by Sandy | Jan 8, 2022 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Books, Culture
Mr Sidney Poitier, whom I considered a national treasure, has left us, 1/7/22 at age 94, with great stories, great images and lots of pride and warm thoughts. He lived his life. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Grammy. He had success as an actor, director, author and perhaps more importantly, as a man.
Born in 1927 in the Bahamas, Mr. Poitier went to New York as a teen, taught himself to read and catapulted himself into an acting career- a movie star. Not an easy road, but he did it with humor, grace, determination and a never wavering belief in him self.
He condensed some of the life lessons learned into books, not just about his journey, but also about how to conduct himself in an often difficult and complicated world.
Sir Poitier shared:
“The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography”, 2000
“Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter” 2005
“Those that stop their questioning at 75, 60, even 30, cut short their explorations and end up with permanently unfinished lives.” – From “Life Beyond Measure: Letter to My Great-Granddaughter”
by Sandy | Dec 31, 2021 | Art
“Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle features the little-seen series of paintings—”Struggle: From the History of the American People” (1954–56)—by the iconic American modernist. The exhibition reunites the multi-paneled work for the first time in more than half a century.”
Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC
******
by Sandy | Nov 28, 2021 | Artist, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums
The work of Jasper Johns is being presented concurrently at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC & the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror is the most comprehensive retrospective ever… Featuring his most iconic works along with many others shown for the first time, it comprises a broad range of paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures from 1954 to today across two sites…The artist “helped spark movements including Pop art, Minimalism, and Conceptualism, among others, and has inspired successive generations of artists to this day.”
“Conceived as a whole but displayed in two distinct parts, the exhibition appears simultaneously here at the Whitney and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, two institutions with which Johns has had long-standing relationships.”
Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror
Until Feb 13, 2022
*Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street, NYC
*Philadelphia Museum of Art
2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
~ **** ~
by Sandy | Sep 9, 2021 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll
The Seattle Museum of Art, presents the first major Imogen Cunningham (1883–1976) retrospective in the United States in more than 35 years. She was a “seminal photographer with a far-ranging vision, creating a diverse and innovative range of work over her seven-decade-long career.”
Imogen Cunningham: A Retrospective
Seattle Art Museum – SAM
1300 First Avenue, Seattle, WA
~***~
by Sandy | Jul 13, 2021 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Books, Culture, Writers
~The below text was originally posted in 2009. With the popularity of Mr Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” last year, (film still available on Netflix) I wanted to list his other work again.
The ambitious intentions of a playwright resulted in the impressive, and enjoyable, “August Wilson Century Cycle”. It consists of a play for every decade of the 20th century that would chronicle some part of the black experience in America.
Through the use of his great ear for dialogue, Wilson (1945 – 2005) was able to give us some insight into the daily life – both struggles and triumphs – of an assortment of universal characters that his audience could easily recognize.
An ambitious undertaking, but, his huge vision was realized and, btw, it resulted in 2 Pulitzers and a Tony award. He accomplished a lot doing what he loved to do and perhaps more importantly, August Wilson left a powerful body of work that will be read and performed for years to come. Dreaming big has rewards of all kinds.
All 10 of August Wilson’s plays are collected in hard cover with a nice presentation box. Each has an introduction by an actor, director or writer familiar with his work.
In 2005, August Wilson completed the ten-play cycle:
