How Would You Clean The Last Supper? Restoration of historic art treasures is in the news these days. The Guardian wonders how its readers might "restore" Leonardo's "The Last Supper," providing a digital picture for readers to play around with and submit. The painting was itself the subject of a controversial 22-year "cleaning" completed in 1999 The Guardian (UK) 07/18/03
Posted: 07/17/2003 11:17 pm
LA Exhibit To Open Despite Court Challenge "The Los Angeles County Museum of Art said its upcoming exhibition of a major art collection from the State Pushkin Museum, Moscow, would open as planned July 27 — despite a lawsuit, filed against the museum by the grandson of a Russian aristocrat, which alleges that 25 of the works in the collection were looted from his family by Lenin's Bolshevik government in 1918." Los Angeles Times 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 6:21 am
- Previously: Lawsuit Threatens L.A. Exhibit "In a legal challenge that aims to block an upcoming show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the grandson of a Russian aristocrat is arguing that 25 of the artworks — including paintings by Cezanne, Degas, Matisse, Picasso and Van Gogh — are stolen goods, looted from his family by Lenin's Bolshevik government in 1918 and later passed to Moscow's State Pushkin Museum." The lawsuit is a new tactic in a larger battle by the family of the Russian collector who owned the pieces to force legal recognition of the Bolshevik seizure. LACMA officials, presumably caught by surprise, aren't commenting just yet. Los Angeles Times 07/16/03
Jordanian Culture Comes To The Queen City "The Cincinnati Art Museum announced Wednesday a joint exhibition with the American Museum of Natural History in New York of 200 objects from the southern Jordanian city of Petra. Presented under the patronage of Queen Rania of Jordan, Petra: Lost City of Stone is the first major cultural collaboration between Jordan and the United States... The exhibition's more than 200 objects include stone sculptures and reliefs, ceramics, metalwork, stuccowork, ancient inscriptions and a selection of 25 paintings, drawings and prints from the 19th century." Cincinnati Enquirer 07/17/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 6:00 am
Making Art Until the Cows Go Home A new exhibition by a British graffiti artist features live sheep, cows, and pigs painted with various outlandish designs. "The exhibition includes pigs painted in police colours, sheep painted in concentration camp stripes and a cow covered in images of Andy Warhol's face." Animal control organizations have approved the exhibit, and the animal are all show animals used to being stared at. Still, it's probably a good thing that the sheep can't tell what's been painted on his back... BBC 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 5:14 am
A Guggenheim Lifeline? "The Taiwanese city of Taichung is the latest to pin its hopes for international cultural recognition and economic regeneration on the Guggenheim Foundation. The plan is for a trademark signature museum building, this time an eye-catching design with moveable sections by architect Zaha Hadid, an opera house and other cultural projects. The Guggenheim will decide in September whether to approve the plan, but these are uncertain times." BBC 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 12:28 am
Simplifying Historic Protections The British government proposes to overhaul and simplify the complicated listings and protections of the nation's historic buildings, sites and monuments. "A single list, maintained by English Heritage, covering everything from Victorian horse troughs to Stonehenge, is proposed to replace the present separate registers of buildings, sites, gardens and battlefields. Buildings are listed, monuments scheduled and gardens registered, each with different criteria and grading systems." The Guardian (UK) 07/18/03
Posted: 07/17/2003 11:22 pm
Newly Discovered Debussy Work To Be Performed In Sweden "A piano piece by French composer Claude Debussy found two years ago will be played officially for the first time in a small church in central Sweden today. Debussy, the founder of the Impressionist movement in music, wrote the piece in 1917 during the First World War." The work, which was discovered in a trunk in Paris two years ago, is less than three minutes long, and seems to have been written as a musical thank-you note to the composer's coal supplier. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 6:16 am
Not Exactly Tanglewood Just Yet Christopher T. Dunworth has resigned as executive director of the brand new Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts in northeast Pennsylvania, raising further questions about the viability of the center, which was to become the summer home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra this year. "Originally delayed from opening Memorial Day weekend by poor interior roads, the center will make its debut a day later than announced," and the PSO has halved the number of concerts it originally planned to play there. Dunworth isn't giving any reason for his departure, and Mountain Laurel officials have already announced his interim replacement. The Morning Call (Allentown, PA) 07/15/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 5:55 am
