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Weekend, January 28-29




Ideas

Art & Commerce: An Unholy Alliance? Frank Gehry's much-praised concert hall in Los Angeles is about to become the focal point of a promotional campaign for vodka, and it is hardly the first L.A. structure to have its facade hijacked for commercial purposes. Gehry insists that he's vaguely flattered by the spirit company's interest, but the architect's aquiescence doesn't really alter the larger question: "When a prominent work becomes a backdrop for blouses or set decoration for soda, does commerce dishonor art or can both come out ahead?" Los Angeles Times 01/29/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 9:57 am

A Distinctly French America Ever since Alexis de Toqueville's famous American road trip, French writers have been obsessed with deciphering America. French author Bernard-Henri Lévy has spent much of the past couple of years traveling the U.S. in an effort to get a read on the world's most powerful nation that would ring true to both Americans and Europeans. But one of America's foremost cultural assessors, the author and radio host Garrison Keillor, has some serious bones to pick with Lévy's methods, and with his conclusions. "You meet Sharon Stone and John Kerry and a woman who once weighed 488 pounds and an obese couple carrying rifles, but there's nobody here whom you recognize. [Eventually,] it dawns on you that this is a book about the French." The New York Times 01/29/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 8:19 am

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Visual Arts

Getty Villa Reopens Under A Cloud "Today the Getty Villa in Malibu reopens after a closure of more than eight years. The villa, where the oil tycoon JP Getty lived and which housed his original collection of art and antiquities, has remained the spiritual home of the world's richest art institution... The grandeur of the villa, refurbished at a cost of $275m (£155m), does not disappoint... But overshadowing the opening is a scandal. Marion True, curator of antiquities for the Getty Trust and coordinator of the villa's programmes, is on trial in Italy on charges that she conspired with antiquities dealer Robert Hecht to export illegally excavated treasures." The Guardian (UK) 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 8:54 am

Christie's of Arabia It's not a new development, but increasingly, it has become impossible to ignore the fact that the world of high art (and the acquisition of large amounts of it by private collectors) has expanded well outside its traditional Western borders. A milepost will be planted this spring, when Christie's opens its newest auction house - in Dubai. Financial Times (UK) 01/27/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 8:36 am

Constable: The Theme Park "Think of the potency of combining one of Britain's greatest artists with the twin national obsessions of food and gardening. Rumpelstiltskin couldn't do it better. Hence the rather eclectic nature of the planning application for 'Horkesley Park' - an interactive experience of 'the life and times of John Constable', to include a Fine Art 'outstation' of the National and other leading galleries, side by side with a Suffolk Punch breeding centre, a Farming Yesteryear exhibition, a Food Experience, gardens dedicated to the great plant collectors and an authentic Chinese garden." Financial Times (UK) 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 8:33 am

Selling The Sellers So You'll Buy The Sale Sotheby's had a rough time of it this past week when it attempted to auction off an impressive array of still lifes and landscapes from the house's "old masters" department. "Only half the offerings sold, bringing in a total of $5 million, below the $7 million-to-$10 million presale estimate. This was, however, only a small portion of two days of back-to-back old-master auctions at Sotheby's, Thursday and yesterday, which brought more than $70 million." So what makes one auction a success and another a failure? It's about far more than the quality of the art. The New York Times 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 8:03 am

Art As Black Market Collateral As prices for contemporary art sold at auction have spiralled out of control, the number of major art heists has been rising as well, and there's a very real connection between the two events. "Art is often stolen for use as collateral in arms and drugs deals or as a commodity that can be exchanged between criminal organisations... Art works often circulate in criminal networks... for years, only turning up by chance when police raids aimed at other illegal activities uncover them. But it is not uncommon for insurance companies to pay a ransom for the return of valuable works, and this underpins their value as illicit goods." Financial Times (UK) 01/27/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 8:00 am

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Attack on Duchamp Work: A Dada Act? "NPR All Things Considered 1/25/06"
DIA defends its right to Van Gogh Detroit Free Press 1/26/06
He Who Owns the Walls "DC Art News 1/24/06"
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Music

