Visual Arts

SFMoMA At Ten It's been ten years since San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art opened in a new building. "Beyond the flaws and virtues that were on display from the start, the building's craftsmanship shines more clearly with age. And it is now self-evident that Swiss architect Mario Botta designed with an eye to the future, not just the opening-day crowd and critics." San Francisco Chronicle 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 7:52 am

Aboriginals Consider Suing Museums For Remains Aboriginal groups are contemplating suing British museums to force them to return ancestral remains. "Many British institutions have been returning body parts over the past decade, but several of the largest and most prestigious, such as London's Museum of Natural History and Duckworth Laboratory in Cambridge, continue to refuse to release remains." Herald Sun (Australia) 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 7:48 am

Judge: Whitney Thief Walks Over the strong objections of prosecutors, a Manhattan judge yesterday sentenced a Whitney Museum of American Art employee to probation and community service for stealing more than $850,000 in ticket receipts. New York Daily News 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 7:41 am

Four-Year-Old Wows Artworld Marla Olmstead is making an impression with her art. She's had a gallery show, and the critics were impressed. Of course, Marla is only 4 years old. "She builds her paintings in layers. Children don't do that. She starts with big swatches of colours and then adds details and accents onto that. That's what is so impressive and beyond what other children do. She paints with emotion." The Independent (South Africa) 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 7:26 am

Hadid Gets Architecture Foundation Job Zaha Hadid has been chosen to design the home of the Architecture Foundation in London. "On a site close to Tate Modern in south London, Hadid's riveting sense of occasion has found appropriate fulfilment, as the winner of a competition staged to give a home to the Architectural Foundation." The Guardian (UK) 01/13/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 5:16 pm

Frankfurt Garbage Collectors Destroy Artwork Frankfurt sanitation workers mistakenly removed and destroyed some yellow plastic sheets on the street that were part of an art installation. "Thirty of the dustmen are now being sent to modern art classes to try to ensure that the same mistake never happens again. The head of Frankfurt's sanitation department, Peter Postleb, took responsibility for the destruction of the sculpture, saying that confusing the plastic sheets with rubbish was an easy mistake to make. He thought they were abandoned building materials." The Guardian (UK) 01/13/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 5:08 pm

A Find: Leonardo's Studio "Researchers have discovered the hidden laboratory used by Leonardo da Vinci for studies of flight and other pioneering scientific work in previously sealed rooms at a monastery next to the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, in the heart of Florence." The Independent (UK) 01/12/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 4:22 pm

Expert: Ruskin's Turner Bonfire Never Happened Evidence suggests that celebrated art critic John Ruskin didn't burn a stack of Turner's work, as he claimed. "Ruskin appears to have been tried and convicted by the standard version of his involvement with the Turner bequest, which characterizes him as the man who destroyed any surviving evidence of his hero's sex life. Although the bonfire incident has passed into the popular imagination as one of the defining landmarks of Victorian censorship, what evidence there is to support this version of events is surprisingly slight." The New York Times 01/13/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 4:14 pm

• Previously: Claim: Ruskin's Turner Bonfire Never Happened John Ruskin famously said he had made a bonfire of a pile of JMW Turner's paintings. But a researchers now says it never happened. "It looks as if the notoriously prudish Ruskin, who worshipped Turner to the point of idolatry, could not bring himself to destroy his work. Instead he buried them in paper, interring them in a tortuous numbering system he devised himself, or in the case of some detailed anatomical details of women's genitals, folding over the page to conceal them, undoubtedly with a shudder of revulsion." The Guardian (UK) 12/29/04

Painting - In... Or Out? So some are prepared to declare that painting is back in. "An art form commonly reported to be on its last legs is about to skip jauntily back into the aesthetic arena. The tortoise of tradition catches up with the hare of technology. The old-fashioned canvas overtakes newfangled conceptualism. Or does it? I would not start peeling the champagne foil yet." The Times (UK) 01/12/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 3:54 pm

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Music

Mozart - Portrait Of A Tired Man What did Mozart look like at the age of 34? Not good. "At the age of 34, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a chubby, greying man with heavy bags under tired eyes, according to a painting which has been authenticated this week by German art experts." Discovery 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 8:03 am

Adams' Atomic Opera Gets A Date John Adams' new opera about the nuclear bomb has a debut date at San Francisco Opera. "I basically don't have much interest in opera. But I do think it's an art form that can grapple with the deepest, most unknowable subjects. 'Doctor Atomic' is about that moment in history, July 6, 1945, when we went from being a species that inhabited the planet along with other species and with the flip of a switch became capable of destroying it." San Francisco Chronicle 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 7:55 am

Springer On National Tour After attracting a huge audience for a BBC broadcast, Jerry Springer, The Opera is set to close down in London. But it will be showing up on stages around the UK. "The show will end its West End run on 19 February and head to regional theatres around the country. Its broadcast on BBC Two on Saturday prompted 47,000 complaints to the corporation ahead of broadcast from people who saw it as blasphemous. And a motion has been tabled in the House of Commons condemning the BBC for the "mocking portrayal of Jesus". BBC 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 7:13 am

