Lloyd Schwartz

Lloyd Schwartz is the classical music critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

In addition to his role on Fresh Air, Schwartz is the classical music editor of The Boston Phoenix. He is the co-editor of the Library of the America's Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose, and Letters. He is also the author of three volumes of poems: These People, Goodnight, Gracie and Cairo Traffic. He's the editor of the centennial edition of Elizabeth Bishop's Prose, published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2011.

In 1994, Schwartz won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. He is the Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

At MoMA, A Look At De Kooning's Shifts In Style

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Credit John Wronn / Museum of Modern Art

Woman I (1950-52) is one of the works featured in de Kooning: A Retrospective. The exhibit is on display at the Museum of Modern Art through Jan. 9, 2012.

Credit Museum of Modern Art

Excavation, painted on a 6-foot-by-8-foot canvas, was de Kooning's largest painting through 1950.

By Lloyd Schwartz

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In 2010, the Museum of Modern Art was criticized for its skimpy representation of the Dutch-American painter Willem de Kooning in its huge abstract expressionist show. The museum has now made up for that with an astounding de Kooning retrospective, the first of its kind: some 200 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures that trace de Kooning's career beginning at age 12, when he was working for a graphic designer in his native Rotterdam and painting remarkable imitations of Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Miro and Gorky.

8:55 am

Tue November 15, 2011

Astaire, Burns, Allen, In 'Distress' In London Town

Credit Warner Archives

By Lloyd Schwartz

A Damsel in Distress was the third of only four films on which George Gershwin and his brother Ira collaborated. The star is Fred Astaire, but without Ginger Rogers. Their previous film together, Shall We Dance?, also with an unforgettable Gershwin score, hadn't lived up to studio expectations, and the now-famous stars were taking a break from each other.

7:59 am

Thu October 27, 2011

Degas' Nudes Depict The Awkwardness Of Real Life

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Credit Photo Musee d'Orsay/rmn / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Many of Degas' nudes have their backs turned to the viewer. Above, Degas' pastel work, After the Bath, Woman Drying Her Neck, 1886-95.

Credit The Brooklyn Museum / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Two Bathers on the Grass (1886-95) is one of the works featured in Degas and the Nude. The exhibit is on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts through Feb. 5, 2012. The show then moves to Paris, from March 13 to July 1.

Credit Musee d'Orsay/rmn / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Degas' nudes — including his 1886 work, The Tub -- depict the everyday awkwardness of real life.

By Lloyd Schwartz

Originally published on Mon November 21, 2011 12:32 pm

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The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Musee d'Orsay in Paris have two of the world's best collections of the work of the French postimpressionist Edgar Degas. The two museums have collaborated on an important show called Degas and the Nude, which includes pieces from major museums and private collections all over the world. Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz, who lives in Boston, was moved by the show, which also triggered a sweet personal memory.

10:41 am

Mon August 29, 2011

Furtwangler: A Complex German Operatic Composer

Credit Hulton Archive / Getty Images

German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtwangler.

By Lloyd Schwartz

Wilhelm Furtwangler's name may be hard for Americans to pronounce, but the reason this great conductor is not so well-remembered here is that he chose to remain in Germany during the Second World War, though he was never a member of the Nazi Party, and he was completely exonerated by a postwar tribunal.

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Lloyd Schwartz

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Fine Art

9:43 am

Mon December 5, 2011