Mr. Baldwin’s dispute with Ms. Boone, a prominent gallerist who built her reputation in the 1980s, has lifted a curtain on a part of the New York art world outsiders don’t always see.
Archives for October 2016
Why Did An American Couple Just Give $380 Million In Art To France?
It was a negotiation that involved the highest levels of the French government. “The donation, announced Saturday at a ceremony at Élysée Palace, was the culmination of formal talks between officials at the highest levels of the French government and the couple, who are 80 years old and have been married for 60 years.”
All The Reasons We Laugh *Besides* That Something Is Funny
There are studies suggesting that as much as 80% of people’s laughter is at things they don’t really find humorous. Says one neuroscientist, “It’s a hall of mirrors of inferences and intentions every time you encounter laughter.”
Fake Old Master Has The Art World On Edge
So how did this painting, purporting to be a Frans Hals, fool top level experts? It’s making the art world worry about what other fakes might be out there and about a system that doesn’t seem to have done its job vetting. Is a bigger scandal looming?
There’s A Neurological Explanation For Why I’m Always Late
As the surprisingly simple title of the study in question says, “Familiarity expands space and contracts time.” (See, boss? It’s science!)
Furtwangler And Mengelberg, Dudamel And Gergiev?
These four conductors all face(d) political decisions in their relationship to political power. Great musicians all. But their survival strategies differ(ed). Norman Lebrecht suggests some parallels.
In Defense Of The Publisher That Rejected ‘Pride And Prejudice’
Fans of Jane Austen have always tut-tutted about Thomas Cadell of Cadell & Davies, who returned the P&P manuscript to Jane’s father with a curt five-word note in 1797. Yet Cadell really doesn’t deserve the ignominy that that one decision has conferred on him. (Hey, we all make mistakes.) He certainly wasn’t anti-woman – quite the opposite, in fact.
Our Matisse Is Not Nazi-Looted Art And You Can’t Have It, Says UK’s National Gallery To Plaintiffs – And Besides, You Can’t Sue Us In New York
The heirs of Greta Moll, the subject of a portrait by Matisse now valued at more than $30 million, claim that Moll was cheated out of the painting as a result of World War II and that the National Gallery acquired it illegitimately. The museum is responding that just about everything about the lawsuit is bogus.
A Truly Living Art Form: Chicken Artist Breeds Poultry For Gallery Shows
For his Cosmopolitan Chicken Project, Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen has spent two decades crossing heritage breeds from different nations to create handsome, healthy, and (yes) cosmopolitan birds, which he shows in art galleries. For an upcoming show in Detroit, he’s taking things to the next level – the Planetary Community Chicken.
Dude, *Please* Don’t Call Me A Philanthropist, Say Millennial Donors
Have the young’uns heard too many TED Talks? “The next generation of philanthropists at this year’s Philanthropy Australia conference made it perfectly clear that they would prefer to be known as ‘change-makers’ or ‘social entrepreneurs’, and so, are ‘consciously uncoupling’ from being known as philanthropists.”
How Hollywood Eagerly Enlisted In The War On Drugs
“The prospect of foreign drug traffickers invading American shores gave pop-culture cops a new and more dangerous enemy to fight, one that justified fast driving, explosive shootouts and all sorts of audience-thrilling rule-breaking. In return, Hollywood promoted the idea that drugs posed a grave threat that justified new, frightening police tactics and the erosion of basic rights.”
Black-And-Blue Lives That Matter: Minority Cops In Popular Culture
“As Tom Wolfe put it in The Bonfire of the Vanities, ‘All the cops turned Irish: the Jewish cops … the Italian cops, the Latin cops, and the black cops.'” You’re only accepted if you adopt that brand of machismo.
Opera Is *Not* Too Posh And Exclusive, And If You Think It Is, It’s Your Own Damn Fault, Says Opera Boss
“I continue to argue incessantly with people who claim opera is for the rich, unattainable, impenetrable, elitist and from a parallel universe,” writes Michael Volpe, general director of London’s Opera Holland Park. “I swear and shout and stamp my feet – well, I used to, but I stopped doing that because it doesn’t work.”
