“I am over hearing from people within jogging distance of the Chelsea galleries that the whole of contemporary art is over; that art is no longer emotionally or intellectually fulfilling; that art is too expensive even for millionaires. I’m done reading articles titled ‘Why Does So Much New Abstraction Look the Same?,’ written by people who haven’t figured out that Manhattan has bridges and tunnels and a subway.”
How Many Friends Can You Really Have? (And What Do They Mean To You?)
“With social media, we can easily keep up with the lives and interests of far more than a hundred and fifty people. But without investing the face-to-face time, we lack deeper connections to them, and the time we invest in superficial relationships comes at the expense of more profound ones.”
In Paris, Salle Pleyel’s Purchase By French Gov’t Suspended By Judge – In A Divorce Case
In 2009, the state signed a contract to purchase the venerable concert hall from then-owner Hubert Martigny for €60.5 million. Now his estranged wife (and the hall’s former artistic director), Carla Maria Tarditi, is arguing that the price was artificially low and that the Pleyel is worth at least €110 million (to part of which she would be entitled in the divorce settlement). (in French)
Denver Arts Impresario Henry Lowenstein, 89
“One of the most prominent figures on the Colorado performing arts scene throughout the second half of the 20th century, Lowenstein ran the Bonfils Theater in downtown Denver… Lowenstein produced around 400 plays, operas and ballets at the venue during his time there before retiring as general manager in 1986.”
Miami City Ballet Apprentices At Work
“From professional rehearsals and classes with the Miami City Ballet to training with the Miami City Ballet School, the apprentices experience dance as both students and professionals. They are constantly focused on their ultimate goal: achieving careers as professional dancers.”
Facing Ever-Tighter Budgets, More Paris Institutions Turn To Crowdfunding
In August, the National Library asked the public to help with the purchase of a €2.4 million illuminated manuscript; last week, the Musée d’Orsay began a campaign to raise €30,000 towards restoration of a Courbet painting. This week, the Louvre – who’s been doing this for four years now – launched a €1 million appeal to help buy a bejeweled 18th-century table that Proust wrote about in Swann’s Way.
Virtual Reality Could Change The Ways We Live Our Lives
“You will soon be able to slip on a Rift and be instantly transported to a mall with a couple of girlfriends to do some clothes shopping. Everything you see is your size, and you can try outfits on an avatar that has your identical proportions. You can match items with an online inventory containing a copy of every item of clothing in your real-world closet. See how the skirt goes with the shoes you picked up last week with a click.”
A Reckoning Of Antiquities Lost Last Summer In Gaza During The War
“More than 40 historic sites, including a mosque, a church and an ancient bath, were damaged or destroyed in Gaza during the 51-day war this summer, reports the Middle East news organisation Al-Monitor.”
How Did White Males Become Our Default Role Models For Culture?
“Somehow the Great White Male has thrived and continues to colonise the high-status, high-earning, high-power roles (93 per cent of executive directors in the UK are white men; 77 per cent of parliament is male). The Great White Male’s combination of good education, manners, charm, confidence and sexual attractiveness (or “money”, as I like to call it) means he has a strong grip on the keys to power. Of course, the main reason he has those qualities in the first place is what he is, not what he has achieved.”
How Google Is Killing Our Relationships with Books
“Certainly, digitization and searchability have had an effect similar to that produced by earlier reproductions of the image, that of encouraging the fetishization of the original, and I confess now that my feelings toward manuscripts are beginning to approach something like fetishism. I have begun to feel this even more strongly because comprehensive searchability has introduced a rupture into my relationship with the book.”
Hollywood’s Growing Interest In Broadway
“The 2000s have seen a significant return of Hollywood studio interest in Broadway as musicals that click have become cash cows in an ever-growing global environment.”
Maya Lin Wins $300,000 Gish Prize
Said the selection committee chair, playwright David Henry Hwang, “With her design for the Vietnam Memorial, Maya Lin created arguably the most important piece of public art of our time. Since then, she has continued to achieve greatness, through a singular vision which has come to embrace her passionate concern for the environment – in America, China and throughout the planet.”
