The move to bust the audition process wide open is one way Chu hopes to make good on his promise: that Crazy Rich Asians would comprise “amazing Asian actors cast in EVERY SINGLE ROLE.” His pronouncement followed a particularly egregious season of Hollywood “whitewashing” and now, nearly a year since he set that goal, the Step Up director intends to deliver, but finding a “cream-of-the-crop Asian cast” has proven to take some time.
Wealthy Collector And Powerful Museum Are About To Go To War Over Old Master Portrait
“Tom Hill, the American hedge fund manager who paid over £30m for a Pontormo portrait, is refusing to accept a matching offer from London’s National Gallery.”
Why This Man Was The Most Photographed American Of The 19th Century
You’ve heard of him (even if Donald Trump hadn’t). His pose and his outfit were almost always the same, and he had specific reasons for seeking out the camera as much as he did – reasons that went well beyond self-regard.
America’s First Black Pop Star (She Sang Opera)
Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield was born a slave, raised by an abolitionist, and began her career before the Civil War with the nickname “the Black Swan,” a counterpart to the “Swedish Nightingale,” Jenny Lind.
Reconstructing The Opera That Inaugurated The Theater At Versailles Palace For Louis XVI
For the new Royal Opera House, built to celebrate the wedding of the then-Dauphin to Marie-Antoinette in 1770, three composers adapted Lully’s 1682 tragedy Persée so that it would be grand enough for the couple and the venue – a cast of 15, an 80-piece orchestra, a chorus of 95, 80 ballet dancers, five sets. In this video, conductor Hervé Niquet talks about reviving and recording the piece.
The Psychology Of The Worry Spiral (So This Will Explain My Mother?)
Worrying actually serves a sort of purpose for most people – figuring out how to solve a problem or avoid a danger or deal with the aftermath of a disaster. “That’s not to say that anyone really enjoys the process – just that it can feel like a productive use of time, rather than a waste of it. … What separates the pathological worriers from the rest of the pack isn’t that they see a point to worrying, but that they have better follow-through.” (Oh, great, Mom.)
How A Psychotic Little Girl In World War II Japan Made Herself Into The World’s Top-Selling Living Female Artist
The young Yayoi Kusama was plagued with visual hallucinations, mental health problems, and a mother who violently disapproved (literally) of her interest in art. Today, at 87, she’s more productive than ever, even as she continues to live in the psychiatric hospital she checked herself into 40 years ago. Darryl Wee tells us about Kusama’s journey.
New York Times Theatre Critic Has Left The Paper
Three major contributors to The New York Times culture section have left the paper. The most recent is Charles Isherwood, the No. 2 theater critic since 2004, when he jumped from the top critic’s slot at Variety.
Why Public Libraries Are Finally Giving Up Fines For Overdue Books
“Now some libraries are deciding that the money isn’t worth the hassle – not only that, but that fining patrons works against everything that public libraries ought to stand for.” Ruth Graham explains the reasoning and the results.
Looking In On Joshua Bell At Mid-Career
“It’s not quite true that he’s not interested in the trappings of celebrity – his New York apartment certainly fits his profile as star musician. Indeed, the limelight may fuel him – but he defines it on his own terms. Take his relatively recent foray into conducting.”
How Dael Orlandersmith Built A One-Woman Show About Ferguson, Mo.
Rosalind Early reports on how the Repertory Theater of St. Louis sent the playwright-performer on a “listening tour” and how her work there is and is not like that of Anna Deavere Smith.
Ravel Museum In France Abruptly Closes After Several Months Of Weirdness
Last year the government of the town where the museum (in the composer’s former house) is located forbade France-TV to film there; last month a local official called the police on Charles Dutoit and Martha Argerich while they were visiting; last week the custodian, on the job for 30 years, was fired; there are concerns that objects and archives are missing. Sanjoy Roy looks into the situation and explains why losing the museum permanently would be a tragedy.
Here’s How The Seattle Symphony Is Protesting Trump’s Travel Ban
Tonight (Wed., Feb. 8), orchestra musicians are performing music drawn from the seven countries singled out in the executive order. The concert is sold out, but it will be streamed live at 7:30 pm Pacific Time on the SSO’s Facebook page.
