“There was a time when critics were our arbiters of culture, the ultimate interpreters of intellectual discourse. When I was growing up, eager to write about the arts, it was just as important to read Pauline Kael, Frank Rich and Lester Bangs as it was to see a Robert Altman film, a David Mamet play or listen to the latest Elvis Costello album. Critics gave art its context, explained its meaning and guided us to new discoveries. As a flood of stories in recent weeks has shown, those days are going, going, gone.”
Tag: 04.08.08
In His Mom’s Last Weeks, Critic Sees TV’s Power To Soothe
“A television critic inevitably spends a fair amount of time bemoaning what is on television. My mother, especially after illness made it increasingly hard for her to read novels, was a reminder of the immense gift television can be. She had friends, visitors, and telephone calls, but there was also a continuous visual (she was a painter) and informational thirst that only television could assuage. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without television,’ was a sentence I often heard her utter.”
At Auction, A Tony Nets More Than $5K
“Here’s some good news for producers hard up for cash: The 1991 Tony Award for best musical revival, honoring the producers Barry and Fran Weissler for ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ … was sold at auction in Dallas on Saturday night for $5,676.25.”
Publisher Simon Michael Bessie Dies at 92
“Simon Michael Bessie, who in 1959 left a top editorial position at what was then called Harper & Brothers to help found Atheneum Publishers, perhaps the last major literary house to be started from scratch in the 20th century, died on Monday at his home in Lyme, Conn.”
Side Effect Of An Illness: Artistic Gifts
Maurice Ravel apparently had “a rare disease called FTD, or frontotemporal dementia,” when he was composing “Bolero,” but non-artists stricken with FTD may lose other abilities even as they suddenly become gifted in the arts. “The disease apparently (alters) circuits in their brains, changing the connections between the front and back parts and resulting in a torrent of creativity.”
Hockney: Artists Should Give Back More Often
David Hockney wants his massive gift to London’s Tate Modern to serve as a model for other high-profile artists to start giving their work away to the institutions that helped them along early in their careers.
A More Understated But No Less Successful Biennial
“After the success of the last Berlin Biennial – called Of Mice and Men, and with a curatorial team led by artist Maurizio Cattelan – [at least one critic] was nervous that this latest, called When Things Cast No Shadow, would disappoint.” And there’s no question that Berlin 2008 is different, less spectacular. But it succeeds, nonetheless.
Foundation To Keep Aussie Dancer’s Spirit Alive
“The family of the dancer Tanja Liedtke, who died in a road accident seven months ago, has set up a foundation in her name, with the hope of raising €1million to honour and perpetuate her work… Liedtke, who had an international career as a dancer and choreographer, was artistic director-designate of the Sydney Dance Company when she died aged 29.”
Rothko’s Family Sues To Move His Remains
The children of artist Mark Rothko are petitioning the New York Supreme Court to allow their father’s remains to be moved from the Long Island cemetery where they have lain for 38 years to a Jewish cemetery in Westchester County, north of New York City. There will be plenty of resistance to the petition.