Something Beautiful (Or Not) Quick, give an example of the ideal of beauty in the 20th century. Did you name a Mondrian painting, or Marilyn Monroe? There's a good chance it was the latter (or some other movie star,) but what will art historians centuries from now have to say on the subject? "Art is no longer interested in providing an image of natural beauty, nor does it aim to procure the pleasure ensuing from the contemplation of harmonious forms," and that's fine for the avant-garde, but the divergence of art from the concept of physical beauty does mean that it is difficult to predict which aesthetic tradition will have real staying power. The Guardian (UK) 10/02/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 5:31 am
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Lightweight Architect, Heavyweight Award "Frei Otto, the 79-year-old German architect and structural engineer whose work continues to inspire leading British architects such as Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, has won this year's Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. Presented by the Royal Institute of British Architects, it is the world's most prestigious architectural award. Born in Siegmar, Saxony, in 1925, Otto made his mark with a number of impressive ultra-modern and super-light tent-like structures using new materials, beginning with the West German pavilion, designed with Rolf Gutbrod, for the 1967 Montreal Expo." The Guardian (UK) 10/04/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 7:01 am
Are de Boers Famous Fakes Actually Legit? In 1992, a group of investors paid a modest sum for the Jelle de Boer art collection, which consisted of works the Dutch collector had judged to be lost creations of van Gogh, Matisse, and Renoir. The sale didn't exactly set the art world ablaze, since de Boer's stack of paintings had long since been judged to be fakes. But now, the current owners are asking experts to reexamine the collection, saying that they believe there may be a few authentic diamonds amidst the mass of imitations. Philadelphia Inquirer (AP) 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 5:56 am
Dyson's Crusade The dispute between resigned Design Museum chairman James Dyson and the trustees bent on updating its mission had been running continuously for years, and contrary to the noise being made by both sides, it isn't business: this argument is strictly personal. "The problem is not so much a question of whether the Design Museum exhibits engineering triumphs or Manolo Blahnik; it's a battle between three exceptionally strong-minded people for the future of an institution that they all care about deeply: Dyson, Alice Rawsthorn, the director, and Terence Conran, who established the museum 20 years ago." The Observer (UK) 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 5:27 am
The New, Non-Linear MoMA As New York's Museum of Modern Art looks towards the November opening of its new $858 million Manhattan home, it faces a defining moment in its history, and a moment in which it hopes to abandon the linear way in which its collection has always been strictly organized. "Defined for so long as the arbiter and guardian of progressive art, MOMA reopens... at a time when even its own curators no longer believe that art progresses like science. Narratives overlap and intertwine; instead of one big story, there are many competing stories... But complexity too often leads to incoherence. Can MOMA, the most influential voice in the modern-art establishment, still tell the story of 20th-century art in a convincing way?" The New York Times 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 4:46 am
A New View Of China "Though the study of Chinese art still focuses [mainly] on court life, it has broadened to include the lives of ordinary citizens. These revisions largely come from archaeology of the last hundred years, and particularly of the last three decades... Archaeology has upset and confounded the traditional linear narrative with discoveries that no one could have anticipated. What we call China is revealed as a complex world more culturally diverse, more multiethnic than previously imagined. Archaeological discoveries are redefining what it means to be Chinese." The New York Times 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 4:38 am
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Well, They Do Have The Word "Royal" In Their Names London's Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music are being accused of class bias after a study revealed that less than half of applicants from state-run public schools were accepted to the schools, despite a government benchmark of 88%. The schools complain that they cannot be expected to admit unqualified students, and that music education has been so devalued in the public schools that a generation of pupils has grown to university age without any high-level understanding of the subject. The Guardian (UK) 10/04/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 7:02 am
Cincy's New Contract Has Serious Cuts The Cincinnati Symphony has inked a new contract with its musicians, and the particulars are an ominous sign for musicians in a season in which most of the major American orchestras are negotiating. "It includes a two-year wage freeze, renegotiation of the orchestra's health-care plan and a reduction through attrition in the number of full-time musicians from 99 to 92." Cincinnati Enquirer 10/04/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 6:32 am
