“Indexing Gentileschi’s oeuvre back to the rape and trial reinscribes the painter as an adolescent sex object, rather than an eminent adult artist with a 40-year career across major European cities. It also means that several of her paintings have been misattributed or overlooked because they didn’t correspond to the tropes of stricken or vengeful women. – Psyche
Tag: 06.10.20
“Lateral Thinking” Was Hugely Popular. Too Bad It Was Also Wrong
From the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies to schools and government ministries, few concepts in popular psychology travelled as far and wide as lateral thinking. Garnering in excess of 20 million readers across almost 40 countries, a BBC TV series, hundreds of paid-up and certified ‘Master Thinkers’, a network of educational and business champions, de Bono had, by the 1980s, become a peculiar type of public intellectual: one who refused to engage with critics and detractors. Criticism was, according to the father of lateral thinking and founder of the Cognitive Research Trust, a vestige of the adversarial and ‘intrinsically fascist’ Socratic method. – Aeon
Modigliani Scholar Sues Guy Wildenstein’s Nonprofit For Holding His Research ‘Hostage’
“[Marc] Restellini’s lawsuit against the institute asserts that it is in possession of roughly 89 boxes and various other containers of research materials that he had amassed over the years and that are rightfully his. The lawsuit accuses the nonprofit of holding this research ‘hostage.’ The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, however, says the records are theirs.” – The New York Times
HBO Max Drops “Gone With The Wind” From Its Library
The move followed an article in the LA Times by John Ridley, Oscar-winning scriptwriter of 12 Years a Slave, in which he described it as “a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color”. – The Guardian
Some Dance Companies Are Moving Beyond Online Classes Into Zoom Rehearsals
“Ballet companies are in a bizarre holding pattern right now. With studios and theaters shut down indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic, how do they keep the repertoire alive and dancers in shape? A handful of companies, including Pennsylvania Ballet and Dance Theatre of Harlem, are pressing on with rehearsals, even with no confirmed performances.” – Pointe Magazine
How Diversity Is/Has Changing/ed American Theatre
In fostering greater identity complexity, the American theater today is realizing more of its mimetic potential — a potential long curtailed because of the restricted access of artists on the margins. As the theater belatedly opens up, the repertoire of representations expands, creating a more extensive vocabulary and grammar for self-understanding for us all. – Los Angeles Times
Even ‘Paw Patrol’ Is Getting Slammed For Depicting Cops As Too Benign
Amanda Hess: “It’s a joke, but it’s also not. As the protests against racist police violence enter their third week, the charges are mounting against fictional cops, too. Even big-hearted cartoon police dogs — or maybe especially big-hearted cartoon police dogs — are on notice. The effort to publicize police brutality also means banishing the good-cop archetype, which reigns on both television and in viral videos of the protests themselves. Paw Patrol seems harmless enough, and that’s the point: The movement rests on understanding that cops do plenty of harm.” – The New York Times
Live Video Theatre: What It Is, What It Is Not
Peter J. Kuo of ACT: “With the ability to gather in person on freeze, many of us in the theatre industry collectively held our breaths, waiting to exhale. Now, we find ourselves gasping for air. … I believe, with the community’s support, live video theatre can pump the oxygen into our respiratory systems. Not simply sustaining us through this pandemic, but growing our field into the future. The investment in this art form requires a mental shift among creators on how we define theatre, but the product and process will be strangely familiar and satisfying for artists and audiences of both theatre and film.” – HowlRound
Here’s Who Will Be Hurt If Philadelphia Eliminates All City Arts Funding
“The vast majority of the 349 recipient groups from the 2020 fiscal year are small, their audiences mostly neighborhood audiences who often see themselves reflected on the stages or in the galleries. More than a quarter have annual budgets under $50,000, and more than 60% are under $400,000, according to city records. … Here, eight recipient groups describe the impact of the [funding] on their organizations and their communities.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
‘The Simpsons’ Wins Peabody Awards’ Top Honor
The long-running cartoon series was given the Peabodys’ Institutional Award along with (less of a surprise here) the PBS documentary series Frontline, while actor Cicely Tyson, 95, receives the Peabody Career Achievement Award. Among this years’ honorees were entertainment series Succession, Fleabag, Ramy, Stranger Things, and Chernobyl; documentaries Apollo 11, Hale County This Morning This Evening, Surviving R. Kelly, and four programs from PBS’s POV; the children’s animated series Molly of Denali; and the WNYC podcast Dolly Parton’s America. – Variety