Author: Matthew Westphal

Amid Firestorm, Americans For The Arts CEO Goes On Paid Leave

“Lynch’s decision on Wednesday comes after a Washington Post report revealed widespread condemnation of AFTA by advisory council members and current and former staff, who criticized what they have deemed insufficient efforts toward racial equity, transparency and accountability. The article also described charges of a hostile workplace that included sexual harassment, retaliation and intimidation.” – The Washington Post

Court Rules For Museum, Against Heirs In Case Of Kandinsky Bought Under Nazis

“In a decision watched closely by restitution experts, a court in Amsterdam ruled on Wednesday that the Stedelijk Museum there can retain a Wassily Kandinsky painting that it acquired during World War II and which came from a Jewish collection. The 1909 work, Painting with Houses, has been the focus of a restitution battle that has been viewed as a litmus test for Dutch restitutions policy.” – The New York Times

Man Who Burned Down Kyoto Animation Studio Charged With Murder

In July of 2019, Shinji Aoba, now 42, allegedly poured gasoline around the studio building and set it alight; the fire killed 36 people and injured 33 more, including the suspect himself. (Prosecutors had to wait until he had recovered from his burns and undergone an extended psychiatric evaluation before they could indict him.) Aoba now faces trial for murder, attempted murder, arson, trespass, and breaking Japan’s arms-control law. – Variety

Giant, Centuries-Old Headless Buddha Discovered In Chinese City

“The 9m-high (30-foot) statue, with its head missing, was uncovered on a cliff between two high-rise residential buildings in the Nanan district of Chongqing. It is not clear when the statue was carved” — it’s believed to date to the Qing dynasty — “and local authorities are still investigating its cultural value.” – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)

Frick Tricks: Reinvention to Convention, as Peripatetic Displays Move from Brutalist to Beaux Arts

While many museums are experimenting with quirky new ways of organizing their permanent-collection displays, the Frick Collection is going in the opposite direction: It will use its planned temporary occupation of the Breuer building to unveil a more conventionally coherent presentation of its holdings than was seen in its flagship building. – Lee Rosenbaum

The Source Story For ‘King Lear’ Had A Happy Ending. Why Did Shakespeare Make It A Tragedy?

Basically, because of all the plagues everyone had been through, says Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Greg Doran. “There is a big change in tone in his later work. Academics have speculated that this was to do with political unrest and change, the wake of the gunpowder plot, but experiencing the pandemic this year has made it clearer to me what lies behind it. Shakespeare just could no longer write straightforward comedies, or give a happy ending to Lear.” – The Observer (UK)

The Birth Of America’s Penny Press

“When Benjamin Day came up with the plan of selling newspapers to the poor in 1833, he did so with the ravenous maw of poverty threatening to swallow him up…. Within four months [of its first issue on September 3, 1833], The Sun‘s circulation was 5,000; within a year, 10,000. In two years, 19,000 copies of The Sun were sold every day, making it the best-selling newspaper in the world.” – The New York Review of Books

Trump And The Culture Wars, The Source Of His Power

James Poniewozik: “[His] campaign, as much as it was about wall-building or Islamophobia or ‘law and order,’ was also about a promise to defend and uphold his followers’ culture over the enemy’s. … To an audience that had been told for years that showbiz celebrities disdained their values, here was one of their celebrities, a real celebrity from TV, taking their side. … The message: Your stars are being canceled. Your shows are being canceled. You are being canceled. Only I am the network executive who can ensure your renewal.” – The New York Times

Discovered: Earliest Known English Church Anthem Composed By A Woman

This setting of the Christmas hymn “Whilst Shepherds watch’d their flocks by night” for unison girls’ voices and organ was written ca. 1785 by Jane Savage, a composer and the daughter of one of Handel’s bass soloists, himself a composer and church musician. She created the piece for the choir of London’s Asylum for Female Orphans; as in Venice at the same time, the English capital in the 18th century had a number of institutions for abandoned or orphaned girls which became fashionable places to worship because the young ladies sang so well. – The Guardian