Florida Phil Seeks More Time To Resurrect "The uncertain saga of the Florida Philharmonic goes into federal bankruptcy court this morning, where the musicians union is expected to give its permission for a group of reorganizers to continue its efforts to raise money and generate community support in its bid to bring the orchestra back to life." There has been no shortage of energy from the volunteer choristers who have been trying to save the orchestra from extinction, but they have yet to raise anywhere near the amount of money they need, and there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot of community support for the ensemble, which collapsed this spring under a weight of ugly debt. South Florida Sun-Sentinel 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 5:33 am
Buffalo Phil Aims For The Black The Buffalo Philharmonic is a month away from closing out its books for the fiscal year, and, to the surprise of some, things are looking awfully good. In fact, the BPO, which ran a whopping $1.2 million deficit last year, is on the verge of breaking even in a year when many large orchestras are well into the red and many small ones are shutting down for lack of cash. Key to the turnaround seems to be improving ticket sales, which have jumped 15% in Buffalo from last season to this one. Buffalo Business First 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 5:24 am
RIAA Filing Suits As Fast As Attorneys Can Type The Recording Industry Association of America is filing supoenas as quickly as it can draft them for ISPs, compelling them to turn over names of suspected copyright infringing downloaders. "This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Filing information subpoenas is exactly what we said we'd do a couple of weeks ago when we announced that we were gathering evidence to file lawsuits.' The trade group said it would probably file several hundred lawsuits this summer." Wired 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 12:31 am
Recording Industry - Our Of Touch With Consumers? Is the recording industry's aggressive attack on music downloaders doomed to fail? "What has emerged through numerous interviews in person and over the phone is the voice of a new generation that says the industry is out of touch and needs to get with the times - stop charging so much for CDs, move its business online where millions of consumers already are, and stop trying to make criminals out of people who love its product." Christian Science Monitor 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 12:00 am
Proms Time Again They're back. London's Proms concerts are the summer music fest every critic seems to love to hate. Big, showy, popular and rippling with gaudy nationalism, they also seem to grow each year. "As though to reinforce its paramountcy, the BBC has announced a season, to open on Friday, with more concerts than ever, more special events and an expansion of the Proms in the Park to embrace all four UK nations for the first time." London Evening Standard 07/16/03
Posted: 07/17/2003 11:26 pm
Britten In Words A trove of Benjamin Britten's writings show how he tracked success through his career. "Although the sound and shape of Britten's prose remained consistent throughout his life - a sturdy, knockabout style befitting an intelligent former public schoolboy - its function changed dramatically. Unlike his letters, which were never conceived as public proclamations, the tone of his published articles illustrates his evolving reputation." The Guardian (UK) 07/18/03
Posted: 07/17/2003 11:15 pm
Cleveland's Arts Industry Takes A Big Hit A new study showing that Cleveland's arts industry has lost 163 jobs and millions of dollars in the last year is raising serious red flags among the area's cultural and political power players. The arts are hurting all over, of course, but in Cleveland, which has never made arts funding a priority, the economic pain is multiplied, and arts advocates are saying that only a large infusion of cash can hope to turn around the city's slumping cultural fortunes. The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 6:34 am
Fortifying An 'Arts Neighborhood' "Standing by a South Boston construction site, Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday quoted Pablo Picasso, as the Fort Point Cultural Collaborative announced plans for Midway Studios, a 200,000-square-foot development that will house 89 new artists' live/work studios, a gallery, a black box theater, and other cultural facilities in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood." The project is designed to combat the seemingly endless cycle that sees artists move into a run-down urban neighborhood and breathe new life into it, only to be forced out by the rising property values that their good work makes inevitable. Boston Globe 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 6:03 am
