Week
of January 14-20, 2002
1.
Special Interest
2. Dance
3. Media
4. Music
5. People
6. Publishing
7. Theatre
8. Visual Arts
9. Arts Issues
10. For Fun
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. SPECIAL INTEREST
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#specialinterest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FBI
VISITS MUSEUM: Houston's Art Car Museum recently got a visit
from the FBI: "They said they had several reports of
anti-American activity going on here and wanted to see the
exhibit. The museum was running a show called Secret Wars,
which contains many anti-war statements that were commissioned
before September 11." A museum docent gave them a tour:
"I asked them if they were familiar with the artists and what
the role of art was at a critical time like this. They were more
interested in where the artists were from. They were taking some
notes. They were pointing out things that they thought were
negative." Later, "a spokesman for the FBI in Houston,
says the visit was a routine follow-up on a call 'from someone who
said there was some material or artwork that was of a threatening
nature to the President'." The
Progressive 01/02
BIOLOGY,
NOT AESTHETICS: Why do some works of art seem to have universal
appeal? Are they just that much better than other art? Maybe not.
"A flowering scientific movement suggests that art appreciation
and production starts in the brain, not the heart. All visual
art, from execution to perception, are functions of the visual
brain." That art which we most respond to may trigger some
physiological truth. San
Diego Union-Tribune (AP) 01/14/02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. DANCE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#dance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
REACQUAINTANCE
WITH THE DANCE COLLECTION: The remarkable Dance Collection at
Lincoln Center's Library of the Performing Arts has finally
reopened after the library finished a three-year renovation.
"It is the largest dance archive in the world, with holdings
that date back to 1460." The
New York Times 01/18/02
MOVING
WITH THE TIMES: Yuri Grigorovich, for 30 years the master of
the Bolshoi Ballet, wielded absolute power during his reign. In
post-Soviet Russia he was ousted from his perch. "Clearly he
saw the writing on the wall in terms of his future with the
Bolshoi; as a principal cultural powerbroker in the old Soviet
regime, he was a natural target for housecleaning." But he
quickly put together a new company, made up of young dancers from
the leading schools. The company is now in America for an
impressive tour. Chicago Sun-Times
01/16/02
- 100
CONCERTS IN 27 CITIES: The company's 90 dancers are
impressive, but performances in Detroit are uneven - the
company is "in the midst of a 27-city, 100-performance
tour that has them spending an astounding amount of their
waking time on buses." Detroit
Free Press 01/16/02
APPRECIATING
DANCE: How does one teach the aesthetics of dance as an
artform? "All students have seen dance movement, if only
music videos on MTV or Broadway musicals. But appreciating dance
as an artform requires some understanding of the cultural status
of works of art. What makes ordinary movement different from
artistic movement? What makes social or ritualistic dance
different from theater dance?" Aesthetics-online
01/02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. MEDIA
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#media
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AND
THE WINNER IS... "Personal Velocity, a movie
trilogy about three women confronted with momentous life crises,
won the Sundance Film Festival's grand jury prize Saturday, taking
top dramatic honors at the 11-day independent cinema showcase.
Sundance jurors gave the documentary grand jury prize to Daughter
From Danang, which follows an Amerasian child of a Vietnamese
woman and U.S. soldier who searches for her natural mother years
after she was adopted by an American woman." Nando
Times (AP) 01/19/02
THE
GLORIES OF NEPOTISM: How do you get a job of have a movie made
in Hollywood? You gotta know someone. "In fact, Hollywood
happens to be one of the more democratic places to make it, so
eager are they for the next big thing, so willing to believe that
you could be It, or you, or you. It's standard practice in L.A.
that no phone call goes unreturned (even if it means rolling
calls, deliberately returning them when they know you'll be out),
because everybody could end up working with anybody at any
time." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/18/02
THE
DECLINE OF DISNEY? "After a renaissance in the mid-80s
and for much of the 90s, Disney has been sliding. Its movie
business is scoring fewer hits, attendance at theme parks has been
disappointing of late. The company had its fingers severely burnt
online and was forced to close an ambitious internet portal early
last year and dissolved what was a separate new-media
division." The
Guardian (UK) 01/15/02
GOING
TO PRAGUE: Where are all the movies going? To Prague. "A
multi-million-dollar film industry has made Prague, the Czech
capital, a European moviemaking mecca, second only to London.
