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    Category: magazine

    Top 10 skyscrapers of 2023 for Dezeen’s review of the year

      December 31, 2023
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    Next up in Dezeen's review of 2023, we look back at 10 headline-grabbing skyscrapers that completed this year, including a spiralling supertall, a 1970s retrofit and the highest building in Brooklyn.

    The Americas dominate this year's list, with three buildings in New York, two each in Vancouver and Sao Paulo and one in Mexico City. The other two come from the Asia-Pacific region, with one in Shenzhen and the other in Sydney.

    Big-name architects feature on the list, including BIG and Kengo Kuma & Associates, as well as firms that are known for tall buildings, such as KPF and SHoP Architects.

    Three of the featured projects are renovations of existing structures, demonstrating how outdated skyscrapers can be updated to meet today's standards.

    Read on to see all 10:

    Photo by Laurian Ghinițoiu (also top)

    The Spiral, New York City, USA, by BIG

    One of the most-read stories on Dezeen in 2023 revealed the news that BIG had completed a 314-metre-high tower with a "classic ziggurat silhouette" in New York City.

    The Bjarke Ingels-led studio gave the supertall building a series of terraces that step up around its exterior, which provided the cues for the name, The Spiral.

    Find out more about The Spiral ›

    Brooklyn Tower by SHoP
    Photo by Max Touhey

    Brooklyn Tower, New York City, USA by SHoP Architects

    The 325-metre-high Brooklyn Tower was recently voted by Dezeen readers as the best skyscraper of the past year.

    Designed by SHoP Architects, this black and bronze striped tower is now the tallest building in Brooklyn. It is built above the historic Dimes Savings Bank, which is integrated into its podium.

    Find out more about Brooklyn Tower ›

    Alberni, Vancouver, Canada, by Kengo Kuma & Associates
    Photo by Ema Peter

    Alberni, Vancouver, Canada, by Kengo Kuma & Associates

    The studio led by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma designed one of the most unusually shaped skyscrapers of this year.

    Located in Vancouver, the 43-storey Alberni tower by Kengo Kuma features a rectilinear form that integrates two large "scoops". The idea was to preserve views towards its neighbours and bring extra light into the apartments inside.

    Find out more about Alberni by Kengo Kuma ›

    Quay Quarter Tower in Sydney named Best Tall Building Worldwide
    Photo courtesy of 3XN and BVN

    Quay Quarter Tower, Sydney, Australia, by 3XN and BVN

    This retrofit of a 1970s tower was named tall building of the year by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the leading authority on skyscraper news and data.

    A collaboration between Danish office 3XN and Australian firm BVN, the project involved an extensive refurbishment of the modernist AMP Center, including the addition of a solar-shading system on the facade.

    Find out more about Quay Quarter Tower ›

    Shenzhen Women and Children's Centre, Shenzhen, China, by MVRDV
    Photo by Xia Zhi

    Shenzhen Women and Children's Centre, Shenzhen, China, by MVRDV

    The most colourful skyscraper in our top 10, this renovation of a 100-metre-high drum tower in Shenzhen is the work of Dutch firm MVRDV.

    As with Quay Quarter Tower, solar shading underpinned the design. MVRDV designed a gridded aluminium frame that was installed over the glazed facade and decorated in bubblegum shades of green, pink, yellow and orange.

    Find out more about Shenzhen Women and Children's Centre ›

    A building with a green glass facade
    Photo by Lucas Blair Simpson/SOM

    Lever House, New York City, USA, by SOM

    November saw SOM complete the restoration of Lever House, 70 years after the studio originally designed the historic Manhattan office tower.

    The 94-metre-tall building is known for its green-hued glass facade, which was only the second curtain wall to be installed in New York City.

    Find out more about Lever House ›

    Mitikah
    Photo by Jason O'Rear

    Mitikah, Mexico City, Mexico, by Pelli Clarke & Partners

    Now the tallest building in Mexico City, this 267-metre-high tower was designed by American firm Pelli Clarke & Partners to feature a distinctive curved glass form.

    The oval-shaped footprint helps to soften the building's appearance, with the aim of creating a formal similarity with the mountains that surround the city.

    Find out more about Mitikah ›

    POD Pinheiros by FGMF Arquitetos
    Photo by Fran Parente

    POD Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil, by FGMF Arquitetos

    FGMF Arquitetos showed how a high-rise could offer indoor-outdoor living with this project in Brazil's largest city.

    The 24-storey tower is organised around an open-air atrium located on the eighth floor, which serves as a public plaza. Around it, staggered volumes create a series of balconies, roof terraces and elevated walkways.

    Find out more about POD Pinheiros ›

    Skyscraper from the side
    Photo by Pedro Vannucchi

    Platina 220, São Paulo, Brazil, by Königsberger Vannucchi

    São Paulo is also now home to this 172-metre-high mixed-use skyscraper, which has become the city's tallest building.

    Königsberger Vannucchi Arquitetos Associados designed Platina 220 as four volumes, with three smaller blocks sandwiching the much taller central tower.

    Find out more about Platina 220 ›

    KPF skyscraper vancouver
    Photo by Ema Peter

    320 Granville, Vancouver, Canada, by Kohn Pedersen Fox

    Undulating curves give character to the glazed facade of this 30-storey tower in Vancouver, designed by skyscraper specialist Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF).

    The studio likens the effect to the rippling water, in reference to the building's harbour-front location.

    Find out more about 320 Granville ›

    Dezeen review of 2023

    2023 review

    This article is part of Dezeen's roundup of the biggest and best news and projects in architecture, design, interior design and technology from 2023.

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    Mbongeni Ngema, Playwright Best Known for ‘Sarafina!,’ Dies at 68

      December 30, 2023
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    Mbongeni Ngema, a South African playwright, lyricist and director whose stage works, including the Tony-nominated musical “Sarafina!,” challenged and mocked his homeland’s longtime policy of racial apartheid, died on Wednesday in a hospital in Mbizana, South Africa, after a car accident. He was 68.

    Mr. Ngema was a passenger in a car that was struck head on when he was returning from a funeral in Lusikisiki, in Eastern Cape Province, according to a family statement cited in the South African news media.

    “His masterfully creative narration of our liberation struggle honored the humanity of oppressed South Africans and exposed the inhumanity of an oppressive regime,” President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said in a post on X after Mr. Ngema’s death.

    In the decade before the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990 and the dismantling of apartheid in the early ’90s, the South African system of institutionalized racism was an overwhelming concern to Mr. Ngema. During that decade he cocreated the play “Woza Albert!,” wrote and directed the play “Asinamali!” and wrote the script and collaborated on the music for “Sarafina!”

