Culture

By Bobbie Leigh In his poem “Return of the Native” Marsden Hartley (1877-1943), after years of wandering declared himself “the painter from Maine.”  In the late 1930s, after decades of travels in the United States and Europe returning to Maine intermittently, Hartley goes home and stays there.   Back home,

By Ruth J.  Katz Quintessential New York:  Christmas. The ormolu-dotted Grand Tier of the Metropolitan Opera House, chandeliers gleaming.  The sky gently bruised a soft gray.  Twinkling snowflakes landing silently in the Lincoln Center Plaza.  In the distance across Broadway, a Christmas tree glimmering with seasonal cheer. In this cinematic

  By Everett Potter One of the joys of living the travel life is the chance to experience reborn buildings, be they hotels or homes, especially in this age of  allegiance to Air BnB and VRBO. As someone who is fairly addicted to contemporary architecture, I’m thrilled to report that

By Everett Potter Since the early 1960’s, I have spent part — usually the better part — of my summers in Western Maine. The distinctive mountains, pine trees, granite outcroppings and deep blue lakes that I know so well were all subject matter for the Maine painter Marsden Hartley (1877-1943).

By Bobbie Leigh The English writer  Stevie Smith liked  to write about characters who disappeared into the objects of their gaze. In one of her stories an office  girl goes to the National Gallery during her lunch break and studies  Turner seascapes  until “the spray reached out and sucked her

By Bobbie Leigh “All art is erotic,” Viennese painter Gustav Klimt famously said.   Klimt loved many women, fathered some 14 children, and never married. Women as well as his art patrons and collectors apparently adored him.  Although he is said to have had many affairs, his true love, who may

By Bobbie Leigh The three Abrahamic faiths that define Jerusalem have fought, protected, cherished, and preserved this ancient and mile-square city, each in its own way. Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s  blockbuster new exhibition,  presents some 200 objects —reliquaries, ceramics, glass,  lamps and lanterns,

By Bobbie Leigh Have you ever heard of a collector commissioning a work of art  saying: “Do what you want and I will love it.”  Neale Albert is that rarity.  He is a  collector who commissions artists to  create miniature bookbindings and  asks  only that they give him their best

By Richard West “He hinted of pubs where life can drink its fill.” (Patrick Kavanagh) I propose a change in exercise routines, from jumping to conclusions, skipping bail, and prematurely crossing bridges. Instead a literary pub crawl that combines aerobics, limbering up the intellect, and weight lifting glassware.  And where

By Bobbie Leigh Art critic and painter Roger de Piles said it best: “Excepting Titian only, van Dyck surpasses all the painters that went before him, or have come after him, in portraits.”   That was in 1706.  Still true? You can decide after seeing the phenomenal exhibition, “Van Dyck: The