Since the fall of communism 11 years ago, hundreds of foreign
productions have come here to take advantage of its
extraordinarily low costs, highly skilled technicians, and
stunning locations." Christian
Science Monitor 01/16/02
CLAIMS
FOR FLOP INSURANCE: Banks financing Hollywood movies are going
to court to try to collect on insurance claims worth more than $1
billion for movies that were flops. "Hundreds of cases are
stacked up on both sides of the Atlantic, as London's insurance
market resists paying out on a slew of cinematic turkeys. Banks
had lent money for productions with "shortfall
insurance" - "policies that pay up if a film fails to
make its projected revenue within (typically) two to three
years." Financial
Times 01/14/02
RIPPING
OFF EGYPTIAN MOVIES: Video piracy isn't only a problem for
American movies. Egyptian filmmakers estimate they lose $15
million in revenues a year due to video pirates. "Pirates
manage to get a copy of a movie as soon as it is released, either
on video cassette (mostly from Saudi Arabia) or on imported laser
discs, sometimes recording them from the cinemas directly using a
camcorder. These are then duplicated and distributed to the
2,000-odd video rental stores and clubs that specialize in selling
pirated cassettes." Middle East
Times 01/11/02
TAX
BREAKS FOR HOLLYWOOD: California governor Gray Davis proposes
tax breaks for movie companies shooting their productions in
California. "Hollywood's unions have pushed for years for
state and federal incentives to fight runaway production. Canada's
weak dollar, combined with government incentives, make shooting
there about 25% cheaper. Roughly one in four U.S.-developed
productions shoot in foreign countries, mostly Canada.
Los Angeles Times 01/13/02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4.
MUSIC
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#music
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SAN
DIEGO SYMPHONY GETS ITS $100 MILLION - AND THEN SOME: Qualcomm
Inc. founder Irwin Jacobs and his wife, Joan were going to give
the San Diego Symphony $100 million, but at the last minute kicked
in another $20 million. It's the largest gift ever to a symphony
orchestra. "The additional money is to go to the symphony's
operating funds - $2 million a year for the next 10 years. Thus,
the symphony will get $7 million a year over the next 10 years,
with $5 million each year going into an endowment. The Jacobses
have also pledged $50 million to be paid upon their deaths."
Orange County Register 01/16/02
FIRING
THE CHORUS: The Baltimore Symphony has announced it will cut
loose its volunteer chorus, after 32 years of service. "We
have a very good chorus, but it is not a world-class chorus. And
it couldn't be one because we don't support it as we should. To
fix the problem would be expensive." Baltimore
Sun 01/16/02
- WHAT'S
IN A CHORUS? Financial concerns aside, for one of
America's top 25 orchestras to disband its decades-old chorus,
as the Baltimore Symphony is doing, is a controversial and
wide-ranging decision. A full-size chorus is more than a
convenience - it's a community of volunteers more committed to
classical music, and to their own orchestra, than the vast
majority of subscribers that symphony organizations try so
hard to bring in. Baltimore Sun
01/20/02
MUSIC
TO THE PEOPLE: Digital music and file sharing isn't just about
making copies and getting music for free - it is changing the
music industry in a fundamental way. "The advent of new and
accessible technologies has made the independent route much more
possible. The 1960s aesthetic which caused some theatre
practitioners to abandon the stage for the street, and visual
artists to seek an audience outside formal galleries, has now
visited popular music in a much more radical way than it did back
then. The possibilities the Internet and related technologies
offer to bypass major record labels and give the artist direct
access to a potentially mass audience have changed the music
industry forever." Irish
Times 01/15/02
THE
YOUNG CONDUCTORS: A new crop of young conductors is making a
mark on the world stage. Still in their 20s, they're getting big
jobs early. "So Philippe Jordan, at 27, has the world at his
feet." Still, "the marketing of young conductors is only
problematic when they're sold as something they're not - as great
interpreters. Age and experience may be out of fashion, but they
remain essential ingredients of a wise reading of a
