• Subscribe
    • Free AJ Newsletters
    • Subscribe to AJ’s Premium Newsletters
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Tumblr
    • RSS
  • Advertising
    • Advertising
    • About AJClassifieds
    • Place a Classified Ad
  • About
    • About
    • Contact
    • Sources

ArtsJournal

  • HOME
  • DANCE
  • IDEAS
  • ISSUES
  • MEDIA
  • MUSIC
  • PEOPLE
  • THEATRE
  • VISUAL
  • WORDS
  • AUDIENCE
  • AJBLOGS

Painting’s First Avant-Garde Was 500 Years Ago

VISUAL Posted: July 11, 2014 12:32 am

In an essay titled “The Birth of Bad Taste”, Barry Schwabsky argues that “long before Matisse, the Italian artists of the sixteenth century who came to be known as Mannerists were willing to twist their figures out of proportion, and they did so to create not convincing images, but convincing paintings.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

VISUAL Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in The Nation Published: 07.01.14

The Worst Art I Ever Made (And The Good That Came Of It)

IDEAS Posted: July 3, 2014 12:57 am

“Jen Doll speaks to a bunch of different creative types about what they’ve all learned from being bad at what they now do well.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

IDEAS Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in Pacific Standard Published: 07.01.14

Crossing The Nabokov-vs.-Roth Divide

WORDS Posted: July 3, 2014 12:41 am

Joshua Ferris: “In book after book, Nabokov creates idiosyncratic, heightened, elaborately constructed worlds; Roth’s one book investigates and exhausts his world, the given world. When I was younger, I preferred Nabokov. … But you can’t choose what kind of writer you become; aesthetics is handmaiden to temperament. By dint of nativity, or culture, or epoch, or perspective, I was more temperamentally aligned with Roth.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

WORDS Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in The Atlantic Published: 07.01.14

The Problem With Broadway ‘Commodity Musicals’

THEATRE Posted: July 2, 2014 11:57 pm

Aladdin. Bullets Over Broadway. 9 to 5. Young Frankenstein. The Little Mermaid. Beauty and the Beast. And so on. “The most distinctive feature of these musicals is that they usually treat their source material not as a springboard for fresh, creative endeavor but as an exploitable economic commodity that can be ‘repurposed’ for further profit.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

THEATRE Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in Commentary Published: 07.01.14

What Makes The Tango Music For The Whole World

MUSIC Posted: July 2, 2014 6:32 am

“If you play with sheet music, playing [just] everything written, it’s really a bore, because you don’t know the way to do something different with that, to create some kind of fresh rhythms. It’s the way to move accents, the articulation when you play, and the very fresh manner, very tender with no rush. Most of the classical players play very square and rush.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

MUSIC Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in NewMusicBox Published: 07.01.14

$4.5 Million Worth Of Brazilian Art Discovered In Shipping Container

VISUAL Posted: July 2, 2014 6:17 am

“The works, valued at $4.5m, were hidden among the belongings of a 75-year-old Brazilian woman and authorities suspect a company used her move to evade taxes. The Brazilian Ministry of Finance, Guido Mantega, said the art is believed to have been acquired at auctions abroad.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

VISUAL Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in The Art Newspaper Published: 07.01.14

Uh Oh. Sistine Chapel Is About To Get Three Times More Crowded

VISUAL Posted: July 2, 2014 6:14 am

A new climate control system makes it possible. “Though it may get more crowded, the Sistine Chapel will also be much brighter from October. A new lighting system incorporating 7,000 LEDs aims to increase the illumination of the ceiling and wall decorations tenfold (from 5-10 to 50-100 lux).”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

VISUAL Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in The Art Newspaper Published: 07.01.14

Reality TV Is Cheap To Produce. Here’s Why

MEDIA Posted: July 2, 2014 6:07 am

“I’m tired of fearing that I’m easily replaceable and I’m tired of hearing that this is industry standard. These companies abuse us, they don’t take our concerns seriously, they are taking our wages from us, not providing us with health care or vacation time. These benefits would be provided to any other full time worker and here we are working more than full time.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

MEDIA Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in Gawker Published: 07.01.14

