Abstraction isn’t what it used to be
A number of exhibitions in Des Moines this month investigate a subject that has been dividing generations and offending traditionalists for a century — abstract art. The Des Moines Art [...]
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Posted November 19, 2014in Art News
Posted October 15, 2014in Art News
Same subject, different points of view
A pair of current shows demonstrates similar subjects from very different points of view. Tom Jackson and Priscilla Steele have both been drawing the human form since the late 1960s. [...]
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Posted September 17, 2014in Art News
Galas in perspective
The Des Moines Art Center’s (DMAC) new exhibition “Art Meets Fashion” will likely become the grandest undertaking in that museum’s history, at least in number of events, money raised, community [...]
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Posted August 20, 2014in Art News
In pursuit of a memory
T-shirt wit suggests that art is populist: “Art just happens.” “Everyone is an artist.” “Release your inner artist.” This makes me wary. I took art classes as a kid and [...]
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Posted July 16, 2014in Art News
Holy books and chewing gum vaginas
“From Speaker to Receiver,” the Des Moines Art Center’s big summer exhibition, takes its title from linguistic theorist Roman Jakobson’s writings on semiotics and language. Curator Gilbert Vicario explains its [...]
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Posted June 18, 2014in Art News
The good old days of the Great Depression
Last week’s Iowa Arts Summit was the biggest event of its kind in my memory. First Lady Chris Branstad presented awards and scholarships. Our daily paper covered it with multiple [...]
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Posted May 14, 2014in Art News
Sparkling new jewel in Sculpture Park
The John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park received an early present as its fifth birthday approaches this September. Olafur Eliasson joined a list of 21 other celebrated artists in Western [...]
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Posted April 16, 2014in Art News
Big birthdays for venerable institutions
This April in Des Moines, two venerable art institutions reached significant milestones with style. Civic Music Association (CMA) dropped the baton last week on its 90th anniversary season with a [...]
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Posted March 19, 2014in Art News
Jesper Just explores female travel
Filmmaker Jesper Just is a Københavner now living in New York’s East Village. The five films in his Des Moines Art Center exhibition “Jesper Just: This Is a Landscape of [...]
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Posted February 19, 2014in Art News
Then there were giants
Olson-Larsen Galleries’ current exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints by Byron Burford, Jules Kirschenbaum and Cornelis Ruhtenberg is a homage to three of Iowa’s greatest painters of the 20th century. [...]
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