Still relevant
Jordan Weber is one of the lucky artists to whom the perfect time comes. His art had long been dealing with African-American stereotypes and subject matter before Ferguson, Baltimore, Baton [...]
Read More →
Posted July 27, 2016in Art News
Posted June 15, 2016in Art News
Far from the madding crowd estimates
British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli said there are three kinds of lies — “Lies, damned lies and statistics.” Mark Twain liked the quote so much he stole it. Summertime in [...]
Read More →
Posted May 25, 2016in Art News
Glenn Brown — past is prologue
“The past is never dead. It isn’t even past.” — William Faulkner “Glenn Brown” opened at the Des Moines Art Center last week and plays through August 28. [...]
Read More →
Posted April 20, 2016in Art News
Gone to look for America
Losing gamblers like to say it’s “better to be lucky than good.” Actuarial scientists, who have refined the business of odds making, prefer saying “luck is short term.” It’s [...]
Read More →
Posted March 16, 2016in Art News
Artistic hubris plus lawyers
Art depends upon the hubris of artists. For much of history, the tyranny of religion made the very idea of portraying a holy image so risky that only the bravest, [...]
Read More →
Posted February 24, 2016in Art News
The enduring and the ephemeral
Two exhibitions at the Des Moines Art Center demonstrate polar qualities of art — the enduring and the ephemeral. “Arts & Letters,” through May 1 in the Anna Meredith Gallery, [...]
Read More →
Posted January 20, 2016in Art News
The original selfie
Alexander Korda’s 1936 film “Rembrandt” ends with Charles Laughton, looking remarkably like a Rembrandt self-portrait, winking at the camera and saying, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” That is from [...]
Read More →
Posted December 23, 2015in Art News
Restorations, expansions and horrors
Renaissance and expansion dominated the local art scene in 2015. The most impressive new architectural achievements were restorations. American Enterprise Group (AEG) reopened its historic Sixth Avenue headquarters thanks to [...]
Read More →
Posted November 18, 2015in Art News
Red Fox out of hibernation
Bill Ludwig is a well-known architect but a little-known artist. He says his heart was always in art, but after nearly earning a fine arts degree at Iowa State in [...]
Read More →
Posted October 21, 2015in Art News, Featured Story
Three new shows
Moberg Gallery opened an exhibit of the works of Gary Kelley, TJ Moberg, Derrick Breidenthal and Midwest Pressed. Kelley’s paintings usually hang around with historical figures of American history, Greek [...]
Read More →