Classical Music’s Woman Conductor Problem Isn’t A Women’s Issue (It’s About The Culture)
I ask Marin Alsop if the young women she works with are particularly beset by confidence issues. “Confidence is an issue for all young people today,” she says. “But I do find that the challenges for women seem to be projecting strength unapologetically. Society interprets women’s gestures very differently, so that if women are exuding an aura of extreme confidence that can be deemed off-putting, whereas it’s desirous for men.”
Literary Places So Famous They Become Real
Perhaps the ultimate tribute? Places invented in literature that become so famous that real places name themselves after them. It’s a tribute, of course. And there are a lot of them…
Anish Kapoor Awarded $1 Million Genesis Award
“The profound impact of Anish’s work continues a long history of Jewish contribution to the arts, while his social activism reaffirms the commitment of the Jewish people to humanitarian causes,” the Genesis Prize Foundation’s chairman and cofounder, Stan Polovets, said in a statement.
Met Museum Posts 375,000 Public Domain Images To The Web
“In a blog post on Wikimedia, Richard Knipel, the Met’s “Wikimedian-in-Residence,” stated the goal of the initiative was to “Wiki-fy the Met, and Met-ify the Wiki.” The museum is currently planning edit-a-thons and further efforts to update the data entries for each work. Among the institutions helping with the Open Access program are Pinterest, the popular picture-sharing social media platform, and Artstor, the online database for images of artworks used mainly by academics and researchers.”
Math As Performance Art
“The world is full of mundane, meek, unconscious things materially embodying fiendishly complex pieces of mathematics. How can we make sense of this? I’d like to propose that sea slugs and electrons, and many other modest natural systems, are engaged in what we might call the performance of mathematics. Rather than thinking about maths, they are doing it.”
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Is Now Amazon’s Number-One Bestseller
“[Margaret] Atwood’s foreboding tale of a society that regresses into religiously driven totalitarianism took the top spot from Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos’ Dangerous.” (Guess the Super Bowl ad worked.)
Kuwait’s Shiny New Opera House Goes Up In Flames
The $770 million venue, which opened just this past fall, caught fire during work on its roof. Authorities say there were no casualties.
Clarinet Legend Gervase De Peyer Dead At 90
Known for “distinctive tone, breathtaking phrasing and delicate shaping of the music,” he spent 17 years as principal clarinetist of the London Symphony and two decades as one of the earliest members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Developer Plans An Arts Center In An Old Renault Factory In The Middle Of The Seine
“The property developer Emerige group plans to build an extensive art centre and 13,000 sq. m art hotel on Île Seguin, an island in the western suburbs of Paris that once housed the Renault car factory. The new development, called S17 & S18, will transform the former industrial site into ‘one of the biggest cultural hubs in Europe’, says a spokeswoman for the Emerige.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.06.17
American Art Benefits: A Little Noticed $100 Million Gift
Everyone I know is reading more news these days – until they give up and decide to avoid news altogether. Either way, some good news in the art world is not getting enough attention. … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-02-06
Music and the National Mood
PostClassical Ensemble – the DC chamber orchestra I co-founded a dozen years ago – produced a concert at the Washington National Cathedral last Saturday night that seemed to address the national mood. … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2017-02-06
The Met Mess in the NY Times: Are Tom Campbell’s Director Days Numbered?
Catching up on museum news after five days in California, I did a double-take at the online headline for Robin Pogrebin‘s Page One piece in Sunday’s NY Times: … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-02-06
Monday Recommendation: Miguel Zenon
Miguel Zenon Quartet, Típico (Miel Music) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-02-06
Louvre Reopens, Attacker Remains Silent Under Questioning
“The Paris prosecutor’s office said the suspect, who allegedly shouted “Allahu akbar!” while rushing toward the soldiers and was shot four times after slightly injuring one, remained silent during the interview and will remain in custody.”
Irish Artists Fear Effects Of Brexit
“There would be a detrimental effect for the many Irish artists who relied on showing their work in the UK, and changes in VAT regulations could make travel abroad more costly.”