New Light: Blyth Spirits
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.
In 2005 the Maine auction house F. O. Bailey Antiquarians offered a late eighteenth-century oil portrait of Nancy Bezoil Lane and her daughter Betsy as a painting “in the manner of Joseph Badger.” Marvin Sadik by then an art dealer, but formerly the director of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC bought it with a winning bid of $32,480. He had recognized the portrait as the work of the Salem, Massachusetts, artist Benjamin Blyth, an attribution based on the painting’s subject, its composition, its characteristic handling of anatomical elements, and its palette. Sadik’s coup ranks as one of the most notable discoveries of a Blyth oil portrait.
Screenshot: 20th Century Fox / Disney
Starting in August 2017, Keith R.A. DeCandido took a weekly look at every live-action movie based on a superhero comic in the weekly 4-Color to 35-Millimeter: The Great Superhero Movie Rewatch. He caught up to real time, as it were, in January 2020, but is revisiting the feature every six months or so to look back at the new releases in the previous half-year. Last week, we looked at
The New Mutants.
There was no comic book more popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s than
Uncanny X-Men. After the third-rate super-team was rebooted in 1975 by the late great Len Wein and the late great Dave Cockrum, Chris Claremont took over the writing chores and, working with Cockrum and later John Byrne, turned it into Marvel’s powerhouse, the X-Men eclipsing Spider-Man as Marvel’s flagship.
Brian Kennedy departs the Peabody Essex Museum on Dec. 31. (Courtesy Toledo Museum of Art)
The Peabody Essex Museum announced Tuesday that Brian P. Kennedy will leave his position as director and CEO of the institution on Dec. 31. Kennedy was hired in March 2019 and stepped into the role in July 2019.
The museum s announcement offers no reason for his abrupt departure. The board will form a committee to search for PEM s next director and CEO.
“After 30 years in museum leadership on three continents, this unprecedented period has given me insight and perspective into the profound changes that are happening in the world and I have decided to pursue a new challenge, Kennedy said in a statement. The Peabody Essex Museum has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent decades, and is now positioned for its next phase as a global museum that enriches its local, regional and national communities. It has been an honor to lead the museum and I am proud of the work we have done.