masterpiece." Financial Times
01/16/02
SOME
PEOPLE REALLY ARE TONE DEAF: There's even a technical name for
the problem: amusia. Usually, it's the result of head injury, or
an illness. But some people are just born that way. All
Things Considered (NPR) 01/16/02
- UNDERSTANDING
PERFECTION: Scientists are trying to determine why some
people have perfect pitch - the ability to identify notes
without other reference notes. "Based on the evidence so
far, most scientists believe that genes do play at least a
subtle role, perhaps by keeping a developmental 'window' open
wider and longer during early childhood, when note-naming
ability generally takes shape. Still, some experts argue the
quest for an absolute pitch gene is akin to searching for a
gene for speaking French; it doesn't exist." San
Francisco Chronicle 01/15/02
IS
ALL MUSIC THE SAME? "Especially in post-modern times
where categories are being redefined, it is easy for many to
assert that a tango, a rock tune, and a Beethoven symphony are all
the same except perhaps for the musical parameters that define the
style. This can have its positive as well as negative
ramifications. The positive perhaps being that all types of music
are understood as having similar importance, the negative that
everything is considered in many ways as being the same." NewMusicBox
01/02
RIGHT
OF WAY: The BBC has made a costly mistake. The corporation
filmed an expensive version of Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and
the Night Visitors that was set to air Christmas eve -
"until it was found at the last minute that no one had
checked who owned the copyright, and the programme had to be
pulled." Seems an American company owns the film rights, and
the company is not inclined to grant permission for another
version. The
Observer 01/13/02
WHY
DOESN'T LONDON HAVE A GOOD CONCERT HALL? "London’s lack
of a world-class concert hall is beginning to get embarrassing. It
is arguable that London has lacked this prime requisite of a world
city ever since the 2,500-seat Queen’s Hall, on Regent Street,
was destroyed in the Blitz, and that the Festival Hall, for all
its democratic public spaces, never quite made up for that. Which
raises the question: if we started from scratch now, rather than
tinkering around with the variously flawed big halls at our
disposal, could we do better?" Sunday
Times (UK) 01/13/02
OPERA'S
IRON MAN: "As of last week (and he keeps track), [Placido
Domingo] had given 3,045 performances, not even including those as
a conductor. He will turn 61 on Monday and already has commitments
through 2005. He has sung 118 complete opera roles. He holds the
record for opening nights at the Metropolitan Opera: 19 as of this
season. (Enrico Caruso is in second place with 17.)" Now he's
released a set of the entire Verdi repertoire for tenor, an
amazing feat by itself. The
New York Times 01/15/02
TENOR'S
NIGHTMARE: It's the kind of scenario that causes performers to
wake up screaming at night: for whatever reason, a singer suddenly
loses his ability to sing, on stage, with thousands in attendance.
It happened this week in Toronto to legendary Canadian tenor Ben
Heppner, who was forced to halt a recital halfway through when he
could not stop his voice from cracking repeatedly. Toronto
Star 01/18/02
HOPE
FOR THE DYING? Okay, so 2001 was a terrible year for the
classical recording industry. The worst, in fact. "Still, if
one looks hard enough, some promising signs can be gleaned from
the cards dealt to recorded classical music, both in the major and
independent sectors. Having survived the Tower debacle — in
which the cash-strapped retailer demanded drastically extended
payment terms from most of its independent accounts — a
distributor like Harmonia Mundi might actually end up stronger,
having now culled back its inventory and overhauled its retail
sales/stock process. Universal Classics Group — a key industry
barometer — finished the year not only with a bevy of crossover
hits but also with the highest number of top-selling
"straight" classical offerings, according to
Billboard." Andante 01/15/02
HISTORY
OF A BACKSTAGE FRACAS: Just what the heck is going on in
Edmonton, anyway? Since when do fired conductors start their own
competing orchestras? And what kind of musicians are prepared to
follow such a heretic? The answers are the stuff of bad TV dramas
and David Mamet plays. Edmonton
Journal 01/20/02
VICTIM
OF MONEY: The Welsh National Opera is one of the UK's finest.
