Ideas

Looking For New Direction In Iraq With Saddam Hussein out of power, and Iraq facing an uncertain future, Iraqi artists are beginning to stare down the barrel of a hard question: without tyranny to rail against, what is our function? "By his own authoritarian standards, Hussein was a supporter of the arts," with a stable of state-sponsored playwrights, poets, and other artists directed to churn out a constant flow of product which could be compared to the Socialist Realist works of the USSR under Stalin. It was a repressive, hateful system, yes, but it was at least a system. In the post-Hussein Iraq, where American troops roam the streets and the future is on hold, one Baghdad playwright sums up the new paradox: "Whatever is around me is vague, unseen. We don't know our country's future; it is hard to write." Boston Globe 06/22/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 9:21 am

• After Saddam - The Inspiration's Gone Some artists did well in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Now that he's gone, they have more freedom to create, and there are galleries ready to show their work. "But painters and sculptors say that for now, the inspiration is gone - stifled by sweltering days with no electricity, snaking gas station lines and sleepless nights defending galleries against looters and arsonists. 'I ask the artists to make something new, and they tell me they are tired'." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/21/03
  Posted: 06/22/2003 9:20 am

Visual Arts

The New Prada Store: Is Anyone Selling Clothes Anymore? With the opening of its architecturally stunning new store in Tokyo, Prada has further blurred the line between art and commerce. In fact, the store, with all its accompanying hoopla, isn't really about selling clothes at all. And of course, that's entirely the point, at least in the minds of the Prada folks, who long ago realized that the best way to make people want to buy your product is to associate it with other impressive stuff, and then pretend that you don't care if anyone buys it or not. Regardless of the capitalist aspect of the enterprise, though, the store is an artistic triumph, says Julie Iovine. The New York Times 06/22/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 10:15 am

Venice - One Great Big Mess "Launched more than a century ago, the Venice Biennale should bring together the world's best new art in a series of national pavilions. In recent years, it has been the Biennale director who has gathered together the most dynamic selection in the old shipworks and the rope factory of the Venetian republic. This year, however, the new director, Francesco Bonami, abandoned any attempt at curating the event himself or presenting a coherent vision of the state of art today." The result? A mess. The Economist 06/20/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 10:00 am

• Venice Just A Symptom Of A Larger Ennui The problem isn't that the Venice Biennale is failing to reflect the true diversity of a vibrant and thriving 21st-century art scene, says Blake Gopnik. The problem is that there is no vibrant and thriving scene to reflect. "The show's so huge, you've got to figure that it has its finger on the art world's pulse. Or that it would, if only there were any pulse to find." The art world is in a decided lull, and while such cycles of greatness and mediocrity are nothing to worry about in the long term, it seems a bit silly to blame Venice for the lack of good contemporary art. Still, it's awfully depressing to wander through "room after room, building after building, neighborhood after neighborhood filled with dull retreads of art that's come before." Washington Post 06/22/03
  Posted: 06/22/2003 9:59 am

How The Art World Spends Its Summer Vacation There was a time, not so long ago, when museums were as inactive during the summer months as most TV networks. But today, with global art fairs and insanely high-profile events like the Venice Biennale and Art Basel dominating the summer scene, curators worldwide have no choice but to leap into the fray. With everything from Picasso masterpieces to little-known pen-and-ink drawings waiting to be acquired in Europe, the summer festivals have become a way of life for the wealthy art-collecting elite, and by extension, for the museums who depend upon the generosity of such collectors. Dallas Morning News 06/22/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 9:52 am

Artner: Curators Are Not Artists Why is the art world more interested in the people who buy art and move it around than we are in the people who actually create it? It's a dangerous progression, says Alan Artner. "Where the '80s made stars of purveyors and acquisitors, the '90s turned the spotlight on curators - and today we live with the consequences: pseudo-intellectualism replacing scholarship, an indifference toward the past, fashionability substituting for merit, the exercise of style instead of analysis, and an elevation of artistic stewardship over art." Chicago Tribune 06/22/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 9:46 am

Living With Contemporary Art The Guardian takes six pieces of contemporary art out of the galleries and puts them into private houses. How would ordinary people feel about living with a Tracey Emins or a Chapman Brothers artwork? "Many participants expressed anxiety about exposing their ignorance, aware of a kind of knowing exclusivity that characterises the art world. But they also expressed a sneaking suspicion that this world might be applauding something empty and banal." The Guardian (UK) 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 2:52 am

