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Wednesday, August 6
Mapping The Brain The study of the human brain is one of the most fascinating and frustrating branches of science. Brains are as diverse as snowflakes, which makes it exceedingly difficult for scientists to assign a categorization to the 'average' brain. "Researchers are now trying to better understand what constitutes a 'normal' brain by studying a newly compiled atlas that contains digitally mapped images of 7,000 of the organs. A decade in the making, the brain mapping project quietly debuted this summer." Chicago Tribune (AP) 08/06/03
Posted: 08/06/2003 5:34 am
What's Happened To Contemporary Art? "There is a cynicism in the heart of much that passes for art today, which sits oddly with its claim to be art. After all, art has to be positive, even when it deals with the most depressing aspects of experience, because if it isn't what is the point of making it? But far from seeking a positive response to its work, the establishment art of today actually stimulates a negative reaction..." spiked-culture 07/23/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:56 pm
Harvard's Substandard Museums Rumors are swirling about the coming layoffs at Harvard University's art museums, but Christine Temin points out that staff cuts are only a symptom of a larger sickness. "The university had already canceled plans for a major new riverside museum designed by Renzo Piano and lost a great director, James Cuno, to London's Courtauld Institute. It has also put plans for a multimillion-dollar overhaul of the Fogg on hold until a new director arrives and starts a capital campaign. The Fogg's galleries aren't even climate-controlled, which makes it difficult to impossible to borrow works from other museums." Boston Globe 08/06/03
Posted: 08/06/2003 5:29 am
Bringing Some Clout To The Art Repatriation Fight "A British peer is in Vienna to try to persuade Austrian authorities to return a £10m painting stolen from a British family by the Nazis." Lord Janner of Braunstone's trip to Vienna is the latest salvo in his crusade to shame the Austrians into returning the Egon Schiele painting to its pre-WWII owners, who fled the country in 1938. Austrian law compels the government to turn over all such artworks which are publicly held, but Lord Janner claims that the government is using "cheating, fraudulent, disgraceful" tactics to sidestep the law. BBC 08/06/03
Posted: 08/06/2003 4:41 am
Lightening Up On Video Richard Dorment is enchanted by a new show of video art. In the 60s, he writes, video art opened up new possibilities for artists. "Art lightened up. Short video pieces could be funny, impromptu, sexy or apparently inconsequential - and yet be serious works of art. And whether artists worked behind the closed door of their studios or in a public gallery, the range of subject matter they could explore expanded dramatically. Nudity, eroticism, humour, physical endurance, and relationships between people - video enabled artists to treat all these themes with a new immediacy, informality and spontaneity." The Telegraph (UK) 08/06/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:37 pm
Why No Art At Edinburgh Festival? As a major Monet show opens in Edinburgh, visual arts enthusiasts protest the exclusion of visual art from the popular Edinburgh Festival. "The medium has served a 12-year exile from the cultural extravaganza and many leading Scottish gallery figures believe a change is long overdue given the success of festivals in other genres such as books and films." The Scotsman 08/05/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:14 pm
A Monet Show To Die For Is the new exhibition of Monet opening in Edinburgh this week - after years of "wining, dining and bamboozling some of the world's richest collectors" - really "the most intense Monet exhibition there has ever been"? It's certainly the largest Monet show in the UK ever outside of London "It is two canvasses short of the 79 shown at the Royal Academy in London in 1999, when 813,000 paid to see Monet's water lilies." The Guardian (UK) 08/05/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:03 pm
Van Gogh On Film? Film had scarcely been invented by 1890 when Van Gogh committed suicide. But some Dutch filmmakers claim to have a snippet of film of the artist. "The Van Gogh film will be shown in his native village of Zundert next Saturday as part of celebrations marking the 150th year of his birth, even though the record of Van Gogh's work and the lack of other evidence appeared to cast doubt on the claim that a grainy passer-by in the film was the brilliant but troubled painter." USA Today 08/04/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 5:43 pm
- Questions About Van Gogh Film "The Van Gogh film will be shown in his native village of Zundert next Saturday as part of celebrations marking the 150th year of his birth, even though the record of Van Gogh's work and the lack of other evidence cast doubt on the claim that a grainy passer-by in the film was the painter." The Guardian (UK) 08/05/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 5:08 pm
- Experts: Van Gogh Movie A Fake A film purported to be footage of artist Vincent Van Gogh is a fake, says experts. After investigations, the festival organisation in the Netherlands that planned to show the movie - Autour de Vincent, "confirmed the footage was a hoax designed to gain publicity for the weekend event. The Brabant provincial government was aware of the stunt and had partially funded it." Expatica 08/05/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 5:06 pm