Except recently. "WNO's management appears to have conceded
power to the accountants, allowing the company to be run not
according to its highest artistic standards - which Wales should
be roaringly proud of - but the logic of the balance sheet. In
this brave new world, why not make 10 per cent of the chorus
redundant too? Why not forget about anything except the safe
box-office bets of the Mozart-to-Puccini repertory? Why bother
subsidising opera at all when raggedy companies from Eastern
Europe can go through the motions at half the price and a quarter
of the quality?" The
Telegraph (UK) 01/14/02
WHERE
ARE TODAY'S COMPOSERS? Why, at the start of the 21st Century,
are our "mainstream musical tastes are still stuck so
completely back then, in the 19th century. Not that there's
anything wrong with listening to Wagner or Chopin, or even
Mendelsson. But it is strange - isn't it? - that an absolute
majority of the music performed by all the American symphony
orchestras this season will be by just four guys. Four guys who
were all composing music during the same hundred-year period that
ended more than a hundred years ago: Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms,
and Tchaikovsky. Who are our Brahmses and Tchaikovskys, the
historically important composers of this time? Why don't we know
their music? Why don't we even know their names?"
Public Arts (Studio 360)
01/11/02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. PEOPLE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#people
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MUSIC
MEDICI: "Alberto Vilar has become the biggest benefactor
in the history of classical music. Whatever the critics make of
his philanthropic style, it has endeared him to many of the
world's top directors, conductors, and singers, not to mention the
managers who must pay them. He has few other cultural interests
(he hates movies) and - unlike the Medicis - isn't interested in
expanding the repertory; he doesn't commission new work and has no
soft spot for small, struggling companies."
New York Magazine 01/14/02
CHAILLY
LEAVING CONCERTGEBOUW: Riccardo Chailly, who's been chief
conductor of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra since 1988,
is leaving the orchestra to head up the Leipzig Opera in Germany,
in 2005. Philadelphia
Inquirer (AP) 01/16/02
LARKIN'S
MONEY GOES TO CHURCH: Poet Philip Larkin, who "declined
the poet laureateship a year before he died in 1985, remains best
known for his reverently agnostic poem Churchgoing. He also
said: 'The Bible is a load of balls of course - but very
beautiful'." So his friends and fans were amused recently
when £1 million of his legacy was willed to the Church of
England. The Guardian (UK) 01/12/02
NOBELIST
CAMILO CELA, 85: "Spanish writer Camilo Jose Cela, winner
of the 1989 Nobel Prize for literature, has died in Madrid from
respiratory and coronary failure. With his first novel, published
in 1946, Cela became a leader of a straightforward style of
writing, called tremendismo, which clashed with the lyricism that
had characterised writers of the previous generation in
Spain." BBC
01/17/02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6.
