A decision could come this week. Herbert Muschamp casts his vote: “Public officials will be criticized no matter what they decide. People protested the Eiffel Tower, too. If it were up to me, I would pick the pair of latticework towers proposed by the Think group. It is a work of genius, a towering affirmation of humanism in modern times. This is a work of abstraction. It does not impose literal meanings on the viewer. Yet implicitly it embodies the theme of metamorphosis.”
Tag: 01.28.03
Music Licensing Plan Could Kill Pub Performances?
A new music-licensing proposal for English pubs has musicians and pub owners protesting. “The bill is potentially fatal to the future of live entertainment of all kinds.” It’s described as “a central plank in the government’s drive to tackle anti-social behaviour. Overnight, live music ‘in any place’ will be illegal unless a licence or temporary entertainment notice from local authorities is obtained, with all its attendant costs and red tape. This means everything from Christmas festivities to impromptu music sessions in small, out-of-the-way pubs will be liable to penalties of up to £20,000 and six months’ imprisonment.”
Europe’s Best Contemporary Art Museum?
Here’s a vote for the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands, which just reopened after a renovation that took five years. “Thanks to the efforts of curators who followed the founder’s own predilection for visiting studios and hanging out with some of the best and most radical artists, the museum has one of Europe’s key collections of modern and contemporary art – several thousand works – from 1900 to the present day. It contains many familiar international names, from Joseph Beuys to Donald Judd, Gerhard Richter to Bruce Nauman. And it displays their works in particular contexts: Russian suprematism, Dutch plasticism, and among fellow artists that were collected with the individual sensibilities of a succession of curators. This is not a generic collection. It has character, and it is a museum of surprises.”