    “Sarafina!” evolved out of a conversation he had in the 1980s with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, a prominent anti-apartheid activist who was then married to Mandela.

    “I was sitting with Mama Winnie Mandela, and I started thinking, ‘This country is in flames,’” he told the South African television show “The Insider SA” in 2022. “So I asked a question. I said, ‘Mama, what do you think is finally going to happen to this country?’

    “Mama looked at me, and she said, ‘I wish I had a big blanket to cover the faces of the little ones so they do not see that bitter end.’”

    Mr. Ngema soon began to envision young people, running and singing “Freedom Is Coming Tomorrow,” a song that he would write for “Sarafina!,” a musical that follows Black high school students in the township of Soweto in 1976 during the uprising against the government’s imposition of Afrikaans, rather than Zulu, as the official language in schools.

    “Sarafina!” opened in Johannesburg in 1987. It moved that fall to the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center and then, in early 1988, to Broadway, at the Cort Theater, where it played 597 performances.

    In his review of the production at the Newhouse, Frank Rich of The New York Times wrote that Mr. Ngema had “brought forth a musical that transmutes the oppression of Black townships into liberating singing and dancing that nearly raises the theater’s roof.”

    The score, he added, “evokes the cacophony of life in a Black society both oppressed and defiant, at once sentenced to hard labor and ignited by dreams of social justice.”

    “Sarafina!” received five Tony nominations, including three for Mr. Ngema: for best direction of a musical (won by Harold Prince for “The Phantom of the Opera”), best original score (won by Stephen Sondheim for “Into the Woods”) and best choreography, which he shared with Ndaba Mhlongo (won by Michael Smuin for “Anything Goes”).

    “Sarafina!” was also nominated for best musical and best featured actress in a musical.

    It was adapted as a film in 1992, starring Leleti Khumalo, who had starred in the South African and Broadway productions, with Whoopi Goldberg as an inspirational teacher and the singer-songwriter Miriam Makeba as Sarafina’s mother.

    Mbongeni Ngema (pronounced mmm-bon-GEN-i nnn-GAY-ma) was born on June 1, 1955, in Verulam, a town north of Durban.

    According to his official biography for the film “Sarafina!,” he was separated from his parents at 11, then lived for a time with extended family in Zululand and later on his own in the poor neighborhoods around Durban. From age 12, he taught himself to play guitar.

    “When I grew up all I wanted to be was a musician, and I was influenced greatly by the Beatles,” he said on “The Insider SA.”

    Working in a fertilizer factory in the mid-1970s, a fellow worker asked him to play guitar to accompany a play he had written.

    “And then I fell in love with the part of the lead character in the play,” he told the magazine Africa Report in 1987. “When he was onstage, I would mimic him backstage — making the other musicians laugh.” One night, when the actor did not show up, he played the role.

    Mr. Ngema and the playwright began to collaborate, which led Mr. Ngema to start directing and writing his own small pieces. In 1979, he began working in Johannesburg with Gibson Kente, a playwright and composer, to understand the magic in his productions. After two years, he left and began working with the performer Percy Mtwa.

    He, Mr. Mtwa and Barney Simon created “Woza Albert!,” a satire that imagines the impact of the second coming of a Christ-like figure, Morena, who arrives in South Africa on a jumbo jet from Jerusalem, through the lives of ordinary people, vigorously played over the course of 80 minutes by Mr. Ngema and Mr. Mtwa.

    The white government tries to exploit Morena, then labels him a Communist and locks him up on Robben Island, where Mandela and other political prisoners were incarcerated.

    The play opened in South Africa in 1981 and was staged over the next three years in Europe, Off Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theater and around the United States.

    In The Washington Post, the critic David Richards wrote in 1984 that “Woza Albert!” “tackles such harsh realities as injustice, poverty and apartheid in South Africa, but does so with far more spirit, humor and, yes, hope, than the subject generally inspires.” He added that “with only their wonderful, wide-eyed talent,” Mr. Mtwa and Mr. Ngema “can summon up a landscape, a society, a history.”

    Mr. Ngema then wrote and directed “Asinamali!” (1983), in which five Black men in a single South African prison cell describe — through acting, dancing, singing and mime — why they were incarcerated and how they were victimized by racist laws, unemployment and police violence.

    The play’s name (which means “We have no money”) comes from the rallying cry of rent strikers in 1983 in the Lamontville township.

    Mr. Ngema said that “Asinamali!” was alarming enough to authorities in Duncan Village, in the Eastern Cape, that they arrested the audience for attending a performance.

    “They said it was an illegal political gathering,” Mr. Ngema said in an interview in 2017 on a South African podcast.

    He called “Asinamali!” a celebration of resistance.

    “It shows that no matter how bad things get, victory is inevitable,” he told The Times in 1986 during rehearsals before the play opened in Harlem at the New Heritage Repertory Theater. “The spirit of the people shall prevail.”

    Later that year, “Asinamali!” was part of a South African theater festival at Lincoln Center.

    Information on Mr. Ngema’s survivors was not immediately available. His marriage to Ms. Khumalo, the star of “Sarafina!,” ended in divorce.

    Mr. Ngema, who wrote several other plays, was involved in a controversy in 1996 when his sequel to “Sarafina!,” “Sarafina 2” — commissioned by the South African Health Department to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic — led to a government corruption investigation over accusations that its cost was an excessive “unauthorized expenditure” and that its message was inadequate.

    He defended the show’s price tag, saying it was necessary to bring Broadway-quality shows to Black townships.

    “People have said it’s a waste of government money,” Mr. Ngema told The Associated Press in 1996. “It think that’s a stupid criticism.”

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    Mike Nussbaum, Celebrated Chicago Theater Actor, Dies at 99

      December 29, 2023
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    Mike Nussbaum, an actor known as the dean of Chicago theater who found success during his early association with David Mamet, the Chicago-born playwright, died on Dec. 23 at his home in Chicago. He was 99.

    His death was announced by his daughter Karen Nussbaum, a labor organizer.

    For the last decade, Mr. Nussbaum has also been known as the country’s oldest working actor, a distinction that mildly irritated him. (For admiring journalists, he gamely performed his daily regimen of 50 push-ups, a practice he kept up until he was 98.) He often said he would have preferred to have been recognized solely for his acting skills, not the age at which he was acting.

    Mr. Nussbaum came up in Chicago’s community theaters, notably Hull House, an incubator of talent in the 1960s, while also running a successful exterminating business. When he was 40, he was tackling a wasp nest when he fell off a roof, smashing a kneecap and breaking a wrist. While he stewed on the couch recuperating, he decided it was the right moment to pursue acting full time.

