Cristóbal de Villalpando (1649-1714), born and trained in Mexico City, was arguably the most important painter in the New World of the 17th century. Influenced by Europeans like Peter Paul Rubens, Villalpando created his own distinctive brand of New World Hispanic art — rich in bright colors and bold contrasts, filled with ornamental detail and biblical symbolism. Not much is known…
The mansion of the new atheism has many rooms. The top floor is reserved for scientific types like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett. These are the folks who claim that religious beliefs can’t bear up to rational scrutiny and that God is a dangerous delusion we need to be done with.
Joseph Stella is remembered most for being one of America’s greatest modernist painters. Man Ray’s memorable portrait, circa 1920, poses him belly up to a bar behind a bottle of beer and a Spanish guitar. With his broad-brim hat and his wise-guy smile, it’s the portrait of the artist as bard and bringer of new songs for a new world.…
Some editorial poesy, with apologies to the American poet Allen Ginsberg, who died on April 5, at the age of 70: “We see the best minds of our generation destroyed by the madness of living in a society without moral guardrails; Starving for the food that will last but not knowing it; Hysterical with too much entertainment; trafficking in angels…
By the time the curtain fell on opening night at the Manhattan Theater Club, it was clear that the tempest surrounding Terrence McNally’s “Corpus Christi” amounted to much ado about nothing. McNally is a Tony Award winner whose works often explore gay themes. But the critics seem to agree that this shallow self-portrait of the artist as a homosexual Christ-figure…