Has Conceptualism Hit A Dead End? Battles over the legitimacy of conceptual art occupied a good part of the 20th Century. In the 21st Century those concluding that art has taken a wrong turn with conceptualism are a growing chorus. "The world of fine art now appears exclusively concerned with semiotics, ?the crisis in representation? and other academic matters. Visiting a gallery in the hope of being made to stare in wonder is, according to the prevailing critical theory, 'sentimental' and 'naïve'. Beauty, it would seem, is merely something to be analysed in a cloud of righteous deconstruction. However, the rapidity with which conceptual art evaporates from our consciousness undermines such grandiose pretensions. Once the tribal rituals of endorsement or derision have passed, the oeuvres of our more prominent artists actually evoke very little sense of meaning or avant-garde unease." Eye: the International Review of Graphic Design 04/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 8:39 pm
A Museum Comes Into Focus Daniel Libeskind has been refining his design for the Royal Ontario Museum, and Lisa Rochon likes what she sees of the changes. "Only last month, the Berlin-based Studio Libeskind presented to its client the museum's northern façade rendered like a warrior's mask with eyes slashed into its steel face armour. It looked like an angry work of autonomous architecture. Now, however, the ROM is being unmasked to reveal a beguiling human face." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 6:03 am
Fighting Numbers With Numbers The Detroit Institute of the Arts, facing an uncertain financial future in the wake of a proposed 72% cut to Michigan arts funding, has released a study designed to hammer home the point that the arts give back more to the community than they take out in tax dollars. The study claims that the recent DIA exhibit "Degas and the Dance" brought $15 million into the local economy, but some economists are already saying that the study uses a flawed formula. Such arguments are commonplace among arts organizations facing governmental cuts, but few seem to think the economic-stimulus argument will cut much ice at the state legislature. Detroit Free Press 04/08/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 5:51 am
Scrambling To Assess Saatchi With the opening of Charles Saatchi's new gallery, critics are scrambling to pass judgment on his contributions to the art world. His name is "synonymous with the artists who became known as the Brit pack, who rose to fame in the early 1990s. This was the era when British contemporary art became world famous, when the Turner Prize was cooler than the Brits. Fashions change however. Although art is still hip, it has moved on. 'It was a really defining time. Lots of precedents were set then; some good, some bad. It was an important time, but it?s definitely a thing of the past'." The Scotsman 04/08/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 10:11 pm
Beck's Futures - Pessimistic Chic For The Culturati? The UK's richest art prize for contemporary art has taken a turn for the serious. "Beck's Futures is experiencing the post-September 11 blues, and this year's selection reflects a darker, more critical mood now gripping many contemporary artists. Indeed, Beck's itself seems to be wracked with gloomy self-doubt, its poster campaign heckling you with the question, 'If corporate sponsorship is killing art, want to come to a funeral'?" The Telegraph (UK) 04/09/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 9:31 pm
Saddam Palaces - What $2 Billion In Decorating Buys American soldiers entering Saddam Hussein's palaces see evidence of the reported $2 billion spent on decorating. But money doesn't equal taste. "With Saddam Hussein, it's not about taste, but size. The interiors are monumental, gilded and dreadful," and the palace interior "looks sad and corporate. It's too bad he turned his back on his own culture, which has amazing architecture and design, and his own people, who, politics aside, are wonderful artisans." Los Angeles Times 04/08/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 8:23 pm
Stolen Pompeii Frescoes Recovered Two frescoes stolen from Pompeii last week have been recovered by Italian police. "The 1st Century frescoes were found at a construction site close to the historic city, after roadblocks were set up across the whole of Naples province. The authorities said they had already been packed, and that the aim may have been to smuggle them abroad. Both panels were damaged during the theft." BBC 04/08/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 8:06 pm
Is America Cutting Itself Out Of World Music? World music artists are cancelling U.S. tours left and right, in part because of the difficulty of obtaining visas in the post-9/11 world, but also out of fear of how they will be received in a newly isolationist and paranoid America. The fact that many world music artists have been active in anti-war movements at home is adding to the pressure to cancel, and musicians are increasingly aware of "rumblings from arts presenters... who [feel] that a newfound xenophobia might be on the rise." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 5:57 am
Music, The International Peacemaker In Rome, hundreds of student protesters calling for an end to the war in Iraq tried to disrupt a university performance by the famed La Scala Opera Orchestra, under the direction of Riccardo Muti. Rather than cancel the concert or forcibly remove the protesters, Muti addressed them directly, saying "The musicians you see seated here have been touring the world since 1996 in the name of peace." The protesters apparently conceded the point, sitting quietly for the first part of the performance before leaving the premises. Andante (AP) 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 5:28 am
Global CD Slump Gathers Steam Consumers worldwide are buying less music, according to industry representatives, with CDs particularly hard hit. "Sales dropped by 7% around the world last year after a 5% dip in 2001, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)." Naturally, the industry says that the number one reason for the slump is the proliferation of illegal downloading sites and the inability of the industry to stay ahead of the pirates. In particular, the U.S. "suffered a 10% drop in album sales in 2002, mainly because fans were getting the music from the internet instead, the IFPI said." Of course, it's worth noting that the severe economic slump in the U.S. may also be contributing to the problem.
