When the Spy sends two special agents on any case, particularly those involving the culinary arts, it shows we mean business when checking out new establishments in the area.

And that was the resource allocation for the Spy’s first reconnaissance mission this week at Anthony’s in Oxford.

Despite its under-the-radar opening a few weeks ago, it was easy for anyone passing the old beloved Latitude 38 on Oxford Road that Anthony’s had now arrived in its place.

While it looks the same on the outside, native Oxford will be a bit shocked and impressed with the warm red dining rooms that take its cue from Italy rather than the Eastern Shore.

A friendly wait staff seemed to be off to a good start as they continue to find their footing. And both the wine list and the dinner menu offer clues that some thought has gone into both. So it was perhaps no surprise that Anthony was Pope Tavern’s first chef when its new owners purchased it a few years back.

Now, Anthony has taken the big step of finally having his own place, and pride in ownership is very much on display. And that includes baking his own bread.

The agents didn’t push the envelope on the ordering front: salad and bolognese pasta for one, escargot and salmon for the other. A shared bottle of high quality chaniti and two folks were provided for a decidedly cinnamon-oriented tiramisu at the end.

All of those selections were enjoyable, but it is far too early (and unfair, says the Spy manual) to provide a serious critique here. Nonetheless, the agents gave Anthony’s an initial “code green,” meaning it was safe for the community to test themselves.

And that will be easy to do since, going against recent trends, Anthony’s is open seven days a week.

Anthony’s Italian Restaurant
 26342 Oxford Rd, Oxford, MD 21654
Phone: (410) 226-1118
Open seven days a week

Groundbreaking masters of the 20th century and a similarly groundbreaking still-life photographer who’s also the Academy Art Museum’s 2023 artist-in-residence shared the spotlight in the opening reception for three new exhibits at Easton’s Academy Art Museum Thursday evening, Aug. 3. 

Le Repas Frugal, by Pablo Picasso

“Spatial Reckoning: Morandi, Picasso and Villon” in the museum’s Healy Gallery focuses on how three famed European painters changed how representational art of the 19th century evolved into Modernism, Cubism, and, later, Post-Expressionism. Upon entering, the first image you’ll see what looks to be a 1931 unfinished drypoint etching, Le Peintre Decorateur (The Painter Decorator), a near-faceless ghostly image by French artist Jacques Villon (1875-1963). Next is a second etching of the same title with facial features filled in. Next are the Two Renees which depicts a girl on her bicycle (1906) and another, five years later – presumably of the same girl, this time with a pouting scowl on her face. 

Moving on, you can’t miss the true masterpiece, Le Repas Frugal, by Pablo Picasso of Spain (1881-1973), a 1913 print of the famous etching from a private collection picturing a despondent couple who’ve just shared a meal that did not satisfy either their physical or spiritual hunger. Another Picasso, a circa 1900 watercolor, depicts a painter named Carlos who, in profile, projects a clownishly prominent nose and ruby red lips. In between, we get a glimpse of Picasso’s Cubist future, a quite geometric 1912 pen-and-ink on paper of a man holding a cigar. The evolution toward Cubism advances with Villon’s 1941-42 engraving of a girl’s distorted, cross-hatched face, looking as if startled by a frightful event.

The show’s last third belongs to Italian painter Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), who devoted much of his career to painting or drawing ordinary kitchen objects – pitchers, cups, and vases. I can’t say that I get the appeal or what they have to do with the progression to modern art movements, other than his 1927 Still Life with Cloth on the Left, executed with far more textured detail than his other works on display here.

All three artists are said to have been inspired by Paul Cezanne, and a print of his oil portrait of his wife in a red dress is mounted next to text describing the influence he had on artists from his time.

Across the hall in the Lederer Gallery, Canadian-born/Chicago-based artist-in-residence Laura Letinsky changes the visual subject to the 21st century with her large, lens-based color still lifes and arranged domestic scenes of mostly residual disorder. Who Loves the Sun (Weather Report), a 2022 archival pigment print, looks like a messy forecast with something spilled all over it. A 2013 untitled series of chromogenic images printed on silver-based paper under the designation of Albeit features one of the sushi-roll slices beside an empty plate as if someone forgot to serve them properly. An untitled #9 diptych from a 2006 To Say It Isn’t So series places an unused Target shopping bag next to a depleted serving box of McDonald’s fries. This image is paired with an opened gift box and a broken fork stabbing a black ribbon. Go figure. I can only guess what it says about life in the new millennium, though it appears to suggest dysfunction. 

