Word: portraits
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Through Jan. 16, the Frick Collection in New York City is marking the 400th anniversary of Velazquez's birth with a small but choice loan show--six paintings from New York museums. Some are well known, like the portrait of Juan de Pareja, Velazquez's Moorish slave and studio assistant. Others are less so, such as the fierce authoritarian portrait of Olivares, Philip IV's chief minister for finance and war. The show is an anti-blockbuster and not to be missed by anyone who cares about painting...
...marvelous example of this process at work is the so-called Fraga portrait of Philip IV, named for the town where it was painted, in a temporary studio, when the King was leading his armies against the rebellious Catalans in 1640. Velazquez finished it on the march, as it were; though known at court as a pintor flematico, a phlegmatic painter, he whipped it off in a few days. The head of the King, with its long and beautifully blended brushstrokes, looks very considered; less so his magnificent red outfit, which is pure Impressionism 200 years early--the broken touches...
...portrait of Ahmed Ressam that has emerged since his arrest for smuggling explosives from Canada last week has fed America's worst fears: On the eve of the millennium, an Algerian man with a trunkload of explosives eludes Canadian authorities, apparently headed for a million-person New Year's party in Seattle, and almost makes it into the U.S. if not for the hunch of a border guard. It makes for one terrifying story to the U.S., which has many terrorist enemies around the world but has stayed generally free of attack on its own soil, and it exposes...
...HOME TOWN This fond but completely unsentimental portrait of Northampton, Mass., captures the joys and the sheer human cussedness on daily display there. Tracy Kidder lives nearby, and he spent years listening to his neighbors and walking their streets. His book is an extraordinary feat of reporting and writing, a vivid reminder both of why so many Americans flee the small towns of their birth and why so many of them miss the sense of belonging that such places inspire...
...CLOSER Patrick Marber's bruising drama about relationships is weakest when it tries most to shock (a cybersex scene). But as a portrait of the way modern urbanites strive and fail to connect, it makes an impact. The Broadway cast of this British import, headed by Natasha Richardson, could hardly have been bettered...