Tag: 05.20.04

Keep It Simple

“There is too much needless complexity in the world. Technology, which was supposed to make our lives easier, has taken a wrong turn. In 20 years we’ve gone from the simplicity of MacPaint to Photoshop. While the first fostered a creative explosion, the second gave birth to an industry of how-to books and classes. And such complexity is commonplace. Despite the lip service paid to “ease of use,” “plug and play,” and “one-click shopping,” simplicity is an endangered quality in the digital world, and it is time to break free from technology’s intimidating complexity.”

All Politics, All The Time at Cannes

“If there’s been a story that has actually managed to prick the bubble of star-struck and self-absorbed Cannes Film Festival, it’s been politics. Politics of all kinds, local and international, electoral and cultural, screen and off, but especially the war in Iraq. If the premiere on Monday of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 made the biggest explosion in that regard, further rumblings have been felt just about everywhere.” If film is a reflection of society, there can be no question that the current American government, with its neoconservative bent and aggressive foreign policy, is the hottest cultural topic in the world today, and no one at Cannes seems to be above throwing in his/her two cents.

Picasso Stolen From Workshop

A small Cubist painting by Pablo Picasso has apparently been stolen from a workshop at Paris’s Pompidou Centre, where it was supposed to be restored. The disappearance was only noticed this past week, although no one has seen the painting since January 12. The still-life, entitled Nature morte à la charlotte, is valued at €2.5 million.

Court Rules Against Christie’s in Urn Authenticity Case

“In a decision expected to have major ramifications throughout the international art world, a British judge yesterday found the venerable auction house Christie’s guilty of ‘negligence’ and ‘misrepresentation’ in the sale 10 years ago of two urns to Canadian heiress Taylor Lynne Thomson… If the complex, 71-page judgment holds, it should result in changes to the way auction houses in Britain and likely elsewhere attest to the accuracy of the information they present in their catalogues and by their staff for the objects they sell. Heretofore, auction houses have described their views on their consignments as being essentially ‘opinions,’ not statements of fact.”

Getting To Know The New Guy

As the Colorado Symphony prepares for the arrival of new music director Jeffrey Kahane, comparisons to outgoing MD Marin Alsop are inevitable. Alsop rose to international acclaim during her time in Denver, and the CSO caught some of the attention as a result. Kahane, by contrast, has never topped any overblown lists of conductors thought to be “the next big thing,” but he is quietly beloved by musicians, audiences, and administrators nearly everywhere he conducts. He doesn’t micromanage his orchestras from a musical standpoint, but behind the scenes, he seems to have his hands in nearly every facet of the organization.

Opera Australia Funding Crippling Company’s Activities

Opera Australia posts its second annual deficit. The company’s chief executive says Victorians were “not getting the opera they deserved. He said the company could not afford to service Melbourne as it would like unless the Victorian Government increased its contribution. ‘The funding level of the company is too little to do all the activities that are asked of the company and the cost of staging opera in Melbourne had been seriously underestimated when the formula was drawn up in 2000. As a result, Victorians were now seeing fewer productions.”

Remaking Davenport, Heavy On The Arts

Times have not been good lately in Davenport, Iowa, one of the four adjoining Iowa/Illinois river towns known as the Quad Cities. But the city is trying to make its own good luck with a $113.5 million revitalization program focused on making Davenport a cultural center for the region. From the wholesale renovation of a ballpark frequently called the most beautiful in all the minor leagues to a $9 million dollar museum and performance venue celebrating the city’s jazz/blues tradition to a spectacular new $34 million building housing the Davenport Museum of Art, civic leaders have unquestionably been putting their money where their mouths are.

Ebert: Palme d’Or Race Wide Open

“The 57th Cannes Film Festival heads into its closing weekend with no clear favorite for the Palme d’Or, and with critics generally agreeing there have been good films but no sensation that has pulled ahead of the pack. The most rapturous reception was for Michael Moore’s Bush-whacking documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, but the applause was as much for its politics as its filmmaking.” In fact, Roger Ebert says that some of the best films he’s seen this year at Cannes are playing on the fringes of the festival, and aren’t even officially entered in the competition.

Whitney on the Web

The Whitney Biennial has a web site, of course, just like every other organization on the planet. But unlike many other attempts to merge art exhibits and websurfing, Jim Regan says that this site actually does an excellent job of complementing its real-life counterpart. “The overriding reason for visiting the site will be to view the Art and Artists section. With 108 candidates to choose from, displaying the options in an intelligible manner presents a challenge. This is what the Whitney site does so well.”