Here’s A Classical Music Organization That’s Staying Relevant (Despite Its Fusty Name)
“In 2009-10 the Chamber Music Society [of Lincoln Center] gave 35 concerts along with 31 tour dates; the 2014-15 season boasts 54 concerts at home and 68 on tour. … Over the past five years their endowment has risen to $37 million from $31 million; contributor income is up 88%, and subscription sales have increased by 31%.” Stuart Isacoff looks at how they do it.
A Broadway Play’s Long, Messy Journey To Cinema Screens
“Efforts to screen high-definition broadcasts of Broadway shows in movie theaters have been random, halting and frustrating. Yet, in little more than a month, a filmed-live version of the recent Broadway production of Of Mice and Men came together and, beginning in November, will be beamed into about 1,400 theaters around the world. It required an unlikely series of coincidences and a measure of sheer doggedness.”
When Critics Become Playwrights
“From George Bernard Shaw to Nicholas de Jongh, there is a tradition of reviewers penning their own scripts. So can you learn to write plays by watching them? And does being a playwright make you a better critic?”
Are Single-Artist Museums Limited? Not This One
The Clyfford Still Museum in Denver has exceeded every expectation in its first three years of operation, “quieting some who doubted that Still, a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism but never a household name, could carry a single-artist museum, let alone one constrained by a will dictating that no work by any other artist could be ever be shown there.”
What Will Daniele Gatti Bring To The Concertgebouw Orchestra?
“The orchestra’s recently released 2013 annual report warns that unless the orchestra receives immediate government support, [it] is in danger of folding by 2016. Now, whether that’s a substantive fear or Met-like, Peter Gelb-style brinkmanship remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Gatti is coming into an orchestra that’s artistically at the top of its game, yet financially threatened as never before.”
Facebook Or No Facebook, How Many Friends Can A Person Really Have?
Maria Konnikova explores “the Dunbar number” – really a series of numbers describing how many friendly acquaintances, good social friends and close confidantes the human brain can generally handle – and whether social media is making Dunbar’s concept irrelevant.
David Cronenberg Says Writing A Novel Is “Like Being Out Of A Straitjacket” (And That All His Movies Are Comedies)
“It’s very liberating to write in this medium because it’s not only more intimate, but it’s more freedom to just move around a lot. … A screenplay is a very limited and rigorous kind of form, … [and] if you’re making a movie that’s costing millions of dollars, you have a lot of restrictions that, even if you’re not conscious of them, you are mindful of them.”
There’s An Epidemic In America – Of Hypochondria (Blame Ebola)
In Dallas, some parents are keeping their kids home from school. Nearly 40% of Americans are evidently concerned that there will be an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. Certain TV pundits are energetically stoking the fear. A bioethicist explains where hypochondria comes from and why it isn’t entirely fair to callit irrational.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 10.07.14
Scott Johnson’s Mind Out of Matter: Should music make so much sense?
AJBlog: Condemned to Music
Clyfford Still Museum Revisited
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts
Let (Make) the Artists Do It (?)
AJBlog: Engaging Matters
Art and the estate tax
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth
Tax deductions for artists
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth
The C-Word: Craft
AJBlog: Artopia
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Are These Canada’s Best Books Of 2014?
“In a wide-ranging list that culls from across Canadian regions, the fiction finalists include Michael Crummey, who was expected to be among the major prize winners this fall for his latest novel, Sweetland, but failed to place on the Giller and Writers’ Trust lists; Thomas King for The Back of the Turtle; and Claire Holden Rothman for My October.”
Major Reorganization At NPR
The biggest change is the departure of chief content officer Kinsey Wilson, widely admired for his digital initiatives over the past six years.
Mark Morris Dance Group To Split In Two (Don’t Panic!)
“The Mark Morris Dance Group is simultaneously going west and east from mid-October through November, as for the first time in the company’s 34-year history, it splits into two groups.”
Actress Marian Seldes, 86
“Tall, angular and dark-haired, with a commanding, patrician voice and liquid gestures, Ms. Seldes could dominate any scene – so much so that she was sometimes criticized for overacting. She shrugged at that: She knew very well that she cut a distinctive figure. … She also had it right when she described herself as a theatrical workaholic; she was seldom offstage.”