    A pivot point in his acting career came in 1975 when Mr. Mamet, then a fledgling playwright, cast him in the role of Teach in an early production of the celebrated play “American Buffalo,” about a trio of hapless, double-crossing hustlers. The pair had met at Hull House, where Mr. Mamet had worked as a gofer when he was a teenager.

    “It was, for those of us who saw it, kind of an overwhelming, definitive experience,” Robert Falls, the former artistic director of Chicago’s Goodman Theater, told Chicago magazine in 2014. “Over the years I’ve seen actors like Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall play that part, and no one has ever played it the way Mike Nussbaum did. There was a Chicago quality to it in its voice, in terms of attitude, a sense of pathos and danger that he brought to it that’s never been really equaled.”

    When Mr. Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross,” another tale of desperate hustlers, opened on Broadway in 1983, Mr. Nussbaum, along with fellow Chicagoan Joe Mantegna, were cast as two of the play’s striving, venal real estate agents. Mr. Mantegna earned a Tony for his role as the slick Ricky Roma; Mr. Nussbaum won a Drama Desk Award for his role as George Aaronow, a beaten-down salesman with a nascent conscience; and the play would win Mr. Mamet the Pulitzer Prize in drama.

    “There’s particular heroism in Mike Nussbaum, whose frightened eyes convey a lifetime of blasted dreams,” Frank Rich wrote in his review for The New York Times. “and in Joe Mantegna, as the company’s youngest, most dapper go-getter.”

    The pair had performed years earlier in Mr. Mamet’s “A Life in the Theater,” a slight but biting two-man play about a young actor and an older one, goading and guiding each other, ego to ego. Mel Gussow of The Times praised the their performances as effortless. “As the cynical old poseur, Mr. Nussbaum is a Jack Gilford with a touch of John Barrymore,” he wrote.

    Mr. Mantegna, speaking by phone, said that Mr. Nussbaum was “the role model for what everyone considers the Chicago actor.”

    “He wasn’t doing it for the end game,” Mr. Mantegna said. “In New York, there’s an end game: Maybe I’ll get to Broadway, get a shot at TV. It’s an industry. L.A. is an industry. In Chicago it was never an industry, we were doing it for the love of doing it.”

    He recalled Broadway producers urging Mr. Mamet to cast “Glengarry Glen Ross” with stars, and Mr. Mamet pushing back. “He said, ‘I’m going to do it with my kind of guys.’ Then there we were, this pack of unknowns, doing what would ultimately win the Pulitzer Prize.”

    Then Mr. Nussbaum walked away from it all.

    B.J. Jones, artistic director of the renowned Northlight Theater, in Skokie, Ill., which Mr. Nussbaum helped found in the 1970s, phoned Mr. Nussbaum during his run on Broadway to ask him to play the lead in a work by the English playwright Simon Gray.

    Mr. Nussbaum called out to his wife at the time, Annette, for advice. “Do it,” she said. “I’m tired of New York.”

    “Mike left Broadway to perform in a play for which we probably paid him a few hundred bucks,” Mr. Jones continued. “And when he did, they were scalping tickets in the lobby to see him. He was a Broadway star but he came home.”

    As Mr. Mantegna said, “We were on the carousel, and there was the brass ring and he could have grabbed it, but he decided he liked the carousel.”

    A slight man with a bushy mustache, Mr. Nussbaum could seemingly play anybody: He was a fierce Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice” and a bawdy witch in “Macbeth,” two of his many roles for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. He also worked steadily in film and television. He was a pompous school principal in “Field of Dreams,” the 1989 baseball fantasy starring Kevin Costner, and a chillingly gentle jewelry store owner in “Men in Black,” the 1997 sci-fi comedy with Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.

    “Mike was the consummate ensemble player,” Mr. Jones said. “And he had an inherent warmth that infused all his characters.”

    Mike Nussbaum was born Myron G. Nussbaum on Dec. 29, 1923, in New York City, and grew up in Chicago. His father, Philip Nussbaum, was a fur wholesaler; his mother, Bertha (Cohen) Nussbaum, was a homemaker. Mike was a skinny, unhappy child, beaten and demeaned by his father, “a man I did not admire,” he told Chicago magazine.

    He was 9 and at summer camp when he discovered acting,though he froze during his first performance and had to be carried off the stage. He attended the University of Wisconsin before dropping out and enlisting in the Army during World War II.

    He worked as a Teletype operator in France, first in Versailles and then Reims, and was on duty on May 7, 1945, the day of the German surrender. He sent out the announcement declaring the end of the war in Europe, signing it not with his initials, as was customary, but with his full surname. He kept a framed copy as a memento.

    He returned to Chicago in 1946 and married Annette Brenner, who later worked in public relations for the American Civil Liberties Union and elsewhere. He went into the exterminating business because he wanted a home, a family and a stable life, which he knew he couldn’t have as a professional actor. “I wanted the American dream,” he said.

    His first wife died in 2003. In addition to his daughter Karen, Mr. Nussbaum is survived by his son, Jack, a writer and activist; his second wife, Julie (Brudlos) Nussbaum; seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Susan, a playwright, novelist and disability activist, died last year.

    “I’m lucky: Chicago has given me chances that I don’t think I would have gotten in New York,” Mr. Nussbaum told Patrick Healy of The New York Times in 2014. “There’s no real fame here, not like in New York. And your salary doesn’t go up when you win a Jeff” — otherwise known as The Joseph Jefferson Award, an honor given to the theater arts in Chicago — “not like when you win a Tony. But I’ve gotten steady work, great work, and all I ever wanted to do was act.”

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    Confederate Monument Removed From Jacksonville Park – ARTnews.com

      December 28, 2023
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    A Confederate monument was recently removed from a park in Jacksonville, Florida, after orders from the city’s mayor.

    Crews removed the Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy monument from the city’s Springfield park on December 27. The monument had been in the park since 1915.

    Mayor Donna Deegan said the decision to order the monument’s removal was not an attempt to erase history, but to show that people had learned from it.

    “Symbols matter. They tell the world what we stand for and what we aspire to be. By removing the confederate monument from Springfield Park, we signal a belief in our shared humanity. That we are all created equal. The same flesh and bones. The same blood running through our veins. The same heart and soul,” Deegan said in a statement. “This is not in any way an attempt to erase history but to show that we’ve learned from it. That when we know better, we do better by and for each other. My prayer today is for our beautiful city to continue embracing unity and bending the arc of history towards justice. Let’s keep lifting as we climb.”

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    The Washington Post reported that a TV station’s live stream allowed “both critics and supporters of the monument to watch” the dismantling of the monument by construction crews. The paper also reported that early cost estimates for its removal were as high as $2 million.

