“If the US had an organisation like the Venice Biennale–capable of staging a cycle of international festivals of cinema, art, dance and music and with an historic archive which is envied by much richer North American museums–then the European art world would have something to worry about, other than the global spread of the Guggenheim. Fortunately … there is no danger of (U.S. institutions) overshadowing the exhibition’s appeal and its almost mythical status.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
For British Women, Time On Pop Charts Has Come
Something peculiar is happening on the U.S. pop charts: A passel of British female solo artists is making an impact. “Historically speaking, to be both British and female was a double hindrance in trying to achieve chart success in America, or anywhere else for that matter. … But British women are making up for lost time, spearheading a genuine revival of enthusiasm for this country’s musical exports.”
Green Eggs And — Hey! That’s My Intellectual Property!
Kevin Ryan “went into his home studio and engineered a sort of retro mash-up of two of his favorite artists, Bob Dylan and Dr. Seuss. … He registered a domain name, dylanhearsawho.com, and in February posted his seven tracks online.” Then came the cease-and-desist letter. “As it happens, if Ryan was going to get into a fight over the legal limits of parody, he couldn’t have run into a better-prepared opponent than Dr. Seuss Enterprises.”
Remembering Kurt Vonnegut, Mensch
“When I was 12 years old I played chess with Kurt Vonnegut on a Thanksgiving Day in New York City. … On a whim, he suggested that we rearrange the board. Why did the pawns have to go in front, those sacrificial lambs about to be chewed up by the slaughterhouse of the front lines, those powerless vassals of the high and mighty? Let’s force the feudal lords out of their foxholes and into the hurly-burly!”
Can Lloyd Webber Up The West End’s Cool Quotient?
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s searches for stars to cast in his London stage musicals have been television ratings hits. “Even if he enjoys making the shows themselves … TV is a means to an end, not an end in itself. And that end is to make the West End cool. ‘Well, cooler,’ ” he says.
If Arts Council England Is The Parent, Artists Are …
“There is very little good news coming out of Arts Council England at the moment, particularly with the recent implementation of a 35% cut in grants for the arts – down from £83m to £54m for the year 2007-08. Now, after the catastrophic communication breakdown surrounding the announcement, comes a sign that the Arts Council is trying very hard to listen to the artistic community” — as well it should, Lyn Gardner writes. “Instead of the current relationship, which often seems like that of weary parent and fractious toddler, there must be a relationship of equals.”
Political Tensions Harm Cultural Tourism To Iran
“With its enduring relics of a glorious imperial past, spectacular glittering mosques and breathtaking landscapes, Iran lays claim to some of the finest cultural jewels in the Middle East. But a potentially catastrophic collapse in the country’s tourist trade is threatening to leave this dazzling array of attractions largely unseen by foreign eyes, as international tensions with the west deter a growing number of overseas visitors.”
ART Board Rejects Politician As Member
“Former lieutenant governor Kerry Healey’s bid to join the advisory board of the American Repertory Theatre was rejected last month because some members of the board were upset about the tone of her campaign for governor…. During a contentious March 19 meeting to consider Healey’s appointment, several members of the ART’s 40-member board criticized the Republican nominee’s unsuccessful campaign last fall, calling it mean-spirited and condemning a controversial television ad that highlighted Deval Patrick’s advocacy for a convicted rapist.”
The Trouble With The National Portrait Gallery: Its Art
“The art of the portrait is a noble, beautiful enterprise that amazingly, and to this day in the work of Lucian Freud, David Hockney or Gerhard Richter, mediates the down-to-earth, very human desire to record faces with a philosophical enquiry into the nature of the self. The portrait is at the heart of European high culture – but you won’t even glimpse the rudiments of a history of the portrait as art in the NPG. This museum is not about art. It’s about famous Brits down the ages.”
Who Decreed That Real Artists Must Be Intellectuals?
“The election of Tracey Emin to join the Royal Academy of the Arts as a Royal Academician alongside more traditionally academic artists such as David Hockney, Peter Blake, and Anthony Caro” raised a question, unspoken though it was: “Is she enough of an intellectual to join the RA?” Ana Finel Honigman matches it with another: “Why is this even an issue?”