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Martin Mugar

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Recent Articles:

  • A Slight Ache by Harold Pinter Theatre

    Produced by Eve Mugar Off Off Broadway

    By: Ariel Petrova - Jul 14th, 2014

    Jimmy's 43 E 7th St, New York, NY 10003 provided an off off setting for Harold Pinter's Slight Ache was produced by Eve Mugar.. Due to its brevity and the limited number of actors in the play, it provided the opportunity to mount a play in New York. She purchased the rights, sent the word out to fellow actors, raised some money on line and rented a venue for two nights

  • Not a Rose or Heide Is Not Heidi Fine Arts

    Book Published by Charta and Stux Gallery Show

    By: Martin Mugar - Jun 13th, 2013

    Heide Hatry's latest work garners praise from Rick Moody, Lucy Lippard and Annie Dillard. She uses animal organs to reconstruct them in the shape of flowers. She does it so well that you do not recognize the photos taken of these short-lived constructions as being made from offal, recently collected from the abbatoir. The intelligence and talent of the artist is obvious.

  • Jed Perl Collected Essays Magicians and Charlatans Fine Arts

    Being There

    By: Martin Mugar - Dec 11th, 2012

    Thinking back on more than twenty years of art criticism by Jed Perl on the occasion of the publication of his most recent collection of essays by the Eakins Press Foundation "Magicians and Charlatans." Cross-cutting the main stream contemporary art world.

  • The Primacy of Visual Cognition in Western Art Fine Arts

    From Caravaggio to Cezanne

    By: Martin Mugar - Nov 13th, 2012

    On the surface great art seems anarchical. Take Cezanne without whom we cannot even imagine the 20thc language of abstraction. He jumps to another level of seeing that seemed crude and anarchic to those living artist surrounded by the aesthetic of the 19thc, which was a continuation of the once anarchic chiaroscuro of Caravaggio. In fact both artists pursued a deepening of the understanding of what it means to see. They didn’t jump out of the language of seeing; they jumped more deeply into it. I agree that certain holy grails never assure survivability but nor does anarchy. What at first glance seems anarchic is always the product of an exploration of the language of seeing that has found new foundations.

  • Remembering the Artist Tim Nichols Fine Arts

    How to Survive the Boston Art Scene

    By: Martin Mugar - Sep 13th, 2012

    A continution of my last article on Boston Artists deals with the late Tim Nichols and his involvement as teacher and artist in the Boston art world . Tim Nichols, Boston painter, legendary teacher at the Museum School and friend, who died several years ago in his late 70’s, comes to mind as someone who struggled for recognition and was never granted it. He was someone who cared deeply about a lot of things.

  • Cause of Failure at NY Fringe Festival Theatre

    FullStop Collective Production

    By: Ariel Petrova - Aug 20th, 2012

    "Cause of Failure" which ends this week at the New York Fringe Festival provides a multifaceted exploration of the impact of a woman's long term battle with congestive heart failure on those around her seen through the eye's of her daughter

  • Marcel Duchamp's Enigmatic Art Fine Arts

    Champing at the Bit to take a bite out of the Champ

    By: Martin Mugar - Jul 07th, 2012

    After his seminal work Nude Descending the Staircase, a sensation of the seminal 1913 Armory Show the French dada artist, Marcel Duchamp abandoned painting. He stated that it was "too retinal." He exhibited Found Objects, Readymades and Assisted Readymades. Eventually he retired from making art to pursue chess. Of the early Modernists his influence on contemporary art outweighs that of Picasso, Matisse, Malevich and Mondrian combined. Here Martin Mugar thinks differently about that legacy.

  • Cosima Spender's Documentary Without Gorky Film

    More Like Getting Over Gorky

    By: Martin Mugar - Apr 22nd, 2012

    “Without Gorky” a documentary about the family of Arshile Gorky made by his granddaughter Cosima Spender was shown this past Thursday at The Wasserman cinematheque at Brandeis to a large crowd mostly of Boston Armenians. Cosima was present and did a Q&A after the film.

  • Reflections on a Friendship: Don Shambroom and Martin Mugar Opinion

    Heidegger, Entropy and DeKooning

    By: Martin Mugar - Mar 21st, 2012

    A luncheon with Boston artists and a dealer recreates Charles Giuliano's "Beer and Burgers" upped a notch to Pinot Noir and foie gras and leads to reconnecting with well-known Boston artist and erstwhile friend Don Shambroom.