'Virtual' Orchestra Debate Heats Up For the Brooklyn-based opera company which found itself in a hurricane of bad publicity last week after announcing that it would use a computerized orchestra for an upcoming production of Mozart's Magic Flute, things just keep getting worse. At least one singer has quit the production for fear of being blacklisted in the opera world, and an e-mail campaign by the American Federation of Musicians is causing untold headaches. But the opera's director insists that he would hire a real orchestra if he had the budget, and can't understand why the musicians' union would stand in the way of the development of young opera singers. New Orleans Times-Picayune (AP) 08/06/03
Posted: 08/06/2003 5:21 am
- Previously: Brooklyn Opera Revolt Over Use Of "Virtual" Orchestra Prominent board members of the three-year-old Opera Company of Brooklyn are resigning over the company's plans to use a virtual orchestra to accompany a performance of "The Magic Flute". "The one-night-only production is being presented by the Opera Company of Brooklyn, started just three years ago to help foster the careers of rising opera talent. The company is using the virtual orchestra because it cannot afford a live one," says the company, which has accumulated a deficit in its short lifetime. The New York Times 08/04/03
Good News/Bad News For German Orchestras In Germany, where orchestras are largely financed by public dollars, many orchestras are reeling from unprecedented budget cuts imposed by their host cities. "Thousands of towns and cities across Germany have been slashing discretionary spending as tax revenues have shrunk. Many are facing their worst financial crisis in 50 years. Relief could be at hand, however, in the shape of a tax reform package unveiled by Germany's ruling coalition yesterday... The core of the reform is a recasting of the Gewerbesteuer, a tax on corporate profit set and levied by Germany's 13,800 municipalities, and which, in most cases, constitutes their largest source of revenues." Financial Times (UK) 08/06/03
Posted: 08/06/2003 5:15 am
Louisville Orchestra Exec Trades Beethoven For Bulbs The executive director of the Louisville Orchestra has announced his resignation, just one month after the orchestra ended a bitter stalemate with its musicians and settled on a plan to avert bankruptcy. Tim King, a 44-year-old who has worked in the arts since 1981, insists that the decision to leave is his own, and came only in response to a job offer he couldn't refuse. "A self-described passionate gardener, he'll be going into sales at a nursery and landscaping company operated by former orchestra development director Michael Oppelt." Louisville Courier-Journal 08/06/03
Posted: 08/06/2003 4:58 am
Reinventing The Calgary Phil The beleaguered Calgary Philharmonic, which very nearly became part of the list of defunct North American orchestras last year, is back in business, with a tough new CEO at the helm and a professed commitment to financial responsibility above all. In addition to hiring retired oil executive Mike Bregazzi to run the organization, the CPO is dramatically restructuring the role of its board, increasing its regional visibility, and introducing a flexible ticket-pricing plan which it hopes will draw new audience. Calgary Herald 08/01/03
Posted: 08/06/2003 4:52 am
A New Old Take On Beethoven Twenty years ago Early Music specialists bringing their aesthetic to Beethoven were a threat to modern orchestras. But modern orchestras continue to perform Beethoven, many of them incorporating the Early Music ideals fo conductors such as Roger Norrington. "To the extent that other conductors have reconsidered issues like balance, articulation, tempos and the use of string and wind vibrato, he has a point. He is taking the view that these interpretive issues are far more crucial than the use of old or new instruments, and he is proving it by spending much of his time with modern orchestras, including the Camerata Salzburg, which he brought to Lincoln Center for these concerts." The New York Times 08/06/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:43 pm
San Antonio Symphony Tries To Dig Out Of Bankruptcy The San Antonio Symphony has only $20,000 in its bank account. And it is meeting with creditors as it tried to reorganize in bankruptcy court. "The symphony hopes to be back in operation as early as November, December or January, and people who bought tickets for the 2003-2004 season will see those tickets honored. But first, the symphony and its musicians must settle on an employment contract. The symphony owes $228,000, or about three weeks’ worth of payroll, to its musicians under the old contract, which expired at the end of last season." San Antonio Express-News 08/04/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 5:49 pm
SPAC May Back Away From Symphony, Ballet The Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York has been a popular summer destination for decades, hosting the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York City Ballet for several weeks each summer. "However, while the ballet and orchestra were at the core of SPAC's creation in 1966 and have become a SPAC tradition, they are not money-makers. Each lose about $1 million a year." At the same time, Clear Channel, the 800-lb gorilla of concert promotions, pays SPAC handsomely for the right to book summer shows at the venue. It's a dangerous equation, and SPAC is now openly discussing the possibility of scaling back or dumping the ballet and the orchestra. The Saratogian 08/06/03
Posted: 08/06/2003 5:04 am