PUBLISHING
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#publishing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
S'BETTER
TO LOOK GOOD? "Why are so many people paying hard-earned
cash for books they can barely begin to understand? Part of the
answer, surely, is vanity. A Hawking or Greene sitting on the
coffee table--preferably with a few pages conspicuously bent back
at the corners--sends a powerful message to visiting friends,
prospective dates, and (above all) to oneself, that an intellect
is present in the house. Whether or not you read them, possession
alone looks good. Intellectual vanity is as potent a force as the
sartorial variety." Los Angeles
Times 01/13/02
MAKING
RARE BOOKS ACCESSIBLE: "Octavo Corp. and its staff of
eight have revolutionized the conservation and accessibility of
rare books, using technology in the service of history. This month
they're starting work on the most famous book in the U.S., the
Library of Congress' pristine copy of the Gutenberg Bible. Through
a combination of hardware - lights, cameras, and a lot of servers
- and software, the company produces digital reproductions of rare
books, which it then sells to consumers." SFWeekly
01/17/02
WHY
STEALING'S ALWAYS BAD: Historian Stephen Ambrose has been
caught plagiarizing in at least four of his books. This is a very
serious offense, so it's off to the penalty box for him. The media
has made a big deal of this, but historians haven't condemned him
with the vehemence one would expect. Why? Several reasons, but
"a comparison of the Ambrose and Monaghan books found that,
despite picking up sentences here and there, Ambrose wasn't wedded
to Monaghan's work. He had synthesized material from many sources
and was producing his own version of Custer's life." Chicago
Tribune 01/16/02
- WHY
PLAGIARISM MATTERS: The charges of plagiarism are mounting
against historian Stephen Ambrose. " Ambrose's patriots
can't fall back on the factory defense anymore: Two of the
cases occurred when Ambrose was an obscure professor, before
he became Stephen Ambrose Industries. Ambrose is more defiant
than apologetic. Ambrose's assertion that he's not a thief is
ludicrous. One plagiarism is careless. Two is a pattern. Four,
five, or more is pathology. You can bet that historians
jealous of Ambrose (that is, all historians) are this minute
combing the rest of his corpus for more evidence of sticky
fingers." Slate
01/11/02
- CHILDERS
ON AMBROSE: Historian Thomas Childers speaks out on
Stephen Ambrose's plagiarism of his work: "I was
surprised and disappointed. I was bewildered, at first, as to
how he would have the chutzpah to do this. He didn't have to
do this, and I wasn't flattered. My wife, Kristin, was angry
enough for the both of us." But Childers decided to say
nothing: "Do I really want to be the scholarly guy
rapping the famous guy on the knuckles in a schoolmarmish
way?" Philadelphia
Inquirer 01/16/02
- GETTING
IT VERY WRONG: World War II vets aren't as upset about the
copying as they are about all the mistakes about the war in
Ambrose's books. "The real problem is that Ambrose gets
key things about World War II wrong all by himself. That
Ambrose, America's most popular war historian, has published
eight books in five years is seen by them as not so much an
excuse for the alleged errors as the reason."
Philadelphia Inquirer
01/15/02
- MORE
AMBROSE: Yet another book has been added to the Stephen
Ambrose plagiarism list. "Despite Ambrose's continued
dominance of the bestseller lists, 2002 is shaping up as a
year to forget for America's favorite celebrity historian. He
apologized immediately for not putting quotation marks around
the purloined Wild Blue passages; since then, as the
other five books have been identified one or two at a time, he
generally has declined to comment." Forbes.com
01/17/02
- CAREER
EFFECT? Some book world people doubt that publicity about
Ambrose's plagiarism, though embarrassing for Ambrose, would
hurt sales of his bestselling history books. Indeed, it
"might actually end up boosting sales by attracting more
attention to his books. In any case, the best-selling
historian will remain a hot literary property. 'Any agent or
publisher would be glad to grab him'." Forbes.com
01/11/02
THE
PROBLEM BEQUEST: A small library in Massachusetts gets a
million-dollar bequest from a letter carrier who died in 1940 to
buy books. But the library is stuffed full and has no room to put
any new volumes. What it really needs is to expand - but should
the terms of the bequest be broken?
National Post (AP) 01/16/02
LARKIN'S
MONEY GOES TO CHURCH: Poet Philip Larkin, who "declined
the poet laureateship a year before he died in 1985, remains best
known for his reverently agnostic poem Churchgoing. He also
said: 'The Bible is a load of balls of course - but very
beautiful'." So his friends and fans were amused recently
when £1 million of his legacy was willed to the Church of
England. The Guardian (UK) 01/12/02
A
LESSON IN HUMILITY: "To write The Best Book Ever Written
is not a ridiculous aspiration. Ridiculous would be to aspire to
write a 'flawed, two-dimensional and structurally awkward' novel.