    The removal comes after years of discussion, starting with Deegan’s predecessor in 2020.

    In June of that year, Mayor Lenny Curry ordered the removal of a statue and plaque honoring Confederate soldiers in another city park. It happened only weeks after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers, spurring marches across the United States for social justice and national discussions about the legacy of Confederate monuments.

    The city’s statement said the cost of removing Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy was $187,000. Funding for the work, including the removal of a plaque, came from a grant and anonymous donations to the local organization 904WARD.

    The mayor’s decision to remove the monument was criticized by Florida Representative Dean Black, chair of the Republican Party of Duval County. Black called the monument’s removal “a stunning abuse of power.”

    “This action, undertaken in the middle of the night, during the holidays, without consultation of city leaders or a vote by the council, is another in a long line of woke Democrats obsession with Cancel Culture and tearing down history,” Black wrote in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). “Choosing to erase our history is not “brave” – it is a cowardly act done by a lawless Mayor who hides under the cover of night! We call on the City Council to seek immediate accountability – the people of Jacksonville expect no less.”

    However, the mayor’s decision to remove the Confederate monument did not require approval from Jacksonville’s city council because city funds were not being used.

    Michael Fackler, Jacksonville’s general counsel, issued a statement explaining the mayor’s executive authority.

    “Our legal analysis finds that Mayor Deegan has the authority as executive of the City – and because city funds are not being utilized – to control the property, the park, and the monument,” Fackler said. “We have worked closely with Procurement, Public Works, and Parks on the approved scope of work in accordance with municipal code in how we contract for and complete these services.”

    The monument will remain in city storage until members of the community and the city council can determine what to do with it, officials told the Associated Press.



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    Banksy’s Latest Street Art Doesn’t Stop London Man From Making Off With It

      December 27, 2023
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    Jenny’s Art, Design and Architecture blog: New link for images on Databases A-Z : Flickr Commons

      December 26, 2023
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    Our Electronic Library at Cardiff Met contains over 100 databases and also includes links to quality websites. Go to the Electronic Library and click Databases A-Z (Cardiff Met users only).

    Image taken from page 582 of 'The United States of America. A study of the
    American Commonwealth, its natural resources, people, industries, manufactures,
    commerce, and its work in literature, science, education and self-government.
    [By various authors.] 

    A new link on Databases A-Z will lead you to Flickr Commons.  The key goal of The Commons is to share
    hidden treasures from the world's public photography archives. Recently The British Library has added over a million images onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and
    repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th
    century books digitised by Microsoft . The images cover a wide range  of subjects: There are maps, geological
    diagrams,  illustrations some beautiful or very colourful, comical satire, illuminated and decorative
    letters, landscapes, wall-paintings and  more.
    Something to explore over the Christmas break...

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    2023 Year in Review: Designer Desktops

      December 25, 2023
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    This year marks another 12 months of Designer Desktops, one of our oldest columns on the site. We love collaborating with different artists, brands, and creatives to design free downloadable desktop wallpapers that showcase a range of artistic styles, from graphic design to textiles to wallcoverings. If you missed any of 2023’s designs, be sure to check them out below for a ton of inspirational quotes and eye-catching backgrounds for your tech devices.

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    Art After Dark  | Artists Network

      December 24, 2023
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    ✓Showcase your talent and win big in Artists Network prestigious art competitions! Discover competitions in a variety of media and enter for your chance to win cash prizes, publication in leading art magazines, global exposure, and rewards for your hard work. Plus, gain valuable feedback from renowned jurors. Let your passion shine through – enter an art competition today!

    The evening hours invite artists to play with underpainting techniques, palette choices, and color combinations to create the unique qualities of the dark.

    As the seasons change, we tend to dread the transition to shorter daylight hours and longer periods of darkness, but there’s a magical quality to a city street after dark, a breathtaking beauty in a nighttime sky, and a quiet tranquility to an interior room in low light. The 12 pastel artists featured here pages remind us that these later-in-the-day hours offer unique opportunities for capturing subjects and moods that are especially bewitching.    

    “I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” 

    — VINCENT VAN GOGH 

    Kathleen Newman 

    Into the Night was inspired by a late evening sail at the time of a pink full moon. The evening air was heavy and humid, and the foggy sky seemed to glow from within. When the clouds finally broke, the moonlight sent a brilliant sparkling reflection onto the water. I enjoyed the opportunity to use a variety of dark greens and blues to create the moody atmosphere of the night and to set up complements with pink and orange sparkles on the water. I started with an underpainting on UART paper, using dark blue-green pastel brushed with odorless mineral spirits. kathleennewman.com 

    Into the Night (10×8) by Kathleen Newman

    Bethany Fields

    I came upon the scene that inspired Shem Creek while visiting family near Charleston, S.C., when my sister and I went for a walk at twilight. The sun’s lingering glow was everywhere. Nocturnes are more mysterious than paintings of afternoon or morning. Elements soften and deepen. The land puts on a different cloak. There’s a hum at twilight. Everything is waiting. Some things rest; some things waken. For the painting, I wanted to create a darker, moodier feel, so I began with a black underpainting, using charcoal and an alcohol wash on UART 500 paper. I purposely kept the colors muted and dark, leaving the glow in the sky and water as the brightest values. I loosely marked the distant trees and grasses with scribbles and scumbles. I wanted the piece to describe the feeling of being on Shem Creek, not the details of the landscape. bethanyfields.com

    Shem Creek (9×9) by Bethany Fields 

    Kim Lordier  

    The Elkhorn Slough is a tidal marsh that I’ve been painting regularly for the past 15 years or so. The estuary is in the middle of Monterey Bay, Calif., and I’ve painted and photographed the slough in all seasons, at all times of day. In fact, I painted this particular scene during my very first plein air competition in 2004 at the Carmel Art Festival when I was six months pregnant. It’s a place that speaks to me both emotionally and spiritually. The painting was inspired by my study of the nocturne paintings of Frank Tenney Johnson [American, 1874-1939] and Grandville Redmond [American, 1871-1935]. I love the challenge of controlling values and keeping the tonal quality of color harmony tight. This location in full sun is quite outstanding, but the subtle qualities of moonlight and the reflections on the water at night are pretty spectacular, too.  