Heavenly Savior Wanted: Conducting Skills A Plus "Finding the right conductor is one of the hardest yet most critical things an orchestra can do. As someone once observed, God himself would not be too impressive a candidate... The problem is analogous to love affairs, when initial attraction and subsequent passion are followed by a discovery of long-term incompatibility. As one veteran Toronto Symphony player has observed, 'we go out on a date with these guys once or twice and are expected to get married to them.'" Moreover, the list of duties assumed by a conductor once the title of 'music director' is bestowed has lengthened considerably in recent decades, meaning that orchestras are no longer looking merely for an outstanding musician. "More than catalysts, they almost need to be Messiahs." Toronto Star 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 9:08 am

San Fran Sym Contract Talks Won't Stop Tour The San Francisco Symphony and its musicians are deep in negotiations for a new contract, and tensions have recently exploded into press and public. But an agreement struck this weekend insures that next month's SFS tour of China will go ahead as scheduled, regardless of the status of the larger negotiations. San Francisco Chronicle 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 9:05 am

Rattle's Phil Ever since Sir Simon Rattle took up the reins of the Berlin Philharmonic, the critical press has been rife with discussion of his impact on the ensemble that many call the world's greatest orchestra. Rattle and his band are in New York this month, and David Patrick Stearns says there is no doubt that this is a changed orchestra. "Berlin Philharmonic concerts under [longtime chief conductor Claudio] Abbado were the ultimate deluxe experience. The orchestra's gold-plated sound seemed like such an end in itself that even minor fissures in the glistening facade - such as missed notes - felt like a betrayal. Now, the Berlin Philharmonic feels like an intense meeting of many well-defined voices, all of them luminescent and intensely colored." Philadelphia Inquirer 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 8:57 am

Digging Into An Ugly Orchestral Underbelly Orchestra musicians can seem like the ultimate team players, sitting on stage in their matching tuxedos, moving in harmony in the service of the music. But in reality, musicians have a long history of ugly problems - alcoholism, drug abuse, severe workplace bullying, hearing loss, performance anxiety and more. "The problems are so serious that this weekend the Association of British Orchestras launches the Healthy Orchestra Charter, creating a code of practice to help tackle or prevent the afflictions." The Guardian (UK) 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 8:47 am

Bringing Mozart Home Thousands gathered on Friday in Salzburg, Austria, for the culmination of the worldwide celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Vienna Philharmonic performed, with Riccardo Muti on the podium and mezzo Cecilia Bartoli standing in for the hastily dismissed Renee Fleming. "There is much around Salzburg at the moment that smacks of unabashed exploitation of a composer whose relationship with it was, to put it mildly, ambivalent. But these concerts seemed to be genuine efforts to do right by the essence of Mozart." The New York Times 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 7:56 am

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Arts Issues

Where Will The Conservatives Take Canadian Culture? 'Trepidation' is probably the best word to describe the feelings of Canada's arts leaders as they await the ascension of the country's new Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. "Yet the last time Conservatives did take the reins, under Brian Mulroney, cultural nationalists recall it as a golden age... This time, the cultural industries are watching to see how the Conservatives face three tests. The first involves honouring Canada Council funding promises. The second involves federal-provincial turf issues. The third concerns whether they'll top up the huge arts and heritage building projects now under way in Toronto and other cities." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 10:16 am

Anybody Want Their Name On A Bathroom? As backers of Miami's new $450 million performing arts center make their final funding push, the time has come to decide on a name for the place, and as has become commonplace, the naming rights are being offered to anyone willing to pony up a cool $30 million. "If [that] seems a little steep, the PAC Foundation is offering more modest sponsorship opportunities, including the Ballet Opera House stage. A glossy brochure labeled 'Legacy: Yours & Ours' lists dozens of building parts that could be yours for the branding, ranging from the powder room and lavatory in the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House ($100,000) to the projection booth in the Carnival Symphony Hall ($250,000)." Miami Herald 01/29/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 9:43 am

