Arts & Culture

Rethinking Abstraction: Inventing Abstraction at MoMA

By Aimee Rubensteen • Published: April 29, 2013 • Comment ()

                Rumor has it that the Inventing Abstraction, 1910-1925 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art is one that will be talked about for decades to come. Its topic and its content will be at the forefront of textbooks, classroom discussions and art historical writing. Without a doubt, [...]

Passages Through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War

By Michal Kaplan-Nadel • Published: April 29, 2013 • Comment ()

The years between 1861 and 1865 are well known as formative years for the American people. What many do not know about the Civil War, however, is that these years were specifically formative as well for American Jews. Jewish history, American history, and the intersection of the two are topics explored in the recently opened [...]

Redefining Williamsburg

By Abigail Bachrach • Published: April 29, 2013 • Comment ()

Williamsburg is the neighborhood notorious for its extreme Hasidic community, a sea of black and white that can intimidate the uninitiated. But there is another group of residents who have taken over the neighborhood, bringing with them a change that makes Brooklyn the new destination for the twenty-somethings of New York, and now you. These [...]

Oh Say Does That Star-Spangled Banner Yet Wave?

By Shira Kaye • Published: April 29, 2013 • Comment ()

The film Olympus Has Fallen, directed by Antoine Fuqua, is essentially a patriotic version of Die Hard. Both films have the makings of a classic action movie: guns, gore, hostages and, of course, the lone hero who miraculously saves the day. In this movie, however, the hostages are not being held in an office building, [...]

Too Big For It’s Boots: Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines

By Ezriel Gelbfish • Published: April 29, 2013 • Comment ()

The trailer to The Place Beyond the Pines sells the movie as an indie drama, and you think the movie is exactly that, until you get through about the first third of it. Then you realize the movie has much bigger aspirations. Directed by Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), the movie takes unexpected turns as it [...]

UK 2 NYC

By Gila Yarmush • Published: April 25, 2013 • Comment ()

Living in New York City means having abundant forms of cultural experiences at your fingertips, from Nordic dancing to Asian art. One such cultural experience, Brits Off Broadway, is happening right up the block at 59 East 59th Street at 59E59 Theaters. The annual Brits Off Broadway festival, entering its eighth year, was founded by [...]

Scarlett Johansson’s Confident Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

By Hannah Dreyfus • Published: March 20, 2013 • Comment ()

In the 2013 Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, written by Tennessee Williams and directed by Rob Ashford, Scarlett Johansson’s performance as the frustrated, cat-like Maggie lent a bold, confident new dimension to the role. While Johansson’s deliberate and neatly tailored performance effectively delivered the vivid, restless life force of the complex [...]

Dressed and Ready to Impress

By Michal Kaplan-Nadel • Published: March 20, 2013 • Comment ()

With a name like “Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity,” the new exhibit at the Met had a tall order to fill.  After all, some Monet, gorgeous dresses, and a vague-yet-appealing term like modernity should be a pretty great combination. This gave the exhibit a lot of hype and a lot to live up to, but somehow [...]

Hendrik Kerstens: The Daughter with the Pearl Eyes

By Joanna Ross-Tash • Published: March 20, 2013 • Comment ()

To photograph a family member, whether recreationally or artistically, is not a foreign practice to those behind a lens. For the Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens, photographing his daughter Paula has been the body of his work for the past 17 years. This project has been widely seen and well-received across the globe. The images of [...]

In Search Of True Painting: A Matisse Review

By Aimee Rubensteen • Published: March 20, 2013 • Comment ()

I followed an expert around the exhibition of “Matisse: In Search of True Painting” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This tour guide was a bit shorter than usual and probably a few decades younger than I had expected. Her pigtails emphasized her playfulness, but her comments noted her seriousness about Matisse, even though she [...]