Creative Review - Exhibits, Music, Film, Paintings

To Inform, Inspire and Influence

The MET Goes Punk!

Posted by on May 20, 2013 in Art, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums | 0 comments

The MET  Punk“The Met’s spring 2013 Costume Institute exhibition, PUNK: Chaos to Couture, will examine punk’s impact on high fashion from the movement’s birth in the early 1970s through its continuing influence today. Featuring approximately one hundred designs for men and women, the exhibition will include original punk garments and recent, directional fashion to illustrate how haute couture and ready-to-wear borrow punk’s visual symbols.”

PUNK: Chaos to Couture
Until August 14, 2013

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC

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Treasures from the Kinsey Family at Moad

Posted by on May 9, 2013 in Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits | 0 comments

MOAD  Kinsey collection

The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey

“Five centuries of African American history, culture and heritage… the exhibition celebrates Bernard and Shirley Kinsey’s passion for collecting objects of extraordinary significance over the 40 years of their marriage. 

One of the largest private collections of African American artifacts, documents and artwork, the Kinsey collection of rare books and manuscripts, paintings, prints, sculpture, and photographs includes an early version of the Emancipation Proclamation, correspondence between Malcolm X and Alex Haley, slave shackles, a 1773 first-edition copy of poems by Phillis Wheatley”, and more.

 

 

The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey

Until May 19, 2013

MoAD – The Museum of the African Diaspora

685 Mission Street San Francisco, CA

 

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Chicago and the Art of Migration

Posted by on May 1, 2013 in Art | 0 comments

 

Walter Ellison. Train Station, 1935

Walter Ellison. Train Station, 1935. Charles M. Kurtz Charitable Trust and Barbara Neff Smith and Solomon Byron Smith funds; through prior gifts of Florence Jane Adams, Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison, and the estate of Celia Schmidt.

Some of the most informative art work created in the United States is that of the first and second great  migration. The not so subtle change in the demographic in the country brought about a dramatic shift in the culture. Music, Dance and Poetry made it’s way north along Mississippi transforming everything along the way. At the same time immigrants from all of the globe began to fuse their stories in what is sometimes called the great melting pot.

They Seek a City: Chicago and the Art of Migration, 1910–1950   Until June 2, 2013 at the Art Institute of Chicago

 

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One Cinematographer’s Obsession with Color

Posted by on Apr 10, 2013 in Art, Education, Film, Photograhy | 0 comments

BY CYBEL MARTIN
APRIL 8, 2013 12:58 PM
For Shadow and Act

BY CYBEL MARTIN
APRIL 8, 2013 12:58 PM
4 COMMENTS

It began with an innocent curiosity in a box of 64. Amplified by a French balloon. Hit a frenzy with yellow smoke and the smell of napalm.

I’m the type to discuss, ad nauseum, whether an object is aubergine, plum or violet. Not only am I fascinated by color nuances, but how their effect and interpretation can vary. I love bedrooms painted cerulean blue. Reminds me of the perfect summer sky. But others feel like they’re drowning. Imagine the power you have as a filmmaker with a solid understanding of color?

The cheapest way to increase the production value of your film is through color. You don’t need a gazillion dollars to live and dream in Pantone or Lee Filters. If you have a rigorous discussion of which colors to use and why during prep, you can spend your budget more wisely.

Let me expose you to my color addiction. If you’re short on time, bookmark this article and in the interim, click on“The Psychology of Color : A Guide for Designers” and flip through the books If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling” and “Interaction of Color” by Josef Albers.

Much like my article on camera movement, I’ll certainly forget to mention several important films. The ones mentioned may not be the first to use color in a certain way nor the best example of it. What they did do is ignited previously dormant neurons in my brain through their use of color.

I love films that use color to represent two worlds or two states of consciousness: a filmic diptych. Of course, The Wizard of Oz comes to mind. It’s black & white. Wait! It’s color! Pretty effective. I adore Lynch’s “Lost Highway”. No one seems to agree on what the film means but for me, the key shift in the narrative occurs when Arquette’s hair changes from dark brunette to platinum blonde. Sounds simple but Lynch makes it terribly disturbing.  “Silent Hill”, perhaps not the strongest horror film, made excellent use of a common way to differentiate two worlds: shifting in color temperature (from warm light to cool).

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Jazz on DVD

Posted by on Apr 7, 2013 in Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Culture | 0 comments

Jazz Icons, a series of 9 DVD box sets, contain a fabulous group of Jazz artists captured on film.Some pieces are from television shows of the 50’s/ 60’s, others are film clips from old Jazz festivals, etc.

I don’t know if Jazz is “In” or “Out” today? perhaps it depends on who is writing about this lasting art form, but, regardless – if you like this music or you’re curious, seeing/hearing these musicians at top form is priceless and fun:

John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Dave Brubeck, and more.

Jazz Icons on DVD!

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20th Century Movie Poster Art

Posted by on Apr 3, 2013 in Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Books, Culture | 0 comments

“Now Playing: Hand-Painted Poster Art from the 1910s Through the 1950s”

now_playing_bigAt the beginning of the last century, posters that hung in the lobby of the old neighborhood movie palace were simple black and white drawings.Very quickly, theater owners realized that the cardboard advertisements brought in customers.

The posters then became more artful and sophisticated – pretty, or dramatic (Valentino), or scary (“King Kong”), or, just high style (Gloria Swanson rendered in Art Deco), to the lurid “Noir” films of the 50’s.

These examples of movie art have been collected into a nice coffee table book.

“Now Playing: Hand Painted Poster Art from the 1910s Through the 1950s”

noir

(Academy of Motion Pictures/Angel City Press – hardcover, 14″ x 11″, 160 pages)

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Fashion and Art at The MET

Posted by on Mar 25, 2013 in Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums | 0 comments

The Metropolitan Museum of Art launches an exhibit focused on the connection between the art and fashion of the mid- 19th Century. Along with paintings, including some on loan from museums around the world including the Musée d’Orsay, there will be photographs and illustrations from the period.

The Met Impressionism and Fashion

“Highlights of the exhibition include Monet’s Luncheon on the Grass (1865–66) and Women in the Garden (1866), Bazille’s Family Reunion (1867), Bartholomé’s In the Conservatory (circa 1881, paired with the sitter’s dress)…Monet’s Camille (1866) from the Kunsthalle, Bremen, Renoir’s Lise–The Woman with the Umbrella (1867) from the Museum Folkwang, Essen, and Manet’s La Parisienne (circa 1875) from the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, which have never before traveled to the United States…”

 

Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity Until May 27, 2013

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC

 

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