Peter Plagens: May 2011 Archives

This is a shallow post. (Well, shallower than usual from me.) I was going to post on Richard Serra and Kasimir Malevich, but my train of thought was interrupted by a weekend. And I want to talk about that, because I can't get to the greatest sculptor (I'd even go greatest artist) of the last 40 years or so and the Russian Suprematist who influenced him before I process this weekend out loud.

On Friday, Laurie (Fendrich, my wife; she's a painter, too) and I went to the theater. The tickets were her birthday present, and the play was "King Lear" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (a.k.a. BAM). Derek Jacobi acted the lead role. Now, partly for cheapskate reasons (theater is expensive and I want to make sure I get my money's worth), I like my plays dramatic (as opposed to musicals), tragic instead of comic, and overlong and overstuffed. "Lear" is perfect for me. Some knowledgeable people say it's Shakespeare's greatest play. Personally, I prefer "Macbeth," Laurie "Hamlet" and our daughter "Othello," but who are we amateurs to say?