Holland Cotter finds all the bluster about controversial art at New York’s Drawing Center to be quite the tempest in a teapot. “In fact, the Drawing Center is noted for its rigorous formal, as opposed to ideological, mission. Since its founding in 1977, it has focused on two things: presenting museum-style shows of traditional drawing, whether in the hands of Rembrandt or Agnes Martin or 19th-century Shakers; and expanding, largely through contemporary art, the definition on what ‘drawing’ as a medium is.”
Tag: 06.25.05
Harry’s Kids Grow Up
The sixth Harry Potter book will hit shelves this fall, and doubtless it will sell millions of copies. But it’s been seven years since Harry first burst upon the scene, and the legions of devoted young readers that made him such a phenomenon are seven years older as well – many of them heading off the college, in fact. So how do you keep your newly adult audience interested in what is, after all, a children’s book series? You can age the hero, of course, but subtly increasing the complexity of the storyline will help, too. And you can always count on good old-fashioned reader loyalty…
How Not To Memorialize A Tragedy
How do you build a memorial to a tragedy? How can you properly commemorate human deaths while also creating something enticing enough to draw spectators? New York is struggling with this problem at Ground Zero, of course, and Christopher Knight has spotted a textbook example of what not to do: Berlin’s new Holocaust memorial. “Your mind knows that the place is supposed to confuse and disorient. It creates a theatrical sense of slowly enveloping claustrophobia and entrapment, meant to parallel the rising tide of Nazism 70 years ago. But you never feel it in your body. Walking among the tombstone-like shafts, there is no sense of threat. Menace is absent. Absurdity begins to loom.”
Puppets To Go
Need a puppet? Or a whole show? Head for Brooklyn’s new New York Puppet Library, “an unusual joint venture inside the landmark Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza.” The library is the brainchild of the Puppeteers Cooperative, and is basically a bartering arrangement, under which the cooperative gets rent-free space to store their creations, and the public can come right in and borrow a puppet or two for a party, a political demonstration, or anything else they can think up.
Creating An African-American Building
Baltimore’s new Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture was a long time coming, and organizers struggled to insure that their vision would stand out from the crowd. “The architects’ challenge was to create a building that fits into the urban context but stands out enough to convey how unusual it is. They responded with a boldly modern building that makes the most of its tight but prominent site. Then they imbued the building with layers of meaning that help tell what’s inside. The design doesn’t make literal references to African architecture. Its strength lies in the use of architectural symbolism – through colors, forms and materials – to create a building that avoids cliches but is undeniably African-American in spirit.”