Music

A Month of Surprises The classical music world is so tightly guarded, so underreported on, and so frustratingly predictable that surprises are rare. Yet, in the past month, Anthony Tommassini has found himself stunned by no fewer than three announcements from some of the world's top classical figures. The New York Philharmonic's surprise move to Carnegie Hall is, of course, at the top. Second on the list: the Cleveland Orchestra's decision to extend the contract of its young and (some say) unproven music director through 2012 after only one year on the job. And last, but not even remotely least, there is the stunning news that Luciano Pavarotti has scheduled a farewell performance at the Met. Again. And he promises to show up this time. The New York Times 06/22/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 10:23 am

Louisville's Photo Finish Keeps Orchestra Alive Good news is hard to come by in the world of professional orchestras these days, but a huge sigh of relief could be heard coming from Louisville this weekend, as the Louisville Orchestra not only reversed its earlier position that bankruptcy was its only option, but approved a new three-year contract with its musicians. The contract is hardly a windfall for the players - it includes short-term wage cuts on already miniscule salaries, and trims weeks from the orchestra's season - but with other troubled orchestras folding right and left, everyone seems to be at least satisfied with the result. As a direct result of reaching agreement on the contract, the orchestra will receive a much-needed $465,000 gift from a local developer who had been backing the musicians. Louisville Courier-Journal 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 9:09 am

Roll Over Beethoven Beethoven and his music have been seized upon as a symbol for all manner of righteous and wrong causes. "Politically, he has had more incarnations than Vishnu. Almost every European political movement, conservative or revolutionary, has made him a posthumous party member. Depending on who you might have talked to over the past two centuries, Beethoven was a Marxist, a Nazi, a parliamentary democrat and a monarchist. He celebrated kings, gave hope to the proletariat, and vigorously supported all sides during the Second World War. No other composer - probably no other artist of any kind - has reflected so many conflicting views. You might say, echoing Jean-Paul Sartre, that because there was a Beethoven, we have to go on reinventing him." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 12:31 am

Our Great Composers: Out Of Religion "Looking back over the history of music, it is clear that the church has inspired some of the greatest achievements of western culture. But in the 20th century, church music became increasingly isolated from the advances of musical language and the pens of the world's most gifted composers. Today, to hear good new music in church is relatively rare. Why haven't the likes of Berio and Ligeti written sacred music?" The Guardian (UK) 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 12:24 am

American Opera - Quantity Over Quality? "It sometimes seems as if it has become a proof of virility for some American opera houses that they should have at least one premiere in every season. But it is the quantity that apparently matters far more than quality, governed by the overriding principle that whatever the chosen composers produce must never challenge the house's core audience too seriously. Just as it is no accident that the leading American opera directors of today - Robert Wilson, Peter Sellars, David and Christopher Alden - now work far more regularly in Europe than at home, while houses like the New York Met continue to favour the lavish, reactionary naturalism of Franco Zeffirelli, so the American opera composers who thrive are those who are content to serve up blandness, preferably with a story taken from a well known novel or play." The Guardian (UK) 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 12:19 am

Arts Issues

Not So Simple, Is It, Orrin? "Earlier this week, Utah's Sen. Orrin Hatch was caught using unlicensed software on his website. While his staff scrambled to fix that problem, Web surfers discovered his site had a link to a pornographic website... To be fair, the dirty link isn't Hatch's fault. A lot of expired domain names are being snapped up by porno sites." Still, the two incidents are being gleefully cited by privacy advocates as further evidence that Hatch's sweeping pronouncements about destroying the computers of illegal downloaders were ill-conceived and hypocritical. Wired 06/20/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 9:01 am

• Previously: Vandalism As Copyright Enforcement Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) believes he has a solution to the problem of illegal file-swapping and downloading of copyrighted material: destroy the computers! Hatch wants technology developed which would disable or destroy any computer attempting an illegal download. The fact that such a plan would be in blatant violation of U.S. anti-hacking law does not seem to concern the senator, but the plan does not seem to have much support among Hatch's colleagues. BBC 06/18/03

Why Is Artistic Success Measured By Money? How do we judge the success of an arts institution? The new heads of London's National Theatre and the National Gallery - Nicholas Hytner and Charles Saumarez Smith - co-hosted a conference addressing the question of "how we judge whether culture is a success. Both worry that the vocabulary of praise in the arts world has become entirely financial (how many came?) and social (is the work educational? is the audience diverse?). While recognising the importance of these measures, they seek a new language which will recognise the worth a theatre or gallery has simply by existing." The Guardian (UK) 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 12:08 am