'Pretentious twaddle' is not the kind of star to which a wagon can
be very usefully hitched. Mid-list leaves something to be desired
as a career goal. There is much to be gained by setting out to
write The Best Book Ever Written, not the least of which is that
once every millennium, somebody might actually do it. However, as
commendable as it is to aim high, and as useful a motivator as
unreasonable ambition may prove to be, the kind of literary pride
that makes writers think that readers will drop everything to read
them is rarely helpful once a book is published. For all but the
rare exceptions, publication is a crash course in humility."
The Globe & Mail (Canada)
01/11/02
WHAT'S
LEFT OVER: Most books at some point get remaindered. "The
common misconception is that remainders are 'bad' books. Some may
be, but the reality is almost every author - Booker and Giller
winners, and names like Atwood and Urquhart - have titles that
have been thrown into the bins. And they're the gems that
voracious readers eagerly forage for.Remainders are an important
part of our business, accounting for at least 10 per cent of
overall sales " The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/11/02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7. THEATRE
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#theatre
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CLASSIC
MUSICALS DOMINATE OLIVIERS: The Olivier Awards, British
theatre's most prestigious awards, have named this years nominees.
The list is dominated by revivals of classic musical theatre.
"The revival of Kiss Me, Kate got nine nominations,
while My Fair Lady was given eight, including one best
actress nod for former TV soap star Martine McCutcheon." BBC
01/18/02
END
OF THE ROAD: The announcement that Cats would close in London
signals the curtain on Andrew Lloyd Webber. "Like a gambler
who has enjoyed a fabulous winning streak in a casino, then seen
his luck turn, he is now down to his last chip: The Phantom of
the Opera. What a comedown for the man who, during the heyday
of his career, had as many as five musicals running simultaneously
in London's West End and almost as many on Broadway."
The Age (Telegraph) 01/17/02
ARTS
COUNCIL TO RSC - STAY ON BUDGET: The Royal Shakespeare Company
is to get £50 million from the Arts Council of England to develop
a new "theatre village." The RSC has to raise another £50
million to fund the project, and the Arts Council says it won't
contribute anything more if the costs rise about the £100 million
budget. BBC 01/16/02
NINE
LIVES AND THEN SOME: The second-highest grossing musical of
all time will end its record run in London this spring after 21
years and nearly 9000 performances. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats
has never been popular with critics, but audiences have gravitated
to it consistently wherever it has opened. The Broadway production
of the show closed in 2000 after an 18-year run. BBC
01/15/02
GOODBYE
FANTASTICKS: After 17,162 performances, The Fantasticks
closes in New York, the longest-running play in the city. The show
was a career starter for many actors in its 42-year life.
The New York Times 01/14/02
STARLIGHT
DIMS: After 7,406 performances in 18 years, Andrew
Lloyd-Webber's Starlight Express closed in London.
Lloyd-Webber's whose long-running shows have been closing one by
one in the pasty year in London and New York, says he'd like to
take Express on the road. BBC
01/13/02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8.
VISUAL ARTS
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#visualarts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BRITISH
MUSEUM WOES: The British Museum is in financial difficulty
and will have to cut its staff. "The museum also revealed
yesterday that it has cut opening hours for almost a third of
its 100 galleries. Staff were told at a mass meeting that the
museum must make 15 per cent savings on its £45 million budget
because of inadequate Government grants and a fall in tourism
numbers following last year's foot and mouth outbreak and the
September 11 terrorist attacks. The museum is the country's most
popular attraction with 4.6 million visitors last year and the
cuts are likely to embarrass the Government.
