Edward Gorey, whose comically macabre stories, illustrations and theater set designs were once described as “poisonous and poetic,” has died. He was 75. – Chicago Tribune
Tag: 04.17.00
JUBILANT RETURN
After a decade in exile, Salman Rushdie returns to India. – New York Times
ANTI-BAN
- Salman Rushdie goes to India to call for lifting the ban on his book “Satanic Verses.” Hundreds demonstrate against the author in Kashmir. – The Age (Melbourne)
BUT WE CAN’T ENJOY OUR DESSERT
Salman Rushdie’s going out on the town again. Everyone enjoys a good celebrity sighting, but some aren’t glad to see him. “I was so pissed to be in the restaurant with him. I’m going to be mad, and dead.” The agent added that everyone at her table agreed. “We can’t enjoy our meal. We don’t want to die because of his fatwa. It’s so passive-aggressive toward people in Manhattan,” the agent continued. “We have enough trouble here.” – New York Observer
MUSEUM FEARS FUNDING LOSS
Grappling with making up a budget shortfall, the Vancouver Art Gallery worries about the affect its fight with its former director will have on fundraising. “There is concern the public dispute could prompt the gallery’s major funding agencies to hold back money, forcing cuts to programs and staff,” says the museum’s board president. – Vancouver Sun
GRIDLOCK RELIEF
Europe’s museums and monuments have become so clogged in recent years it’s difficult to get near them in tourist season. So Italy has announced that starting this summer it is extending hours hours of admission on Sundays to 11 pm. – MSNBC (Reuters)
AT LEAST THERE’S NO STAGE EQUIPMENT TO GET STUCK
London’s National Portrait Gallery now has a dramatic new extension – including a top-floor atrium with panoramic views of the city – designed by Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones, architects of the remodeled Royal Opera House. – The Guardian
REM KOOLHAAS —
— has won this year’s Pritzker Prize for architecture. – New York Times
- “The leader of a spectacularly irreverent generation of Dutch architects” – Washington Post
- “Designer and guru, engineer and visionary.” – Dallas Morning News
- A new Seattle library: “Koolhaas’ contribution will be a honeycombed, wire/mesh and glass building that will extend 12 stories high in a series of sliding platforms.” – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- “Most revolutionary urban thinker.” – Los Angeles Times
THE RUSH TO E-COMMERCE
The Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Museum team up on a commercial website for art. Plans include selling commissioned design products and offering educational programs such as live webcasts of lectures and concerts. It will also carry archival material on art. Profits from the site will help pay the museums’ operating expenses. – New York Times
HAVE ART, NEED HOME
New Zealand’s big state-owned company ECNZ is going out of business. So what’s to become of the company’s publicly-owned “highly discriminating corporate art collection” of some of the country’s best artists? By law, the collection has to be displayed for the public, but… – New Zealand Herald