Official Art - Minimally Unacceptable Roger Kimball believes that the official art world has its priotities on backwards when it comes to touting art it thinks is worthwhile. "When it comes to the Art World — to the congeries of critic-publicists and curator-publicists, museum-director-publicists, publicist-publicists, and artist-narcissist-publicists who set the agenda and spend the money—the front-burner issue is not aesthetic quality but one or another species of trendiness. When exhibitions of Velázquez or Leonardo or some other historical name-brand worthy roll into town, you can reap some reasonably straight oohs and aahs from the arts pages of the Times and other finger-in-the-air publications. But let the focus shift to what’s happening now and, presto! instant lobotomy and onset of Tourette Syndrome." The New Criterion 05/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 10:53 pm
Concerns For Stolen Cellini Sculpture The saltcellar stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna over the weekend was crafted by the great Renaissance sculptor and metalworker Benvenuto Cellini in the 1540s. It was called by some the "Mona Lisa" of sculpture to give a sense of its importance, and is said to be worth $57 million. "It was extremely fragile. It wasn't cast in solid gold, but hammered into its delicate shape. I think if it comes back it will reappear all in pieces or as a ruin. The whole thing happened in less than one minute; in such a hurry [I can't imagine] that a piece of this fragility could survive." Washington Post 05/13/03
Posted: 05/13/2003 6:48 am
- Previously: Stolen: The "Mona Lisa of Sculpture" A valuable sculpture was stolen from the Art History Museum in Vienna. "The 16th century 'Saliera' (salt cellar) is considered 'the Mona Lisa of sculptures,' the museum said. The 10-inch-tall piece was the only remaining authenticated example of Italian master sculptor Benvenuto Cellini’s work as a goldsmith. This is an art theft of gigantic proportions. The 'Saliera' was worth at the very least 50 million euros ($57 million)." MSNBC (Reuters)
Can The Guggenheim Really Be Global If It's Not In Antarctica? Even in the face of financial setbacks, the Guggenheim presses on with expansion. Latest addition was Rio, announced a few weeks ago. Where will it stop? How about Antarctica? "Two ice-walled galleries will display the last 10 artworks from the permanent collection of the Guggenheim, the rest having been gradually sold off to cover debt service and other costs associated with the museum's 18-year expansion program. 'We cannot be a truly Global Guggenheim until we have a foothold on each continent,' observed Mr. Krens at last week's Guggenheim Summit in New York, attended by the directors of the Guggenheims Venice, Berlin, Bilbao, Rio, Taichung, Nairobi and Perth." OpinionJournal.com 05/13/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 10:59 pm
Tate Modern, Three Years On In its first year, the Tate Modern drew five million visitors; it quickly became the hottest thing in modern art. The numbers have tailed off some, but "despite a drop in visitor numbers, Tate Modern has reigned as the only major gallery offering contemporary art in the capital on a massive scale. But after nearly three years it saw its first threat to its crown with the opening of the Saatchi Gallery, at nearby County Hall." BBC 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 8:28 pm
Whitney Museum Director Resigns Maxwell Anderson has resigned as director of the Whitney Museum in New York. "Rumors of trouble between Mr. Anderson and the Whitney's board had been circulating around the gossipy art world for some time. Mr. Anderson said in a statement that it had "become clear in recent months that the board and I have a different sense of the Whitney's future, in both the scale of its ambitions and the balance of its programming." The New York Times 05/13/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 6:03 pm
After Growing, Latin Music Sales Down Until this year, Latin music sales had been growing in the US. Now it's flatlinedor declining, just like the rest of the music industry. "All these economic problems - with the Internet, with radio - minimize the company's efforts. The No. 1 effect is you don't launch so many artists, or as many new artists. You have to lower your production budgets. Everything has to come down to the reality of the marketplace." Chicago Tribune 05/13/03
Posted: 05/13/2003 5:55 am
All The Hits - Picked Scientifically Get the feeling that Top 40 songs are sounding more and more alike? Here might be one reason: computers. "Hit Song Science is a high-tech music analysis system that compares new songs to a massive database of chart-topping singles and predicts hit potential based on shared attributes. In other words, the more your song has in common with Usher's 'U Don't Have To Call' or Santana's 'Smooth,' the better your prospects for stardom. All five of the major record companies - BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. - are using the service." Chicago Tribune 05/13/03
Posted: 05/13/2003 5:49 am
Plenty Of Blame For Florida Philharmonic Failure So the Florida Philharmonic has slipped under the waves, the latest American orchestra casualty. "Blame for the philharmonic's misfortunes can certainly be spread around. Uninspired, unmotivated, unprepared, unrealistic and sometimes simply petty administrators and board members would surely get their share; some myopic musicians who fanned adversarial labor relations over the years wouldn't escape, either. (It's not surprising that a disillusioned Judd departed a few seasons ago.) Ultimately, though, it's the well-oiled in the community that have to take the heat, the folks who could have stepped up to the plate way back when the first deficits appeared. The arts don't come cheap." Baltimore Sun 05/13/03
