The Daily Reviewer

Iconia has moved

Jan 13, 2010 6:34pm

I may come back to visit, but for now, Iconia has moved to the Houston Chronicle. Check it out at http://blogs.chron.com/iconia/....

Link on About.com

Jan 9, 2010 1:40pm

I’m delighted to see that my article on David Levine is linked on About.com’s art history blog....

Interview: Kate Shellnutt, web producer, religion blogger, Houston Chronicle

Jan 9, 2010 1:36pm

I first connected with Kate Shellnutt on Twitter (where she has two handles). I was very excited to be a part of her article “This Muslim-American life: Allah and the Arts,” which she wrote as a journalism student at Medill. Shellnutt has since graduated and now works on the Houston...

Peter Krausz’s “(No) Man’s Land” at Forum Gallery

Jan 6, 2010 10:05pm

My review of the Canadian, Jewish artist appears in The Jewish Press....

Mesorah D.C.: Parshat “Vayechi”

Jan 4, 2010 3:41pm

This post is part of a feature of critical responses to sermons by religious leaders. I wanted to share an interesting sermon that the rabbi at Mesorah D.C. delivered this past Friday night. The rabbi doesn’t seem to post his sermons, so I am keeping him anonymous. The rabbi began by...

Email and RSS feed news roundup 1/3

Jan 3, 2010 11:36am

It’s a “truly exciting time: for contemporary Iranian and Middle Eastern art, at least according to this. Image on the right: a Chagall recently acquired by a Jewish museum in London. I’m not sure why the NY Times piece declares so assuredly that Chagall’s use of the crucifixion motif was “is...

Lon Solomon: “People Jesus Met, part 28 — The Wedding in Cana (Full Obedience)”

Jan 2, 2010 2:05pm

This post is part of a feature of critical responses to sermons by religious leaders. In Lon Solomon’s 12/13/09 sermon (audio, video), the lead pastor at McLean Bible errs in his analysis of the story of Noah, and offers what is unfortunately a regular feature in his otherwise thought-provoking sermons: a...

RIP: David Levine, 83

Dec 29, 2009 7:35pm

UPDATE 1/1/10: My article on David Levine appears in the Forward, titled “David Levine, 83: Hailed as the ‘King of Crosshatching,’ Family and Friends Say He Was a Painter First.” Artist David Levine has passed away, The New York Times reports. I am considering writing something longer about him, because I...

Merry Christmas roundup

Dec 25, 2009 7:31am

Germany to Egypt: Nefertiti too fragile to return. Vatican: Simpsons are “realistic & intelligent.” (The Pope’s OK too.) Amazing article by Benyamin Cohen on Jewish Christmas Eve (with references to rabbinic-ordained sex-free Dec. 24, tearing toilet paper, poker). Simon Wiesenthal Center apparently convinces eBay to cancel a sale of an Auschwitz-like sign. The...

Book theft, National Geographic slip-ups, an ash Buddha

Dec 21, 2009 7:09pm

Christmas icons and the ivory trade. With the economic downturn, book thefts are up, reports the NY Times. The most frequently stolen book? I’ll give you a hint. It’s a religious one. “Jewish art is like a pendulum, it swings back and forth, yes, no, maybe, yes,” says 81-year-old artist Jo Milgrom,...

MyJewishLearning.com article on Pissarro, born collectors, biblical women, holy pictures

Dec 20, 2009 8:30am

“I always say that people are either born as collectors or they don’t collect at all,” says Willy Lindwer, who evidently was born to collect Judaica and Israeli/Palestinian artifacts to the extent his wife “almost threw me out of the house.” My article on Camille Pissarro, rebbe of the Impressionists, appears...

Mobile readers clock 1b minutes on YouVersion

Dec 19, 2009 1:39pm

As a reader of the YouVersion bible on my BlackBerry, I received the following email: Way to go, YouVersion users! Together, you’ve spent one billion minutes reading the Bible on your mobile device. It’s pretty exciting to see so many of you reading God’s word consistently because you always have your...

Eric Robert Parnes, Jean Pierre Ramos at STILLLIFE

Dec 19, 2009 1:30pm

The above image comes from the Md.-based STILLLIFE. Here’s the caption: “Clockwise: Eric Parnes ‘Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll’ (in Farsi) neon sign 18″x20″ 2008. Jean Pierre Ramos ‘Men’s shirt’ vegetable ivory button, 2009. Jean Pierre Ramos ‘Behind the Scenes’ 2009. Eric Parnes ‘KFC’ acrylic on canvas 8″ x...

