Kahn's Yale Art Gallery To Reopen, Restored "Yale University, famous for its Gothic buildings, is showing off a newly restored jewel that marked the beginning of its modern era. The university has completed a $44-million restoration of the main building of its art gallery that was designed by architect Louis Kahn.... The Chapel Street building, which opened in 1953, was Yale's first modernist structure and marked a radical break from the campus' largely neo-Gothic character. It was also Kahn's first masterpiece," and it reopens Sunday.
Los Angeles Times (AP) 12/05/06 Posted: 12/05/2006 4:22 am
Design Tethered To, Or Divorced Of, History Nicolai Ouroussoff considers skyline-altering projects in two great cities and advises that "while the design for the Phare Tower in Paris is a work of sparkling originality that wrestles thoughtfully with the urban conflicts of the city’s postwar years, the other, the gargantuan Gazprom City in St. Petersburg, Russia, is a bone-chilling expression of corporate ego run amok. Together, they train a lens on the range of architectural approaches to a daunting problem: the clash between the classical city and the inflated scale of the new global economy. And they underscore the limits of the creative imagination when it is detached from historical memory."
The New York Times 12/04/06 Posted: 12/05/2006 3:23 am
Buy Russian Russian art is selling briskly, even withstanding charges of fakes coming to market. "The Russian sales are about rediscovering more home-spun talents Often, prices and estimates were inexplicably erratic. But, like the problems with fakes, this is all part of a young and booming market."
The Telegraph (UK) 12/05/06 Posted: 12/04/2006 6:01 pm
Mysteries About Hermitage Art Thefts Still Swirl "The Hermitage has been criticised for not having noticed the theft earlier. With a collection of almost three million objects, the process of checking them against inventory is continuous and takes some 10 years."
The Telegraph (UK) 12/05/06 Posted: 12/04/2006 5:58 pm
Victoria And Albert Drops Reproduction Fees The Victoria & Albert Museum says it will drop fees for publishing images in scholarly books and magazines. "Reproduction costs now often make it difficult to publish specialist art historical material. The V&A is believed to be the first museum anywhere in the world which is to offer images free of copyright and administrative charges."
The Art Newspaper 11/30/06 Posted: 12/04/2006 4:18 pm
Ottawa Museums Get Fix-up Funding Five Ottawa national museums get $100 million from the Canadian government to fix up their buildings. "Many of Ottawa's national cultural institutions have complained about the decline of their facilities for years, saying they have had to defer necessary repairs and upgrades due to lack of funds."
CBC 12/04/06 Posted: 12/04/2006 4:10 pm
German Artist Wins Turner German-born artist Tomma Abts has become the first woman painter to win the controversial Turner Prize in its 22-year history.
BBC 12/04/06 Posted: 12/04/2006 4:06 pm
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In Silicon Valley, The Maestros Are Momentary "In San Jose, instead of hiring a big-name, resident conductor to build a brand -- think Michael Tilson Thomas at the San Francisco Symphony -- Symphony Silicon Valley employs guest conductors only. The players have a new musical boss for every program -- at least seven new conductors at the podium each season. From a musician's seat, not to mention a concertgoer's, there is plenty of peril in the arrangement. ... But in San Jose, it turns out, it's working just fine, so far." San Francisco Chronicle 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 5:23 am
99 Tubists Play For Their Fallen King "You have likely never heard of Tommy Johnson, but it turns out that Johnson was, and still is, according to everyone who would know, 'the most heard tubist on the planet.' A first-chair studio musician in Hollywood for 50 years, Johnson played on thousands of recordings"; his was the breath behind those ominous shark-attack notes in "Jaws." After Johnson's death in October, a memorial concert was in order, and so on Sunday in Los Angeles, 99 tubists took the stage. "They came to honor their fallen tuba king." Washington Post 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 4:58 am
Paris Opera Changes Direction In Choice Of New Director The Paris Opera has named Nicolas Joël as its new General director, succeeding the controversial Gerard Mortier. "By contrast Joël, highly regarded for his oversight of the Toulouse opera, orchestra and ballet since 1990, is known for his elegant and conventional designs and choice of directors. He has staged five of his company’s nine productions this season and has not staged one at the Paris Opéra in recent memory." Musical America 12/04/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 11:34 pm
Building A Better Orchestra Player "Too many orchestras, intent on recruiting absolutely the best players (however such a subjective thing may be measured), have tended to undervalue a musician’s skills at outreach. With a new program announced on Tuesday, Clive Gillinson, the executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall, and Joseph W. Polisi, the president of the Juilliard School, will try to alter that thinking." The New York Times 12/03/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 10:11 am