The Financial Aid Shuffle Even for relatively well-to-do families, the cost of higher education in America has become prohibitive, and while there exists a plethora of grants, scholarships, and other financial aid options, seeking access to that assistance can quickly become a full-time job. "The level of detail is excruciating, the exposure humiliating, the work exhausting," and at the end of all the work, many scholarships may not be the financial solution they first appear. San Francisco Chronicle 01/29/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 9:26 am

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People

Barenboim Hospitalized Conductor Daniel Barenboim has been taken to hospital in Berlin after complaining of weakness. The hospitalization occurred less than an hour before Barenboim was scheduled to lead the Berlin State Opera Orchestra in a performance celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday. His diagnosis has not been made public, but doctors say that his life is not in danger, and he is reported to be resting comfortably. WTOP Radio News (Deutsche Presse Agenteur) 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 9:16 am

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Theatre

Can You Copyright Stage Direction? An ongoing legal dispute between a New York director and the theatre he was working for could wind up having wide implications for the theatre world at large. The director, who was fired after disputes with the producer and the playwright, "claims in his complaint that his staging contributions... constitute a copyrighted work of intellectual property, owned by him, and that the defendants must therefore pay for infringing the copyright," since the show went on after the director was let go. The New York Times 01/29/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 10:04 am

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Publishing

What About Frey's Enablers? "In all of the attention focused on James Frey and his book "A Million Little Pieces" in recent weeks, two main characters in the drama — Mr. Frey's literary agent and the book's editor — have largely escaped scrutiny. But [this weekend,] a number of people in the publishing business suggested it was time for Kassie Evashevski, Mr. Frey's agent, and Sean McDonald, who edited both A Million Little Pieces and Mr. Frey's follow-up, My Friend Leonard, to talk about their roles in selling and shaping the books." The New York Times 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 8:01 am

  • Who's Responsible? James Frey is only the latest in along string of authors and memoirists recently exposed for fabricating all or part of their supposedly non-fiction work. But how much responsibility should a publisher bear for fact-checking such works? After all, memoirs are by definition works of personal memory, and as such, are often difficult to verify. Still, some literary agents and publishers are saying that the Frey Affair has been a major wake-up call for the industry. Boston Globe 01/28/06
    Posted: 01/29/2006 8:00 am

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Media

Brokeback Wins At DGAs Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain continued its romp through Hollywood's awards season, snapping up the top trophy at the prestigious Directors' Guild Awards this weekend. Other winners included Clint Eastwood (for lifetime achievement) and documentarian Werner Herzog. The Envelope (LA Times) 01/29/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 9:54 am

Hollywood Strikes Back (Guess Which Side It's On?) Hollywood has taken an interesting (and wholly predictable) turn in the last couple of years. As political polarization has reached nearly unheard-of levels in Washington and the country at large, the entertainment business has formed a major part of the pop culture backlash against the current political majority. "Overtly political films and TV shows with a strong anti-corporate, anti-Republican, pro-liberal bent are being made in greater numbers, perhaps, than at any time since the 1960s." Toronto Star 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 9:13 am

Indie Film Gets Its Own Caste System This year's edition of the Sundance Festival has cast a interesting light of some major changes taking place in the world of indie film. "A new class division appears to be defining the indie market, according to agents, producers and buyers, with the so-called mini-majors — most of them owned by the big studios — now mainly pursuing independent movies with the potential to earn substantial money at the box office, while leaving to smaller 'micro-distributors' the many titles that could well turn a profit, but at a much lower price." The New York Times 01/28/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 8:08 am

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Dance

Ailey Archives Going To Washington "In early February, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will announce that it is giving its extensive archives to the Library of Congress... The collection of papers, films and audiotapes includes 8,500 black-and-white photographs of Ailey dances and 4,000 programs from 1958 to 2004." The New York Times 01/29/06
Posted: 01/29/2006 10:10 am

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