BBC 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 5:23 am
SARS Fears Cancel Tour The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, one of the UK's most prestigious ensembles, has cancelled a long-planned tour of China scheduled for next month, due to health concerns surrounding the global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. SARS is believed to have originated in China, and there is still much uncertainty surrounding the size of the outbreak there, due to information which was withheld by Chinese medical authorities. The BBC-SSO's tour "would have been one of the most extensive Chinese tours undertaken by a western orchestra." BBC 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 5:16 am
John Adams: Mixed Feelings About Pulitzer Win Composer John Adams is happy to have won this year's Pulitzer Prize for music. But "every year I continue to be disappointed that the Pulitzer has stayed stylistically within such a narrow bandwidth of mainly academic music. It doesn't carry much prestige amongst the composers that I know. I hope that over the years, the people who administer the prize will accept that American music is a far more universal art form than the past history would suggest." San Francisco Chronicle 04/08/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 10:27 pm
- Why Pulitzer Doesn't Mean Much In Music The Pulitzers are prestigious. But not in the music category, says John Adams, this year's winner. "I am astonished to receive the Pulitzer Prize. Among musicians that I know, the Pulitzer has over the years lost much of the prestige it still carries in other fields like literature and journalism. Anyone perusing the list of past winners cannot help noticing that many if not most of the country's greatest musical minds are conspicuously missing," The New York Times 04/09/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 9:47 pm
Deborah Card Named To Head Chicago Symphony Seattle Symphony executive director Deborah Card has been named president of the Chicago Symphony, replacing Henry Fogel. Card had a good 11-year run in Seattle. When she arrived from Los Angeles in 1992, at age 36, the "symphony had a $2.5 million accumulated deficit and was struggling to make its payroll every two weeks. Six years later, the symphony was debt-free, its endowment fund significantly increased and Benaroya Concert hall built." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 6:15 am
- This All Looks Familiar, Somehow John van Rhein says that Deborah Card's appointment as the new head of the CSO "suggests certain parallels with the 1985 hiring of [her predecessor, Henry Fogel,] who will step down after 18 years as CSO executive director to become president of the American Symphony Orchestra League, the New York-based service organization. In both cases, the CSO board, responding to internal financial challenges, turned to an executive from a second-tier orchestra with proven money-management and leadership skills who could turn things around quickly." Chicago Tribune 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 6:13 am
Milo Cruz's Excellent Week Playwright Nilo Cruz has had a good week. "Over the weekend, at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky., Mr. Cruz, a 42-year-old Cuban-born New Yorker, was awarded $15,000 by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for his play 'Anna in the Tropics,' which had been anointed by the American Theater Critics Association as the best play of last year not to have been produced in New York City. Then on Monday Cruz won this year's Drama Pulitzer - in a "rather large surprise in the theater world." The New York Times 04/09/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 9:51 pm
Hemingway Letters Head For Boston "A collection of intimate letters written by Ernest Hemingway to actress Marlene Dietrich has been donated to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. The collection includes 30 letters, telegrams and a Christmas card that were written between 1949 and 1959, as well as early drafts of several Hemingway poems and stories. Under the terms of the gift, donated by Dietrich's daughter, Maria Riva, the correspondence can't be opened to the public until 2007. Deborah Leff, director of the library, said Monday she had seen the letters and they were 'breathtaking.'" Toronto Star (AP) 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 6:40 am
US Libraries Vs US Patriot Act American libraries are taking steps to guard patrons' privacy from the US government. The US Patriot Act allows law enforcement to pry into the library habits of citizens. "The American Libraries Association calls the provisions a present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy rights of library users. The association fears library patrons or bookstore customers could become targets of suspicion simply based on what books they are reading. More importantly, they say they fear a chilling effect that could make people fearful of reading particular books or Web sites to avoid becoming targets of suspicion." Newark Star-Ledger 04/08/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 9:14 pm
B&N Cranks Up Its "Classic Books" Line Not content to simply sell books, superstore Barnes & Noble is expanding the line of titles it publishes. "The superstore chain announced Monday it was upgrading and expanding its line of 'classic books' such as 'Moby-Dick' and 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' Editions from the new imprint, Barnes & Noble Classics, will start coming out in May, with 100 different titles expected by June 2004." Yahoo! (AP) 04/08/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 8:54 pm
Jump On The Military Exploitation Bandwagon! How long will it take television to start churning out military-inspired fiction based on the current American actions in the Persian Gulf? Actually, such shows could be hitting your screen any day now. HBO has already ordered one such show into production, and NBC is known to be retooling an existing show to tie into the Iraq war, and is considering starting a new one as well. New York Post 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 6:23 am