    Due mostly to scheduling, I don’t paint nocturnes as a regular habit. When I do, however, I find the quiet of the night is special. The color of night is a true change of palette, and it’s one that I love. kimfancherlordier.com

    Twilight on the Slough (24×20) by Kim Lordier 

    Brenda Boylan  

    To celebrate the 70th wedding anniversary of my aunt and uncle—which happened to coincide with my uncle’s 90th birthday—our family held a surprise party in a packed clubhouse pub. The backlighting from the window was bright, creating a dazzling sparkle of champagne bubbles and bottle, and rim light on the bartender’s head. My heart leapt whenI saw it and the posturing of the bartender, tending to our toast. I worked on a piece of Wallis sanded paper mounted on museum board, toning it first with a dark blue underpainting. My focus was the light, the edges of the champagne glasses and the bartender’s hair. I enjoy painting at the edges of the day. I practice plein air painting, and the biggest challenge when painting in daylight is that the sun and shadows move fast. Nocturnes and interiors are refreshing to paint because of the stable lighting situations. Also, I enjoy the freedom from detail in the dark areas of a nocturne. brendaboylan.com

    Tending (10×8) by Brenda Boylan

    Marla Baggetta 

    The moment captured in Dinner With Mick took place in a local pub, one of those “Cheers”-like spots—comfortable and familiar. What I like in particular about the piece is that it’s figurative, but also has a second motif in the still life on the counter. I don’t often paint nocturnes, as I tend to work in a series, but I’m very attracted to the mystery and glittering light of the evening. There’s an intrigue that’s palpable—and hopefully paintable. The bright coronas and refracted light are magnificent to paint. marlabaggetta.com 

    Dinner With Mick (12×16) by Marla Baggetta 

    Andrew McDermott

    This is a painting of one of the local streets in Vancouver. The time was just before nightfall when the light was fast-changing and the sky was filled with pinks and violets. I really wanted to capture the time of day and show the sense of movement of the cars. I love to paint nocturnes, especially urban scenes at night. I love how the lights from the street and vehicles glow in the night. I enjoy painting the lights emerging from the dark and how they reflect on the road. I can really play with the reflections, which helps to create a sense of distance in the painting. To capture the effects of artificial lights at night, it’s important to vary the brightness, making some lights more brilliant than others, which helps guide the viewer’s eye around the painting. Layering the colors is also key to create the look of glowing lights. mcdermott-art.com  

    Night on Dunbar Street (19×26) by Andrew McDermott

    Christine Ivers 

    This painting is the result of a photo taken in Memphis. I was overwhelmed by the amount of neon—which I love to paint. It was pretty late at night, but I couldn’t wait to get to my easel to start playing. What has always amazed me about the nighttime lights is the endless possibilities for depth. By merging warm and cool colors in the darkest of backgrounds, the push and pull of those layers create a sense of distance without looking like a black cut-out. My palette ranges from white to black (yes, I use real black) with every other value in between. I love creating drama, and the contrasts in this scene—between the high-key neon lights against the incredibly dark sky behind them—made for a wonderful composition. christineivers.com

    The Blues and Other Colors (20×16) by Christine Ivers

    Karen Margulis

    I was looking for a new painting challenge when I wondered what a meadow of Queen Anne’s lace would look like at dusk. I went to a spot near the house that’s filled with the plant, and spent time taking photos and watching how the light changed. By 9:20 p.m., the last of the sunlight was gone, and the sky took on the wonderful deep blues of evening. I could still see the flowers, but the colors were dark and dull. Still, I saw so much more on the scene than the photos showed. That’s the power of direct observation. As I left, the fireflies began to emerge—a perfect ending to the evening. I knew that they’d become part of the painting. I hadn’t painted nocturnes in the past, because I wasn’t sure how I’d translate my floral landscapes to the lighting of evening. After painting Fireflies in the Meadow, I felt empowered to tackle more. karenmargulis.com

    Fireflies in the Meadow (9×12) by Karen Margulis

    Jacob Aguiar

    I came upon this scene during an artist-in-residence program with the Brinton Museum in Big Horn, Wyo. I was staying in a guest house at a ranch, and each night I’d see these cottonwood trees hit by moonlight outside my window. For my painting, I caught the moon as it was rising between these two trees, which framed it perfectly. I painted the scene without an underpainting, as I wanted to capture it quickly. My main focus was on balancing the mostly cool color with very slight additions of warm greens along the outer edges of the trees and along the top of the field of grass. jacobaguiar.com

    Cottonwood Blues (9×12) by Jacob Aguiar

    Lynda Conley

    I became inspired to paint nocturnes after viewing paintings by Frederic Remington [American, 1861-1909] in some local museums. I made repeated visits to study his work, making notes on color and value. For Starry, Starry Hay, I decided to convert my photo of a daytime scene into a nighttime setting. I adhered to a more limited value range and utilized colors such as turquoise, violet, and an eerie green to make it convincing. I chose not to include the moon in this scene, thinking it would be a compositional distraction. The addition of a few stars, however, helped to indicate the night sky. lyndaconley.com

    Starry, Starry Hay (11×14) by Lynda Conley 

    Stan Sperlak

    I like to take walks on dark nights without moonlight. It takes about 30 minutes to allow time for my eyes to adjust enough to that darkness that I can discern starlight on my hands and the slightest of shadows on the ground. I live in the country, so there is little light pollution. On these summertime walks, the farm becomes a dazzling display as fireflies perform their nightly dance in the grass and shrubs before lifting high into the trees, where they escape the forests and become stars. This peaceful solitude is pretty magical, and to be able to portray that, well, that’s my story. In fact, nocturnes and twilight scenes make up at least 20 percent of my paintings. thesperlakgallery.com

    Fireflies on the Marsh (24×36) by Stan Sperlak

    Desmond O’Hagan 

    I find Paris to be especially captivating at night, and this image captured that quality with its complex combination of lights, figures and architecture. The scene allowed me to experiment with unusual combinations of colors for rendering shadows, reflections and movement. The light changed quickly as the sun set, and the street and building lights started to appear. I was inspired to try to capture that fleeting quality of evening light. Evening scenes have everything that I consider an enjoyable challenge: multiple light sources, jewel-like colors, movement and deep shadows. Much of this work is created using large abstract shapes and flicks of color that challenge the viewer’s eye to interpret detail that’s only loosely implied. In this piece, I experimented with combinations of warm and cool colors. The blues, which suggest the cool evening atmosphere, are a nice balance to the rich warm lights. I used a variety—from a light greenish blue to a dark bluish purple. The color combinations feel unique in the lighter areas and create mystery in the shadows. desmondohagan.com 

    Urban Lights, Parisian Bridge (16×20)

    About the Author

    Anne Hevener is the editor-in-chief of Pastel Journal, Watercolor Artist and Artists Magazine. She has been writing about art and artists for more than 25 years.

