Ideas Difficult To Digest - Art Requiring Reaction So now there's evidence that modern art was used as a torture device in Spain during the Civil War. John Rockwell ponders the ability of art to provoke a strong reaction. "A subcurrent of shock and provocation has always lurked within avant-garde art, which deliberately sets out to challenge bourgeois convention and to elicit a strong response. My own experience has been that opponents of new art are much too quick to presume provocation, let alone provocation intended literally to torture. Still, there can be no doubt that outrage was and is a goal of some artists." The New York Times 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 3:56 pm Visual Arts Looted Art On Display In Moscow An exhibition of paintings taken from a German castle by Soviet trrops after World War II went on display in Moscow this weekend. "A campaign by mainly Communist members of Russia's parliament has kept the 364 works in the country, though many Liberals back the idea of returning them to Germany. Returning war booty has long been a sensitive issue in Russia, where memories remain keen of more than 20 million Soviet war dead during a four-year campaign against the Nazis. The Moscow Museum of Architecture has held the 362 drawings and two paintings - which include works by Rubens, Degas, Delacroix and Goya - in safekeeping for 43 years." Posted: 03/30/2003 11:11 pm Previously: Russian Prosecutor Threatens Culture Minister Over Plan To Return Art The Russian Prosecutor's office has informed the Russian Culture Minister that he will face criminal charges if he goes ahead with a plan to return an art collection stolen from Germany after World War II. "The prosecutor's office, which has been investigating the matter over the past few weeks, said the Culture Ministry does not have the authority to decide to hand over the 362 drawings and two paintings that once belonged to the Bremen Kunsthalle." Moscow Times 03/26/03 Celebrating Vincent's 150th Birsthday Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum celebrated the painter's 150th birthday Sunday as thousands of fan came to pay their respects. BBC 03/31/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 11:08 pm Two Van Gogh Paintings Stolen Two Van Gogh paintings have been stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. "The stolen paintings are well known to art lovers: 'View of the Sea at Scheveningen' and 'Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church at Nuenen.' Both from the artist's early period, they were executed in 1882 and 1884, respectively. Police have not yet put a value on them. But Van Gogh's later works have sold at auction in recent years for tens of millions of dollars." BBC 03/31/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 11:06 pm Tracking Down Some Maleviches In a few weeks the Guggenheim Museum will open a show of Malevich paintings with important works that have never been seen in the West. But the tale of how the paintings ended up getting out of Russia and into the show is a tangled one. "The art dealers, the Guggenheim and Russian officials all deny having done anything improper. It is through their efforts, they argue, that superb art hidden for decades is finally being seen." But still, there are questions... The New York Times 03/31/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 10:44 pm Dispensing Art From Machines (Who Needs Dealers?) Would you take a chance on buying art out of a vending machine? "The Art-o-Mat offers miniature paintings, sculptures and other tiny trinkets for not much more than a pack of Parliaments. The concept has hooked accidental art investors with refurbished vending machines in art galleries, coffee shops and grocery stores nationwide. We're wanting to reach quality investors who haven't taken art seriously before, and to support artists trying to make a living." The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) (AP) 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 4:43 pm Destroying Angkor Wat With Bad Decisions To "Save" It So often, conservation attempts at Angkor Wat have resulted in disaster. "Between 1986 and 1993 in an attempt to clean the temple of lichen and prevent water erosion, many exquisite details were erased forever. Concrete was used to fill cracks." and the damage was irreparable. Now there are more plans - some which seem ill-advised. "Who is making these decisions? The Cambodian body nominally in charge of Angkor's 100-odd monuments is the Apsara Authority, created by Unesco in 1995. But while the Cambodians are the hosts, they are not yet the masters of their legacy: they hold the keys but not the essential resources. Within the tangle of international politics and conflicting philosophies of architectural restoration, Angkor Wat, with its beautiful honeycomb towers is, in reality, a latter-day Tower of Babel." The New York Times 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 3:40 pm Music Sony Will Lay Off 1000 Sony CEO Andy Lack, who succeeded Thomas D. Mottola about three months ago, "plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs in the United States and abroad as part of a broad cost-reduction plan that would try to cut expenses by more than $100 million a year, people close to the company said yesterday." The New York Times 03/31/03 Posted: 03/31/2003 7:42 am Nervous Tension It had been 30 years since Roy McDonald had played as an extra in Ottawa's National Arts Center Orchestra. So when he was asked to audition for an extra role in Symphony Nova Scotia, he was flattered...and a lot nervous. But "I was told the audition would be casual, which I incorrectly interpreted to mean friendly. I pictured me and the conductor in a brightly lit rehearsal hall - introductions would be made, smiles, a couple of handshakes, and then someone would say, 'OK, Mr. McDonald, let's hear you take a whack at the Beethoven.' I had also imagined I would steadfastly avoid falling into the trap of getting nervous: I had nothing to lose." Boy was he wrong. National Post (Canada) 03/31/03 Posted: 03/31/2003 7:16 am Sony CEO: CD Sales Could Drop 15% In 2003 Andy Lack, the new CEO of Sony, says