Edmonton Symphony’s New Chief Conductor Is A 24-Year-Old Former Child Prodigy
When he was 13, Alexander Prior wrote a ballet score commissioned by the Moscow State Ballet; when he was 17, he finished a conducting degree at the St. Petersburg Conservatory; he speaks six languages. Now, he’ll take over the baton in Alberta’s capital from William Eddins at the beginning of next season.
Is It A Farmers’ Market? A Train Station? No, It’s Berlin’s Next Museum
“The Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron has won a competition to build a new museum of 20th-century art in central Berlin with a long, low red-brick design that invited comparisons to a rail station, a barn, a temple and an indoor market.”
Here’s How To Get Boys Interested In Ballet (From A Star Dancer Who Grew Up In A Maryland Slum)
“I found the best way to engage with these kids was to see if they could jump higher than me, run faster than me – physicality is what stimulated them. … Kids are required to take PE, so they could be encouraged to consider dance, too. The way in would be through dance generally, and now would be a good time for this, as hip-hop and ballroom clearly have a following.” An essay by Royal Ballet soloist Eric Underwood.
Susan Graham To The Rescue At Lyric Opera Of Chicago
Talk about a casting coup … Sophie Koch was going to sing Didon in Lyric’s new production of Berlioz’s Les Troyens, which opens in a bit more than two weeks, but she just pulled out for personal reasons. And who should happen to be available but the world’s reigning singer of the role?
Chicago Symphony Had Record Ticket Sales Last Season, But Still Ran A Deficit
Single-ticket sales, and overall box office were at all-time highs, contributions were up, subscription renewals were at 90% – and still the budget gap just hasn’t closed yet.
Making Dance For Dancers Over 60
The company manager of England’s DANCE SIX-0 writes about how the project started, the needs it’s fulfilling, and its activities from full-fledged public performance to dance for dementia patients.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.27.16
Viewpoint diversity
In a guest blog at Scientific American, social psychologist Clay Routledge asks whether American (and presumably this applies to other countries) universities allot an excessive amount of attention to racial, gender, and cultural diversity, but insufficient attention to viewpoint diversity. … read more
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth Published 2016-10-27
Moving Architecture
American Ballet Theatre presents ballets by Tharp, Lang, and Millepied. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-10-27
Paul Conley On Joey Alexander
I have a longstanding rule regarding child prodigies who emerge on waves of publicity: Approach with caution. When the eleven-year-old Indonesian pianist Joey Alexander materialized last year in a flurry of accolades from Wynton Marsalis, … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-10-27
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Cincinnati Symphony CEO Named New Head Of Interlochen
“A nonprofit, Interlochen includes one of the nation’s most renowned arts camps, which draws 2,500 students each summer for intensive work in seven arts disciplines in a nature setting. The center also has a 500-student fine arts boarding school, an acclaimed concert series and a public radio station. Its alumni include opera legend Jessye Norman, pop singer Josh Groban and conductor Lorin Maazel.”
First Look At George Lucas’s Futuristic Plans For A San Francisco Museum
“Call it hedging your bets, call it beefing up your odds, call it the architectural equivalent of quite publicly asking two people to prom on the same day: The dual-track proposal is an unusual gambit by any measure. And it suggests that rather than feeling chastened enough by those prior defeats to reassess his sales pitch, to slow down and rethink the plans for the museum in a wholesale way, Lucas is instead growing ever more impatient to get a deal done.”
Overnight Earthquakes Damage More Italian Heritage, Church Collapses
“The 5.4-magnitude and 5.9-magnitude tremors near Visso in the Marche region follow a 6.2-magnitude earthquake that destroyed the town of Amatrice, 70km to the south, on 24 August, killing at least 295 people. The impact was felt in Rome, Naples and the Veneto coast, according to Italian press reports.”
Why Do Witches Ride Broomsticks?
“Before the Wicked Witch of the West or Harry Potter took flight on the spindly cleaning tool, the image first appeared in the 15th century.” You may not be surprised to read that the depiction was an attack on both sexuality and heresy.
Research: What Kind Of Arts Video Do Audiences Want?
“Based on our research data, digital content has two functions primarily: it develops the audience’s familiarity with the company’s work, and it aligns their expectations of a particular performance. Rather than using supporting materials to make a purchase decision, audiences tend to consume them after booking their tickets, to gain an insight into the story and creative process, reassure themselves of the quality of the company and production, and increase their level of anticipation ahead of the performance.”