Tag: 02.18.19

Countries File Claims Against UK Museums For Return Of Artifacts

A series of high-profile restitution claims have been received by institutions including the British Museum and the Natural History Museum in recent months. They include a call from the government of Gibraltar for the return of Neanderthal remains, including the first adult skull to be discovered by scientists, and a request from Chile for the repatriation of the remains of a now extinct giant ground sloth. – The Guardian

At Home With Jasper Johns

“He has been one of the primary architects of the contemporary art world, and has also opted out of its social trappings entirely. For decades, he has divided his time between quiet towns along the East Coast and a remote retreat designed by Philip Johnson in St. Martin. Now, he rarely leaves Connecticut. The curator John Elderfield has called him ‘the hermit of Sharon.'” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine

MacDowell Colony Gets A New Director

Philip Himberg is joining the 112-year-old MacDowell Colony from the Sundance Institute, where he served as the artistic director of Sundance’s theater program for the past 23 years. He will be based at the organization’s New York office and will work closely with David Macy, MacDowell’s resident director at the organization’s facility in Peterborough, N.H. – The New York Times

Here’s A Good Primer On The Challenges (And Accomplishments So Far) Of Artificial Intelligence

In his masterpiece, “The Lady of Shalott”, Alfred Tennyson describes a character from the Arthurian legend who is cursed to remain in a tower, looking at the world only through a mirror, and weaving the “mirror’s magic sights” into her web. AI today is, it seems, in its Lady of Shalott stage, trying to weave four-dimensional reality into a two-dimensional web by looking into the dim, distorting, and often deceptive mirror of data. – 3 Quarks Daily

Salvaging Alan Jay Lerner’s Biggest Flop, A Musical ‘Lolita’

Think that’s a ghastly idea for a Broadway show? So did audiences in 1971, when try-out audiences in Philadelphia and Boston hated Lolita, My Love so much that the Broadway run was called off. But the producers of an upcoming staged reading in New York, with a revised book and a new framing device, aim to find out if audiences are finally ready for the show (with the changes, at least). – The New York Times

The Salvador Mundi Has Disappeared. Where Is It?

Where the Salvator Mundi is now, no one is quite sure. Locked away in a store room in the Abu Dhabi Louvre, perhaps?  Or being pored over in a laboratory somewhere by scientists and art experts determined to prove it is authentic? Or even hanging on the wall in a grand salon in a Saudi Palace, a reminder of a moment of madness. Many art lovers are left wondering if it will ever be seen again. – The Daily Mail (UK)

After Series Of Flops, Amazon Re-Orients Its Filmmaking Product Line

Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke: “What we struggled with, I think, was putting too much focus on a narrow prestige lane. I don’t think we had diverse-enough points of view in the storytelling.” So, in addition to the “prestige lane,” the company will add “lanes” in erotic thrillers, horror titles, and (later) young-adult movies. – The New York Times