Posted: 05/13/2003 5:40 am
Dissing Jerry Springer... Like He Doesn't Deserve It... Jerry Springer - The Opera has been getting glowing reviews. But Arnold Wesker writes that the praise isn't deserved. "I have no religious sensibilities to offend but I do have an intelligence that can be offended. It's not the poor black actor looking absurd in shit-filled diapers that offends, or the fat lady having no greater ambition than to pole-dance which so obviously is beyond her size and weight; it's that in both the live Springer show and this celebration of it we are invited not to understand but either to laugh at them - which insults them - or, because they are all rather intimidatingly jolly about their offbeat desires, to laugh with them - which is patronising!" The Telegraph (UK) 05/13/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 10:26 pm
Decline Of A Chicago Classic Chicago classical music fans recall the time not so long ago when radio station WFMT was "the most cultured radio station in North America." But "much of what made WFMT truly distinctive seems to be eroding in slow but perceptible degrees, a decline driven by the difficulties of making classical radio commercially viable but also by economic reverses suffered by the fine-arts station's corporate parent, Window to the World Communications, which also owns and operates public broadcasting station WTTW-Channel 11. The Arbitron ratings evidence a decline of another sort... Chicago Tribune 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 8:32 pm
More Arts Cuts In San Jose Last year the city of San Jose cut its arts funding 19 percent. This year there's another 24 percent cut coming. In a city with struggling arts organizations, the news is discouraging. San Jose Mercury-News 05/13/03
Posted: 05/13/2003 7:00 am
After Orchestra Fails - Can Miami Support Ambitious Arts Plans? After the Florida Philharmonic collapse, arts watchers in south Florida are wondering whether the region can support a new $263 million performing arts center, currently under construction. "The issue, arts experts say, is whether the South Florida arts donor base is too narrow: too heavy on the elderly, substantially but not wholly Jewish crowd, often from the Northeast, and too light on young professionals, local Hispanics and wealthy, part-time residents from South America." Miami Herald 05/13/03
Posted: 05/13/2003 6:04 am
Australian Artists Looking For Big Government Funding Increase Australia's artists are waiting for the government budget on Tuesday. Eight months ago, a report on Australia's visual arts and craft industry "urged the country's governments to cough up another $15 million a year to help the sector survive. The Federal Government was asked to contribute $9 million of that amount, with the states and territories providing the rest." Tuesday artists will know if the request has been answered... The Age (Melbourne) 05/13/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 5:33 pm
Where Did Sister Wendy Go? Whatever happened to Sister Wendy? The nun/art historian seems to have dropped off of UK TV screens. "Sister Wendy offered a layman’s view of painting; that was her charm, and the source of her popularity. That, and the simple fact that anybody with a gimmick on prime-time TV is bound to be a hit no matter what they do, whether it’s nuns and paintings or suited spivs with antiques. Here was a nice lady who evidently knew her Arshile Gorky from her El Greco, reassuring us we needn’t worry about all that high-falutin elitist nonsense they teach in art schools. All you need do is look at a painting and feel." The Scotsman 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 5:48 pm
Children's Theatre Wins Tony Minneapolis/St. Paul's Children's Theatre Company has won this year's regional Tony Award. "Children's Theatre Company has always had a very good reputation. But I think there's an evolution in children's theater that more of us are being considered as regional theaters, and CTC clearly has that designation." St. Paul Pioneer-Press 05/13/03
Posted: 05/13/2003 7:27 am
We Owe Our Success To BatBoy You would expect a small Boston theatre that presents edgy works to be struggling as funding goes down. But the enterprising SpeakEasy Stage Company found itself unexpectedly blessed when "an improbable musical comedy about a charismatic but bloodthirsty freak of nature who longs to be a normal boy" sold so well earlier this season that the company brought it back for a second run. Its success at the box office has put the company in the black. Bostob Globe 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 8:31 pm
"Hairspray" Dominates Tony Noms As expected, the musical "Hairspray" dominated Tony Award nominations Monday, "named in 13 categories that included best musical, best original score and best costumes. 'Movin' Out,' Twyla Tharp's dance show set to the music of Billy Joel, received 10 nominations, including one for best musical, even though it has no words and only one singer. In the straight-play category a revival of Eugene O'Neill's 'Long Day's Journey Into Night,' which opened last week, received seven nominations, including one for Vanessa Redgrave, her first." The New York Times 05/13/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 6:00 pm