The Telegraph (UK) 01/16/02
THE
STUCK STELE: Sixty years ago "Italian invaders"
removed a 1,700-year-old stone stele regarded as a national
monument, from Ethiopia. It has sat in a piazza in Rome ever
since. The Ethiopians have long wanted it back, and in 1997 Italy
agreed to return it. Four years later it still hasn't, and Italy's
deputy culture minister objects to its return. The Ethiopians, who
consider the stele's return a national issue, are unhappy.
"The Ethiopian people's patience ... is being tested to the
limit and it's wearing thin. Ethiopia wants the agreement
implemented.'' Yahoo! (AP) 01/17/02
V&A
DIRECTOR URGES DEAL ON PARTHENON MARBLES: Mark Jones, the new
director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, has broken ranks and
urged the British Museum to work out a deal with Greece for
custody of the Parthenon Marbles. "It is not necessarily a
case of transferred ownership or of giving the Marbles back for
good, but when people believe things are really important, as the
Greeks and the British Museum do in this case, that is actually a
good thing. Apathy is our great enemy." The
Observer (UK) 01/13/02
- MP's
BACK MARBLES' RETURN TO GREECE: A group of 90 British
members of parliament have formed a group to put pressure on
the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece
in time for the 2004 Athens Olympics. The
Guardian (UK) 01/16/02
- BMA
TO GREECE - NO RETURNS, NO DEPOSITS: The director of the
British Museum flatly turns down any idea of loaning the
Parthenon Marbles to Greece, or returning them. He considers
the BMA as a "world museum" and says the museum
"saved" the marbles from destruction by taking them.
"The British Museum transcends national boundaries; it
has never been a museum of British culture, it is a museum of
the world, and its purpose is to display the works of mankind
of all periods and of all places. The idea of cultural
restitution is the anathema of this principle."
The Guardian (UK) 01/15/02
CONTROVERSIAL
MEMORIAL: A plan to erect a bronze statue of three firemen
raising a flag at Ground Zero in front of a Brooklyn firehouse has
sparked controversy. The statue is based on an iconic Associated
Press photo widely reproduced after September 11, but the artist
has changed the firefighters from being all white to one white,
one black and one latino. Some critics don't like the tampering
with the image. ''The problem with realist sculpture is that it
narrows options and interpretations. The power of that photograph
wasn't in the three firefighters, but in the flag. To change the
firefighters' races puts that issue to the forefront, replacing
the flag.'' Boston
Globe 01/16/02
APPARENTLY
HE DOESN'T LIKE CONCEPTUAL ART: Ivan Massow, chairman of the
Institute of Contemporary Arts, says the British art world is
"in danger of disappearing up its own arse ... led by
cultural tsars such as the Tate's Sir Nicholas Serota, who
dominate the scene from their crystal Kremlins. Most concept art I
see now is pretentious, self-indulgent, craftless tat that I
wouldn't accept even as a gift." The
Guardian (UK) 01/17/02
SMITHSONIAN
CHIEF BACK IN THE HOT SEAT: "Lawrence Small, the
secretary of the Smithsonian Institution criticized for leading
the museum into a new era of commercialization and corporate
sponsorship, was attacked by a group of 170 scholars, authors and
academics yesterday. In an open letter to Chief Justice William H.
Rehnquist, who is the chancellor of the Smithsonian's Board of
Regents, the group contended that Small was 'unwilling or unable
to carry out the mission of the Smithsonian, or to safeguard its
integrity'." Washington
Post 01/17/02
REMBRANDT
FOR SALE: A Rembrandt painting - the most valuable ever on the
market, is going to be offered for sale at this year's Maastricht
Art Fair. Minerva is said to be worth about £40 million,
and will be displayed at a booth at the fair. "The painting,
once owned by the Swedish inventor of the Electrolux vacuum
cleaner and then by Baron Bich, the Bic ballpoint pen magnate, is
one of only two other historic scenes by Rembrandt held in private
collections - both the others are in Britain."
