Museum of Modern Art

Drawing on great depth in its collection the Williams College Museum of Art, from July 18 through September 20, will present "Prendergast in Italy." The exhibition features works by Maurice Prendergast (American, 1858–1924). The exhibition will be accompanied by a major catalogue and will travel internationally.

While teaching at the Metropolitan College of Boston University, where he chairs the Arts Administration program, Daniel Ranalli became intrigued by the palimpsests left on blackboards by professors. He began to photograph these serendipitous texts. Later they were manipulated to form the Chalkboard Series which is on view at Gallery Kayafas in Boston. He also shows with artSTRAND Gallery in Provincetown.

Music Director James Levine conducts a new production of Tosca on Opening Night as well as four other operas Many of the world's greatest singers are featured in new roles. Debuts include conductors Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Esa-Pekka Salonen; directors Pierre Audi, Luc Bondy, Patrice Chéreau, Richard Eyre, and William Kentridge; designers Herzog & de Meuron, Rob Howell, Richard Peduzzi, and Miuccia Prada In its fourth season, The Met: Live in HD series will include nine live transmissions to more than 35 countries around the world

Spending money it can ill afford during a time of financial crisis, Jehudah Reinharz, President of Brandeis University hired Rasky Baerlein Stategic Communications, a PR firm than specializes in crisis management, to draft a carefully worded apology for a rash and irresponsible decision to close the Rose Art Museum and sell its renowned collection.

Arguably the greatest architecture critic of the last half century, Ada Louise Huxtable is as iconic as some of the buildings that she has superbly written about over the years. Her new book, On Architecture, is a joyful guide through the last five decades of design and construction of our urban environment. This is a must read for anyone interested in architecture, cities or contemporary culture.

There are 60 artists, familiar and not, in the exhibition "Beyond the Canon: Small Scale American Abstraction 1945 to 1965" at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has organized "Modern Masters: American Abstration at Midcentury" which is now on view at Florida International University through March 1,2009. It will tour six museums through 2012.

Buckminster Fuller died in 1983, but his visionary concepts still resonate today. Though his attempt at real world applications--Dymaxion House, Geodesic Dome, etc., never proved practical, his concern for the protection of the natural environment and interest in shared global information make this eccentric almost clairvoyant.

On September 27, 2008, the often controversial building at Two Columbus Circle reopened to the public as The Museum of Arts and Design. This building not only celebrates the best craft, studio furniture and object design, but it also marked the end of a truly contentious and hard fought battle about architectural styles, historical preservation and politics.

Between now and 2010 the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is under construction with a massive renovation and additions designed by Lord Norman Foster. But for visitors it's business as usual with and enticing schedule of special exhibitions.

Simultaneous exhibitions of large scale digital images of piles of excrement were recently featured by Yvon Lambert Gallery in New York and Paris. It sustains the controversial reputation of Andres Serrano that started in 1987 when his "Piss Christ" was denounced from the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Frank Lloyd Wright is synonymous with brilliant architect. However, besides being gifted and a genius designer, he was also quirky, rather eccentric and an egomaniac. His life was full of ups and downs from great acclaim to a has-been status, acts of bigamy to a murder of his mistress at his home. Yet, he died at age 92 or 94 (people were not really sure because he lied about his age) at the top of his profession. Frank Lloyd Wright's name now means great American architect.

After a provocative keynote address on Thursday evening, an all day symposium looked at a variety of compelling ephemeral art projects in London. UK curators discussed the nuts and bolts of temporary project work of artists and architects. The Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square, The Serpentine Gallery's Pavilions, The Tate Modern's Public Space and the Sultan's Elephant were all striking. London's public art energy was persuasive.

In the past few years Mass MoCA has presented major installations by the leading Chinese artists, Cai Guo Qiang and Huang Yong Ping. The current exhibition presents a diverse group of Western artists inspired by visits to China and encounters with a rapidly changing economy and culture.

If all goes according to plan in April gallerist Ralph Brill will light up a section of the Hoosic River between the Eclipse Mill and Mass MoCA in North Adams. He is involved in the development of a World War II Museum that would become the Northern Berkshires' "Fourth Museum."

In 1973, Carl Chiaranza earned a PhD for a dissertation on the photography of Aaron Siskind. It was the first in the field of the history of photography. He is also a distinguished photographer and here is a selection of the work.

There is an emphais on aspects on Hispanic, African American and African art and culture in the Spring semester exhibitions and programming for the Williams College Museum of Art.

During World War Two the epicenter of the international avant-garde art world passed from Paris to New York. Its leading painters were the Dutch born, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. Their tragic lives produced enduring masterpieces. This magnificent biography focuses on de Kooning, the other master of Abstract Expressionism.

On November 6 the Jennifer Hartwell Gallery in Birmingham will open a retrospective of Raeford Liles who recently relocated to his native roots after decades of living and showing his work in New York.

To get a summer art fix, Mark Favermann took a day trip to New York where he connected with a friend the poet and media artist Gerd Stern for a tour of museums including the Whitney where his works are included in a survey of Psychedelic Art and the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. They also visited the Richard Serra show at MoMA.

In the opening sequence of the Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, 1929, silent film "Un Chien Andalou" a woman has her eye slit by a razor. It is one of the most enduring images of avant-garde cinema.

An analysis of three boxes from the Peabody Essex retrospective on Joseph Cornell

After four years of research curator Deborah Rothschild brought an overview of Gerald and Sara Murphy, the heart and soul of the Lost Generation, to the Williams College Art Museum. The exhibition opened with a gala benefit last night.

Fear and Loathing over the 2012 London Olympics logo.Mark Favermann tries to make sense of the costly logo hated by almost everyone.

The bad boy British artist is selling a diamond encursted skull for $100 million in the London gallery White Cube. But compared to great artists like Piero Manzoni and Paris Hilton perhaps Hirst is just a wannabe.

Recently Arlette, a gallerist, and Gus Kayafas, head of Palm Press a fine art photography studio, jointly celebrated their 120th birdthday with 180 friends. They started collecting soon after they married at 20 and today own 13,000 works of which they have donated another thousand to major museums.