Category Archives: Art

RKS 2024 Film: “Be Still”: A Descent into Madness of a Forgotten Canadian

You know Salvador Dali and Mary Cassatt. But do you know Canadians Helen Galloway McNicoll and Hannah Maynard? All but erased from history, 40 years before Dali and the Surrealist movement began, professional Canadian photographer Hannah Maynard was perfecting surrealistic techniques in her Victoria, British Columbia studio. Maynard moved beyond stone faced portraits to aContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Be Still”: A Descent into Madness of a Forgotten Canadian”

RKS 2024 Entertainment:  Maoist Guerilla Opera!

I attended a Christmas Special presented by the Opera Revue at the Granite Tied House and Brewery in Toronto on 20December2023.Take away from this performance is that they are somewhat akin to Maoist rebels in the Peruvian jungle. Can you imagine these upstarts attacking traditional opera? I can as I saw them. In fact canContinue reading “RKS 2024 Entertainment:  Maoist Guerilla Opera!”

RKS Museums: The Met Presents “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930’s” (Until 10December2023): Ben Shahn’s “Welders”

The 1930s was a decade of political and social upheaval in the United States, and the art and visual culture of the time reflected the unsettled environment. Americans searched for their cultural identity during the Great Depression, a period marked by divisive politics, threats to democracy, and intensified social activism, including a powerful labor movement.Continue reading “RKS Museums: The Met Presents “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930’s” (Until 10December2023): Ben Shahn’s “Welders””

RKS Museums: The Met Presents “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930’s” (Until 10December2023): Guglielmi’s “One Third of a Nation”

The 1930s was a decade of political and social upheaval in the United States, and the art and visual culture of the time reflected the unsettled environment. Americans searched for their cultural identity during the Great Depression, a period marked by divisive politics, threats to democracy, and intensified social activism, including a powerful labor movement.Continue reading “RKS Museums: The Met Presents “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930’s” (Until 10December2023): Guglielmi’s “One Third of a Nation””

RKS Literature: Pain and Humour (Ken Kesey)

“Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there is a painful side: he knows my thumb smarts and his girlfriend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Pain and Humour (Ken Kesey)”

Keith Haring’s “Art is For Everybody” at Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario

Fotini Stephen (Toronto, 9November2023) The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has collaborated with the Broad Los Angeles to assemble a major exhibition of Keith Haring’s work. The exhibit displays a broad range of Haring’s work created in the short and highly prolific 10-year period in which he painted. The last AGO exhibit of his workContinue reading “Keith Haring’s “Art is For Everybody” at Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario”

Keith Haring at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Exhibit “Art is For Everybody”: Behind the Scenes

One of the perks  of membership in the arts media is “the sneak preview” and in this case it was with the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto on 7November2023 which included a panel discussion and then a leisurely and uncrowded walk through the exhibits for the Haring exhibition, “Art is for Everybody” the firstContinue reading “Keith Haring at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Exhibit “Art is For Everybody”: Behind the Scenes”

EXPLORING THE URGENT ACTIVISM OF A POP CULTURE ICON, KEITH HARING: ART IS FOR EVERYBODY OPENS AT THE AGO NOV. 8

THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2023 ShareFacebookTwitterCopy Link Making its only Canadian stop at the AGO, exhibition reveals Keith Haring’s tireless commitment to social justice for environmentalism, AIDS awareness and anti-racism. Entrance to this special exhibition is with an AGO Membership or Annual Pass. Admission is always free for Indigenous peoples and visitors aged 25 and under. TORONTO — AContinue reading “EXPLORING THE URGENT ACTIVISM OF A POP CULTURE ICON, KEITH HARING: ART IS FOR EVERYBODY OPENS AT THE AGO NOV. 8”

RKS 2023 Film: “Tramps”: A Riotous Explosion of Music, Art, Dance, Fashion and Early Drag of the New Romantics

So what is a tramp? A hobo meandering along with his belongings in a kerchief on a pole tramping along aimlessly. Or it could mean a “trashy” and promiscuous person. In the Canadian documentary “Tramps” the New Romantic culture is explored from creation to death and it has elements of both views of what aContinue reading “RKS 2023 Film: “Tramps”: A Riotous Explosion of Music, Art, Dance, Fashion and Early Drag of the New Romantics”

RKS Literature: The Misleading Moment (Thomas Mann)

“For a human being tends to believe that the mood of the moment, be it troubled or blithe, peaceful or stormy, is the true, native, and permanent tenor of his existence: and in particular he likes to exalt every happy chance into an inviolable rule and to regard it as the benign order of hisContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Misleading Moment (Thomas Mann)”