“In February, when the embattled Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, announced it had reached an agreement with the state’s attorney general to sell as many as 40 works from its collection, the juiciest detail was that an undisclosed institution had agreed to purchase and exhibit the lot’s most valuable work: a Norman Rockwell masterpiece titled Shuffleton’s Barbership (1950).” That institution has now been disclosed: it’s the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, founded by Star Wars and Indiana Jones creator George Lucas and now under construction in Los Angeles.
Tag: 04.11.18
Poet J.D. McClatchy, 72
“The author of eight volumes of poetry, Mr. McClatchy was considered one of the country’s foremost men of letters. He was also a prolific editor, anthologist, translator and critic, as well as the author of a string of acclaimed opera librettos, among them Our Town, for Ned Rorem’s setting of Thornton Wilder’s enduring drama of village life, and the Metropolitan Opera’s condensed English-language production of Mozart’s Magic Flute, designed by Julie Taymor.”
How Houston Ballet Kept Going And Got Its Season Onstage After Hurricane Harvey
“Reality set in when news broke that the damage to the Wortham Center turned out to be much worse than first anticipated. The artistic and administrative team found out that the floodwaters had gone all the way up to the basement ceiling. Costumes from some 50 ballets, which accounts for 60 percent of the repertoire, were destroyed. The theater would remain closed until September 2018, and the company would need to find other venues for the remaining season. But as artistic director Stanton Welch made clear … hurricanes shouldn’t mess with ballet dancers. The company would get through this, and be stronger for it.”
As They Thaw, Mongolia’s Ancient Tombs Are Getting Looted
“The history and archaeology of Mongolia, most famously the sites associated with the largest land empire in the history of the world under Genghis Khan, are of global importance. But they’re facing unprecedented threats as climate change and looting impact ancient sites and collections. Climate change and looting may seem to be unrelated issues. But deteriorating climate and environmental conditions result in decreased grazing potential and loss of profits for the region’s many nomadic herders.”
Elaine May To Play Broadway For First Time Since 1960
“The iconic actress, comedian, writer and director” – now 85 – “will star in the first Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery, a poignant and timely drama about an elderly gallery owner in Greenwich Village determined to cling to her independence and fight off the effects of aging.”
Gillian Ayres, One Of Britain’s Most Popular Abstract Painters, Dead At 88
“She matured as an artist in the 1950s, in the heyday of ‘experimental art’. Her disobedient aesthetic sense helped her to become one of the first British admirers of Jackson Pollock. With Pollock in mind, but also instinctively, she formed pools of colour and spread-out lines, dashes and bravado meanderings. House paint was used on hardboard and her long formats resembled panels or friezes.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.11.18
Berkshire Blurbs: Lucas Museum Buys “Shuffleton’s”; Sotheby’s Lowers Some Estimates
No surprise here: The planned Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, which broke ground last month, today announced its acquisition of Norman Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop from the Berkshire Museum (price undisclosed). This means that … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-11
Inside Milan’s Retirement Home For Old Musicians
Casa Verdi is “a sumptuous neo-Gothic mansion built in central Milan by Verdi. Completed in 1899, the building was created as a sanctuary for musicians who found themselves poverty-stricken in old age, “Old singers not favored by fortune, or who, when they were young, did not possess the virtue of saving,” as Verdi wrote in a letter at the time.”
Some Of YouTube’s Most Popular Videos Are Hacked
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s Despacito is the most viewed YouTube video of all time, with more than 5bn views, but temporarily disappeared from the site and had its hold image replaced by a photograph of a masked gang holding guns. Hackers calling themselves Prosox and Kuroi’sh replaced the description beneath the video with: “Free Palestine.”
UK Music Companies Have Their Best Year In Decades
UK record labels enjoyed a 10.6% surge in earnings in 2017 to £839m, thanks to the digital popularity of a new generation of artists including Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Dua Lipa and Stormzy. It was the fastest growth since 1995, when Oasis, Blur and Pulp created a high-street CD sales frenzy. Music companies enjoyed a 45% year-on-year increase in subscription streaming revenue – from £239m in 2016 to £347m – as an industry hammered for a decade by illegal piracy now enjoys the success of music lovers turning to legitimate services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.