Pappano Extends His Stay At Covent Garden To the great relief of many, Antonio Pappano has re-upped as music director of Covent Garden. "With New York's Metropolitan Opera allegedly grooming him for succession on the event of James Levine's retirement, the rumour mill went into overdrive when Pappano's contract came up for renewal. The consensus was that, stung by the constant criticism of his choice of directors and weary of being 'dismissed in one sentence' in reviews of Götterdämmerung, he would not be staying." The Independent (UK) 12/03/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 10:05 am
God Sells With each passing year, the hand-wringing over the downturn in record sales becomes a little more desperate. But one genre continues to experience steady growth: gospel and Christian music. Boston Globe 12/03/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 9:56 am
Maestro On The Move (At 34) "Vladimir Jurowski is one of the youngest and most successful maestros around: he's been in charge of the opera house at Glyndebourne since 2001; next summer he takes up the reins of the London Philharmonic Orchestra as its principal conductor; and he's principal guest conductor of the Russian National Orchestra. All this and he's only 34." The Guardian (UK) 12/02/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 9:54 am
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Group Requests Columnist's Removal From Holocaust Memorial Council "An Islamic civil rights group wants a columnist removed from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council for criticizing Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's decision to use the Koran during the Minnesota Democrat's ceremonial swearing-in next month. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said yesterday that comments by Dennis Prager, a columnist and conservative talk radio host, displayed an intolerance toward Islam that makes him inappropriate to serve on the council, which oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum." Washington Post 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 5:13 am
Why An Art Professional Is A Better Choice (Do We Really Have To Explain?) More applause for the appointment of James N. Wood to lead the Getty Trust. "Despite fulsome Getty rhetoric about art collecting, scholarship, conservation and public service both here and abroad — indeed, despite demonstrable successes in all those areas — the tacit focus of a hugely rich art institution entrusted to corporate leadership could be characterized in three disappointing words: Protect the money. With the unprecedented appointment of a distinguished art professional, four challenging words describe the charge: Spend the money well. The appointment represents nothing less than a sea change for the Getty." Los Angeles Times 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 4:39 am
The Getty Board's Smart Decision Naming James N. Wood, who led the Art Institute of Chicago, as president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust may be just the thing to repair the damage caused by his predecessor, Barry Munitz. "By selecting Wood, the trustees have shown that they listen to critics. Wood's appointment is for just five years, but that could be ample time for the Getty to put the scandals behind it and start living up to its potential." Los Angeles Times 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 4:08 am
James Wood To Lead Getty "Wood, educated at Williams College in Massachusetts, began his career with a series of academic and museum positions, including a post at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He took over as director of the St. Louis Art Museum in 1975, then moved on to serve as president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1980 to 2003." Los Angeles Times 12/04/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 4:04 pm
Getty Names Wood As New CEO James Wood has been named as new president and CEO of the Getty Trust. Wood formerly ran the Chicago Art Institute. "One of the very appealing things about the Getty to me is that its collecting opportunities are really quite open. We were not left with an iron-clad restriction, so the opportunity is there to make the most of changing times — both in terms of the legality of acquisitions and in the cost and the importance of different cultures for both Los Angeles and the nation." Modern Art Notes (AJBlogs) 12/04/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 1:17 pm
Meta-Text - The Audience That Emails Cell phones ringing at performances has long been an irritation. Now there's another cellphone distraction. "I'm amazed at how people will pay for the ostensible purpose of sharing in a musical experience and eagerly toss that experience aside in favor of text messaging, e-mailing or Web browsing." The Louisville Courier-Journal 12/03/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 9:59 am
Why Do People Hate LA? "Los Angeles has been hated and disrespected for a long time, publicly and privately, by people who live here, by people who visit, by newcomers and old-timers, by writers and commentators and immigrants and transients. For a city that has produced so much art — in film, painting and literature — it remains the place, as Woody Allen famously noted, whose 'only cultural advantage is that you can make a right turn on a red light'." Los Angeles Times 12/03/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 9:51 am
