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Peter Schjeldahl, New York art critic with a poet's voice, dies at 80
NEW YORK, NY.- Peter Schjeldahl, a critic whose elegant reviews in The New Yorker and, before that, The Village Voice, made him an indispensable guide to contemporary art, died Friday at his home in Bovina, New York. He was 80. His wife, Brooke Alderson, confirmed his death. Schjeldahl was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in August 2019 and had undergone unexpectedly successful immunotherapy but never recovered entirely, she said. Few critics could match Schjeldahl for his intimate knowledge of New Yorks art world, which he wrote about with undiminished enthusiasm for more than a half-century. Even fewer could rival him for sheer eloquence. A poet by vocation in his earlier years, he brought an exquisite word sense to his polished essays, which managed to translate visual subtleties into lapidary prose. With a deft flick, he wrote ... More

How the Philharmonic's new home sounds, from any seat
NEW YORK, NY.- Over the past week at David Geffen Hall, the New York Philharmonics overhauled home, Ive listened from the new block of seating behind the orchestra so close to the players that I could almost read the percussionists music. Ive sat in the last row of the third tier, as far from the stage as you can get. And Ive been in the critics usual spot on the main level. It was striking how acoustically similar these three experiences were. The new Geffen seems to have achieved a rare distinction in its engineering for sound: consistency. No seat in the hall at least the vastly different ones Ive had in numerous visits so far is appreciably better or worse than any other. Last week, after a handful of opening events, I wrote that the hall an acoustical and aesthetic problem since its opening in 1962 had a mightily improved sound. ... More

In a musical about penicillin's inventor, superbugs take center stage
NEW YORK, NY.- Robin Hileys eyes rolled when he recounted the night in 2016 that a friend, an infectious disease doctor, asked him what seemed like a crazy question: Wouldnt it be a great thing to have a musical about antibiotics? Hiley, a composer and songwriter who is the artistic director of the Charades Theater Company in Edinburgh, Scotland, was skeptical. Although the troupe calls itself theatre with a social conscience, antibiotics or more precisely the threat of antimicrobial resistance, which can lead to death when common germs evade treatment seemed a bridge too far. But the friend, Dr. Meghan Perry, was persistent, passionate about what she conceded was this wacky idea. And so it is that The Mold That Changed the World, a musical about Alexander Fleming, the Scottish physician and microbiologist who received ... More

Local collectors loan works by iconic African American artists to the Columbia Museum of Art
COLUMBIA, SC.- The Columbia Museum of Art announces new exhibition Forward Together: African American Art from the Judy and Patrick Diamond Collection, on view in the Focus Gallery from Wednesday, October 19, 2022, through Sunday, April 2, 2023. Drawn from the esteemed collection of Judy and Patrick Diamond, this exhibition highlights a remarkable selection of works by some of the most significant African American artists of the last century: Benny Andrews, Radcliffe Bailey, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Sargent Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and Leo Twiggs. Its a special privilege for Judy and me to be invited to share artwork from our collection with the Columbia Museum of Art, says Diamond. I was born in Columbia in 1950 and have vivid childhood memories of my time in the city. Additionally, ... More

Only known specimen presentation set of Zanzibar Notes leads sale
DALLAS, TX.- Paper currency and coins from Zanzibar are as considered as desirable and exotic as a trip to the archipelago of islands off the eastern coast of the Africa. To elite collectors of international paper money, banknotes from Zanzibar are among the most desirable of all world issues, which explains the groundswell of demand for an Official Leather-Bound Presentation Album of Zanzibar Government Notes (estimate: $400,000+) that will be offered Nov. 15 at Heritage Auctions in The Ibrahim Salem Collection of Islamic Countries Part I SignatureÂ® Auction. Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous region of its nearest neighbor, Tanzania, but at times over the last five centuries, it has been occupied or colonized by Portugal, Oman and Great Britain. "There was a need for currency when Great Britain established its protectorate in Zanzibar," says Heritage Auctions ... More

