Egypt will celebrate the millennium with a 24-hour program atop the Great Pyramid. One critic wonders why we have to deface great works of art. Have we lost our ability to revere? Why must great art be accessibilized? National Post (Canada)
Category: issues
BETWEEN JUDGMENT AND BEAUTY
Trying to come to terms with questions of aesthetic judgment. “The trouble is that it has proved impossible to establish the principles that govern the production of aesthetic pleasure.” Threepenny Review
ARTISTS OPPOSE RESALE LEVY
The Art Newspaper 12/17/99
- Previously: IF ELTON JOHN AND THE SPICE GIRLS GET IT, why not Damien Hirst? The case for a resale levy on art sold in Europe. ARTNewspaper.com 12/16/99
- And: BRITAIN FIGHTS RESALE LEVY: European Commission has proposed a levy on the resale of art in Europe to go to artists. The London Times writes that “A recent report to the French National Assembly shows that most artists lose more than they gain from the levy. It penalizes the least successful, whose work is not resold, because buyers ask for reductions on first sales to take account of future resale levies. Nearly half the money collected goes to the most prosperous 3 per cent; 97 per cent receive less than £300, of which the collecting agency keeps a fifth. And, to avoid the levy, all but 7.6 per cent of French paintings are now sold in New York and London.” London Times 12/15/99
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
makes $20 million in grants. Here’s the national list. NEA
“HIGH ART” TURN-OFF
Discouraging new study says after a half-century of English Arts Council’s attempts to broaden appreciation for the arts, British teenagers feel “alienated” and excluded from the “high arts.” London Evening Standard
TOO MUCH ATTENTION TO THE ARTS?
This fall the arts have attracted unprecedented attention in Scotland. Now everyone’s an arts reporter, and the result isn’t always pretty. The Herald (Glasgow)
THE WHAT-MIGHT-HAVE-BEENS
Critic fantasizes about artistic collaborations that might have taken place this century but didn’t. Leonard Bernstein and Barbra Streisand? The Independent
ANTI ANTI ADVOCACY
Thanks to lobbying by non-profits, US Congress has killed a provision that would have prohibited political advocacy for some 501 (C)3’s. Backstage
HACKED OFF
Australia’s new net censorship laws are to go into effect in January. Last week, the agency set to enforce the laws had its website hacked. Wired
MORAL RIGHTS
After years of debate Australia proposes moral rights legislation to protect authors, artists and filmmakers. Sydney Morning Herald