WolfTrap To Introduce Supertitles For Your Smartphone

ISSUES Posted: July 2, 2014 6:04 am

Wolf Trap will announce Tuesday that it will use new supertitle technology that allows audiences to follow the French narrative of the opera in English from their smartphones, tablets or Google Glass eyewear. The technology from Figaro Systems debuts during the July 25 performance of “Carmen.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

ISSUES Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in Washington Post Published: 07.01.14

Progress Report: Women In Theatre

THEATRE Posted: July 2, 2014 5:54 am

“There’s a far bigger awareness that this is a problem. I just don’t think there’s any collective understanding of how to change it overnight, and redress the problem immediately. But I do think women are making strides.” – See more at:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

THEATRE Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in HowlRound Published: 07.01.14

Filmmaker Paul Mazursky Dead At 84

PEOPLE Posted: July 2, 2014 1:14 am

“A gentle satirist of contemporary society, Mazursky at his best” – in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Blume in Love, An Unmarried Woman and Down and Out in Beverly Hills – “chronicled the social trends of the late 1960s and ’70s, including the era’s touchy-feely self-improvement fads, drug experimentation and shifting rules for love and sex.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

PEOPLE Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in Los Angeles Times Published: 07.01.14

The Wall Street Journal Analyzes The Met Opera’s Box Office Figures

MUSIC Posted: July 2, 2014 1:01 am

“[The study] shows new productions spearheaded by the Met’s general manager Peter Gelb have had mixed success. While they generally sell better than revivals, some performed poorly when brought back to the stage a season or two later.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

MUSIC Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in The Wall Street Journal Published: 07.01.14

Abbey Theatre, An Irish Cultural Institution, Told To Be More Irish And Less Cultural Institution

THEATRE Posted: July 2, 2014 12:54 am

An audit of the troubled national theatre company, commissioned by the Arts Council of Ireland in response to falling attendance and revenue, says that the Abbey should concentrate more on new Irish writing and on touring beyond Dublin.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

THEATRE Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in The Irish Times Published: 07.01.14

Propeller Theatre Co. Could Shut Down After Losing All Gov’t Funding

THEATRE Posted: July 2, 2014 12:47 am

“Edward Hall, artistic director of all-male theatre company Propeller, has warned that the venue’s future is at risk following Arts Council England’s 100% cut to its funding…. Hall said without the money the company would be prevented from ‘forward planning’ and added that it ‘calls into question the future’ of Propeller.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

THEATRE Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in The Stage (UK) Published: 07.01.14

Media In Asia Still Use Blackface (Though They’re Finally Getting Grief For It)

MEDIA Posted: July 2, 2014 12:39 am

“On screens across Asia, it’s not terribly uncommon to see commercials or soap operas that display milk-skinned actors painted brown. Sometimes they try to depict a character with African ancestry. Sometimes they intend to show an Asian bumpkin from the countryside” – or a Filipino guest worker.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

MEDIA Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in GlobalPost Published: 07.01.14

When The Power Of Positive Thinking Fails

IDEAS Posted: July 2, 2014 12:29 am

“But – and here Science of Us offers its sincerest apologies for being a complete and total buzzkill – in everyday life, emerging evidence suggests the ‘I believe’ attitude tends to backfire.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

IDEAS Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in New York Magazine Published: 07.01.14

Francis Bacon Triptych Sells For $45.7 Million

VISUAL Posted: July 1, 2014 11:35 pm

“A Francis Bacon small-format triptych of his lover George Dyer made what Sotheby’s called a ‘landmark’ price of 26.7 million pounds on Monday in a contemporary art sale that surpassed estimates and set records for some artists.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

VISUAL Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in Reuters Published: 07.01.14

Tracey Emin’s Bed Sells For More Than $4 Million

VISUAL Posted: July 1, 2014 11:27 pm

“The work, a rumpled bed surrounded by the intimate debris of empty bottles of vodka, cigarette packets and condoms, attracted controversy when it was shortlisted for the 1999 Turner Prize, prompting a debate about the state of contemporary art.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

VISUAL Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in Yahoo! (AFP) Published: 07.01.14

In A Kingdom Without Museums, Public Art Starts To Catch On

VISUAL Posted: July 1, 2014 10:56 pm

The newly-formed Saudi Art Council is organizing shows in disused buildings and installing outdoor art in Jeddah and working on a new space in Medina.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

VISUAL Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in BBC Published: 07.01.14