Canadian TV Faces Program Cuts In Canada, the government subsidizes the production of many of the nation's most popular television programs. Producers must apply to the government for the funding, and any program which is not granted funding is much less likely ever to make it to the small screen. Now, a new round of budget cuts may mean that several popular existing TV shows may wind up unfunded in the next year, seriously jeopardizing future production. Thought to be on the hypothetical chopping block are such programs as the biting satire This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and rural send-up The Red Green Show, which has also found a large audience in the U.S. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 6:06 am
Public TV Exec Leaps to BBC "In a major disappointment to management at [Boston public broadcasting powerhouse] WGBH-TV, John Willis - the station's vice president of national programming - announced yesterday that he is stepping down in June for a senior position at the BBC. Willis, a celebrated British filmmaker and former television executive in Britain, is leaving WGBH after just a year on the job." WGBH produces many of the programs which air nationally on the PBS network, including This Old House and Evening at Pops, but the station has struggled in recent years to compete with a growing universe of specialty cable channels. Boston Globe 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 5:41 am
FCC Debates Media Dereg Top figures at the Federal Communications Commission are sparring over the right way to approach further deregulation of the American media industry. Both sides agree that further loosening of the rules regarding media ownership is desirable, but there is disagreement over the extent of the deregulation, and the formulas which would be used to calculate ownership limits in a given market. Still, the debate is largely over small sub-issues, and nowhere in the upper echelons of the FCC is anyone giving any credence to the notion (generally accepted by press and public) that media deregulation has been disastrous from the point of view of the consumer. Wired 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 5:35 am
Movie Flight To Canada Hurts Cities Like Chicago "While it has been much publicized that the loss of the commercial film business to Canada and other countries, known as 'runaway production,' has hurt movie production in Los Angeles and New York, a recent study by the United States Commerce Department found that it had been devastating to the much-smaller film markets in Chicago and other cities between the coasts. Since 1985, 57 feature films with Chicago backdrops have been shot in Canada. The director of the Chicago film office estimates his city has lost $1.9 billion and 17,000 jobs from the local economy. The New York Times 04/09/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 10:02 pm
FCC Ponders Concentration Of Media Ownership The US Federal Communications Commission is considering further deregulating ownership of media. Will companies be able to own radio and TV and print media in the same market? Perhaps. What about diversity? Well...maybe a formula for each market that would determine the maximum oncentration of ownership...but maybe that's too complicated and there shouldn't be limits? Wired 04/08/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 9:05 pm
European Movie Box Office Down This Winter Movie box office in the UK was down 21 percent in February from a year ago. "In France, audiences were down 9% for the first quarter, while Germany showed a 7.4% drop in admissions on last year." Analysts say that last winter there were big blockbusters selling tickets, but breakout hits are missing so far this year. BBC 04/08/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 8:49 pm
Disney Rethinking Digital Content Strategy? Disney CEO Michael Eisner signals a shift in Disney's emphasis on policing copyright infractions. "Last year the company was a leading proponent of a bill, which didn't become law, that would have forced electronics makers to prevent consumers from making unauthorized copies of films and songs. In the future, Eisner said, movie studios will need to be more flexible about the way they distribute movies. He suggested that in place of the current sequence of studio releases - from theaters to video to pay per view to television - studios would need to offer faster distribution, directly to consumers. 'If we don't provide consumers with our product in a timely manner, pirates will'." Los Angeles Times 04/08/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 7:51 pm
Will Dance For Money Auditioning for a job at one of America's major ballet companies is a grueling experience combining the harshest aspects of a Hollywood screen test, an Olympic floor routine, and the judges' table at American Idol. Dancers at these auditions must perform extremely difficult maneuvers en masse, and are dismissed casually and without explanation if they don't meet one of the dozens of physical, artistic, and athletic criteria of the people judging them. Thousands of dancers graduate from top schools every year - only a few will land full-time jobs. When you come right down to it, dance is one of the most competitive job markets in the arts world. Philadelphia Inquirer 04/09/03
Posted: 04/09/2003 6:30 am
Paul Taylor/Mark Morris Explained Joan Acocella looks at two modern masters. Paul Taylor is seventy-two, "and he has made more than a hundred dances, but one dance keeps reappearing. It goes like this: The dancers are a kind of community (we’re not sure what kind), and they perform maneuvers that they are very earnest about, and which look like rituals. This is somewhat comic—they think they’ve found an explanation of life. It is somewhat tragic, too, for the same reason. Mark Morris, on the other hand, is more abstract. "It has always been something of a mystery how Morris, who is a very sophisticated artist, and largely an abstractionist, became such a favorite with the public. One reason is that he’s often funny. Another is that he’s clear." The New Yorker 04/07/03
Posted: 04/08/2003 10:37 pm