that his company predicts that CD sales will fall 15 percent this year. "We've prepared for a scenario that acknowledges that industry sales may be down as much as 13-15 per cent this year." The drop in sales could lead to layoffs of 1000 employees this year. Yahoo! (Reuters) 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 10:54 pm Where Did All The Critics Go? "Time was you knew where you stood with pop critics. There were certain bylines in the pop press that you could trust with your life, and more importantly, with the future health of your record collection. What strikes me about pop criticism of late - and this afflicts the broadsheets as well - is the tyranny of received opinion. What gives here? Maybe writers are too hidebound by the notion of providing their readers with glorified consumer guides rather informed criticism. Maybe the sheer doggedness of the reviewer's task dulls the senses, precludes reflection and encourages the quick response. Are there so many mediocre albums coming out that, were reviewers to be honest, their negativity would send readers scurrying to the news section in search of some light relief?" The Observer (UK) 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 5:07 pm Arts Issues A Cultural Complex For The WTC Site Plans are coming together for a "Museum of Freedom" to be built as part of a cultural complex at the site of the World Trade Center. "The museum would be part of a two-building cultural complex as conceived by Daniel Libeskind, whose design for the 16-acre site was chosen earlier this year. The second building would house a performing arts center, which would probably become the home for the New York City Opera. In addition to its repertory, the opera company would stage musical theater at the hall that it may want to take on the road." The New York Times 03/31/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 10:49 pm Colorado Arts Council Could Be Dead This Week The 36-year-old Colorado Council of the Arts faces elimination this week by the state legislature. "During the past few years, there have been attempts to get rid of the council, most notably a proposal to shift its funding to the creation of a state boxing commission. That crisis was resolved when the agency agreed to split its grants equally between metro area arts groups and the 57 counties in the rest of Colorado. Now the planets have aligned to make the council just one of dozens of programs facing gutting or elimination in the scramble to balance the budget." Oh yes, and if it goes away, the Arts Council won't be coming back anytime soon. Count on it. Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 4:13 pm People Evgeny Kissen - Beyond Prodigyhood Evgenny Kissen was the child everyone was talking about in the early 90s. Now he's 31, and "he has avoided the Icarian fate of many prodigies, some of whom have faded into obscurity with aching hands and broken hearts. His key to surviving the transition from wunderkind to adult virtuoso, under the eyes and ears of a public whose fascination often calls for superhuman displays of technical wizardry, was moderation." He limits his concerts to 40-45 a year. Miami Herald 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 4:50 pm Aussie Playwright Nick Enright, 52 "Nick Enright, one of Australia's leading playwrights, died yesterday. He was 52. A prolific writer for stage, film and television, he was also an actor, director and teacher." Sydney Morning Herald 03/31/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 3:13 pm Varnedoe - Life (And Cancer) After MoMA Kirk Varnedoe epitomized the "stereotype of the contemporary art world in all its unapproachable elan" while he was chief curator of the Museum of Modern Art. But Varendoe left one of the most prominent curatorships in the art world last year. Now he's preparing for lectures, and being treated for inoperable cancer. "I always thought I'd make it through the Mellon Lectures. I always thought I'd be able to do that. But I just don't make any predictions about six months from now." Washington Post 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 3:03 pm Previously: VARNEDOE LEAVES MOMA: Kirk Varnedoe has been chief curator of the Museum of Modern Art's department of painting and sculpture since 1988. But as MOMA prepares for a major expansion, Varnedoe is leaving the museum to go to Princeton. "Many people regard me as a raging postmodernist, says Mr. Varnedoe, who has also been accused of an emphatic bias against contemporary theory. 'I'm more of a pragmatist than anything else, a Darwinist, I suppose, as opposed to having a teleological vision of a great race of isolated geniuses who pass the baton on to one another'." The New York Times 01/06/02 Theatre Closing Notice For "Urban Cowboy"...Uh, Forget that - We're Staying Open... The musical 'Urban Cowboy' opened Thursday to bad reviews. On Frida, producers decided to close the show Saturday. Then changed their minds on Saturday. "For the better part of Broadway's history, shows regularly closed after one or two performances. In recent times, however, it has been highly unusual for a Broadway musical to close in one weekend, no matter how damning the reviews. Even shows with scathing notices, like this season's $12 million flop, 'Dance of the Vampires,' can eke out a few weeks and have enough cushion money to run television advertisements to fight reviews." The New York Times 03/31/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 10:38 pm A Revolution In Stage Design For The 21st Century New 3-D computer technology is about to revolutionize the live stage. With it, designers can create sets that would be impossible to afford otherwise. "Britain’s most wanted stage designer reckons his use of 3-D computer animation will transform theatre for the 21st century, and his claims cannot be doubted by anyone who saw his set for Tom Stoppard’s epic Russian trilogy The Coast of Utopia at the National Theatre." The Times (UK) 03/31/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 10:30 pm Theatre Of Conflict - Getting The Polics Right One of the problems with plays about real-life conflict and politics is getting