People

Yo-Yo Ma: How To Be Everything To Everyone Yo-Yo Ma is the most popular classical musician in the world, at least according to sales figures. But unlike most of the other musicians at the top of that particular list, Ma is neither a gimmicky tenor nor a barely-clothed, barely-classical string quartet. In fact, Yo-Yo Ma may have the answer to the long-pondered question of whether classical music can truly appeal to a mass audience in today's pop-culture-obsessed world. "A musician needs to know one tradition deeply, to know one room in the mansion of music. And then he needs to have the skill to be able to work with musicians from other traditions - it's a question of transferability... Working in different musical worlds opens up new areas of expression." Boston Globe 06/22/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 9:35 am

UK Poet Laureate Tries Some Royal Rap British poet laureate Andrew Motion wanted to do something special for the 21st birthday of Prince William. Remembering that the prince had spent some time learning the art of DJing, Motion decided to present the lad with a "rap poem," ostensibly written with hip-hop sensibilities standing in for more traditional poetic style. The result is, well... embarrassing, according to most Brits who've read it. Amateur reviews posted to the BBC web site range from "excruciating" and "so terribly wrong," to "The greatest argument for the abolition of the monarchy yet." BBC 06/22/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 8:53 am

Mr. Movie Grosses "When Arthur D. Murphy, the dean of box office reporting, died Monday, he left a legacy that has exploded far beyond anything he anticipated or wanted. He was the first to analyze and research studio box office grosses when he worked as a writer for the entertainment trade newspaper Variety. Based on extensive calculation, Murphy created economic indicators and began writing the monthly Variety Box Office Index as a measure of film performance. But not unlike Dr. Frankenstein's creation, Murphy's meticulous analysis of hard numbers has mutated into a wild-horse-race story." Los Angeles Times 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 12:44 am

Theatre

Does Broadway Stifle Real Creativity? "Musical theater composers used to groom their shows out of town before taking them to Broadway. Now the country's best new theater composers aren't sure they want to go to Broadway at all. They feel they can be more creative and more original someplace else – maybe anyplace else." Dallas Morning News 06/22/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 9:51 am

Shakespeare First Edition? Ugh - What A Mess "The first published version of the play commonly regarded as Shakespeare's best was yesterday revealed as a travesty of the drama that helped shape the modern English language. The version of Hamlet known as the 'bad quarto' is a salutary warning of the dangers of literary piracy. An entrepreneurial player in Richard Burbage's company at the Rose Theatre, where Hamlet is believed to have been first staged, beat the Bard to the press with a version of the play he remembered from rehearsals and its first performances in 1600." The Guardian (UK) 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 1:00 am

Shaw, Stratford Festival Get Bailout Ontario's Stratford Festival and Shaw Festival are suffering as American tourists stay away because of fears of SARS. With their seasons ravaged by the ticket slump, theatres will get $800,000 in emergency help fromthe Ontario government. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 12:42 am

Publishing

Finally - Harry On Review "A considerably darker, more psychological book than its predecessors, 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' occupies the same emotional and storytelling place in the Potter series as 'The Empire Strikes Back' held in the first 'Star Wars' trilogy. It provides a sort of fulcrum for the series, marking Harry's emergence from boyhood, and his newfound knowledge that an ancient prophecy holds the secret to Voldemort's obsession with him and his family." The New York Times 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 1:05 pm

• Harry By The Numbers So how popular is the new Harry Potter book? One major bookselling chain has already declared it to be 'the fastest-selling book ever,' outpacing even the frenzied buying that accompanied the release of the previous installment of the Potter series. At W.H. Smith, another chain, managers estimated that they were selling eight copies per second. Amazon has taken orders for 1.3 million copies. The first printing run of the book was for an astounding 13 million copies, and author J.K. Rowling is expected to net £30 million from book sales alone. BBC 06/22/03
  Posted: 06/22/2003 1:04 pm

The Books That Changed The World J.K. Rowling's books have changed the world. And how many books can you say that about? They're "altering our literary landscape. With more than 200 million copies in print worldwide, the books have been translated into 55 languages and are available in 200 countries. The literary influence is global." Washington Post 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 12:53 am

Media

Swearing On The Radio Is Fine If It's In Italian? A Toronto radio station airs a promotional spot full of obscenities. The uptight Canadian Broadcast Standards Council rules that the spot was okay. "Yes, the content was 'coarse, crass, vulgar' and 'very much on the edge of acceptability,' but it didn't violate the code of ethics subscribed to by private broadcasters. Moreover, KISS's defence was 'entirely plausible,' the CBSC ruled. The standards council went on to say it was 'comforted by the fact that fewer people [were likely to have been] offended by the coarseness of the language' since the comments were made in Italian." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/21/03
Posted: 06/22/2003 1:38 am