Email and RSS feed news roundup 12/19

Dec 19, 2009 11:48am

The Israel Museum has received $12m from the Mandel family, which, in part, will provide for a wing that combines Jewish religious and secular objects. [NY Times Arts Beat] This will be interesting to watch, as it is a rare exhibition space that actually manages to seamlessly present ritual and...

John Piper on Domenico Feti’s “Ecce Homo”

Dec 18, 2009 7:11pm

In his most recent talk on SermonAudio.com titled “At the Price of God’s Own Blood,” renowned pastor John Piper (of Desiring God) starts by discussing 18th century German Moravian bishop Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. Piper speaks of von Zinzendorf’s trip to Dusseldorf, where he saw “Ecce Homo” by Italian painter...

RIP: Oral Roberts

Dec 15, 2009 3:16pm

Oral Roberts, founder and first president of Oral Roberts University, has died today at 91. In honor of Roberts, I had a look at the page for ORU’s studio art major. Here’s a nice passage: “The Art Department at ORU recognizes art is an expression of an individual’s beliefs and endeavors...

Note on the passing of the Bostoner Rebbe

Dec 6, 2009 5:16pm

I was very sad to learn that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, the Bostoner Rebbe (synagogue website), passed away yesterday in Israel. Here is one thing about the Rebbe that I did not know: “In 1943, Horowitz marched to Washington to ask President Franklin D. Roosevelt to save the Jews of Europe...

Did William Blake know Hebrew? Kabbalah

Dec 6, 2009 5:00pm

Short answer, no....

AIDS day, honoring iconoclasts, Googling Iraqi art

Dec 1, 2009 6:28pm

For AIDS day, SLU’s MOCRA observes a “Day Without Art” with a painting based on St. Christopher (who carried Christ across a river). See also a post from Jesus in Love Blog. A columnist says he’d like to see a monument celebrating the Christian iconoclasts. At first I thought the piece...

Robert Frank at the Metropolitan Museum

Dec 1, 2009 5:45pm

Review link....

Tobi Kahn at New York’s Museum of Biblical Art

Nov 14, 2009 12:40pm

My review appears in The Jewish Press here....

My recent interviews on social media

Nov 7, 2009 8:22pm

After getting some very generous coverage from the Washington Post and NBC for my (and my colleagues’) social media use at GW, there has been a good deal more momentum. I am involved in the new Association for Social Media and Higher Education, which is hosting an event on Nov....

Vatican art, digital Koran, Jewish pop art

Nov 7, 2009 8:12pm

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, on the church and art: “We are a bit like estranged relatives; there has been a divorce.” Haitham Eid (see here, here) writes that he has some paintings on exhibit on Nov. 11 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the JW...

Leo Frank Trending

Nov 2, 2009 5:01am

A bit surprised to see that Leo Frank is trending on Google. Don’t know who he is? Wiki. And here’s where you can find info on Jason Robert Brown’s great album for Parade....

Hyman Bloom’s Unreal Rabbis

Oct 29, 2009 5:10am

My column appears in The Jewish Press....

My review of Simeon Solomon

Oct 20, 2009 4:35pm

My review of Pre-Raphaelite painter Simeon Solomon appears on MyJewishLearning.com with the subheading, “This painter of biblical scenes, who died in shame and obscurity, is undergoing a revival.”...

Interview: Matt Poulton, founder & director of social marketing, Latterdailyart.com

Oct 20, 2009 10:14am

I first connected with Matt Poulton, founder and director of social marketing at www.Latterdailyart.com, on Twitter (his handle: @latterdailyart. You can read more about Latterdaily art on this page. Poulton stresses something that should be obvious, but I’ve added it just in case, “The answers I give below are my...

News roundup 10/16 a new da Vinci, Obama curator

Oct 16, 2009 4:26pm

A “ghost of a fingerprint” is apparently da Vinci’s. WaPo’s Blake Gopnik likes the Obamas’ WH art selections so much he practically awards a Nobel; not so Terry Teachout. I’m with TT (and TG). RIP Warhol photographer Nat Finkelstein (a Jew? no word from Wikipedia, yes according to this book), born in...

Quote in Washington Post on social media

Oct 15, 2009 6:58pm

I am quoted in The Washington Post story “College’s Staff Is All Thumbs — and Proud of It.” The story also got attention from NBC. Since the first story appeared, I have been hearing from several people working on social media strategies at different schools around the country, and it’s...