Committing To The Arts In Elvis City The city of Memphis is known mainly for barbecue and Elvis, but lately, the western Tennessee city has been making a concerted push to become what is commonly referred to as a "big-league town." That means getting at least one major league sports franchise to move in: Memphis swiped Vancouver's NBA team last year. It means a serious effort to revitalize the downtown area: check. And, according to the folks in charge of Memphis, it means creating major public-private partnerships to support the arts and cultivate a unique musical and artistic scene in the city. Despite the nationwide trend towards slashing arts funding, Memphis is launching "a fund drive to generate $25 million for the Greater Memphis Arts Council." Memphis Commercial Appeal 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 5:40 am
Recycle Me "Is nothing new under the sun? some critics are asking (properly attributing that phrase to the writer of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, of course). Author Joan Didion pointed out in a 1996 speech that when she arrived at college 'it was immediately impressed on me that all the novels necessary had already been written.' Does that suggest we're living in unimaginative times in which lazy artists simply mimic the past or, worse, slip into plagiarism? A quick scan of popular culture could suggest that." Christian Science Monitor 07/18/03
Posted: 07/17/2003 11:57 pm
For All That Reading, They Sure Can't Write... "Scholars in the humanities spend much of their time writing, and are forced constantly to read the work of superb writers. Yet they pour out streams of gnarled and barbarous sentences and don't even know they are doing it. Professors in English departments, after lives spent close to the best literature, usually produce the worst prose." How could this be? National Post 07/15/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 12:43 am
In Praise Of One's Self (Or Paying Others To Do It) "Soliciting quotes for the jackets of books ahead of publication is an increasingly important part of the way books are now published. The novel, micro-history or popular science book which arrives on the shelf pre-approved by another writer established in the field stands a considerably stronger chance than the one which does not." The Telegraph (UK) 07/14/03
Posted: 07/17/2003 11:51 pm
The Ultimate Topical Art Editorial cartooning increasingly seems to be a dying art form, with one cartoonist after another falling prey to the budget axe in the increasingly profit-driven and corporate-dominated newspaper industry. But the tradition of the editorial cartoon is a vital part of American art culture, says Patrick Reardon, and deserves to be recognized as such. "Editorial cartoons are savage snarls. They're rude and gross, crude and unfair. They ridicule the high and mighty. They slap down the pompous. They sting. They get the blood boiling. And they make their point -- with the clarity and nuance of a right uppercut." Chicago Tribune 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 6:08 am
Movie Painting Tradition Dying In India In India there is a tradition of artists painting large murals advertising the latest movies. "Their work is stacked against each other, huge displays in bright epic colours, the faces of heroes and heroines, dwarfing the men on ladders touching up their lips and eyelashes." But technology and the movie poster are killing this tradion. "No one wants our hand-painted work anymore. Everything is becoming computerised and the cinemas are being made into these multi-plexes." BBC 07/18/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 12:35 am
Emmys Spell "Gaseous Self-Praise" "They're b-a-a-a-a-ack. Once again come nominations for the Emmys, television's annual thundering belch of gaseous self-praise that matters to only the dolled-up, high-fiving industry and the critics writing about it. Like, yes, the one you're reading right now. Thursday's nominations set the stage for yet another feelgood pantheon of cosmic hair, high-wattage frozen smiles and red-carpeted designer name-dropping from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences." Los Angeles Times 07/18/03
Posted: 07/17/2003 11:43 pm
Milwaukee Ballet Exec Steps Down Robert Bondlow has unexpectedly resigned as the executive director of the Milwaukee Ballet. Bondlow had been on the job for only six months, and neither he nor the company are commenting on the reason for his abrupt departure. The company is in "somewhat precarious" financial shape, but doesn't expect to run a deficit for the fiscal year just completed. Bondlow had a tough act to follow in Milwaukee: his predecessor, Christine Harris, was widely credited with stabilizing the business side of the organization and making it an attractive group for big-money donors to support. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 07/17/03
Posted: 07/18/2003 6:25 am
