From Apolitical To Artistic Activism "For the past decade, the New York art world seemed to have retreated into an exceptionally apolitical version of postmodernism, convinced by a combination of theory and action movies that a digitally enhanced future would favor spectacle over reality. Now, with the advent of an all-too-real war presented as mere spectacle by television, artists are suddenly faced with the very surrealistic task of making reality real. So it's not surprising to see—both in works on view at galleries and in the strategies of the burgeoning anti-war activists — a reprisal of the imagery and the sincerity of earlier periods of art history." Village Voice 04/01/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 7:39 pm
A Marketplace of Reputation Of what are artistic fortunes made? Why do some artists' reputations move up, while others fall? "Beethoven has definitely slumped as Mozart has soared. Is this because we prefer humane elegance to transcendental striving - or is the potent myth-making of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus to blame? When I was a student 25 years ago, E M Forster was considered among the most profound and influential of 20th-century novelists. Now that homosexuality is no longer much of a battleground, his liberal humanism holds little appeal, and we have become mesmerised by the more aggressive complexities of Kipling instead." The Telegraph (UK) 04/02/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 7:21 pm
That Shipping & Handling Charge Will Get You Every Time "In the past 18 months, museums' insurance rates have shot up as much as 50 percent, and in New York, where museums borrowing works from abroad have had to buy costly terrorism coverage, they've doubled. At the same time, the price of shipping art is rising, in part because of higher air freight costs and the increased demands of lenders reluctant to let their art travel at a time of global unrest... Those higher costs, coming at a time of budget cuts and drops in revenue, are causing some museums to scale back the number of big touring exhibitions they present and the shows they create with borrowed works." San Francisco Chronicle 04/02/03
Posted: 04/02/2003 6:48 am
Will The Real Bierstadt Please Stand Up? "Missing for nearly 140 years, a painting of the Yosemite Valley by the widely admired landscapist Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) has been found and put on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington — along with two curious copies that at first glance seem indistinguishable from the original." One of the copies is a chromolithographic print of the original, albeit a high-quality one. The other is an actual hand copy by an anonymous New York art student. The Corcoran doesn't go out of its way to point out which painting is the genuine article, but doesn't completely hide it either. The New York Times 04/02/03
Posted: 04/02/2003 5:07 am
Beck's Takes Turn For The Radical This year's Beck's Futures show opening Friday at London's ICA has taken a turn for the radical, writes Andrew Renton. "Just when the four-year-old award appeared to have been bedding in as the alternative Turner, it has reinvented itself with a streamlined short list of artists who are hardly visible outside the art world and hard to define within it..." London Evening Standard 04/01/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 6:58 pm
- The Anti-Art Art Competition "This year’s Beck’s Futures, a sort of crazy teenage Turner Prize for grown-ups, is so angrily anti-artworld that most of the artists shortlisted didn’t bother taking any actual art to the exhibition space." The Times (UK) 04/02/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 6:55 pm
Attack On Cradle Of Civilization "It may have only a single official Unesco listing but, with 1,000 acknowledged archaeological sites, Iraq is one huge world heritage zone. And on to this in the past few days have poured 740 Tomahawk cruise missiles, 8,000 smart bombs and an unknown number of stupid ones. One of the first acts of the war was an attack on the museum in Saddam's home town of Tikrit. To an Iraqi regime eager for ammunition for propaganda, this was proof of American and British barbarism. The allies preferred to see it as a symbolic strike at the personality cult of Saddam." The Guardian (UK) 04/02/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 6:46 pm
Breton's Apartment Broken Up Despite impassioned protests, surrealist Andre Breton's flat in Paris has been emptied and its contents organized for auction. "Thousands of paintings, documents, photographs and personal souvenirs were carried away to warehouses, destroying what was seen as a surrealist work of art in itself." The Observer (UK) 03/30/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 6:42 pm
