Walking Man I “sold for £65 million ($104.3 million) at Sotheby’s, setting a record price for a work of art at auction and signaling a potential resurgence in the art market.”
Tag: 02.03.10
London’s Hot New Ballet Star (She’s Only 18)
Her name is Laurretta Summerscales. “Fans are already asking whether the baby of the English National Ballet, who has just triumphed in her first principal role, might be the new Darcey Bussell.”
Ireland Cuts A Million Euros From Abbey Theatre’s Funding
“The Abbey Theatre is the highest profile casualty in the share-out of annual funding by the Irish Arts Council, losing more than €1 million of last year’s grant. The cutback reflects the reduced level of state support for the arts.”
A Star Academy For The Moulin Rouge In BBC Documentary
“Young British dancers making their debuts at Paris’ Moulin Rouge are to be the subject of a fly on the wall documentary being developed for BBC3. The 60-minute programme … will begin with the female dancers preparing for their auditions at London dance studios Pineapple later this month and follow them to the point of their first appearance on stage at the famous venue.”
Great Failures In Modern Architecture
“Buildings sometimes fail because of incompetence or shoddy workmanship, but the examples that follow failed for a different reason: architectural ambition.” A Hall of Shame of iconic buildings with major problems in structure (Fallingwater, MIT’s Stata Center), mechanical systems (Pompidou Center), or the translation of ideology into practice (Le Corbusier’s idea of “the Radiant City”).
Nathaniel Ayers, Soloist Musician, Records A CD At Last
It was a long road to the studio. “Some days Mr. Ayers is fine; some days not. Some days he wants companionship; other days he needs to be alone. As for the CD, he’d back off one day, calling it a terrible idea. And then he’d be ready to roll the next day. Finally, a few weeks ago, it all seemed to be coming together.”
Philadelphia Unveils An Arts Festival (Minus The Content)
The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts was hailed “as a breakthrough for what [the city’s mayor] called ‘the arts-and-culture-economy community,'” but what the festival will be remains a mystery. Organizers’ strategy, “unveiling packaging before content” for the 2011 extravaganza, created puzzlement.
How Our Obsession With Thinness Harms Life Drawing
“It’s a challenge that’s been around since the aerobicized decades of the ’80s and ’90s…. The goal, teachers say, is for students to learn how to draw different bodies, learn a sense of proportion, and get a perspective on reality. You can’t get that from drawing the same kind of body” — that is, a young, slender body — “all the time.”
Picasso Portrait Goes For £8.1 Million At Auction
“Tete de Femme (Jacqueline), a 1963 portrait of the artist’s second wife, had not been seen in public since 1967. A spokeswoman for Christie’s auction house said the painting had been expected to fetch between £3m and £4m.”
On YouTube, Prop. 8 Trial Reenactments Fill A Video Gap
“Frustrated by a Supreme Court decision barring broadcast of the trial, two Los Angeles film types are translating the courtroom testimony into elaborate YouTube re-enactments, complete with professional actors, realistic sets and a budget that might buy you lunch.”