“Silas H. Rhodes, co-founder of a trade school for cartoonists and illustrators in Manhattan that he built into the School of Visual Arts, one of the nation’s most important colleges for art and design, died on Wednesday at his home in Katonah, N.Y. … Mr. Rhodes, who remained active as chairman of the school’s board, died in his sleep after spending a full day at his office, said his son David, who is the school’s president.”
Tag: 06.30.07
The Street Art Dustup
“For some time works of stenciled graffiti art and wheat-pasted posters slapped onto walls in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan have been splashed with paint and scrawled with messages of protest. Anonymous claimants have distributed various communiqués taking responsibility for the sabotage, citing the Situationists of the 1950s and ’60s as inspiration. public space and civic justice are difficult issues to which the brouhaha returns our attention.”
Why We Need Big Music Festivals
Nicholas Kenyon, director of the Proms argues that big music festivals such as the Proms and Aldeburgh are essential for the cultural health of the nation. “In the welter of unlimited choice, we need trusted guidance and a view of the ever-shifting musical world that makes real choices and declares its taste. The free availability to all of great music, thoughtfully presented, is something worth fighting to preserve.”
Wadsworth Atheneum Ducks Questions
The Hartford institution is under a cloud of questions about its financial state after its third director in the past ten years departed. A Connecticut newspaper has tried to check out the rumors. But “despite repeated requests from the Journal Inquirer over the last month, a spokeswoman for the private not-for-profit corporation, Linda Richardson, said Tuesday that neither she nor any member of the museum’s 31-person board of trustees would respond to some patrons’ concerns that the museum appears to be in dire straits.”
Movie Critic Joel Siegel, 63
The longtime Good Morning America movie critic died of cancer. “Siegel was known for his sense of humor, movie acumen and sharp judgment. He never let an actor off the hook if the performance was lackluster.”
Steel As Compressed Space
Richard Serra has put tons of steel in the courtyard at the Museum of Modern Art. So what do the massive structures do? Serra: “The space is almost palpable. The steel is just a wrapping skin that compresses the space.”