Claim: Artworld Has Passed Saatchi By Is Charles Saatchi struck in the 90s? Some think so, after seeing his new gallery in London. "Art has moved on, declared Philip Dodd, director of the Institute for Contemporary Art, to internet sites that allow angry Iraqis in Baghdad to virtually bomb Washington and London, moaning one-eyed mummies, and performance artists who sew balsawood soles to their feet. I think Saatchi was about a time and a place. His gallery is a monument to the 90s, and a museum in some ways to a time when he dominated the scene." The Guardian (UK) 04/01/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 6:34 pm
Defacing Goya Or "Rectifying" Him? Artists known as the Chapman brothers have "drawn demonic clown and puppy heads on each of the victims" on a rare set of prints of Goya's apocalyptic "Disasters of War". "Some experts believe that what the brothers call their 'rectification' of the prints is a fresh spin for the Manga generation. Others do not. Robert Hughes: Goya "will obviously survive these twerps, whose names will be forgotten a few years from now ... Maybe it's time they put Mickey Mouse heads on the Sistine Chapel." The Guardian (UK) 04/01/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 6:27 pm
- Defacing Goya Prints "Two years ago, the Chapmans bought a complete set of what has become the most revered series of prints in existence, Goya's Disasters of War. It is a first-rate, mint condition set of 80 etchings printed from the artist's plates. In terms of print connoisseurship, in terms of art history, in any terms, this is a treasure - and they have vandalised it." The Guardian (UK) 03/31/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 6:15 pm
Houston Symphony Musicians End Strike Musicians of the Houston Symphony have ratified a new contract, ending their 23-day strike. "The players made significant financial concessions. They include a reduction in annual minimum salary in the first three seasons covered by the agreement, achieved via unpaid furloughs of from one to three weeks per year. The agreement expires Sept. 30, 2006. However, the two sides agreed that salaries will return to the median of all full-time United States orchestras in the following contract." Houston Chronicle 04/01/03
Posted: 04/02/2003 6:51 am
- Okay, They're Back. Now Show Them You Love Them In the wake of the Houston Symphony strike, a lot of bruised egos and hard feelings are going to be inevitable. But if Houstonians really want to live in a serious, cultured city, says the Chronicle's editorial board, they need to step up their support of what is clearly a vital institution. "Increasing attendance and ticket sales will require a clever marketing campaign and enticing concert programs. More than that, it will require from Houstonians a new and lively appreciation of the symphony and the realization that no important city can be without one. " Houston Chronicle 04/02/03
Posted: 04/02/2003 6:50 am
Material Girl Decides To Stay Out of The War Debate On the eve of its official debut, pop superstar Madonna has decided to recall her latest video, which is reportedly a vicious indictment of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The video had been much talked about in light of the unfavorable publicity which has befallen other musicians who dared to question U.S. policy in recent days. But Madonna's video is said to be much more overt than a simple statement against the war: in its closing moments, the singer "pulls the pin on a hand grenade and angrily tosses it into the crowd - where it is handily caught by a smug George W. Bush lookalike. The pseudo-Bush smiles and reveals the grenade to actually be a cigarette lighter, which he uses to light a big cigar." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/02/03
Posted: 04/02/2003 6:04 am
Courting Diversity in Dallas There are so few African-Americans and Hispanics in the classical music world that almost no one is willing to even talk seriously about the problem, let alone make any real effort to change it. But in Dallas, the Young Strings program, founded by members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra with the aim of providing mentoring and professional training to young minority musicians, is starting to pay dividends. Young Strings alumni are pursuing degrees at Juilliard, Oberlin, and other top conservatories, and the program is still going strong in Texas. Dallas Morning News 04/02/03
Posted: 04/02/2003 5:50 am
