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A (Virtual) Journey With The People of Jerusalem
At the close of every Passover Seder attendees are enjoined to proclaim, "Next Year in Jerusalem!"You need not wait. Mekudeshet, a Jerusalem-based cultural organization is offering up a virtual experience Dissolving Boundaries: A Journey with the People of Jerusalem, that you can order online and experience in your own home and while walking around your neighborhood (it costs $48 and can be ordered here).Mekudeshet (which means "belonging") is an arts organization that, as its press materia... View Original Article -
The Gospel According To Aretha
In 1972, Aretha Franklin who had by then had some 11 consecutive hits including, "Respect," "Think" and "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman" decided to record a live gospel album. Over two nights at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, Aretha performed with the Reverend James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir led by Alexander Hamilton. The first night was devoted to traditional gospel hymns, the second to gospel versions of contemporary songs by… -
Lorna Simpson's Certainty: Art Is "Everrrything"
Lorna Simpson's Everrrything at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles presents the wide spectrum of work Simpson produced during the pandemic â paintings, sculptures, collages, assemblages of found photos â and if there is one thing that unites them it is Simpson's certainty: She is an artist at the top of her game, fully confident in her artistic instincts and her ability to execute whatever inspires her. Simpson's career has long been conceptual in its approach, and it is not without… -
Edward Goldman's Own "Made In LA" - Pandemic Version
"How has this difficult time affected your art making?"Art Critic Edward Goldman, who for 30 years delighted NPR affiliate KCRW listeners with his weekly "Art Talk," and who continues to chronicle his art adventures with his weekly newsletter Art Matters as well as his private tours and classes on Art and Art collecting, asked this of LA artists during the pandemic.So, when Selma Holo, the esteemed Executive Director of Museums at the University of Southern California (USC) suggested he cur...… -
The Real London Of Leon Kossoff
Leon Kossoff, one of the leading figures in Post-World War Two figurative art in Britain passed away in 2019. LA Louver in Venice, CA is now exhibiting the largest gallery show and first posthumous survey of Kossoff's work, Leon Kossoff: A Life In Painting (on view until April 9, 2022). Organized in collaboration with Annely Juda Fine Art in London and Mitchell-Innes & Nash in New York, the show was curated by Andrea Rose, the former Director of Visual Arts… -
Dale Franzen: Bringing The World Back Into Tune
Opera singer, Institution builder, Arts Administrator, Fundraiser, Theater Producer, Tony Winner, advocate for women's stories. You would not be wrong to imagine this as the dream team of players needed for a successful production at an arts venue. Or we could just be talking about Dale Franzen.Franzen is the Tony-winning lead producer on Hadestown (now playing in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson through May 29; and then at the Segerstrom Center for The Arts in Costa Mesa, CA, August 9… -
Steve Leder Wants You To Have The Last Word
Have you thought about any final words you want to leave your loved ones to remember you by after you"ve gone? My guess is that even if you have, like me, you"ve haven"t committed those thoughts to paper. Well, Steve Leder thinks you should and he has authored a new book, For You When I Am Gone: Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story (Avery), to help you do so.In Steve Leder's last book, the best-selling The Beauty of… -
Who Killed Orchestral Music?
JOHN MAUCERI, founding director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, is a composer, arranger, writer, and educator who has conducted the world’s major opera companies and symphony orchestras. For 18 years, Mauceri worked closely with Leonard Bernstein on many of Bernstein’s premieres. He has championed the work of composers banned by Hitler, in particular those who found refuge in Hollywood, and has written about and performed music from opera, musical theater, and music composed for film. His new book, The War on… -
Julian Schnabel vs. Death At Pace Gallery Los Angeles
"All art is optimistic because it contains a denial of death"- Julian Schnabel.Recently, Pace Gallery celebrated the opening of their new Los Angeles flagship outpost, a partnership with Kayne Griffin, in their 15,000 square foot space on South La Brea, a former 1940s auto showroom whose building is now ivy-covered. The opening exhibition, "For Esmé â with Love and Squalor" presents 13 recent paintings on velvet by Julian Schnabel as well as a large sculpture in the gallery courtyard on… -
Seeing Red: Matisse's The Red Studio At The Museum Of Modern Art
On a recent trip to New York and its summer environs, I was struck by what was in some ways a small exhibition centered on just one painting, quite well known, that is more than 110 years old and that has been part of a museum collection for more than 75 years: Matisse, The Red Studio which is on view through September 10, 2022. The Red Studio is an iconic Matisse work: The large (6’ X 7’) painting is suffused… -
If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Auschwitz: On Jerry Stahl's "Nein, Nein, Nein! One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust"
Nein, Nein, Nein! One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the HolocaustONE TIME, AT A friend's 50th birthday party, I appeared in a black unitard and heels, cued up the music, and performed Beyoncé's dance to "Single Ladies." I did the bit because I knew it was foolproof: just the sight of me in the unitard (I am neither young, nor slim, nor shapely in the way of Queen B) was sure to provoke laughs,… -
Of Madeleines And Butchery: Paris Police 1900
I"ve been spending a good amount of time in Paris 1900. For most of this year, my online reading group of high school friends has been making our way through Proust (The Modern Library Revised English Edition) in this the centennial of Marcel Proust's death on November 18, 1922.In keeping with this theme, I"ve just watched Paris Police 1900, a 2021 French-made drama series whose first eight-episode season begins streaming on MHzChoice (MHzChoice.com) on September 20th (you can add MHzChoice…