Leading From Within The news stories about the Pittsburgh Symphony's new artistic leadership model made copious use of the term "triumvirate." But, says Andrew Druckenbrod, the PSO's plan is far from the idea of a three-headed boss, and that's a good thing, given the clashes of ego that could be involved in such an arrangement. "In truth, no one is succeeding Mariss Jansons as music director -- not [Sir Andrew] Davis, not all three of the conductors. That's the heart of the revolution of the PSO's announcement: The changed relationship between an artistic leader and the orchestra that gives the musicians and staff more power in deciding the future of the group." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 6:08 am
The Little Label That Did Nonesuch Records has always been an anomaly in the world of the American recording industry. More than merely a collection of artists, this label actually inspires loyalty in its customers, many of whom will go out of their way to purchase a Nonesuch album, sure that their money will not be wasted. Indeed, the "tiny, vigorously eclectic label... has become a kind of American cultural institution. It has an influence far out of proportion to its size, and some think it could be a guidepost for a record industry in desperate need of direction." The New York Times 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 4:54 am
Gramophone Artist Of The Year To Kozena Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena has been voted artist of the year in the UK's Gramophone Awards. Kozena, who has made headlines recently for becoming pregnant by Sir Simon Rattle, has risen quickly to become one of Europe's most prominent classical voices in the last few years. The award is voted by the readers of Gramophone magazine. The Independent (UK) 10/02/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 4:47 am
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Rosetta Code Actually Cracked 800 Years Ago "It is famed as a critical moment in code-breaking history. Using a piece of basalt carved with runes and words, scholars broke the secret of hieroglyphs, the written 'language' of the ancient Egyptians. A baffling, opaque language had been made comprehensible, and the secrets of one of the world's greatest civilisations revealed - thanks to the Rosetta Stone and the analytic prowess of 18th and 19th century European scholars. But now the supremacy of Western thinking has been challenged by a London researcher who claims that hieroglyphs had been decoded hundreds of years earlier - by an Arabic alchemist." The Guardian (UK) 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 7:10 am
Arts Thrive, But The Coverage Sucks A new study of arts journalism by Columbia University's National Arts Journalism Program finds that the arts are thriving in cities and towns across North America. But arts journalism is going in exactly the opposite direction, throttled by an increasingly profit-driven business model and the ever-shrinking 'news hole.' "Many art sections have become viewer guides, devoting the bulk of their efforts to calendars, the daily TV grid and tiny thumbnail reviews. At some dailies, criticism is vanishing." Los Angeles Times 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 6:18 am
We'll Just Call It A History-Based Display Module, Then As part of Toronto's ongoing downtown redevelopment, a new $200 million cultural center is being planned for the waterfront, and organizers hope that it will become the go-to place for Toronto's history and heritage. But don't you dare call it a museum - those are for stuffy people. Toronto Star 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 6:14 am
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Hard To Believe Anyone Would Use Sex To Sell Books "An unusually bitter dispute has broken out betweenthe family of Graham Greene and Norman Sherry, the man he entrusted to write the definitive account of his life. Relatives have been angered that Professor Sherry, whose third and final volume of Greene's official biography will be published this week, dwells extensively on the writer's sexual conquests at the expense of his literary career." The family is likening Sherry to the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, while the author fires back that the objections are "bloody nonsense." The Independent (UK) 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 5:39 am
Bernstein: The Man & The Music Leonard Bernstein's legacy looms large over the American musical landscape. Not only a revered composer and conductor, Bernstein is also justly famous for having been one of the few individuals able to connect children to serious music in an age when pop culture had begun to dominate the cultural sphere. A new radio documentary series examining Bernstein's role in American culture begins this week, and "after some throat-clearing about the nature of Bernstein's genius, the show becomes suddenly addictive. The radio format does what no biography can: superimpose the voices against a torrential background of music, most of it as jaunty, optimistic, vigorous and full of bravado as Bernstein was himself." Newsday (New York) 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 4:19 am
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London Revival London's new fall theatre season is going a long way towards making everyone forget about last year's dismal crop of plays, and the only major flop so far is the high-profile production shepharded by Hollywood's Kevin Spacey. David Hare's anti-Bush/Blair dramedy Stuff Happens is the runaway hit of the season, of course, but overall, London stages are featuring productions heavy on substance and long on buzz. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/04/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 6:55 am