Savannah Racing The Clock The hardest part about guiding an orchestra through a fiscal crisis is that the clock does not stop while you do it. In Savannah, where the Savannah Symphony has canceled the remainder of its season, and is trying to regroup in time for the next one, the challenges are myriad, and the leadership is still at a bit of a loss as to how much can be done without some sort of large cash infusion. According to the orchestra's chairman, it will soon be too late to book soloists and sell tickets for a 2003-04 season. Furthermore, if the ensemble does survive, it will need an entirely new set of leaders, and those type of management saviors don't exactly grow on trees. Savannah Morning News 04/01/03
Posted: 04/02/2003 5:24 am
The Arts - Where We Go From Here? Challenges for the performing arts are everywhere. Musical America talks with notable figures in the arts world to get a view of the future... Musical America 2002
Posted: 04/01/2003 7:53 pm
Gioia's NEA: Looking For A New Image Dana Gioia is the new head man at the National Endowment for the Arts. It's been a fairly thankless job for the last decade or so, ever since the agency came under congressional fire for funding a few controversial artists in the early 1990s. Gioia admits that his toughest task may be to somehow craft a new image for the NEA, while also working to reestablish it as the preeminent funding institution in the American arts world, something it hasn't been in quite some time. This objective is further complicated by the strange nature of current events: state governments nationwide are slashing their arts budgets and artists are coming under public fire for their opposition to the war in Iraq. Rocky Mountain News (AP) 04/02/03
Posted: 04/02/2003 6:40 am
Margaret Atwood: What's With America? Margaret Atwood is a a great admirer of America. Or at least she used to be. "You were Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, you were Humphrey Bogart in Key Largo, you were Lillian Gish in Night of the Hunter. You stood up for freedom, honesty and justice; you protected the innocent. I believed most of that. I think you did, too. It seemed true at the time. You are not only our neighbours: In many cases - mine, for instance - you are also our blood relations, our colleagues, and our personal friends. But although we've had a ringside seat, we've never understood you completely, up here north of the 49th parallel." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/01/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 7:47 pm
Are We Reading More Poetry Than We Used To? "On almost any day these days, somewhere in Chicago and its suburbs, a poet is conducting a reading. A poet in residence is opening a world of words to a class of wide-eyed 5th graders. An editor in a cluttered, cramped home office is lovingly cobbling together a poetry journal that will be seen by a tiny audience appreciative of its presence, concerned for its survival. A boisterous bar crowd is giving encouraging applause or withering hisses to contestants in a poetry slam. "That sure wasn't the case in the '70s or '80s. Every once in a while, there'd be a reading, but not all that often." Chicago Tribune 04/01/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 4:44 pm
Toronto FilmFest's New Home Unveiled "The new, year-round home of the Toronto International Film Festival, scheduled to open by September 2006, will be a four to six-storey 'podium' at the base of a condominium tower that could be as high as 38 storeys. [But] details of the festival's home and the tower it will anchor were sketchy at a well-attended media conference yesterday announcing the start of a $120-million capital/endowment campaign for the TIFF facility, currently being called Festival Centre." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/02/03
Posted: 04/02/2003 6:01 am
So Is This The War, Or A Very Special "Fear Factor"? The ever-increasing blur between news and entertainment on television is either fascinating or horrifying, depending on how you look at it. With 'reality' shows competing with actual reality for viewer's eyeballs, watching TV has become intensely disturbing and confusing. "On the one hand, CNN presents strategic maneuvers in Iraq as if it's covering the Olympic Games; on the other hand, paratroopers - I mean contestants - take the leap for cash prizes on NBC's 'Fear Factor.' It's one big interwoven mesh of reality, unreality, and - when it comes to 'Flipper'-like news segments on mine-sensing dolphins - surreality." Boston Globe 04/02/03
Posted: 04/02/2003 5:38 am
New Funding For UK Dance Education The British government has decided to inject new funding for dance education. "The £3 million package for music and dance announced by the education secretary, Charles Clarke, will make sure that hip-hop and street dance are promoted alongside jazz, tap and ballet. Although dancing is a compulsory part of the primary school curriculum it is rarely taught by specialists and lags far behind music in popularity." The Guardian (UK) 04/02/03
Posted: 04/01/2003 6:39 pm
