Author: David Ritter

  • Geoffrey Farmer Makes Moore Dangerous Again

    Geoffrey Farmer Makes Moore Dangerous Again

    The explanatory text at the entrance of Every day needs an urgent whistle blown into it at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) reminds us that British sculptor Henry Moore originally intended to bequeath his works to the Tate. When a letter writing campaign caused the London gallery to refuse to build a suitable space, he…

  • Getting Into It Through The Guns: The Thomson Collection of Ship Models at the AGO

    Getting Into It Through The Guns: The Thomson Collection of Ship Models at the AGO

    French prisoners of war held in Britain built some of the ship models in the Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Cream-white as if carved in ivory but made from bones in the prisoners’ rations and other humble materials like straw and human hair, the “Prisoner of War Models” are masterfully crafted…

  • Looking At The Opera

    Looking At The Opera

    Considering which member of an opera’s creative team tends to call the shots, Anne Midgette writes in the New York Times, “We have seen the age of the singer, the age of the conductor and, now, the age of the director.” No one, apparently, worries much about the set designer, but that doesn’t mean the…