Peter Marks: “Sometimes, cheap theatrics are redeemed by a memorable line. In the desultorily expanded version of Twelve Angry Men that played out Wednesday on Capitol Hill with Michael Cohen in the hot seat, Rep. Jamie Raskin came up, gratifyingly, with a gem.” – The Washington Post
Tag: 02.27.19
The Dutchman Who Discovered Two Rembrandts
“Jan Six is a 40-year-old Dutch art dealer based in Amsterdam, who attracted worldwide attention last year with the news that he had unearthed a previously unknown painting by Rembrandt, the most revered of Dutch masters — the first unknown Rembrandt to come to light in 42 years. The find didn’t come about from scouring remote churches or picking through the attics of European country houses, but rather, as Six described it to me last May, while he was going through his mail.” – New York Times Magazine
Uh, Hold The Champagne For Disney And Fox (And Hulu)
This story is complicated, but basically, Fox executives, including two who are in line to be top executives at Disney, just got hit with a $179 million ruling that they committed fraud against the stars and executive producer of the massive hit Bones, which ran from 2005-2017. But it has larger implications. “What we have exposed in this case is going to profoundly change the way Hollywood does business,” the lawyer said. Will this news also break Hulu? – The Hollywood Reporter
How Do Artists Get To Be Famous? Study Says It’s Who You Know
While past studies have suggested that there is a link between creativity and fame, Paul Ingram and Mitali Banerjee found, in contrast, that there was no such correlation for these artists. Rather, artists with a large and diverse network of contacts were most likely to be famous, regardless of how creative their art was. – Artsy
Are Outsider Artists Held To A Different Moral Standard?
“I asked a few art dealers why we hold mainstream artists to different ethical standards. While one disagreed with the premise of my question, another posited a simple rationale: Our acceptance of artwork with upsetting or offensive motifs ultimately depends on the creators’ intended audience.” – Artsy
Thomas Krens Says Museums Should Be More Like Theme Parks (Seriously)
In a speech in North Adams, Mass., which he wants to transform into “the number one cultural destination in the country,” the man who tried to plant Guggenheims all over the globe argued that museums should become experience destinations with “a for-profit model based on private investment; integrated use of technology like digital modeling and augmented reality; and the ability to draw from ‘deep pools of content’ with ‘huge narrative potential.'” (Oh, and they should maintain “impeccable aesthetics.”) – Hyperallergic
A Crowdsourced Archive To ‘Provide The Foundation’ For Rebuilding Aleppo
The project, called Aleppo Built Heritage Documentation and based in Berlin, “[has] assembled the largest repository of information on Syrian heritage outside the country — more than 200,000 photographs, as well as archaeological reports, maps, plans, drawings and oral testimonies.” – The Art Newspaper
Philippe Vergne, Pushed Out Of Directorship Of LA MOCA, Lands New Job
The 53-year-old curator, who left Los Angeles after the controversy over his firing of chief curator Helen Molesworth (among other troubles), will be director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto, Portugal’s second city. His predecessor there left last September after another controversy, this one over a Robert Mapplethorpe show. – ARTnews
Art Institute Of Seattle Faces Closure
That’s unless someone buys the troubled institution. “According to a Seattle Times report from last October, in 2017 a faith-based nonprofit called Dream Center Foundation bought the Art Institutes franchise, as well as South University and Argosy University. The company then started closing Art Institutes all around the country. Of 31 total AIs, only 18 remain. Going into this fall, the Times reports, the Seattle campus had laid off all but 3 full-time professors.” – The Stranger
Red Fish, Blue Fish, Racist Fish? A Dr. Seuss Debate Breaks Out
That tension between Seuss and Seuss-free classrooms is emblematic of a bigger debate playing out across the country — should we continue to teach classic books that may be problematic, or eschew them in favor of works that more positively represent people of color? – NPR