Broad Street Review

Philly's home for arts, culture, and conversation

Richard Carreño

Contributor

BSR Contributor Since July 2, 2009

Richard Carreño is a writer for Writers Clearinghouse and the editor of the cultural blog Junto.blogspot.com. He can be reached via {encode="[email protected]" title="[email protected]"}. He is a former visiting scholar at Cambridge University. He lives in Center City Philadelphia.

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"Whistlejacket" by George Stubbs, 1762

An appreciation of George Stubbs

George Stubbs is known for his paintings of horses, but this 18th-century artist should be seen as a precursor of the modern.

Richard Carreño

Oct 17, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

Expressing universal truths

Conversations around American Gothic at Cincinnati Art Museum

Finally figuring out 'American Gothic'

Daughters of Revolution and American Gothic inhabit each other. For a few short months, starting in Cincinnati this month, they'll form an informal diptych, telling an integrated story of small-minded American values.

Richard Carreño

Aug 19, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

A ready-made museum: Whitemarsh Hall.

The Met II in World War II

Philly secretly comes to the rescue

For two years during World War II, from 1942 to 1944, the Metropolitan Museum of Art went to war — in Philadelphia.

Richard Carreño

Jul 08, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

Musée de l'Orangerie and the Barnes Foundation

A tale of two museums

There are a variety of similarities, and differences, between Paul Guillaume and Albert Barnes, and between the museums housing their respective collections.

Richard Carreño

May 22, 2014 Articles 6 minute read

Munich's Haus der Kunst: Founded by Nazis, it now shows art they would have considered degenerate. (Photo by Richard Carreño)

Munich's Haus der Kunst and Hitler's art legacy

What is 'degenerate art'?

The original home of Nazi-approved art, Munich's Haus der Kunst, is now showing works that would make Hitler and Goering ill — and the "degenerate art" they eschewed is now on view in New York City.

Richard Carreño

Mar 17, 2014 Articles 6 minute read

South view, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori

Renzo Piano Pavilion at Kimbell Art Museum

What if they built an art museum and forgot the art?

These days, the buildings in which art museums are housed seem to get more attention than the art within.

Richard Carreño

Feb 03, 2014 Articles 6 minute read

'The Night Watch': Holland's Golden Age, in a single painting.

Amsterdam: The city as museum

Rembrandt would recognize this place (and so would John Adams)

Yes, Amsterdam remains a Mecca for aging hippies, hash parlors and whores. But hold the snarky jokes. The city is an architectural wonderland of the 17th and 18th Centuries, full of dozens of remarkable museums.

Richard Carreño

Dec 21, 2013 Articles 7 minute read

Diego's heroic workers: This time, up against the politicians.

Diego Rivera's ghost in Detroit

Where art and ideology meet: Can a dead Communist artist save Detroit?

The city of Detroit may be broke, but the Detroit Institute of Arts owns $2 billion worth of art works. Its most valued pieces, by the Communist Diego Rivera, portray heroic workers triumphing over stoic managers. In the best capitalist tradition, Rivera’s frescoes are now being held hostage by a pair of union-busting Republican politicians.

Richard Carreño

Oct 15, 2013 Articles 5 minute read

Detail from 'Death of General Wolfe': In place of history, mythology.

Dissecting West's "Death of General Wolfe'

The power of a painting: How Benjamin West became Canada's hero

Benjamin West's Death of General Wolfe was once a hallowed symbol of British imperialism. Now it's been hijacked by Canadians, whose supply of national icons is otherwise limited.

Richard Carreño

Aug 06, 2013 Articles 6 minute read

The cultural district: It looks terrific, but where are the people?

Pittsburgh's culture quest

Pittsburgh's culture quandary, or: Where have you gone, Andy Warhol?

The Mellons and the steel mills are gone, but Pittsburgh today boasts first-class museums, music, theaters and universities. The trouble is, they're all in the wrong part of town.

Richard Carreño

Jul 24, 2012 Essays 5 minute read

Scarborough: Who knew?

Discovered: La Salle's unsung art museum

The best art museum you never heard of

An obscure museum in a North Philadelphia basement houses world-class treasures by masters like Tintoretto, Edouard Vuillard, Rembrandt Peale, Georges Rouault and Joseph Epstein. Most remarkable of all, admission is free.

Richard Carreño

Nov 15, 2011 Articles 4 minute read

Barnes displayed Matisse's 'La Danse' (detail above) in 1932, then gratuitously dissed it.

Matisse and Barnes: A tale of two museums

When Henri met Albert: A tale of two museums

Henri Matisse was one of the three great revolutionary artists (with Picaso and Duchamp) of the early 20th Century; Albert Barnes was a brilliant collector of revolutionary art. They made a great team until Barnes's insufferable personality drove Matisse away, with consequences that still reverberate today.

Richard Carreño

Oct 04, 2011 Articles 6 minute read

Duchamp's 'Nude Descending a Staircase': Odd placement.

"Picasso and the Paris Avant-Garde' at the Art Museum (3rd review)

In the Art Museum's attic with Pablo

Curator Michael Taylor has unveiled, for the first time in recent memory, the astonishing range, depth, and quality of the Art Museum's Picasso holdings. But his show falls a few bricks short of an Anne d'Harnoncourt blockbuster.

Richard Carreño

Feb 24, 2010 Articles 5 minute read

Cuno: 'Culture knows no borders.'

Antiquity, looters and the Penn Museum

Who owns antiquity? James Cuno enters the Penn snake pit

Who are the best stewards of ancient artifacts— enlightened Western curators whose museums stole the loot long ago, or dictators of Third World lands where the treasures were originally found? James Cuno of the Chicago Art Institute (who believes the former) confronts the Penn Museum (which favors the latter).

Richard Carreño

Nov 11, 2009 Essays 6 minute read

Eakins, 'Between Rounds' (detail): Now you see it, now you don't.

"American Stories' at the Met in New York

New York's debt to Philadelphia

“American Stories,” currently at the Met in New York, reveals an indebtedness to Philadelphia's artistic patrimony. Almost the whole show could have been assembled from Philadelphia holdings or works by Philadelphia artists. So why is the Art Museum so modest about its contributions?

Richard Carreño

Oct 18, 2009 Articles 5 minute read

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