NYPD Goes To Battle Against Subway Dancers

DANCE Posted: July 1, 2014 10:41 pm

“The New York Police Department is cracking down on the subway showmen who use the tight quarters of the nation’s busiest transit system as moving stages for impromptu – and illegal – pass-the-hat performances. More than 240 people have been arrested on misdemeanors related to acrobatics so far this year, compared with fewer than 40 at this time a year ago.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

DANCE Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in Yahoo! (AP) Published: 07.01.14

Top Posts From AJBlogs 07.01.14

AJBlogs Posted: July 1, 2014 9:37 pm

Do Opera And Art Museums Mix? An Experiment
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-07-02

Jeremy Denk Responds re The Classical Style
AJBlog: CultureCrash | Published 2014-07-01

The middlebrow minstrel
AJBlog: About Last Night | Published 2014-07-01

Do You Know the Way to Cy Près? What’s Wrong with Corcoran’s Court Petition
AJBlog: CultureGrrl | Published 2014-07-01

Back To Koons: More Food For Thought
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-07-01

[ssba_hide]

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

AJBlogs Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in AJBlogs Published: 07.01.14

China’s Movie Box Office Up 22%

MEDIA Posted: July 1, 2014 7:31 am

“The increase of 22% is a shade less than the 27% full year gain made last year when annual B.O. rose to $3.6 billion, though the first half has regularly been slower than the second semester.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

MEDIA Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in Variety Published: 07.01.14

Major Shift In UK Arts Funding (English National Opera To Suffer £5 Million Cut)

ISSUES Posted: July 1, 2014 7:28 am

“Overall, 33 organisations have been removed from the Arts Council’s roster and three quarters of the 670 organisations have had their funding frozen. The ENO has had its annual grant cut from £17.2m in 2014/15 to £12.4m in the next financial year.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

ISSUES Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in BBC Published: 07.01.14

Broadway Musicals – The Difference Between Composers And Arrangers

THEATRE Posted: July 1, 2014 7:19 am

“I could arguably say I wrote that, though what’s different about that and real composing is that I didn’t have a blank page and have to come up with something out of nothing.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

THEATRE Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in The Globe and Mail (Canada) Published: 07.01.14

Meredith Monk On How Artists Create

PEOPLE Posted: July 1, 2014 7:00 am

“To make something, you have to be a deep-sea diver. You can have fear at the beginning, but then ultimately when curiosity takes over — at least this happens for me — then my fear goes away little by little because I get really interested in what I’ve discovered. We’re the R & D branch of the world, doing research and development all the time just to make an artwork. Making an artwork itself is a political statement in the world that we’re living in.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