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Pavarotti Cancels Award-Ceremony Appearance "Luciano Pavarotti, battling pancreatic cancer, recently completed medical treatment and is looking forward to resuming his concert tour next year, but won't attend a ceremony this week to receive an award, his manager said Tuesday. ... The occasion would have been his first public appearance since undergoing surgery over the summer." Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP) 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 7:05 am
Grants Program Names First $50,000 Recipients "United States Artists, a new nonprofit organization that makes grants directly to artists, made its first awards yesterday, distributing $2.7 million in unrestricted grants to artists working in fields ranging from architecture and design to the visual arts. Among the 50 artists receiving $50,000 were Chris Ware, a young cartoonist from Illinois; Basil Twist, a puppeteer in New York; and Anna Brown Ehlers of Alaska, who weaves blankets in the tradition of her Northern Tlingit family." (third item) The New York Times 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 6:19 am
Art-Theft Detective Robert Volpe, 63 "Robert Volpe, a painter with a flowing mustache who gained street smarts chasing drug smugglers as a police officer and then put those skills to use as the New York City Police Department’s one-man art-theft squad in the 1970s, died on Nov. 28 at his home on Staten Island. ... Mr. Volpe essentially created his detective’s job after computer analyses pinpointed art theft as a growing problem. Asked to make a survey, he came back with actual arrests instead of a report — underlining the need for a special effort. He became that effort, making the New York Police Department the nation’s only one with a separate bureau for art crime." The New York Times 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 3:51 am
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Gay Themes, Boulevard Forms: Where New York Bests Britain "Whatever its faults, New York theatre has virtually patented a new form: the gay comedy of manners. Its origins lie in Mart Crowley's 1968 play The Boys in the Band, dealing with a surprise hetero visitor to a gay birthday bash. Crowley's work launched a series of plays that combined a gay agenda with mass audience appeal. In Britain, leaving aside Joe Orton's taboo-breaking farces, the only real equivalent is Kevin Elyot's My Night With Reg (1994). When will our own writers wake up to the fact that there is now a big market for gay boulevard comedy?" The Guardian (UK) 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 6:36 am
Organizing To Save Theatre Museum A group of cultural heavyweights has banded together to protest the imminent closing of London's Theatre Museum. "The organisation is demanding the V&A withdraws its notice of closure on the museum and is looking for alternative ways to manage the institution. In the longer term, it also wants to investigate 'broader possibilities for properly housing' the museum’s collections, potentially moving them to a new location." TheStage 12/04/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 7:22 pm
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The Bibliography Invades Fiction "Traditionally confined to works of nonfiction, the bibliography has lately been creeping into novels, rankling critics who call it a pretentious extension of the acknowledgments page, which began appearing more than a decade ago and was roundly derided as the tacky literary equivalent of the Oscar speech. Purists contend that novelists have always done research, particularly in books like 'Madame Bovary' that were inspired by real-life events, yet never felt a bibliography was necessary." The New York Times 12/05/06
Posted: 12/05/2006 3:13 am
Is There Any Point To Literary Prizes? "The truth is literary prizes are a very blunt instrument. Judges will never get it 'right' because there is no such thing as an objective judgment about which book is 'best'. All one can hope for, really, is that in the process of drawing up the long- and shortlists the judges will have scooped up a goodish proportion of goodish books out of which they pick a winner which is, well, goodish." The Guardian (UK) 12/04/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 6:52 pm
Stealing Words (Join The Club) "Ian McEwan, the most successful novelist of his generation, has been dogged by imputations of fraudulence. He is not alone. In the past several years plagiarism rows have swirled round Zadie Smith, Jonathan Coe, PD James, Beryl Bainbridge and Graham Swift. McEwan has suffered more than most." The Observer (UK) 12/03/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 6:14 pm
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Stepping Out In San Diego San Diego is seeing a boom in dance performances by young choreographers staging their work in makeshift spaces... San Diego Union-Tribune 12/03/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 5:18 pm
Los Angeles Ballet Makes Its Debut The company opens with a new Nutcracker. And it's not bad, writes Lewis Segal... Los Angeles Times 12/04/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 4:48 pm
A New Look Ailey? The Alvin Ailey Company unveils a new look. "Two additions to the repertory unveiled in the first week of the Ailey's monthlong season at the City Center are by celebrated choreographers -- both female, both white, both renegades -- who operate far from the themes of black experience, the humanistic outlook, and the conventional sentiments typical of Ailey's own work." Bloomberg 12/04/06
Posted: 12/04/2006 4:36 pm
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