How To survive In Publishing To compete with other media vying for consumers' attention, publishers need to promote themselves more and cut prices, says a consultant. "Although the combination of lowering prices while spending more on marketing may seem a recipe for shrinking already slim profit margins, it is the best way for the industry to fight to get its share of consumer spending in an entertainment marketplace that is glutted with products." Publishers Weekly 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 10:38 pm
How To Support Poetry On $100 Million When Poetry magazine was given $100 million to promote poetry last year, naturally everyone wanted to know what was to be done with the money. Just as naturally, everyone has ideas about what would put the money to best use in promoting the cause of poetry... Chicago Tribune 05/11/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 10:11 pm
The Patriotic Thing - Oppose The Patriot Act Led by librarians across America, the campaign against the US Patriot Act is growing. The Patriot Act requires libraries and others to spy on American citizens. But so far, "103 cities, towns, and counties have passed resolutions against the USAPA, covering roughly 10 million people in the US. 'The more the USAPA and other similar repressive legislation are "outed" as misguided and paranoid, to say nothing of unconstitutional and quasi–legal, the more we can return to being a society that really encourages and appreciates the free exchange of ideas, not one that pays lip service to ideals and then locks up its librarians'." MobyLives 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 7:09 pm
The "Great" Books We Hate? "We are all impressed, and a little cowed, by great reputations; so when we confront the works themselves but fail to appreciate their achievement, their technical skill and their freight of wisdom, we assume that the fault must lie in ourselves in our limited grasp, our philistine blindness. But sometimes we hit back and allow ourselves the luxury to say, 'No, no, it's this damn book that is wrong; it's this crappy plot and its flat-as-a-flounder characters, and this dismal dialogue'." The Independent (UK) 05/11/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 7:06 pm
Robo-Reader On The Job The downside to digitizing millions of books waiting to go online? Scanning them into a computer. Now there's a new robot enlisted in "the march toward digitization. Inside the room a Swiss-designed robot about the size of a sport utility vehicle was rapidly turning the pages of an old book and scanning the text. The machine can turn the pages of both small and large books as well as bound newspaper volumes and scan at speeds of more than 1,000 pages an hour. Occasionally the robot will stumble, turning more than a single page. When that happens, the machine will pause briefly and send out a puff of compressed air to separate the sticking pages." The New York Times 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 6:09 pm
Reality Takes Over In the UK, as in America, reality TV has taken over the small screen. "Drama, lifestyle and documentary programmes have all been crushed by the alluring mix of multi-camera, multi-star TV. Reality TV, it could be argued, has now established itself as a mainstream format, alongside drama and sitcoms, and if anything, is going through a mature phase. Perhaps the enduring appeal of reality TV, whether in celebrity or 'ordinary people' guise, has nothing to do with our appetite for the formula but more to do with gossip columns and the need for showbiz news." BBC 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 8:30 pm
TiVo For Radio TiVo has been a big hit with TV viewers. So why not a TiVo for radio? "These digital radio recorders, which can be preset to record a program at a certain time, enable customers to record any radio program they want and have it converted into a digital format. They then can listen to the program or upload it onto a PC in a transferable file. Like TiVo, the audio recorders will let customers fast-forward over commercials - although this isn't a feature the industry is actively promoting." Wired 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 6:16 pm
Special Effects For The Little Screen "The glamor of special effects technology may still lie in cinematic spectacles like 'Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones,' created by celebrated houses like the Industrial Light and Magic unit of Lucas Digital, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Digital Domain. But television is where much of the business of special effects takes place these days, saving considerable money for the studios." The New York Times 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 6:07 pm
FCC Close To Reregulating Media Ownership It's looking more and more like the Federal Communications Commission is going to further ease restrictions on media ownership, allowing companies to own TV, radio and newspapers in the same market. Critics are upset: "We're going to have a handful of people providing the news for the entire country. We will be losing the diversity of intellect and ideas and opinions. We'll be cutting off minority opinions and dissent, and it's not our founding fathers intended." San Francisco Chronicle 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 5:52 pm
As Canadian Dollar Rises, American Movie Production Leaves Canada Canada has been able to attract lots of film and TV production from south of the border because of a cheap dollar and government tax incentives. But the Canadian dollar has been on the rise compared to the US. "After the dollar climbed to 71.80 cents (U.S.) last week, industry and provincial officials are worried that U.S. film makers will look to other locations such as Australia and New Zealand." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/12/03
Posted: 05/12/2003 5:41 pm
