Buyers demand discounts of as much as 30% on new works and 50% on the secondary market, according to art dealers. Temporary reprieve, including government rescue loans or rent reductions, will go away. And art fairs, one of the largest sources of revenue for galleries, aren’t coming back soon. – Bloomberg
Tag: 06.12.20
Director Of Art Basel: Online Galleries Won’t Replace Art Fairs
Marc Spiegler: “Fortunately, the Amazon art world won’t come to pass. For one thing, artworks are unique, and thus not so easily commodified. They have no utility value, no truly provable worth, no strict comparables. All of which makes buying art an act of trust. It goes both ways, too, because galleries build the reputation of their artists by selling to great collections, while avoiding the speculators who might rapidly “flip” works into auction.” – Financial Times
Philosophy Born Of Isolation
“Social isolation has given me the clear stretch of time that Descartes says is required to do philosophy. Teaching has been cancelled or moved online; birthday parties have been abandoned; the spare bedroom is warm enough once I wrap a blanket round my shoulders. But disciplined reflection is difficult, and more so when one is surrounded by those who have a claim on one’s time and attention.” – Times Literary Supplement
Film Festival Choice: Go Dark Or Go Virtual
“We’re not going to be able to create this perfect simulacra of running around getting drinks with friends and having conversations in line.” But, watching films with hundreds of others, with filmmakers in virtual attendance and an ensuing discussion among viewers online, “is better than consuming something in a vacuum.” – Washington Post
Comedy Club Tries To Bring Back Standup
Despite current rules limiting bars and clubs from opening to the public, the live comedy club Stand Up NY on the Upper West Side held an invite-only show for professional comics on Wednesday night. The club was not exactly sneaky about it. Outside, there was a sandwich board with the words “illegal comedy” and an arrow pointing inside. – The New York Times
Hollywood’s Damaging Images And Stereotypes
“The south supposedly lost the civil war. There is an overused cliche which suggests that the winners write history. Is this true? If it is, then why do all these relics of the losing side still circulate in this society so many years after the civil war ended? The point is, films like Gone With the Wind should have been held accountable a long time ago. Further, Hollywood’s role in disseminating such demeaning, dehumanized, stereotypical images can no longer be ignored.” – The Guardian
Karen Kain’s Farewell To A Lifetime At Canada’s National Ballet
Kain claims she never imagined herself becoming the National Ballet’s artistic director. In this she is in a minority of one. After hanging up her pointe shoes in the fall of 1998 Kain accepted a position as part of the company’s artistic management team under then director James Kudelka. When he resigned in May 2005 it was generally assumed Kain was his obvious successor. – Toronto Star
Celebrity And The Art Of Quarantine
The currency of fame has always been deeply unstable. But, with movie theatres and live venues closed and the devices in our pockets quickly becoming our primary media machines, it can feel as though famous people are suddenly on the same footing as everybody else. Despite this illusion of a level playing field, many people are still holding on to stardom as a meaningful category, as something that validates their experiences of isolation. – The Walrus
The Radio Broadcast That Convinced The Irish Public They Love “Ulysses”
Listening on transistor radios and Walkmans, many Dubliners who had long been intimidated by the book found that they not only understood it but enjoyed it and recognised themselves in it. – Irish Times
Apple To Close Its Apple U App
The app, founded in 2007, is credited with playing a central role in opening up higher education to the public. Institutions such as Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley; Duke University; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all shared free educational content on the app in audio, video or ebook format. – InsideHigherEd