PEOPLE Published: 07.01.14

Read the story in Grantmakers in the Arts Published: 07.01.14

Next Page »
  • The Return Of The Large Broadway Orchestra
    Sure, David Byrne is trying to make do with no orchestra in his show, but check out Sweeney Todd, Camelot, and Some Like It Hot. Philippa Soo, who plays Guinevere, says “she... Read more
    AJBlog: Seeing Things Published on: 2023-06-04
  • How IP Ruins Most Movies
    Yes, even ones that have nothing to do with Marvel or DC, like Barbie. And yet: The newest animated Spider-Man has figured out a way around the high walls of the IP... Read more
    AJBlog: Seeing Things Published on: 2023-06-04
  • Women Directors Outnumber Men At This Year’s Tribeca
    That’s a first, and it’s not reflected in larger films. Still, “the news from Tribeca suggests that a more equitable future is possible, particularly because its roster relies heavily on newcomers likely... Read more
    AJBlog: Seeing Things Published on: 2023-06-04
  • The Actors Concerned About Generative AI Are All Too Correct To Be Worried
    “It’s not hard to imagine a future in which a wide-eyed actor signs up for one season of a vampire TV show, and then two seasons later their AI replacement busts out... Read more
    AJBlog: Seeing Things Published on: 2023-06-04
  • Will This Year’s Emmys Finally Show Some Love To Latina And Latino Actors?
    I mean, we’re talking about Pedro Pascal, here, people. And Selena Gomez, Diego Luna, and Jenna Ortega. Before this year, the only – only! – Latinx actor to win a lead actor... Read more
    AJBlog: Seeing Things Published on: 2023-06-04
  • Production Design For The Barbie Movie Wiped Out A Global Supply Of Pink Paint
    Not a joke. To be fair, the pandemic’s supply chain issues, plus the 2021 Texas deep freeze, created a shortage on their own – but still, as filming went on, “there was... Read more
    AJBlog: Seeing Things Published on: 2023-06-04
  • Ghanaian Author And Playwright Ama Ata Aidoo, 81
    Ata Aidoo, “as well as being a writer and university professor, also served as Ghana’s education minister in the early 1980s; she resigned when she could not make education free.” – The... Read more
    AJBlog: Seeing Things Published on: 2023-06-04
  • Old-School Romanian Pottery Has Suddenly Become A Hot Commodity
    A Romanian-born owner of a London design store says “the décor industry is fond of artisanal work right now, adding that if it’s ‘obscure’ — she used air quotes — that was... Read more
    AJBlog: Seeing Things Published on: 2023-06-04
  • The Hollywood Writers’ Strike Is Going Strong, One Month In
    There was a K-Pop themed strike day, and the writers have also held “singles events, Greta Gerwig appreciation day, Pride and drag queen day, and reunions for writers of shows such as E.R. and... Read more
    AJBlog: Seeing Things Published on: 2023-06-04
  • Don’t Learn To Code
    “Computers that we can all ‘program,’ computers that don’t require specialized training to adjust and improve their functionality and that don’t speak in code: That future is rapidly becoming the present.” –... Read more
    AJBlog: Seeing Things Published on: 2023-06-04
  • Such a Great Read! The Poet Dying: Heinrich Heine’s Last Years in Paris
    If the opening of Ernst Pawel's biographical study of the 19th-century German poet Heinrich Heine doesn't grab you, don't bother to read on. But it if does, treat yourself to a great... Read more
    AJBlog: Straight|Up Published on: 2023-06-03
  • Holly Bass talks about the importance of the arts in our schools
    Holly Bass, National Director for Turnaround Arts at the Kennedy Center, talks about the important role that the arts can play in our schools.... Read more
    AJBlog: Aaron Dworkin Published on: 2023-06-03
  • Whitney Spits Out Its Breuer, While Sotheby’s Salivates
    I could say that I told you so, but in this case, I take no delight in being right. By now you’ve probably heard the (heart)breaking news: “Sotheby’s said that it has... Read more
    AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published on: 2023-06-02
  • Early Stats from the General Social Survey: How Virtual Arts Participation Fared in 2022  
    With all the attempts to put COVID firmly behind us, it can be tempting to lapse into a pre-pandemic view of the arts landscape in America. To do so would be a... Read more
    AJBlog: Measure for Measure Published on: 2023-06-01
  • Two goals to rule them all
    I've been reading and thinking a lot about human cognition – about how we make sense and take action. The useful answer describes a combo platter of species-wide sense-making systems and their... Read more
    AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published on: 2023-06-01
  • William Cody Maher ‘If you don’t have a present, you always have a past’
    'A man is looking into his past. Let's see what he finds there.' — William Cody Maher, poet / writer / performance artist... Read more
    AJBlog: Straight|Up Published on: 2023-05-31
  • Menus Animaux Is Coming Soon from Cold Turkey Press
    ... in a brilliant French translation by Bertrand Grimault.... Read more
    AJBlog: Straight|Up Published on: 2023-05-30
  • Stop the Music! Degas “Little Dancer’s” Alleged Attackers Indicted
    The press spokesperson for the National Gallery, Washington, alerted me late Friday to a breaking development in the case of the attack on its beloved treasure—Degas’ unique, original wax version of “Little... Read more
    AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published on: 2023-05-29
  • Creative Forces NEA Military Arts Network
    This is a two-part podcast: we begin with Christine Bial, the Director of Arts and Humanities Grants at Mid-America Arts Alliance which is a partner with National Endowment for the Arts in... Read more
    AJBlog: Measure for Measure Published on: 2023-05-29
  • Erin Lunsford Norton talks about the complexity of orchestral operations
    Erin Lunsford Norton, Vice President of Artistic Planning at the New Jersey Symphony, talks about their centennial and the complexity of artistic operations in an orchestra.... Read more
    AJBlog: Aaron Dworkin Published on: 2023-05-27
.