Cincinnati lost a giant in the arts this week when Alice Weston, philanthropist and artist, passed away at age 93. Over the years, I interviewed Alice a number of times on a variety of topics, from her own extraordinary work in photography, shown above, to works she commissioned for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. One of my favorite interviews, though, was conducted with her cousin, Jane Ellis, about their experiences as children in the Philippines.Read More »
It’s always enlightening to get a private tour from an art curator. The other day, I was at Cincinnati Art Museum just as “La Vecchia” (Italian for “the old woman”) by Italian Renaissance painter Giorgione, was being unveiled following a major conservation. It will be on view through May 5.
Here are some thoughts about the painting from Peter Jonathan Bell, Cincinnati Art Museum associate curator of European paintings, sculpture and drawings:
“It’s both a portrait and an allegory. Giorgione is a foundational Renaissance artist, for the Venetian Renaissance in particular. It’s incredibly rare. There are by some counts only a couple dozen paintings that survived by him. He only had a career of about 15 years, around 1500. but because of him, Titian is who he is. Titian painted with Giorgione.
“His paintings are all shrouded in mystery in terms of subject matter, and this one more so than most. He was painting for a new class of private collectors, so many of his paintings have very complex layers of meaning.Read More »
One of the most interesting stories I have had the privilege to write for the Business Courier was about 10 up-and-coming young arts patrons who will be guiding our great Cincinnati arts institutions in the decades to come. For as long as I’ve covered the arts here, there has been hand-wringing over who will replace those great philanthropists and board leaders who have gone before. The Nipperts and Corbetts are just two of most well-known names from the previous generation, among many others.
Cincinnati has a great history of generosity and stewardship that goes back more than a century. You only need to consider this:
The CSO turns 125 in 2020
Cincinnati Opera turns 100 in 2020
Art Academy of Cincinnati turns 150 in 2019
UC’s College-Conservatory of Music is celebrating its 150th this year.
That kind of legacy takes leadership and creativity. And it takes changing with the times. Who could have imagined that an arts event called Blink could bring a million people downtown last year?
These young leaders already hold some of the city’s most important board roles. I think the arts are and will be in very good hands.
So who are the 10? Read the story here.
Where to find arts news and reviews: Visit the new Arts Front at bizjournals.com/cincinnati. It’s free, but you may need to register for a free subscription. For the latest CSO review of Beethoven’s Ninth, click here.
I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the Chinese Terracotta Warriors exhibition right before the opening at Cincinnati Art Museum this week. Here’s my interview for the Business Courier with co-curator Hou-mei Sung. It is a rare opportunity to see these Chinese treasures. And don’t forget, you need a timed ticket to see it.
Chinese officials were also here this week, as well as reporters from the China Daily News. Enjoy my small gallery of photos.Read More »
Perhaps you saw the news this week that Chinese officials are angered that someone has vandalized a Chinese terracotta warrior currently on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Although the incident occurred in December, museum officials didn’t become aware of it until January.
It is not the same exhibition that will travel to Cincinnati Art Museum, “Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China” (April 20-Aug. 12).
According to reports, a 24-year-old Delaware man was attending an after-hours “Ugly Sweater” Christmas party at the Philadelphia museum, when he managed to take a “selfie” and allegedly also break off and steal the thumb of one of the statues. The FBI tracked him down and charged him with theft. That particular warrior is estimated to be worth $4.5 million.Read More »
Has anyone noticed all of the classical music festivals this year? Bryce Dessner’s MusicNOW seemed to be a huge success, with big crowds at the symphony and sell-out crowds at the smaller venues. Here are my articles about the festival:
MusicNOW: Rock, symphony and world premieres
The National, CSO electrify together
CSO, MusicNOW make cutting-edge music together
And Tatiana Berman’s Constella Festival opens on Wednesday with 10 events, as well as two “partner” events. I’m particularly interested in Friday’s concert (7 p.m. April 10), featuring superstar violinist Hilary Hahn with Hauschka ((the musical alias of Germany-based Volker Bertelmann) to give the Cincinnati premiere of their project “Silfra.” at Cincinnati Art Museum, Fath Auditorium. Read More »
Looking back at the year in review, I’m thinking of those we will miss. From arts patrons and musicians to the Blue Wisp Jazz Club, here are some notables of Cincinnati’s arts scene who left us in 2014:Read More »
Here are some ways we helped you find things to do this Fall:
At the Symphony: 10 CSO picks this season for newbies or fans
10 ways concert:nova’s Halloween concert will be unusual
5 things to know about the CSO concert this week
A guide to finding deals, freebies and fun things to in the arts
I’ve always loved art museums, starting with going to the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco growing up, and continuing with more in-depth appreciation while I studied in Vienna, Austria during college. Here are some favorite stories that I’ve covered for The Enquirer.
Cincinnati Art Museum buys first O’Keeffe: Suspense, tension, heart-stopping timing and finally jubilation – not emotions usually associated with putting art on the walls of Cincinnati Art Museum.
But for curator Julie Aronson, who in May won a bid for a stunning landscape painting by American artist Georgia O’Keeffe, the auction with Christie’s in New York was exciting but harrowing. Read the full story and watch a video interview with the curator here. (photo: O’Keeffe’s My Back Yard, 1943)
“Cincinnati Art Museum’s ‘Crown’ exhibit under fire” offered a chance for readers to weigh in with two ProConIts at the story’s end. It reignited debate on guns, art and whether “Crown” was too edgy for Cincinnati’s venerable museum. Some people believed it should not be opening at all.
On an October day in 2012 when the museum was closed, an unprecedented art event by conceptual artist Todd Pavlisko took place. As a Navy SEAL sniper took aim from his perch near the front lobby, a forest of video and still cameras documented bullets whizzing through the center gallery and into a cube mounted in Great Hall.
Result: The show opened, but the videos were turned off during visits by school children.
Cincinnati’s magnum opus: It was a secret known to few Cincinnatians and to virtually no one outside of the Cincinnati Art Museum. For decades, a spectacular trove of more than 800 antique musical instruments languished – untouched, neglected and forgotten – in storage throughout the museum’s meandering undercroft.
The discovery means that Cincinnati could possess one of the most important collections of non-Western musical instruments in the United States. The collection spans four centuries and represents the cultures of more than 20 countries on four continents. It has drawn the attention of musical instrument specialists and curators in top museums across the nation.
“I was shocked,” said Charles Rudig, a Cincinnati native, antique instrument expert and former head of musical instruments for Sotheby’s Auction House. He has been hired by the museum as a consultant to help evaluate and catalog the instruments.
“They’ve got a fabulous world music collection. It’s wonderful. It’s big. And it’s very similar to the Metropolitan Museum (New York) collection.”
About 650 of the instruments were donated to the museum around the turn of the century by a single collector, a wealthy Cincinnati industrialist named William Howard Doane. Many of them are so-called “world music” instruments. Doane traveled the world and snapped up African drums, exotic stringed instruments, keyboards and mallet instruments.
With the public’s insatiable interest in world music and global cultures today, the rare find is perfect timing.
Note: This important story turned into an exhibition of these amazing world music instruments during the 2012 World Choir Games
