The Boston Globe - 02.08.2019

THEBOSTONGLOBEFRIDAY, AUGUST2, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/ARTS

Weekend

G

C

ontradiction is the heart of the workof Hyman

Bloom. The mind recoils at what the eye

drinks in: Radiant colorswiped in exultant

strokes, greedily lapped up while rot and vio-

lence abound. Rational thought might provoke

revulsion, or at least a little guilt. Bloom’s fa-

vorite subject: The human body freshly re-

leased from the grip of death, often flayed and purpling, flesh

turned inside out. But Bloom’s work is not a rational thing. It’s

an instinctive pursuit of beauty deep within the mortal terror of

the inevitable. And it is beautiful, and terrible, and that tension

leaves a mark. It’s what makes it art.

A sharply-honed display of this, Bloom’s most powerful work,

opened earlier this month at the Museum of Fine Arts. Called

“Matters of Life and Death,” it’s a dark paean to the limelight-

shunninglate Boston painter at apogee. That it provokes, stirs,

disturbs, only makes it more compelling. It argues, convincingly,

for nothing less than the widening of the canon of Modern

American art, with Bloom, ever relegated to the sidelines, pulled

closer to the center.

How he fell to the side is worth asking. As sharp as the show

might be, postwar AmericanModernism is even more slim and

pointed. In the 1942 Museum of Modern Art exhibition “Ameri-

cans,” 13 of Bloom’s paintings were included, two of which Mo-

MA bought. Time magazine called him “a striking discovery.” He

was famously shy and allergic to self-promotion (Time described

him as living “a hermit-like existence in a Boston slum”), but

BLOOM,PageG4

Beauty

and

terror,

leaving

a mark

A powerful new show

at the Museum of

Fine Arts makes a case

for Hyman Bloom’s

place in history

PHOTOS© STELLABLOOMTRUSTCOURTESY,MUSEUM OF FINEARTS, BOSTON

ByMURRAY WHYTE

GLOBE STAFF

ART

Inside

MOVIES

ONE SIDEOF

THELEGEND

‘DavidCrosby:Remember

MyName’is a frank,

fascinatingportrait

G7

MOVIES

BROOKLINEHIGH

TO‘60MINUTES’

‘Mike Wallace Is Here’ offers

a slam-banglookata

slam-banginterviewer

G6

THEATER

AMPINGUPTHE

MORTALSTAKES

‘GertrudeandClaudius’

casts a differentlighton

‘Hamlet’atBarringtonStage

G2

ByTy Burr

GLOBESTAFF

‘H

obbs & Shaw” is fine summer
meatheadentertainment, a
brainlessbone-cruncherwith
clever players, a decentscript,
and enough demolition derby
mayhem to satisfy the yahoo lurking within the most
civilized of moviegoers. The moviepretty much
evaporates upon viewing, but isn’t that what you

wantaround the first weekin August? Something

that tickles the ganglions and charges you up to

make it across the finish line to Labor Day?

The best part? You don’t need to have seen a sin-

gle entry in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise,of

which“Hobbsand Shaw” is putatively a part. (The

official title is “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs &

Shaw.”) Indeed,it’s probably moreconfusing if you

have, sincethe sour-facedBritishmercenary Deck-

‘‘FAST & FURIOUS,’’PageG6

DANIEL SMITH/UNIVERSAL PICTURES VIA AP

DwayneJohnson(left) andJasonStathamin “Fast & FuriousPresents:Hobbs& Shaw.”

MOVIES

FAST

BUT NOT

FURIOUS

ByBill Beuttler

GLOBECORRESPONDENT

N

EW YORK — It

was businessas

usualone recent

afternoonas the

namesake host

and Jon Batiste camebounding

onstage to whipup an already

warmed-upaudience at the Ed

Sullivan Theater just before the

taping of that night’s “The Late

ShowWithStephen Colbert.”

Their paths crossedas they

darted in oppositedirections at

the front of the stage, and a cou-

ple of members of Batiste’s

bandStay Humanstrutted on-

stage behind them,energetical-

ly playinghanddrumsto fur-

ther rev up the audience.

Batiste and the bandthen

took theirplacesand did their

thing once the taping was un-

der way, laughing at Colbert’s

jokes and keepingthe audience

charged up and entertained

BATISTE,PageG5

Newport’s Mr. Everything

RAMBO

Jon Batiste willbeat theNewport Jazz

Festival onFriday.

MUSIC

“TheHull” (above)

and“Skeleton”

(below)areamong

theworksin

“HymanBloom:

Mattersof Lifeand

Death” at the

Museumof Fine

Arts.