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    Archaeologists discover ancient Pueblo calendar and other petroglyphs in Colorado

      December 23, 2023
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    Archaeologists from Poland’s Jagiellonian University (JU) have discovered an ancient Native American calendar at the Castle Rock Pueblo archaeological site in western Colorado that houses the remnants of an ancient settlement. While the oldest petroglyphs found date to as early as the third century AD, JU researchers have found works in previously unstudied rock panels created in the 13th century, when the site was at its peak of activity. The leader of the Polish research team, Radosław Palonka, considers these findings to be the start of a new process of discovery, combining cutting-edge mapping technology and collaboration with local Indigenous communities to better understand the area.

    Castle Rock is the largest village within a sprawling ancient settlement complex in Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park. The villages, carved into rock faces in the area’s many canyons, are characteristic of the Pueblo culture that flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries. After more than a thousand years of inhabiting the region, Pueblo peoples developed advanced techniques for architecture, combining intricate rectangular rooms made from adobe into fortified terraced structures. Favourite locations for construction were defensive positions, including hilltops, mesas, and the steep rock ledges present in the Castle Rock Complex.

    Another ubiquitous trait of Pueblo sites are their inhabitants’ rock art, depicting scenes of everyday life, complex geometry and astronomical subjects. The discoveries of the JU archaeologists centre around these petroglyphs, carved into ledges previously overlooked or considered inaccessible. Among the galleries of rock art discovered are carvings from the Basketmaker Era of the first centuries AD, in which predecessors to the Pueblo people carved warriors and shamans. The majority of findings, however, come from the peak of Pueblo culture in the 13th century, in which the large population occupying nearby adobe structures carved shapes and spirals up to a metre large for suspected religious purposes. Later carvings from the Ute tribe are also present, depicting narrative scenes of hunting, and the Post-Columbian introduction of horses to the region.

    Researchers examine ancient petroglyphs in Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park Jagiellonian University

    “I had some hints from older members of the local community that something more can be found in the higher, less accessible parts of the canyons. We wanted to verify this information, and what we found surpassed our wildest expectations. It turned out that about 800 metres above the cliff settlements there are a lot [of] previously unknown petroglyphs. The huge rock panels stretch over 4km around the large plateau,” Palonka said in a statement. “These discoveries forced us to adjust our knowledge about this area. Definitely we have underestimated the number of inhabitants who lived here in the 13th century and the complexity of their religious practices, which must have also taken place next to these outdoor panels”.

    Ongoing research at the site will proceed with a two-tiered approach, including collaboration with the University of Houston’s LiDAR team and local Ute tribe members to produce highly detailed digital maps and intimate historical records of the archaeological site. On the contributions of the Texan scientists, Palonka said he is excited at the prospect of developing “a detailed 3D map of the area with a resolution of 5cm-10cm”, a drastic improvement from current imaging.

    With the additional help of Ute tribal archaeologist Rebecca Hammond, Palonka’s team will receive assistance in understanding and contextualising the works they discover. According to JU, conversations between Pueblo people and archaeologists will be integral to a forthcoming and permanent exhibit at the nearby Canyon of the Ancients Visitor Centre and Museum, where the Polish researchers’ latest findings will also be featured.

    Meanwhile, Palonka’s team is eagerly awaiting the results of new mapping, he said, as they “hope to spot new, previously unknown, sites, mainly from earlier periods”.

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    New York’s Corporate Lobbies Are Filled With Famous Art Commissions. Here Are the Coolest and Most Eye-Rolling Choices

      December 22, 2023
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    “Art has come out of its ivory tower and into the office building lobby,” New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote in 1959. That is only more true today, as corporations have seen the advantage of wowing their visitors and potential clients with works by brand-name artists, especially as the art market has continued to grow and make global headlines.  

    These works extend the great tradition of public art in New York into the indoors, and allow office workers to have a moment of beauty, aesthetic challenge, or intellectual interest on their way to work each day. 

    The future of art in corporate lobbies can be subject to the vagaries of time and, especially, changes in ownership. For example, the sculptor Isamu Noguchi created a site-specific installation in the lobby at 666 Fifth Avenue in 1957; when Brookfield Properties took over the lease in 2020, they wanted to remodel, and argued that intervening renovations to the building that changed the context meant the installation no longer reflected Noguchi’s vision. They dismantled it and donated it to the foundation that cares for the artist’s work. 

    Lobby art doesn’t necessarily have the reputation of being the most interesting or cutting-edge. Never one to shy away from pronouncing a bold opinion, the New York Post once boldly prounounced that “Lobby art sucks.” But that’s not necessarily the case. Some does, some doesn’t, and Artnet News is here to guide you. 

    What are some of the best and worst choices for art installed in office lobbies across New York City? Here’s a quick roundup of five superlatives—from the worst to the best—to guide you as you look for art in different places in your travels throughout the city, if you are seeking something different from the museum and gallery circuit. 

     

    Most Lame Visual Joke: Anish Kapoor at 56 Leonard 

    A new permanent public artwork by artist Anish Kapoor at 56 Leonard Street in Manhattan. Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images.

    The British-Indian artist’s first public artwork in New York is, in a way, a miniature cousin of his massive Cloud Gate, which has graced Chicago’s Millennium Park since 2006. 

    Estimated to have cost as much as $10 million, the as-yet-untitled shiny sculpture is 48 feet long, weighs 40 tons, and is installed under the corner of a new Herzog & de Meuron–designed luxury tower at 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca. The new Lower Manhattan skyscraper is commonly referred to as the Jenga Tower for its distinctive shape.

    While it might be a stretch to call the piece lobby art, since it’s outdoors, we think it’s close enough. And while the Chicago work is rightly beloved as a unique piece of public art, this one makes a lame joke, seeming to be bulging under the weight of the building that hosts it.

    ArtNews’s Alex Greenberger wrote when it was unveiled that “this sculpture is no Cloud Gate, and personally, I wouldn’t mind if the building above it made good on its promise and crushed the thing altogether.”

     

    Most Predictable: Jeff Koons, Balloon Rabbit (Red), at 51 Astor Place

    Jeff Koons, Balloon Rabbit (Red) (2005–10). Photo: Tom Powel Imaging. Courtesy the artist. © Jeff Koons.

    Balloon Rabbit (Red), 2005–10, which stands 14 feet tall and tips the scales at 6,600 pounds, has squatted (or whatever it is rabbits do) in the lobby of 51 Astor Place since 2014. 

    It comes from the collection of Edward J. Minskoff, whose equity company erected the 13-story, 430,000-square-foot building, where IBM is the anchor tenant in a neighborhood that has drastically gentrified over recent years. Just a few feet away, at Cooper Square, legendary conceptual artist David Hammons once performed his Bliz-aard Ball Sale (1983), in which the artist commented on the salability of whiteness and the absurdity of the art market by offering snowballs in various sizes to passersby on the sidewalk. 