S.M.A.K. opens the first major retrospective dedicated to the work of Belgian artist Philippe Van Snick
GHENT.- S.M.A.K. opens the first major retrospective dedicated to the work of Belgian artist Philippe Van Snick since his death in 2019. dynamic project occupies ten museum galleries as a reference to the decimal system (0-9) that is intrinsic to Van Snicks wideranging oeuvre. Key works are shown alongside surprising, lesser-known ones. The exhibition is conceived by curators Marta Mestre and Luk Lambrecht as a walk through his work: past his first sculptural analyses of time and space, conceptual photographs, and also short films and paintings. Special attention is paid to Philippe Van Snicks numerous, permanent and innovative public art projects, while limited-edition editions, magazines and unique documents also feature, the majority of which have never previously been exhibited. Emphasis is also placed on Van Snicks intimate living environment ... More

Catskill Art Society relaunches as Catskill Art Space
LIVINGSTON MANOR, NY.- Catskill Art Society, an established presenter of regional and national artists, reopens on October 22 under a new nameCatskill Art Spacefollowing a major renovation and expansion of its multi-arts center located in the picturesque hamlet of Livingston Manor in the Western Catskills. Reopening with nearly 10,000 sq. ft. of exhibition and performance space spanning two floors, Catskill Art Space (CAS) is a regional arts destination with an ambitious slate of opening exhibitions, including a long-term presentation of James Turrells light installation Avaar (1982), two site-specific wall drawings from Sol LeWitt (2001), an installation of British sculptor Francis Capes A Gathering of Utopian Benches, and an exhibition of new and historical work by Brooklyn and Livingston Manor-based artist Ellen Brooks, titled Trees ... More

Amon Carter acquires key works by Luis Jimenez, Norman Lewis, Kara Walker, and others
FORTH WORTH, TX.- Today, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art announced the acquisition of works by Luis JimÃ©nez, Norman Lewis, Richard Misrach, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, and Kara Walker, among others, introducing major works by a diverse roster of artists to the Museums renowned photography and painting, sculpture, and works on paper collections. From Stephanie Syjucos reframing of mythologies of the West to accounts of the COVID-19 pandemic and recent political unrest by Anila Agha and Sandy Rodriguez, these additions bring critical dimension to the histories chronicled through the Carters holdings and elevate contemporary storytelling by living artists. JimÃ©nezs Lowrider, 1997, and Lewis Seachange XIII, 1977, along with works by more than 15 other photographers, sculptors, and printmakers, mark the first ... More

Khady Kamara named first executive director of the Perelman Performing Arts Center
NEW YORK, NY.- The Board of Directors of the Perelman Performing Arts Center announced the appointment of Khady Kamara on October 20th as the organizations first Executive Director. Kamara comes to the PAC from New Yorks Second Stage Theater, following an extensive national search. As Executive Director, Kamara will work closely with the PACs Artistic Director Bill Rauch and will oversee all administrative and operating aspects of the PAC, which opens in 2023. Kamara will join the PAC in a part-time capacity this month and will be fully on board starting in early 2023. When the PAC opens next year, it will be a spectacular addition to Lower Manhattan and New York Citys cultural life and, in Khady Kamara, we have found a terrific Executive Director, said Michael R. Bloomberg, Chair of the Board of Directors. Khady has a wealth ... More

Lucy Simon, singer and Broadway composer, dies at 82
NEW YORK, NY.- Lucy Simon, who with her sister Carly began performing and recording as the Simon Sisters during the folk revival of the 1960s, and who then almost three decades later became a Tony Award-nominated composer for the long-running musical The Secret Garden, died Thursday at her home in Piermont, New York. She was 82. Her family said the cause was metastatic breast cancer. Simon was the middle of three musical sisters. Her younger sister, Carly, became a bestselling pop star after their folk duo days, and her older sister, Joanna, was an opera singer with an international career. Joanna Simon, 85, died in New Yorks Manhattan borough a day before Lucy Simons death. Lucy and Carly started singing together as teenagers. Their father, Richard, was the Simon of Simon & Schuster, the publishing house, so a heady ... More