Archives for October 2009

Just in case you all want to chat online about art, but don’t have time — per my post on Oct. 19 about the Guggenheim Forum — I went back to the website to see what this iteration, which was about spirituality in art, had yielded. The Forum/chat was triggered by the Kandinsky retrospective now on view, prompted by his belief that art “belongs to the spiritual life.” A transcript of the one-hour chat, which took place on Oct. 22, is posted on the Guggenheim’s website (here).

This chat, hosted by Krista Tippett, of Speaking of Faith, seemed to be more substantial than the last one, which was on design, but I noticed the same problem — people talking all around an issue and at cross-purposes. It’s the nature of online discussions.

Here are some interesting quotes drawn from the transcript, but missing the connective tissue (NB: my listing them here does not imply agreement!):

At 2:20: I like this line in Louis’ last post: The artist is a tuning fork for an out of tune and unlyrical society…

2:21: I feel like people are realizing that materialism and attachment to things didn’t bring them meaning or happiness. Art often awakens parts in people that have been dormant for a long time and remind them that there is life right now in them.

2:27: I look at the work of Jeff Koons & some of it really makes me smile… there is something divine going on there.

2:30: a lot of the art with humour in it comes from a place of suffering indeed – whether mental, physical, spiritual, whatever -but ‘drawing in black’ so to speak/type, is quite easy… it’s letting the light in that’s hard.   

[Read more…] about Chat Speaks: What Was Said During The Guggenheim Forum Discussion

Is Iran, under fire for its nuclear activites, trying a little cultural diplomacy?

Last week, the country opened a “Permanent Art Gallery” in Rotterdam, Holland, according to a couple of press reports. Also known as “Iran Art,” it is showing contemporary paintings, miniatures, graphic arts and calligraphy by about 40 artists. They include Iraj Eskandari, Reza Khodadai, and Gizella Sinaii. The opening ceremony was attended by M. Hosseini, deputy ambassador to the Netherlands, and Mahmud Shaluii, director of the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry’s Office for Visual Arts.

The Tehran Times quotes Shaluii as saying: “After Iran’s successful participation in the Venice Biennale this year and the opening of Iran’s art gallery, it was decided to establish additional galleries in other countries to help introduce Iranian art and artists.” He added that Iran would soon inaugurate a Paris gallery. And he said that he hopes sales from the galleries will boost the art economy.  

The Asian Art Newspaper, however, recently dissected the Venice Biennale and thought Iran’s presence there was diappointing.  

For its first participation at the Venice Biennale, there were high expectations for Iran, all the more so as Iranian contemporary art is considered as promising as Chinese or Indian contemporary art used to be. The artists selected to represent Iran, Iraj Eskandari, Sedaghat Jabbari, and Hamid Reza Avishi were clearly technically speaking good artists, but they were the wrong artists for a biennale focusing on the latest developments in contemporary art. It is unfortunate that some artists from Iran who have already gained international recognition were not seen worthy of representing their country in Venice.

Meanwhile, but unrelated to diplomacy, this summer the Chelsea Art Museum mounted Iran Inside Out, including both artists working in Iran and those part of the diaspora.

This looks like a beginning. Here’s a link to the Tehran Times article, the most complete of the three I discovered.

Photo Credits: PRESS TV (top); Tehran Times (bottom).

I AM BACK FROM MY TRIP TO AUSTRIA, AND A QUICK STOP IN MUNICH, AND AM STARTING TO CATCH UP ON DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CULTURAL WORLD. I’LL BE POSTING SOON. PLEASE CHECK BACK.

 

https://www.artsjournal.com/realcleararts/2009/10/i_am_away_at_a.html

Before sitting down to comment on Rocco Landesman’s plan to take a whistle-stop tour of arts places and arts spaces across the U.S., I thought I’d better read the whole speech he gave to Grantmakers in the Arts on Wednesday. I’m glad I did — his buoyant tone was obvious even to readers, not just listeners, and I was glad to hear it. 

More important, there was lots more in the NEA chief’s first big speech demanding comment than the tour itself. A few observations:

1) Landesman lived up to his reputation as outspoken — and plain-spoken. But he does gloss over some areas and makes great leaps. For example, he said, “England is the European country that is the worst public supporter of the arts. Their budget? $900 million. That would translate with our population to an NEA budget of $4.6 billion.” Well, maybe — I didn’t check his figures — but our system is different from Britain’s and arts here, in some states and some cities, receive local government funding. So, is the comparison relevant? Or it it apples and oranges?

2) “Art Works” is an excellent slogan for the NEA, especially as he described it as a noun, a verb and a declarative sentence. 

3) With “strong footnoting” to Richard Florida, he said “Create an arts scene downtown, and small towns have downtowns too, and you change the place. Artists are great place-makers, they are entrepreneurs, and they should be the centerpiece of every town’s strategy for the future.” Well, not so fast: many academics have shot holes in Florida’s work. The last thing the arts need is the pressure to be a locale’s economic engine. Now, a museum is not the same as an artist-driven scene, but haven’t we seen enough failed Bilbao’s already?

4) “We need to compare notes, we need to get together and find where the best ideas are–in fact we are planning a gathering in the spring on art and neighborhood revitalization and we hope to have your active participation in that–but we need to do more than talk. We need to begin lasting partnerships in this arena.” This is a good thing, too. I hope it’s open to the press.

5) One of the best things Landesman brought up was his career as a theatrical producer: “Fewer than 20% of the shows that open on Broadway earn back their investment, it is an absolutely terrible business and the people who invest in it know that.” So, as he pointed out, producers have to be optimists — a great trait for an NEA chief.

 

Forgive me if this has gotten around: as I mention above, I’m in Europe, at meetings, and therefore not seeing much news. But I’ve received word that The New Republic is starting a new section on its website called The Book. As TNR literary editor Leon Wieseltier wrote in his explanation of it, “the plan was to rush in and fill the vacuum in book criticism that is being left by the carnage in American newspapers” — only better.

The Book plans to run a review most days, as well as to aggregate book criticism from not-the-usual suspects. It will also contain “classics” — reviews of books drawn from the TNR archives — and other features, like a roundup discussion of books on a particular genre, like thrillers. Some features are yet to be developed.

And though The Book is named in the same way as many TNR blogs, like The Vine (about the environment), it won’t be a blog, Wieseltier says.

Some of this sounds similar to Arts & Letters Daily. But not exactly. In any case, I certainly welcome it. Anything of quality that adds to the discussion of books has got to be a godsend to publishers and readers everywhere.