The Observer (UK) 01/13/02
CHANGE
OF BID: The auction house's have had a rough year. But rougher
times may be ahead. "In what shape and size auction houses
will survive is anybody's guess. But change they must. In a
nutshell, quantity isn't there any more to feed their vast bodies.
Art supplies are all too visibly running thin, making the auction
business barely profitable." International
Herald Tribune 01/13/02
LEADING
LONDON GALLERY CLOSING: Saying that "you no longer need
an expensive gallery" to sell art, the owner of London's Alex
Reid & Lefevre, London's leading gallery of Impressionist art,
is closing the gallery. "The gallery was one of the last of
the great Post-War art dealerships with direct links back to the
post-Impressionists. It was founded in 1926 by the Glaswegian Alex
Reid, a friend of Van Gogh who introduced his work to this
country, and to his main rival the London dealer Lefevre. The
closure of Alex Reid & Lefevre is a major blow to the London
trade lamented by both auctioneers and dealers alike." The
Art Newspaper 01/11/02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9.
ISSUES
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#issues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
REINSTATING
AN OLD ART FORM: Soviet communists, in their zeal to stamp out
religious influences, stripped their nation's churches. Almost the
first things to go were the bells: they were melted down to make
power cables and tractor parts. Now, with a resurgence of
religion, there's a demand for replacements. So Russian
metal-workers are trying to relearn the old art of casting bells.
The Moscow Times (AP) 01/18/02
BAD
SIGN FOR THE THEATRE? "In a new survey of 1,002 adults
ages 18 and older, the Gallup Organization found that the
overwhelming majority of Americans prefer home-based activities to
a night on the town. In fact, only 10 percent said they'd go
out." Christian
Science Monitor 01/16/02
THE
AESTHETICS OF ART: Artists tend to be repelled by aesthetics,
for a number of reasons. Many are suspicious that too much
analyzing of their art will harm their creativity; it will
encourage them to develop their rational ego at the expense of
their creative unconscious. Or they suspect that aesthetic
analysis will have no effect on them, that thinking about art in
this way is simply useless. Aesthetics-online
01/02
NY
CUTTING BACK CULTURAL SPENDING: New York's cultural
institutions are preparing for big cutbacks in funding from the
city. City departments have been asked to plan for budget cutbacks
of 25 percent. "Since no one wants to go back to the days
when they didn't paint the bridges, cultural projects will be at
the bottom of the list. And when they get to the bottom of the
list, there's going to be nothing left."
The New York Times 01/16/02
MAYOR
LEAVES ART TO CRITICS: New York's Jewish Museum is opening a
show in March that looks at the growing artistic use of symbols
from the Nazi era. But while religious leaders are bound to
protest, don't look for coercion from the city's new mayor Unlike
previous mayor Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg plans to stay out
of debates over art: "I am opposed to government censorship
of any kind. I don't think the government should be in the
business of telling museums what is art or what they should
exhibit." The New York Times 01/14/02
EDUCATION
SPENDING CONTINUES TO RISE: As the economy has slowed in the
US, so has spending on higher education. A survey of states says
that appropriations for higher education are up this year by 4.6
percent, the "smallest such increase in five years."
Still, adjusted for inflation, state spending on higher education
rose by 2.7 percent going into 2001-2. Chronicle
of Higher Education 01/14/02
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10. FOR FUN
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#forfun
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AND
THE BOOK BUSINESS IS INTELLECTUAL, RIGHT? Lest anyone forget,
the book business is run by individuals - people who can be as
petty, self-serving, obtuse and wrong-headed as the rest of us.
MobyLives nominates 2001's most misguided figures. MobyLives
01/14/02
LARKIN'S
MONEY GOES TO CHURCH: Poet Philip Larkin, who "declined
the poet laureateship a year before he died in 1985, remains best
known for his reverently agnostic poem Churchgoing. He also
said: 'The Bible is a load of balls of course - but very
beautiful'." So his friends and fans were amused recently
when £1 million of his legacy was willed to the Church of
England. The Guardian (UK) 01/12/02
HOME
|