In the two smaller downstairs museum galleries, Baltimore-based artist Amy Boone-McCreesh’s Visual Currency presents wry commentary on what passes for high fashion and decorative arts in a setting of luxury and showy bad taste. Her 2019 Vanity Wall Hanging, a digital printed mixed-media on silk, depicts a charmingly vintage interpretation of a frilly but chintzy imitation of the rich life – possibly, we imagine, purchased with collapsed crypto-currency. Similarly, in Access to Beauty I and II, the 2021 mixed-media collages suggest that access to the scenic environs beyond are blocked by forbidding fencing. Don’t fence me in, country singers used to sing. How about don’t fence me out?======

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts critic and editor now living in Easton.

Three New Academy Art Shows
“Laura Letinsky, 2023 Artist-in-Residence: No More Than It Should Be,” “Spatial Reckoning: Morandi, Picasso and Villon,” both through Oct. 22, and “Amy Boone-McCreesh: Visual Currency,” through Nov. 5, Academy Museum of Art, 106 South St., Easton; academyartmuseum.org

No doubt the entire Mid-Shore was a witness to one of the most remarkable lightning storms in recent history last night, but it took an article this morning in the New York Times that indicated that it had achieved national attention.

There are a lot of good reasons why the Spy Newspapers will be launching a Centreville Spy this summer but perhaps the most important of which is that the Spy has always had a soft spot for Centreville.

While it may now be the essential highway midpoint for the entire Mid-Shore, this community has stayed in my memory as a place where some of the region’s most talented figures in public affairs, the arts, and regional history have all called home.

It is the home of two of the region’s most innovative private schools, one of the best-ranked public high schools on the Eastern Shore, and the main campus of the highly-valued Chesapeake College. 

It is also the base of such outstanding artists as photographer Anne Nielson, environmental artists Howard and Mary McCoy, award-winning novelist Christopher Tilghman, landscape painter Nancy Hammond, furniture craftsman Ridgely Kelly, historian and former athlete Mary Margaret Revell Goodwin, and undoubtedly the most beautiful county courthouse on the Eastern Shore.

The addition of Centreville will also give this educated-driven news portal a presence in one of the Eastern Shore’s fastest-growing counties. Over the next few decades, Queen Anne’s County will be the first on the Delmarva to face unprecedented challenges from a Bay Bridge expansion that will eventually impact the entire Mid-Shore. QAC is also on the frontline on such critical issues as ecological resilience and rising sea levels. We also see significant challenges and opportunities for Centreville as it grows and develops. 

Given the essential environmental role that Queen Anne’s County will play in this century, the Centreville Spy will dedicated to the late great conservationist Howard Wood. The product of Harvard College and its distinguished law school, Howard made the remarkable decision to return to Centreville to practice law in the early 1940s rather than a lucrative career as a Wall Street attorney. And while his law practice found success, it was Wood’s early role in Queen Anne’s County conservation protection as one of the founders of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, the Chester River Association (now ShoreRivers), and Queen Anne’s Conservation Association that surely gave him the most satisfaction. We recently asked Spy contributor Maria Wood to profile her grandfather for the Centreville Spy’s first edition here.

To help with the launching of the Centreville Spy, I am so pleased to say that the popular Queen Anne’s County author and historian Brent Lewis will be joining our distinguished list of contributors. Brent has three nonfiction books, including his most recent Stardust by the Bushel: Hollywood on the Chesapeake Bay’s Eastern Shore. His first novel, Bloody Point 1976, won an Honorable Mention Award at the 2015 Hollywood Book Festival.

The Spy has started a modest fundraising campaign of $20,000 to cover the initial costs of startup and support the Centreville Spy in its first year of operation. I am very grateful to the Arthur H. Kudner, Jr. Fund for its leadership commitment to this goal, which will match personal donations made to the Mid-Shore Community Foundation’s Centreville Spy Fund. I do hope that those Spy readers who live or work in the greater Centreville community will participate in getting the new Spy up and going. Donations can be made here.

Speaking of writers, I’m pleased to welcome David Reel as a weekly commentator for the Spy. With a lifetime of political activism (he recently was the chair of the Republican Central Committee of Talbot County) and a successful public relations career, David’s right-of-center political point of view matches well with the Eastern Shore’s consistently long history of conservatism. Whether one agrees or disagrees with David’s opinions, I think our readers will grow to look forward to and respect his thoughtful commentaries.

Once again, speaking on behalf of our Spy writers and editors, a heartfelt thanks for our reader support and Spies like you.

Dave Wheelan
Publisher and Executive Editor

What better way to celebrate Juneteenth and Delmarva Pride in Easton than to capture the Maryland Spirituals Initiative Gospel concert under the masterful leadership of choral director Leroy Potter at the Avalon last night? The Spy caught this remarkable performance at the Avalon last night and documented the early set up of dozens of booths for Pride Day and the always popular Academy Art Museum day of festivities.