Rattle Weathers Criticism Simon Rattle is getting some of the first criticism of his career. "At 50, Rattle becomes a senior statesman, an establishment figure. He risks entering the kind of self-protective custody that turned Karajan from a powerfully engaged maestro into a misery on Parnassus, watching the world drift away from his concept and his grasp. Rattle has detached himself from his country without fully mastering German language or culture. He is perilously adrift from the way others are starting to perceive him. He may not enjoy reading bad reviews, but unless he gets to grips with shifting perceptions he will wind up in the ivory tower he has always struggled to escape. At 50, and on top of the world, Simon Rattle still has all to prove." La Scena Musicale 01/12/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 5:02 pm

Terfel Mimes Wotan At Covent Garden Baritone Bryn Terfel loses his voices only hours before a Covent Garden performance of Das Rheingold. "The Royal Opera House was involved in a frantic dash to find a replacement, who stood in the orchestra pit to supply Terfel's "voice". BBC 01/12/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 4:29 pm

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Arts Issues

Study: Arts Workers Pay Sucks (The Details) "The new study finds that only 10 percent of Illinois arts leaders receive any employer contribution whatsoever to their retirement savings. Other fringe benefits are in similarly short supply. And a striking 50 percent of Illinois arts groups make no contributions to the costs of their employees' health care. The study finds arts managers to be mature, highly educated and highly skilled. Nonetheless, it finds, their tenures tend to be shorter than in other non-profits, and their paychecks relatively small. Although higher than the national average, the average salary in Illinois for a non-profit arts leader is $49,911. Workers at major cultural institutions, of course, earn significantly more. Still, the most frequent salary amounts were $35,000 and $25,000." Chicago Tribune 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 8:53 am

Studies: Studying Arts Makes Better Students Schools that go beyond basics and include arts studies produce better students. "A study of 23 arts-integrated schools in Chicago showed test scores rising up to two times faster there than in demographically comparable schools. A study of a Minneapolis program showed that arts integration has substantial effects for all students, but appears to have its greatest impact on disadvantaged learners. Gains go well beyond the basics and test scores. Students become better thinkers, develop higher-order skills, and deepen their inclination to learn. The studies also show that arts integration energizes and challenges teachers." Washington Post 01/08/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 8:40 am

Lincoln Center Chief Resigns Lincoln Center chairman Bruce Crawford is resigning. When he assumed the post in June 2002, he said he would stay three to five years. "In the interview in his office yesterday, Mr. Crawford, who turns 76 in March, said there was no significance to his leaving on the early side of that projection." The New York Times 01/13/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 4:11 pm

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Theatre

Royal-Shakespeare-In-A-Can The Royal Shakespeare Company is building a temporary 1,000-seat theatre in a car park in Stratford-upon-Avon, using a technology more commonly associated with oil rigs... The Guardian (UK) 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 7:43 am

Study: Broadway Audience Is Out-Of-Towners "Confirming many long-held beliefs, a new demographic study shows that 6 in 10 Broadway audience members do come from outside the city and its suburbs, and that the single most important factor in ticket buying is "personal recommendation." The study, conducted by the League of American Theaters and Producers, a trade group, found that during the 2003-4 season only 16.7 percent of the Broadway audience came from inside the New York City limits, with an additional 22.9 percent coming from suburban areas in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. About half of the 2003-4 crowd came from the rest of the United States, while a little more than 10 percent consisted of international tourists." The New York Times 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 1:34 am

Redgrave's Return To RSC Canceled Vanessa Redgrave's much-anticipated return to the Royal Shakespeare Company after 43 years has been canceled. "Redgrave, 68 this month, was to have opened in a new version by Tony Harrison of Euripides' tragedy Hecuba at the Royal Shakespeare theatre on February 17. Rehearsals for the play's chorus began in London last week. The run has been scrapped to give her time to recover from an operation." The Guardian (UK) 01/13/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 5:13 pm

Playwright Speaks Out Against Sikh Protests Of Her Play Playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti says her life has been upended by the controversy surrounding the cancellation of her play last month at Birmingham Rep after Sikh protests. "My play, Behzti, has been cancelled, I've been physically threatened and verbally abused by people who don't know me. My family has been harassed and I've had to leave my home. I have been deeply angered by the upset caused to my family and I ask people to see sense and leave them alone." The Guardian (UK) 01/13/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 4:58 pm

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Publishing

Blogging Books Whjere to find good writing on books? How about Bookslut? "She [Jessa Crispin] will review books or talk about books that maybe aren't the biggest best sellers out there, but she loves them. It goes right back to Jessa and the personality she injects into it. It's attractive to both users and industry folks alike. The combination of the reviews and the blog is very powerful." Chicago Tribune 01/13/05
Posted: 01/13/2005 8:48 am

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Media

BBC Governors Sought Assurances Over "Springer" "BBC governors were so concerned at the record number of complaints about Jerry Springer - the Opera that they sought a personal assurance from director general Mark Thompson that it did not breach blasphemy and obscenity regulations." The Guardian (UK) 01/12/05
Posted: 01/12/2005 3:51 pm

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