The National Goes Outside Its Comfort Zone "It's easy to forget that it's only 18 months since Nicholas Hytner took over the [UK's] National Theatre. The territory he's opened up has been extensive and the dividends tremendous, in financial as well as artistic terms: record ticket sales; a steady stream of first-time attenders (encouraged by the cheap seats policy); audience numbers which rose by 150,000 to 750,000... Now Hytner is taking one step further. For the first time, the National has set out to develop a relationship with one of the young independent companies which has been revolutionising the idea of what the theatre can be." The Observer (UK) 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 5:24 am
The Death of the Impresario? With the death of Joseph Papp in 1991, there was much hand-wringing over where the next great impresario would come from. But given the current climate of arts support in the U.S., individuals who can be artistic leader, political mastermind, and money magnet all at the same time are seeming like an outdated pipe dream to many theatres. "For whomever's sake, art is expensive and (according to most artists) radically undersupported. This has only worsened in recent years. 'The bedrock of municipal and civic responsibility' on which Papp (sometimes just hopefully) based his enterprise has largely eroded... Given the difficult climate, search committees at some cultural institutions have begun to feel they may be better off with skilled managers instead of star impresarios." The New York Times 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 5:03 am
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DaVinci Code Author Accused of Plagiarism "Two writers are suing the publishers of The Da Vinci Code, the biggest-selling adult fiction book of all time, claiming it was copied from their 20-year-old book. They claim Dan Brown, the American author said to have earned $A350 million from the book that has sold 12 million, 'lifted the whole architecture' of research for their non-fiction Holy Blood, Holy Grail." The earlier book actually makes an appearance in DaVinci, with one of the characters pulling a copy off a shelf and positing that its conclusions are sound. The Age (Melbourne) 10/04/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 6:45 am
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Satellite's Bite May Soon Match Its Bark Satellite radio is predicated on the idea that listeners desperate for an escape from the bland sameness of corporate radio will be willing to pay for niche broadcasting aimed directly at them. And certainly, any radio service offering options as diverse as public radio exile Bob Edwards and shock jocks Opie & Anthony must be said to be making good on its claims of wide-ranging service. Currently, the two satellite services available in the U.S. have only 3.1 million subscribers between them, but XM's subscriber rolls have jumped 19 percent in the months since Edwards was hired away from NPR, and many observers expect the numbers to continue to increase. The New York Times 10/04/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 7:17 am
Sony Abandons CD Locks Sony, which pioneered a new copy-protected CD in 2002, is abandoning the technology, saying that the anti-piracy message being touted by the recording industry has sunk in sufficiently with consumers to make additional measures unnecessary. The statement appears to be somewhat at odds with the industry's continued insistence that global music piracy is a serious threat to recording, and the decision to drop copy protection may have more to do with Sony's expansion into the online music marketplace. BBC 10/04/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 6:40 am
Too Many Movies? There are a lot of movies being made these days. Perhaps too many. "Each year, as more of them arrive in American theaters - and as an even greater number are left behind to wander the festival circuit in perpetuity - the conditions they face become more starkly Darwinian." Brilliant films are in ever greater danger of being lost in the crowd, and lowest-common-denominator dreck will always win out if there is Hollywood money behind it. "There may be more variety, more creativity and more money in movies than ever before, but is there a tipping point at which more becomes too much?" The New York Times 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 4:40 am
Choosing Quality Over Clout The Chicago International Film Festival turns 40 this year, and in its middle age, it has settled nicely into its role in the film world. The Chicago Fest is not a big event on Hollywood's calendar, but the organizers have long since come to grips with that fact and, rather than begging for world premieres and striving for recognition from the big studios, "the Chicago event began concentrating more on showing quality films no matter whether they'd screened elsewhere." Chicago Tribune 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 4:34 am
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Bolshoi Reborn? Getting There, Anyway. Russia's Bolshoi Ballet hasn't been looking like itself for the last decade or so. "The footwork lacked precision. The jetes drooped like steamed celery. Dancers' feet bobbled more landings than the Olympic gymnasts this summer. Dancers depicting young lovers looked bored and in need of couple's counseling." But now, with a bold new artistic director in place, things are looking up, and a $350 million renovation is pending at the Bolshoi's home theatre in St. Petersburg. Still, change is a process, and there's no question that the Bolshoi is still a fair distance from reattaining its former glory. Boston Globe 10/03/04
Posted: 10/04/2004 4:26 am
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