    And speaking of the selling of whiteness and market madness, in 2019, Koons’s 3-foot-tall stainless-steel Rabbit (1986) fetched $91.1 million at Christie’s New York, setting a record for the priciest work ever sold at auction by a living artist.

    Having an artwork by a former Wall Street commodities broker from the collection of an equity guy dominating a lobby where giants like IBM are tenants is just so on the nose that to call it on the nose would be too on the nose. 

    Most Journalist-Friendly: Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen, Moveable Type, at the New York Times Building

    Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen, Moveable Type (2007). Courtesy: New York Times.

    When the New York Times moved into its $1 billion, Renzo Piano–designed Midtown Manhattan headquarters in 2007, the paper’s architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote (where else?) in the Times that he was “enchanted” with the building. 

    Though Ouroussoff didn’t mention it in his review, one element that enchants most people’s  visiting the building is Moveable Type, a digital artwork by New York artist Ben Rubin and Columbia University journalism professor Mark Hansen. 

    The piece uses algorithms to parse selections of text from the paper’s daily output, as well as its archive and reader comments, which appear on some 560 small digital displays arrayed in two nearly 54-foot-wide grids. One algorithm, for example, pulls out noun phrases, another maps, another phrases containing numbers, yet another questions, as Rubin explains in a video (which, impressively, explains how many bad ideas they went through to arrive at this one).

    Most Literary: Jenny Holzer, 7 World Trade Center 

    Jenny Holzer, For 7 World Trade (2006). Photo: Joe Woolhead, courtesy Silverstein Properties.

    Rebuilt at a cost of some $700 million, 7 World Trade Center was the first office building to reopen at Ground Zero, five years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. So a public art commission for this emotionally fraught site must have been daunting. But Jenny Holzer (who indeed told the New York Times that she was “taken aback at the gravity of the project”) rose to the challenge with a work that captures decades of expressions about the city’s pleasures. 

    Stretching 65 feet wide and 14 feet high, Holzer’s For 7 World Trade was inaugurated in May 2006. The five-foot-high scrolling letters come from poems and prose texts about “the joy of being in New York City,” she told Art21, including works by writers like Elizabeth Bishop, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, and William Carlos Williams, each writing about their first impressions of Gotham. In 2019, she added writing from 18 New York schoolchildren, and the text runs for a full 36 hours before repeating itself. 

    Besides the literary content, Holzer focused on a satisfying chromatic experience, saying, “I want color to suffuse the space and pulse and do all kinds of tricks.”

    Most Straight-Up Coolest: James Turrell, Plain Dress 2006, at 505 Fifth Avenue 

    James Turrell, Plain Dress (2006), at 505 Fifth Avenue. Photo: H.G. Esch, courtesy KPF.

    California Light and Space artist James Turrell is globally known for his Skyspaces and other installations that employ natural light and illumination to cast a spell. Construction is ongoing on his magnum opus, Roden Crater, in Northern Arizona.

    While we wait for that, we can see a small and subtle work, a collaboration with architects Kohn Pederson Fox, in the lobby of Midtown’s 505 Fifth Avenue. As recounted in Architect magazine, the client wanted to invite an artist to create a work in the lobby in collaboration with the architects. During the building’s development, KPF design principal Douglas Hocking made an offhand remark about the light in a rendering of the lobby reminding him of Turrell, and it was off to the races.

    Turrell transformed the lobby into a forced-perspective lightbox. Cabinets of light, vertical rectangles reminiscent of Mark Rothko paintings, anchor the installation. Behind their resin surfaces, a bank of LED lights is programmed to change color over a 24-hour cycle. The meditative interior provides a sublime contrast to the traffic and bustle of Fifth Avenue, just outside the glass entrance doors. 

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    Stefanie Heinze Paints Richly Ambiguous Worlds. Collectors Are Obsessed 

    Inspector Schachter Uncovers Allegations Regarding the Latest Art World Scandal—And It’s a Doozy 

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    Jonathan Majors Trial: What We Need To Learn

      December 21, 2023
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    ‘The Gilded Age’ Has The Potential To Be Good

      December 20, 2023
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    On Sunday night, as the Season 2 finale of “The Gilded Age” was set to stream on Max, I was shocked when I found myself watching the clock, waiting for the episode to drop, to see what would happen next in the battle between old and new money on New York’s Fifth Avenue in the 1880s. Who would win the season-long war of the opera houses between Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), the show’s embodiment of new money, and Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy), the gatekeeper of old-moneyed society? Would Bertha’s patronage of the Metropolitan Opera displace the historic prominence of the Academy of Music, where securing a box had historically cemented one’s social acceptance?

    My investment in the outcome was a large departure from how I’d felt about the HBO show since its premiere almost two years ago. In fact, when the pilot first aired, I didn’t even finish it.

    At the time, my inability to suffer through the show’s setup surprised me. I didn’t care about the Rockefeller-esque Russell family moving into their opulent mansion on Fifth Avenue and across the street from the old-moneyed Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and her spinster sister, Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon), who have agreed to take in niece Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) after her father dies and leaves her penniless.

    Christine Baranski (left) and Cynthia Nixon in "The Gilded Age."

    What made this even more surprising is that I am a lifelong lover of period dramas. I was a middle school girl who used to spend entire Saturday afternoons rewatching the over-four-hour 1995 BBC version of “Pride and Prejudice” on DVD. In college, I was the only young millennial I knew tuning in to “Downton Abbey” (before it was popular). Now, I’m the only 32-year-old I know with a PBS Passport membership, subscribing monthly, so I get early access to shows like “Call the Midwife,” “All Creatures Great and Small” and my absolute favorite miniseries, “Sanditon,” which ended in the spring. And, yes, I also love more sensational and popular period dramas like Netflix’s “Bridgerton” and “Queen Charlotte.”

    So, why did I find “The Gilded Age” so unwatchable? The intricate sets, accomplished cast and extravagant costumes didn’t compensate for the plot’s tedious pace or dull storylines, and I wasn’t alone in feeling this way. In its first season, “The Gilded Age” became a show to hate-watch. However, unlike those writing online about how “enthrallingly awful” the series was, I couldn’t bring myself to finish that first episode, let alone tune in to the rest of the season.

    It wasn’t until this month when I was recovering from a major, painful surgery and desperate for content that I found myself giving it another try. I ended up binge-watching my way through Season 1 and the first six episodes of Season 2. Unlike my first attempt to watch the show, I couldn’t look away — not because it was addictively bad, but because I wanted to answer a question: Why isn’t “The Gilded Age” better?

