Tag: 06.30.05

Considering Robert Smithson

“In the realm of postminimalism, what happens when we compare Smithson to Eva Hesse, Richard Serra, and Ana Mendieta? Who wins? Richard Serra is, these days, way beyond postminimalism with his magnificent rolled-steel sculptures. Hesse, as much as we like her work, did not have Smithson’s cosmic ambition; only Mendieta did, but she was not as early in the game as Smithson. And the other so-called Earth Artists? They made a few good examples, here and there. But what are their ideas?”

Miami PAC On target

Looks like the roubled Miami Performing Arts Center is finally on budget and on schedule. “To be clear, it has been known since last July that the center is 20 months late and $67.7 million over the budget set when construction began in 2001. But at least it is adhering to its new schedule of opening in October 2006 and its new budget of $412 million. The center, with its 2,400-seat Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House, 2,200-seat Carnival Concert Hall and 200-seat Studio Theater, is more than 70 percent complete.”

Why Shakespeare In A Park?

Shakespeare is everywhere in the summer. Outside in the parks of America. “How did a nation come to expect free Shakespeare? And why must we watch it in the park? This peculiar mandate can be traced to Joseph Papp, the mercurial producer who founded a Shakespeare workshop in New York’s Lower East Side in 1954.”

11-Country Raids On Digital Pirates

Raids were carried out wednesday in 11 countries, as agents targeted suspected digital pirates. “Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as investigators around the world, took part in 90 searches that resulted in the arrests of four people. The U.S. Justice Department ‘is striking at the top of the copyright piracy supply chain – a distribution chain that provides the vast majority of illegal digital content now available online’.”

Charge: New mexican Stamps Are Racist

“The Mexican government has issued a series of stamps depicting a dark-skinned Jim Crow-era cartoon character with greatly exaggerated eyes and lips, infuriating black and Hispanic civil rights leaders for the second time in weeks. Mexican postal officials said the five-stamp series features Memin Pinguin, a character from a comic book created in the 1940s, because he is beloved in Mexico. A spokesman for the Mexican Embassy described the depiction as a cultural image that has no meaning and is not intended to offend.”

Aussie Chamber Music Competition Draws The Crowds

Chamber music is hot in Australia. “Melbourne is at the heart of an explosion of interest in the art form, based on the city’s international chamber music competition, which attracted 3.75 million radio listeners when last staged two years ago. This year, eight Australian groups and four from the region will compete for prizes worth $50,000 and concert engagements. There are two streams: string quartets and piano trios.”

Mailer V. Kakutani

Norman mailer has taken on New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani. “In an interview with Rolling Stone [Mailer] called the Japanese-American critic ‘a one-woman kamikaze’ and ‘a token’ minority hire.” He says “authors do like to reviewed on publication day, not two weeks earlier with a heinously bad review … This is what Ms. Kakutani has been doing to my books for many years now, and that may not be politically correct, but it sure is foul.”

Dealers Flex Their Muscles In New Sales Deals

As the contemporary art market heats up, “several dealers of contemporary art are placing a right of first refusal in their sales documents, requiring buyers to offer the art back to the dealer before selling to anyone else. Some, including dealers, maintain that these restrictions protect artists, the market, and even collectors. However critics of these contracts disagree. While the use of such restrictions is not standard practice in the market, it is also not entirely new.”