made nearly half a century ago and long hiding in plain sight, Martha Coolidges Not a Pretty Picture is at once an autobiographical documentary, a Pirandellian psychodrama, an acting exercise, a personal exorcism and a powerful political tract. The subject is date rape, and it could not be more topical. In a rare theatrical run, a new 4K restoration of the movie opens Friday at Anthology Film Archives. At 16 years old, in 1962, Coolidge was sexually assaulted by an older schoolmate. Her 1976 movie restages and analyzes the rape. In the film, its 1962 again and the actress playing Martha (Michele Manenti), innocently adventurous, takes a trip with three boys and another girl to New York City. No matter how self-possessed she believes herself to be, she winds up isolated in a loft, where she is cajoled, bullied ... More

The essential Alice Munro
NEW YORK, NY.- Before Id read Alice Munro when my knowledge of her amounted to an oafish word cloud (older woman, Canadian, short stories) I imagined that the experience of reading her books, if I ever bothered to, would be like listening to classical music on fancy headphones in a college library: civilized, subtle, probably sleep-inducing. But then I actually read Munro, and she lifted off my headphones in order to whisper an insane, unforgettable piece of gossip about that anxiety-stricken TA over by the copy machine. It turns out that Alice Munro Nobel laureate, Author Most Likely to Endure, object of universal writerly reverence and envy is not just important, but fun. Her books dont belong on a high shelf; they belong in the passenger seat of your car, in the tote bag you bring to the grocery store. She ... More

'These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture' at Royal West of England Academy
BRISTOL .- A new exhibition opening at the Royal West of England Academy presents an extremely rare and largely unknown aspect of the late artist John Hoylands (1934-2011) career ceramic sculptures. In 1994, Hoyland a prominent British abstract painter - made an unruly group of twenty-five ceramic sculptures. Loaded with colour, humour and zoomorphic qualities, he called them these mad little hybrids, referring to their unexpectedness and the difficulty of fitting them into conventional categories. Remarkably, they have never been publicly displayed since being made. Hoylands ceramics now appear remarkably contemporary and completely in sync with a broad range of current sculpture. To emphasise this, the exhibition brings eleven of Hoylands ceramics together with sculpture by Caroline Achaintre (b.1969), ... More

Artwork of Nanna Hänninen focuses on current environmental issues that affect global communities
BERLIN.- Persons Projects has opened Nanna HÃ¤nninens exhibition Vanishing Views. In the selected works, HÃ¤nninen focuses on current environmental issues that affect global communities, while intrinsically warning all of a future that is fast approaching. Her minimalist work conceptually challenges our perceptions of climate change by exploring through photography the gradual disappearance of uniquely diverse ecosystems. Exploring these impacts, HÃ¤nninen combines different, seemingly detached objects and places. In merging these factors together, the artist has found her own way to visually address the urgency of climate protection. Nanna HÃ¤nninens photographs have, for over two decades, challenged our perceptions of reality by creating visual dichotomies. Having played a pivotal role within the Helsinki School since ... More

Across mediums Austin Eddy's work is of multiple minds speaking in a rhythmic unison
VIENNA.- Galerie Eva Presenhuber is now showing Songs For The Sun., the gallerys first exhibition with the US-American artist Austin Eddy. Across mediums Eddys work is of multiple minds speaking in a rhythmic unison. Abstraction coalesces into figuration, as shapes become images and images shapes. Texture becomes a material contradiction and the illusionistic warping of viewers expectations. It all fits firmly in the tradition of modernism, renewing it a century later while simultaneously breaking it apart. That high art purity melding with an interest in and celebration of more vernacular pursuits. Quilting, collage, the flattened perspectives of rural folk painting that invent ways of depicting landscape and narrative away from classical representational and cinematic models of storytelling. The work manages to maintain a connection with early ... More

Exploring the lasting impact of the work of Sir William Gillies in 'After Gillies' at Royal Scottish Academy
EDINBURGH.- The Royal Scottish Academy is showing After Gillies, an exhibition exploring the lasting impact of the work of Sir William Gillies on the current membership of the Royal Scottish Academy. Upon his death in 1973, William Gillies RSA RA (1898-1973) bequeathed his entire estate to the RSA. This generous bequest, comprising hundreds of artworks, materials, archives, and more, has allowed the RSA to perpetuate Gillies legacy through research, publications and exhibitions. Today, the bequest continues to fuel various initiatives, such as the RSA New Contemporaries Prize, Â£2,000 for an emerging artist; the Sir William Gillies Memorial Lecture, bringing influential and educational speakers to the RSA each year; and the annual Gillies Bursary, a fund to support projects by members of the RSA. Notably, the Gillies ... More

For Thomas Hirschhorn, handmade art keeps us human
NEW YORK, NY.- Gladstone Gallery looks like a war zone, the aftermath of a Call of Duty gaming session gone bad, the virtual gunmen downing Red Bull and chain smoking over their keyboards, until a bomb came through the roof. This is the tragicomic scene summoned in cardboard and packing tape by Thomas Hirschhorn, 66, a Swiss artist known since the 90s for wrestling humble materials into cacophonous installations: rows of PCs and desks, a ceiling festooned with smiley-face and purple devil emoji dangling from ropes of tape, and life-size cutouts of geared-up video game soldiers. Energy drink cans made of tinfoil and mounds of cigarettes fashioned from plastic foam litter the paper desktops. The cardboard monitors, many of them spiderwebbed with cuts, sport color printouts of screenshots from first-person shooters and photos ... More

Whose last show is it, anyway?
NEW YORK, NY.- Outside the big, tall windows of Ellen Maddow and Paul Zimets Manhattan loft, in a former garment factory on Mercer Street in SoHo, is a slice of the New York skyline: up close, rooftops of old brick buildings, solid as can be; farther off, glass towers taller, sleeker, colder, newer. In a city forever in flux, Maddow, 75, and Zimet, 81, have stayed put for half a century, creating experimental theater in the skylighted boho oasis that cost $7,000 to buy in 1973 and where they raised their family. Having arrived in the neighborhood when it was scary-scruffy, long before it went way upscale, they have remained stubbornly devoted to each other and to their venerably niche downtown company, Talking Band, which turns 50 this year. That kind of history can sound utopian from the outside. But misunderstanding is a risk theyre taking, ... More

Jennell Jaquays, who unlocked fantasy dungeons for gamers, dies at 67
NEW YORK, NY.- Jennell Jaquays, who made luminous fantasy paintings, classic adventures for tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, and distinctive levels in popular video games such as Quake II, died Jan. 10 in Dallas. She was 67. Jaquays wife, Rebecca Heineman, said she died in a hospital from complications of Guillain-BarrÃ© syndrome. During Jaquays lengthy career, gaming grew from a niche hobby into a cultural touchstone. But long before Dungeons & Dragons was adapted into hit video games such as Baldurs Gate 3 and films such as Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and before it served as a signifier of nerdiness on television shows including Stranger Things, The Big Bang Theory and The Simpsons, devotees shared the adventures they created with other hobbyists. Jaquays ... More