Susan Sontag was a complicated and difficult person. “A good part of her characteristic ‘effect’ – what one might call her novelistic charm – has not yet been put into words. Among other things, Sontag was a great comic character: Dickens or Flaubert or James would have had a field day with her. The carefully cultivated moral seriousness – strenuousness might be a better word – co-existed with a fantastical, Mrs Jellyby-like absurdity.”
Tag: 03.27.05
Dallas’s Performing Arts Center And The Starchitects
Dallas’s $275 million performing arts center is being designed and built by star architects Rem Koolhaas and Norman Foster. But trying to get the two to work together has been difficult. And the arts groups that will call the center home have little access to the two or their representatives. “This pattern has produced frustration among performing arts center staff and some members of the building committees, who complain privately about lack of coordination and their once-a-month access to the decision-makers.”
Youngstown Symphony Releases Music Director
Why did the Youngstown [Ohio] Symphony part ways with music director Isaiah Jackson earlier this month? “Though some say Jackson lifted the orchestra during his nine years as director, confusion has superseded accomplishment since the Symphony Society made it appear nine days ago as if Jackson had made the decision to not renew his contract. It remains unclear why he was let go, who initiated the departure and why the board never discussed his contract with him.”
Curtis Institute Chooses New Director
Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute has chosen Roberto Díaz, 44 – “principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, active soloist, and Curtis faculty member” – to succeed Gary Graffman as director. “Díaz’s candidacy was a late entry in the search process, but he was the unanimous choice of the 12-member search committee.”
Why Woody Doesn’t Work Anymore
“Back in the 1970s, a Woody Allen movie was the way you measured your humanity. Allen’s nebbish persona represented the thinking everyman, assuming you also valued intellectualism, high culture and complicated, brilliant women. The collective high point of the Allen gestalt was “Annie Hall,” Allen’s ode to love in all its messy, modern dysfunctionalism, and, two years later, “Manhattan,” his salute to the city of dreams, culture, love and Gershwin. But in the past few decades, as Allen’s casts became collective ensembles, as he started aping Chekhov, things changed. His movies got crowded with East Side untouchables.”
Gossiping In Cleveland
A controversial former Whitney Museum director, a well-liked London director known for his fundraising skill, an Asian art specialist from Australia by way of Richmond, and a recent director of L.A.’s Getty Museum are among the candidates said to be on the shortlist to head the Cleveland Museum of Art…
Axelrod May Get A Second Chance With Arts Groups
Two years ago, Herbert Axelrod was known as a selfless philanthropist and a hero to mid-Atlantic arts groups. These days, he is painted as a villain who played fast and loose with the tax code and defrauded an orchestra. Reality may lie somewhere in between. “Axelrod, 77, is a big-time donor in the arts sector, which last time I checked is not exactly overflowing with big-time donors. The arts community will be counting the days until his release, all too happy to help Axelrod rehabilitate his reputation… After all, it is possible to have a fabulous way with vintage wallpaper and have participated in obstruction of justice. It is possible to have been a star football player and have murdered (probably) your wife. In fact, it’s likely. Life is complex.
The Tribute Cover – As It Happens
“For decades, rock bands have acknowledged their influences by reinterpreting the old guys’ songs. It was a kind of Oedipal tribute: honor thy forebears by reinventing them. Our post-postmodern era of mash-ups, music blogs, file sharing and near-instantaneous distribution, however, has given rise to a new phenomenon: a certain species of indie bands is covering their peers’ brand-new songs – in those first heady days of release when the songs seem to be playing in every cafe and club, or even earlier, before they’ve made an impression at all.”
Hinckley: Lay Off The Rappers
Hip-hop music and culture has been taking a nasty beating in the wider culture in recent weeks, and David Hinckley says that all the brouhaha shows that the critics don’t understand the genre, and aren’t even trying to. “Much of the criticism indicts all rappers and further carries the insulting implication that rap fans take nothing from the music except swaggering self-promotion, derogatory slaps at women and verbal violence… From the ancient Greeks up through opera, folk songs, detective novels and television, entertainment media have focused on excess, that is, behavior beyond normal standards, as a way of making a point. Audiences get this. Rap audiences get this. If violent lyrics really had the direct impact its critics warn about, America’s streets would be knee-deep in dead rap fans.”
Marlene Dumas – Setting The Pace
What accounts for the astounding rise in fortunes of Marlene Dumas? Her work currently holds the record for highest-selling work by a living woman artist. “In 2002, the record for Ms. Dumas’s paintings, only a few of which had come to auction, stood at about $50,000. Yet last month at Christie’s in London, after a bidding war between two dealers, her 1987 painting “The Teacher,” a rendering of a posed class photograph, went for a startling $3.34 million.”