Oscar Preview: Our picks for the big awards

Article by: Cait O’Callaghan

Albrecht Durer on display at the MFA

Article by: Cait O’Callaghan

The Museum of Fine Arts has opened an exhibit dedicated to Albrecht Durer, a German artist known for his black and white woodcuts, etching and engravings of religious images.

Durer was born in 1471 in Nuremburg, Germany, which was a major intellectual and artistic hub in the 1500s. Durer was introduced to engraving by his father, a blacksmith, who taught him how to use the tools meant for engraving.

While traveling across Europe, Durer was introduced to “new” Renaissance art. This art is unique because, according to the MFA, it has “interest in the classical past and concern with the geometrically accurate depiction of three-dimensional space.”

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Aarons captures periods of Boston history on film

Article by: Matt McQuaid

If you take a stroll through many of Boston’s neighborhoods today, you’ll probably be greeted by the sight of tourist attractions, crappy chain stores you can find anywhere else, and yuppies with small, obnoxious dogs. It’s hard to imagine how these places once were 60 years ago, before gentrification and the flight of families to the suburbs, but photographer Jules Aarons captures the essence of a time past quite perfectly.

Jules Aarons was an engineer by trade who helped to develop GPS technology, but his passion was photography. From 1947 to 1976, Aarons photographed residents of the North End, West End, South Boston, South End, Scollay Square (now Government Center), and the Market District (now Faneuil Hall).  Inspired by “street photographers” such as Helen Levitt and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Aarons used a Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera to shoot his subjects because it allowed him to take pictures without the subject’s knowledge. The Boston Public Library began collecting his works in 1997, and now has the largest collection of his pictures in the world.

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GBH continues UK 82 into 2010

Article by: Matt McQuaid

Punk in Britain during the late 70s and early 80s, was one of those rare moments in rock and roll that cemented itself as a memorable mark on the history of the genre. Youth throughout the country were disenchanted with high unemployment, an increasingly tense cold war, and Thatcherism tightening it’s death grip on the English working-class. Kids throughout the country vented their rage by mutilating their hair and picking up guitars, and bands like The Exploited, Abrasive Wheels, Anti-Nowhere League, and Discharge went on to define the genre that became known as UK 82. One of the most memorable bands from that era, Charged GBH, is still going strong.

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