“The Bloch Family Foundation will finance a nearly two-year, $11.7 million renovation … The new space will bring into public view 29 works from the personal collection of Henry and Marion Bloch, a gift of paintings promised by the family in 2010 in connection with the museum’s 75th anniversary.”
The Asshole Theory Of Technological Advancement (And The Apple Watch)
“This is the closest thing we have to a law of portable gadgetry: the more annoying it is to the people around you, the ‘better’ the concept. The more that using it makes you seem like an asshole to people who aren’t using it, the brighter its commercial prospects.”
Pianist Who Was To Replace Lisitsa With Toronto Symphony Says Her Fans Bullied Him Into Withdrawing
Stewart Goodyear: “Words of bile and hatred were hurled in my direction from all sides. Suddenly I was accused of supporting censorship, and bullied into declining this engagement. What started out as one of the happiest moments of my life turned into a shattering display of mob hysteria.”
Here’s Our Kind Of Video Game: It Lets You Wander Through De Chirico Paintings
The Brazilian designer Carlos Monteiro has developed SURREALISTa, a free computer game tribute to the Italian artist that simulates it in three dimensions. The goal is to find the secret gateways from one level to the next (there are five), each just a bit more eerie than the one preceding it.”
Lost In Translation (The Art Of Translating Is All Around Us)
“There is clearly a tension between the varieties of “translation” happening all around us—every moment of every day, truly one of the fundamental activities that hold our world together—and the persistent recycling of platitudes about how this activity, so basic and ubiquitous, is impossible. If the platitudes are recalled more often than translation’s pervasiveness, it is only because translators are usually invisible, their work mysterious.”
How Neil MacGregor Transformed The British Museum
“Neil MacGregor transformed the reputation of the museum. It is now seen domestically and internationally as playing a vital role in understanding the human world – our shared past and present. And he achieved this without losing intellectual rigour. MacGregor has maintained the respect of scholars, and earned the esteem of modernisers – quite an accomplishment.”
Museum Of Modern Art Responds To Criticism Of Bjork Show
“As a museum that supports artists of all stripes, we accept the risk that accompanies this engagement even though we recognize some projects may not live up to our own expectations,” said MoMA Director Glenn Lowry. Amid the bad press, the Björk show is tapping into a broader vein of anxiety about the direction of the venerable art museum.
Artist Apologizes For Scary-Looking Lucille Ball Statue – Says He’ll Fix It
The level of invective directed at the work surprised him, Poulin said. He also acknowledged that when he created the sculpture, he struggled with the project, finding that he “came up short, and was not able to rise to the challenge.”
Is “Placemaking” Nothing More Than The New Jargon?
Placemaking sounds good and everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, Placemaking, as promulgated by its chief advocate, the nonprofit Projects for Public Spaces, is largely bogus, even though PPS rather presumptuously claims it “has the potential to be one of the most transformative ideas of this century.”
How To Help Ward Off Cognitive Decline? Make Art, Says Study
The behavior that had the greatest protective effect, at least in this relatively small study, was “artistic activity,” such as painting, drawing, and sculpting.
Toronto Symphony CEO Breaks Silence Over Buying Out Valentina Lisitsa’s Contract
Jeff Melanson: “We did not go public with this story because we were trying to protect Valentina and her reputation. We are now going public because she basically forced the issue on us and now we are speaking to you.”
Pianist Says Toronto Symphony Donor Threatened To Cut Funds If She Performed
“Valentina Lisitsa, whose appearances were cancelled this week by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra because of tweets she posted about the Ukrainian crisis, says the TSO told her agent a donor threatened to withhold funds if she performed as scheduled.”
This Female Comedian Does An Hour Of Rape Jokes Every Night (With No Pants On)
Adrienne (“I do wear a jacket and heels – I’m not ridiculous”) Truscott: “And what is my right to do it – because I’m a woman? A comedian? Journalists ask me if I’ve been raped. A fair question in a way, or does it reveal an assumption based on my material: that I couldn’t simply be a comedian doing an hour of pointed observational comedy. Would being raped give me the right to joke about rape? No, anyone has the right to do it, but it could make my observational comedy about it more incisive.”
