“Ageing varnish had left it disfigured by stains, now all but gone, with the overall effect one of lifting a yellow-brown veil, to reveal the soft blue of the Virgin’s dress – and a wealth of detail like a rocky pool of water bathing the subjects’ feet.”
Tag: 03.24.12
Has the Sexual Revolution Been Good For Women? No, Says Mary Eberstadt
“[If] the sexual revolution has really made women as happy as feminists say, a few elementary questions beg to be answered. Why do the pages of our tonier magazines brim with mournful titles like ‘The Case for Settling’ and ‘The End of Men’? Why do websites run by and for women … ooze such despair about relations between the sexes?”
Has the Sexual Revolution Been Good For Women? Yes, Says Ann Patchett
“Here’s the thing about revolutions – there is no taking them back. You may review history and wish that it had gone the other way; perhaps you always longed to be a British colonist and regret the outcome of the American Revolution. Or maybe you liked the idea of a man behind a horse and plow and feel that the Industrial Revolution was all a big misstep. But personal laments are only that: personal. They cannot change what has been done.”
Nude Painting Smuggled Into Calgary Museum
“[The canvas] was smuggled into the Glenbow Museum in Calgary and put on display by an anonymous Calgarian who said it had always been their father’s wish to see his work displayed in a museum.”
In Ukraine, Art About The Body Becomes Political
“The shutting down of an exhibition in Kiev last month became something of a performance art piece in its own right. The show, ‘Ukrainian Body,’ … aimed to explore corporality in contemporary Ukrainian society.” When the president of the hosting institution saw the show, he promptly came back with the keys and locked the place up – causing a much greater outcry than anyone in Kiev might have expected.
How Magicians Can Help Science
“I’ve observed that scientists tend to think and perceive logically by using their training and observational skills — of course — and are thus often psychologically insulated from the possibility that there might be chicanery at work. This is where magicians can come in. No matter how well educated, or how basically intelligent, trained, or observant a scientist may be, s/he may be a poor judge of a methodology employed in deliberate deception.”
Mike Daisey Apologizes
“When I said onstage that I had personally experienced things I in fact did not, I failed to honor the contract I’d established with my audiences over many years and many shows. In doing so, I not only violated their trust, I also made worse art.”
Traditional Culture? Modern Culture? It’s Become A Mirror Facing Inward
“I had hoped to find residues and traces of traditional China. But today, especially in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, the remnants of tradition — unwanted and unmourned — are rapidly dwindling. They are perceived as atavisms of underdevelopment that must be extirpated in the name of progress, in the service of catching up with, and ultimately surpassing, the West.”
Explosive Growth For Scottish Music Festivals
“What you’re seeing is that big festivals like T in the Park are as big as they can be. Boutique festivals are cropping up everywhere – Knockengorroch in the southwest of Scotland, for example – and that’s actually driving this growth.”
Theatres, Take Your Tweet Seats And Shove ‘Em
“Twitter will not solve your problems. It won’t solve your declining patronage. It won’t update your unhip image. It won’t make your aging subscriber base young again. Worked as part of a coherent strategy, by a staff and creative leadership that is not petrified by the very things that social media enforces (two-way communication, natural voice, access), it can certainly help. But as long as the generation of art tyrants who have the nation’s theater in crabby lock-down retain their positions, this is unlikely to happen.”