Perlman, Brown, Burnett Win Kennedy Honors This year's Kennedy Center Honors are announced. Violinist Itzhak Perman is joined by fellow musician James Brown, comedienne Carol Burnett, country icon Loretta Lynn, film and theater director Mike Nichols. "The Honors is an annual ritual, now 26 years old, where illustrious stars and powerful politicians salute five ground-breakers in the performing arts for a lifetime of distinguished work." Washington Post 08/05/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:08 pm
Why Andy Matters Andy Warhol wasn't an artist, writes Terry Teachout. He was "a preternaturally shrewd operator who transformed Marcel Duchamp's anti-art into glossy gewgaws suitable for mail-order merchandising. He silk-screened money. Why should those who do care about art bother to take note of the 75th birthday of an anti-artist whose works were purposefully forgettable? Because Warhol did as much as anyone to shape the culture of pure, accomplishment-free celebrity in which we now live. He envisioned it far more clearly than most of his contemporaries, and this clarity helped make him the best-known artist of the postwar era." OpinionJournal.com 08/05/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 4:46 pm
NY Times Names A New 'Culture Czar' The new executive editor of The New York Times, Bill Keller, has promoted Adam Moss from the paper's Sunday magazine to "assistant managing editor for features." The position amounts to an appointment as the Times' new 'culture czar,' and will give Moss control over the "Book Review, Culture and Style sections, Travel, Circuits, Real Estate, Escapes and special sections of the magazine." Moss was previously offered a similar position by former Times editor Howell Raines, but declined. New York Observer 08/06/03
Posted: 08/06/2003 6:22 am
- Previously: What A New Editor Might Mean To NYT Cultural Coverage So will New York Times' coverage of culture change under new exective editor Bill Keller? He's said to have a healthy interest in culture and can be expected to take it seriously. He "takes over with a Raines-named troika newly in charge of the NYT’s cultural coverage. In October 2002, former foreign correspondent Steven Erlanger was anointed culture editor; in January of this year, cultural kahuna Frank Rich was given even more power; and, just two weeks later, 28-year-old Jody Kantor, the New York editor for the online magazine Slate, was named editor of Arts & Leisure." LAWeekly 07/25/03
The Death of The Short Film? Making a short film is hardly a quick, low-cost enterprise. But for countless young filmmakers, the short is a chance to learn the craft, to get a toehold in an industry notorious for high costs and fickle moneymen. Unfortunately, once a short does get made, usually on the strength of donated equipment, actors working for nothing, and sets designed and built by the director and her friends, there's still little chance that anyone will see it, or pay attention to it. Tani Hansen knows the frustrations firsthand, and wonders if the form itself isn't on the way to the dustbin of film history. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/06/03
Posted: 08/06/2003 5:43 am
The Sex Problem Why do American movies have such a difficult time dealing with sex? "Is there a fear of dealing with grown-up sexuality in movies? Absolutely. Movies are intentionally sexy without being sexual, because puerile teasing is a kind of salesmanship. The sad corollary is the preponderance of violence in American films. A foreigner judging the United States by its films would think Americans spend more time running from exploding fireballs than having sex. The reluctance to depict explicit sexuality in mainstream films might be attributed to the times, but major directors quietly acknowledge their interest in making films about sex and its consequences." The New York Times 08/06/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:52 pm
Recreating The Infamous Rite The Kirov Ballet recreates Nijinsky's infamous "Rite of Spring" in the original version which caused scandals in Paris in 1913. "Millicent Hodson, a ballet archaeologist has, with her husband Kenneth Archer, has spent the last 10 years recreating every step of the original, in which a young girl is chosen by her peers to dance herself to death, as a sacrifice to ensure the return of the Spring." The Guardian (UK) 08/05/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:25 pm
- Failed Rite Ismene Brown writes that trying to recreate a ballet whose steps were forgotten seven years after they were first seen is a fraud. "It is a travesty and it makes you believe that Nijinksy was a fraud, who parachuted on greater talents to create the work that sealed his reputation. The Kirov's acquisition of this contaminated object is a cardinal mistake, and they must dump it like a stone." The Telegraph (UK) 08/06/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:12 pm
Recreating The Infamous Rite The Kirov Ballet recreates Nijinsky's infamous "Rite of Spring" in the original version which caused scandals in Paris in 1913. "Millicent Hodson, a ballet archaeologist has, with her husband Kenneth Archer, has spent the last 10 years recreating every step of the original, in which a young girl is chosen by her peers to dance herself to death, as a sacrifice to ensure the return of the Spring." The Guardian (UK) 08/05/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:25 pm
- Failed Rite Ismene Brown writes that trying to recreate a ballet whose steps were forgotten seven years after they were first seen is a fraud. "It is a travesty and it makes you believe that Nijinksy was a fraud, who parachuted on greater talents to create the work that sealed his reputation. The Kirov's acquisition of this contaminated object is a cardinal mistake, and they must dump it like a stone." The Telegraph (UK) 08/06/03
Posted: 08/05/2003 6:12 pm
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