    In the first season, that answer is obvious: the writing, the plotting, the pacing. Despite being written and co-produced by Julian Fellowes, the mastermind behind “Downton Abbey,” the first season of “The Gilded Age” falls short. This is especially true when compared with popular period pieces of the past decade.

    “The intricate sets, accomplished cast and extravagant costumes didn’t compensate for the plot’s tedious pace or dull storylines, and I wasn’t alone in feeling this way.”

    Unlike Fellowes’ “Downton Abbey,” it doesn’t elicit the same emotional connection between the characters and the audience. The post-Edwardian show uses the “upstairs” Crawley family and its “downstairs” servants to provide an intricate portrayal of personal lives being shaped by big societal changes — both technological and social. In “The Gilded Age,” which also has an upstairs-downstairs cast, the storylines lack emotions and stakes. I cared as little about Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) coming out into society — one of the season’s main conflicts — as I did about Turner (Kelley Curran), Bertha’s maid, trying to seduce her husband, George Russell (Morgan Spector).

    Plotlines that did have the potential to be interesting weren’t developed and moved too slowly over the course of the season to maintain my interest. This is especially true for the downstairs cast, including the awkward attempt at a romance between footman Jack (Ben Ahlers) and maid Bridget (Taylor Richardson), and the not-at-all-compelling revelation that the Russells’ “French” chef, Monsieur Baudin (Douglas Sills), is actually from Kansas. These shortfalls also apply to the upstairs cast’s lackluster storylines, including Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) wanting to study to be an architect instead of working for his father’s business.

    Another area in which the show severely struggles is its lack of romance, setting it apart from the heightened reimagining of the Regency era in “Bridgerton” and “Queen Charlotte.” Those shows both depend upon the chemistry of the couples — the slow burn of enemies becoming lovers in the former, and the longevity of that passion in the latter. But “The Gilded Age” has neither.

    If Bertha is supposed to carry the plot on her side of the street, then Marian is intended to hold that weight on hers. A huge part of the first season’s story is that Marian agrees to elope with Tom Raikes (Thomas Cocquerel), a young lawyer from Pennsylvania who moves to New York with no social standing. But the two have no on-screen chemistry, and Marian’s willingness to give up everything for him is nonsensical and undermines the independence that the show so desperately wants her to have.

    For me, this goes back to the pacing problem. British period dramas like “Sanditon” know how to build suspense. One romantic lead may do nothing more than row the other in a boat or pick up her dropped glove, but the way their hands graze on the wooden oars or their eyes lock when that glove is returned creates enough tension to carry an entire episode. Most importantly, those small scenes become the big ones, building toward a believable, passionate love story.

    Marian’s love life needs this type of period-appropriate fuel. So does Bertha and George’s. While the Russells’ steadfast dedication to each other’s social and professional goals makes their relationship the one with the most potential to be interesting, it isn’t enough. The show doesn’t develop the why behind their actions — the reason they are so loyal to each other.

    Though these faults largely remain in the second season, it is still better than the first. The writing is sharper, the subplots are more enjoyable (especially the one with Jack and his alarm clock), and the historic events, like the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, and the cameos of people like Oscar Wilde and Booker T. Washington kept my eyes on the screen.

    Ben Ahlers (right) as Jack in "The Gilded Age."
    Ben Ahlers (right) as Jack in "The Gilded Age."

    For me, the fault with the second season lies primarily in that it is better, because that makes it even more aggravating that it is not good. The show has all the ingredients to be captivating, award-winning, prestige TV. But more importantly, the parallels between “The Gilded Age” and today — the economic, racial, gender and ethnic inequalities that stratify society in the late 19th century — give it the potential to become meaningful social commentary.

    This is most present in a few of the second season storylines: the steelworkers striking against George’s company, the growing barriers facing Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) and the middle-class Black community, and Marian’s job as a teacher. My issue with all three is where the lens of the camera falls.

    With the strike, I want more time spent on the extreme poverty of the workers building George’s fortune, on the flicker of human empathy in his eyes when he tells the troops not to shoot at the men and child laborers striking outside his factory.

    Instead of sending Peggy south of the Mason-Dixon Line to report on the Tuskegee Institute (where she and her editor barely evade a violent mob), I want to see her stay in New York. While her time in Alabama and harrowing escape are among the season’s more captivating storylines, they represent an appalling part of history with which many of us are familiar. Instead, I want more time spent on the growing institutional barriers that she and the Black community in Brooklyn face — like the school board’s attempt to close three Black schools. I want to see how systemic inequalities that are overt become (almost) invisibly woven into our history. I want to zoom in on the way Peggy feels like the board’s decision to close only one of the schools is a loss, not a victory.

    Similarly, I want to see the greater complexity that exists in Marian’s desire for independence. When Marian ends her engagement to Cousin Dashiell (David Furr), she says they don’t want the same things, and she hopes to make a difference before she settles down. However, there is little attention paid to what kind of difference. There is no acknowledgment that her inability to work is not only what her husband wants but also the law at the time. I want to see the harsh reality of what it means to be a woman at that time and where progress is happening then, especially in regard to women’s suffrage. The show desperately wants Marian to be as strong and independent as Peggy, but it doesn’t let her leave her sheltered reality long enough to find the opportunity.

    Sullivan Jones (left) and Denée Benton in "The Gilded Age."
    Sullivan Jones (left) and Denée Benton in "The Gilded Age."

    The most interesting statement that the show makes about society occurs in the final minutes of the season, after Bertha has won the opera battle. Sitting in the center box, moments after the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) enters to solidify her victory, Mrs. Fish (Ashlie Atkinson) says, “American society has been reinvented tonight, and you are at the very heart of it.” The reality is that Bertha may be dismantling one system of social stratification, but it is only for the purpose of creating another because, for the majority of New Yorkers, attending the Metropolitan Opera is just as unattainable. Nothing highlights this irony more than the fact that Bertha’s success hinges upon the presence of a duke whose inherited title gives more social capital to her new money.

    This tension is where “The Gilded Age” can shine in Season 3. Using the threads that have been woven this season, the show has the opportunity to demonstrate how particularly American it is to break down barriers only to erect new ones.

    After all, while the characters in this American period piece appear to have more mobility than those in a British one, there are far too many systemic barriers that prevent them from finding their bootstraps. If the next season of “The Gilded Age” can improve its pacing, plot and romantic storytelling, and chooses to explore those subtle tensions that already exist, then it has the opportunity to create not just a uniquely American period piece, but — dare I say it — a good television show.

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    The Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes Mess Just Got Messier

      December 19, 2023
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