The ‘Netflix For Books’ Opens A (Big) eBookstore – And It’s Not (Just) About Competing With Amazon
“Tell me, what do you think is the most common reason given for cancelling a subscription ebook service like Oyster? If you answered ‘I can’t find the ebooks I want’ then you won the prize. … But now Oyster can promise to sell the ebooks which it was unable to lend, and that is going to keep some subscribers from leaving.”
How I Found Georges Perec’s Lost Novel
David Bellos: “Preparing for [a] move in spring 1966, [Perec] stuffed redundant paperwork into a cardboard suitcase intended for the dump, and put his literary papers in a different case of similar appearance. In the move, the wrong case got junked. All of Perec’s manuscripts and typescripts prior to the writing of Things disappeared. The story led me to expect I would never get to read those lost works.”
Washington Ballet Launches Program To Develop Dancers And Choreographers Of Color
Artistic director Septime Webre says that the new project, called “Let’s Dance Together,” isn’t “just about community outreach and scholarships … [It’s] to try to build an integrated faculty, and an integrated company so dancers can see themselves in the grownups onstage.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.08.15
Historically White Theatre
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2015-04-07
Billie Holiday At 100
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-04-08
Another Opening, Another …
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2015-04-08
More on “Cash Cow” Collections: Scotland’s Dazzling Rent-a-Show at the De Young
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-04-08
Poetry and Plutocracy
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2015-04-08
Other Places: Sloane On McRae
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-04-08
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These 20 Buildings Point To The Future Of Architecture
“There’s a tremendous variety. Some, like Jeanne Gang’s Aqua Tower, are feats of form—her 82-story Chicago skyscraper is elevated to the realm of massive sculpture by the addition of curving balconies that jut out from the rectangular base. Others, like Neri Oxman’s pavilion made from silkworm thread, give us a sense of how new materials and digital fabrication techniques could be used to build tomorrow’s structures.”
Ronald Lauder: Still Much To Do In Returning Nazi-Looted Art
“Citing the statute of limitations to hold on to a painting that was forcibly taken by the Nazis is not just wrong—it is immoral. There should be no statute of limitations in the case of Nazi-looted art, just as there is no statute of limitations for genocide, because for almost every stolen painting, a felony murder was committed and a family was destroyed.”
Humorist Stan Freberg, 88
“Mr. Freberg was a hard man to pin down. He made hit comedy records, voiced hundreds of cartoon characters and succeeded Jack Benny in one of radio’s most prestigious time slots. He called himself a “guerrilla satirist,” using humor as a barbed weapon to take on issues ranging from the commercialization of Christmas to the hypocrisy of liberals.”
UK Rejects Mediation On Parthenon Marbles
“British ministers said they believed the Greek call for “mediation” was intended simply to secure the return of the Marbles to Athens. Greece criticised British negativity. Greek Culture Minister Nicos Xydakis insisted the dispute was between nations, not museums.”
British Museum Director Neil MacGregor To Step Down
“Since taking the helm in 2002, MacGregor has overseen acclaimed exhibitions on topics including Ice Age society, ancient Pompeii and the Vikings.”
Canada’s Shaw Festival Gets A New Leader On The Eve Of A Big Project
Tim Jennings will lead the Shaw Festival. Originally from Georgetown, Ont., he “has had a long career in theatre management, having worked at the Canadian Opera Company and held the position of managing director at Toronto’s Roseneath Theatre and the Seattle Children’s Theatre.” Most recently he has led Minneapolis’s Children’s Theatre Company.
Ballet May Be The Next Corporate Superwoman’s Power Workout
“Classical ballet is coming to your workplace. The past couple of years has seen an influx of traditional ballet and ballet-based classes, squarely aimed at the busy office worker. It might not seem an obvious combination, but pure classical ballet technique is the ultimate antidote to a high pressured, stressful working environment.”