The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has come out with its annual report on anti-Catholicism; the arts section lists 18 plays that contain “anti-Catholic motifs,” including one work by Nobel prize-winning author Dario Fo. The league objected to Fo’s play, which depicts “Pope John Paul II as endorsing birth control and drug legalization after ‘being confronted with thousands of third world orphans.’ Fo’s pope also suffers from paranoia, and is under the care of a witch doctor.” – Backstage
Tag: 03.21.00
MONOSYLLABIC MEN
Bush, Gore. Any coincidence that the two presidential candidates have one-syllable last names? Some linguistics think not. One simple explanation: short names “are processed more quickly by our brains and cause a more positive reaction.” (Apparently ‘Bradley’ and ‘McCain’ were too much for American minds.) – Chicago Tribune
DAMAGED GOODS
- San Francisco’s DeYoung Museum has put on display the three Dutch master paintings (now in desperate need of restoration) that were stolen from the museum in an infamous 1978 heist. Called a “great recovery story” by the museum’s director, the stolen art works – including Rembrandt’s “Portrait of a Rabbi” – mysteriously turned up last year at a New York gallery in an anonymous unmarked box. – NPR [Real audio file]
QUIT STALLING!
It’s been two years since the Boston Museum of Fine Art declared they would conduct an inquiry on works that may have been stolen by the Nazis during the Holocaust…with what appears to be strong evidence that the MFA is in fact in possession of looted art, critics say the museum is purposely stalling. “‘If there is a good reason for not releasing those questionable works, the museum should present that. Disclosure is important here, and sometimes people lose sight of the importance of disclosure, even if they are pursuing the truth.'” – Boston Herald
EIFFEL WOULD BE PROUD
Architect Michael Hopkins, responsible for some of London’s most startling modern buildings, including the stands at Lord’s cricket ground and the new Glyndebourne Opera House, is at work on an entirely bronze-facaded new office building for MPs adjacent to Westminster Bridge. Despite accusations of overspending, Portcullis House is set to be one of the best places to work on the Thames. “Not for him the polished marble or granite veneer used on so many prestige London buildings. This is a design 100 percent in the tradition of the great 19th-century engineer-architects; robust, muscular, and everywhere proclaiming the materials of which it is built.” – The Times (UK)
A HALLMARK OF GIVING
Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has received a donation of 84 works of art, including a vast collection of renowned 20th-century sculptures, from the heirs of the founder of Hallmark Cards. Pieces by Isamu Noguchi, Claes Oldenburg, Alberto Giacometti, and Alexander Calder, among others, as well as 52 Henry Moores will find their new home at the Nelson-Atkins’ “17-acre sculpture park, then and now the largest of any museum’s in the country.” – New York Times