the real-life issues right in context. It's a much more difficult thing to do than you might first suspect. Two Off-Broadway plays take a stab at the Middle East, and pitfalls abound... The New York Times 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 3:46 pm Publishing Oprah's Classic Depression - Back In The Book Business So Oprah's back in the business of choosing books, a year after getting peeved at Jonathan Franzen's snub of her book club. Only this time she's recommending classics. "Choosing classics is a good way to avoid the heat from literary snobs like Franzen. Who would dare accuse Faulkner and Fitzgerald of pandering to the masses? Still, the whole thing gives me a chuckle. Is Oprah really improving things by turning to the classics? One of the main complaints Oprah suffered from the last book club, Franzen's barbs notwithstanding, was that her book choices were too depressing, that they were nothing more than soap-opera sagas filled with family dysfunction and unrelenting sorrow. So are the classics a laugh riot?" Rocky Mountain News 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 4:08 pm Challenge To Aussie Writers: Quit "Exalting The Average" Writer John Marr says that Australian writers have become stuck in mediocrity in their "exaltation of the average" and need to develop sharper voices. Marr says what is needed it to "start focusing on what is happening in this country, looking Australia in the face, not flinching, coming to grips with the fact that we have been on a long loop through time that has brought us back almost - but not quite - to where we were." Marr suggested that political and business elites had "inverted that term and directed it towards mostly poor and marginal artists. In response, literary novelists had retreated from the sharp edge of public debate." Sydney Morning Herald 03/31/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 3:19 pm Media Clear Channel Accused Of War-Mongering American radio giant Clear Channel Communicarions "finds itself fending off a new set of accusations: that the company is using its considerable market power to drum up support for the war in Iraq, while muzzling musicians who oppose it." Is Clear Channel keeping musicians with political opinions of which the company disapproves off its stations? The New York Times 03/31/03 Posted: 03/31/2003 7:28 am Where Are The Arts On TV? What happened to the arts on TV? "Even in this niche-rich era of digital cable and the baby satellite dish, television doesn't have a lot of room for plays, dance or serious music, let alone literature or the visual arts. PBS schedules less classical music, jazz, theater and dance than it did a quarter century ago. 'CBS Sunday Morning' is the only regularly scheduled program in the whole of network TV that gives the fine arts the time of day. A&E, which was ARTS and then the Arts & Entertainment Network, is keener on E than A these days." So what's the reason? Newsday 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 4:39 pm The Battle For A Compelling TV War (It's The Ratings - And The Polls) "For those of us trying to juggle these polar mood swings while watching the war on television, there are two conflicts raging — the fight between the antagonists themselves and the pitched battle between journalism and the imperatives of show business. The conflicts are intertwined, and the second determines how we view the first. If we are to penetrate the fog of the real war, journalism must be the clear victor over the inherent need of TV to impose its surefire entertainment formulas, its proven arsenal of slick storytelling and rousing characterization, on a reality that may not be nearly so neat. In this war, American TV news has an unusually tough job. It must not only compete with other TV storytellers with fierce agendas, starting with Iraqi TV, but it must maneuver around the manipulations of an administration so television savvy it doesn't leave a single backdrop to chance." The New York Times 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 4:22 pm Dance Dishonoring Martha Graham's Memory Now that the Martha Grahma litigation has been resolved, the MG company is back dancing. But it's a pale imposter that does its founder a disservice. "Financial crises and litigation over the ownership of Graham's name and repertory had left her company dangling, and its comeback proved that her ghost could be a destructive force, invoking past greatness in a way that made present achievement look both paltry and old-fashioned. Much of the dramatic power in her choreography had eroded to an alarming extent, and as a result, the whole future of the Graham legacy appeared questionable." Los Angeles Times 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 4:57 pm The Broadway Balanchine Though his contributions are now mostly forgotten, George Balanchine created some vivid pieces for Broadway. "Starting with one of his earliest musicals, Rodgers and Hart's 'On Your Toes' (1936), he attained a level of choreographic sophistication rarely before seen on Broadway, and all the dances were integral to the plot, a concept virtually unheard of at the time." The New York Times 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 4:31 pm Cuba's World-Class Ballet "Funded by the island's communist-run government, Cuba's classical dance program is world-class, training dancers for a company that has performed in 58 countries and received about 300 international awards. Founded by Cuban's living ballet legend, Alicia Alonso, in 1948, the National Ballet of Cuba has managed to forge its own style out of old Russian and Western techniques." St. Paul Pioneer-Press (AP) 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 4:04 pm Donald Byrd's New Adventure The dance world was surprised last year when choreographer Donald Byrd, who had had to close down his own company, took a job running a tiny Seattle dance company. "How would someone who was used to running a major company, someone whose "Harlem Nutcracker" was a worldwide draw, accustom himself to a small troupe of dancers of varied backgrounds and a shoestring budget?" Seattle Times 03/30/03 Posted: 03/30/2003 3:28 pm