David Patrick Stearns: “Only a minute or two long, but repeated 840 times, Vexations is alternately called minimalist, Dada-ist, or Outsider Art when it resurfaces every few years. … [Igor] Levit’s late May performance, streamed from Berlin, is perhaps the highest-profile outing for this ghostly wisp of a piece that was posthumously discovered among the composer’s personal effects. Considering that [it] could easily have been dismissed as some discarded sketch, Vexations has achieved a degree of cultural clout that is, to say the least, highly unexpected.” – WQXR (New York City)
Tag: 07.07.20
Kevin Rafferty, Co-Director Of ‘The Atomic Cafe’, Dead At 73
Along with his brother Pierce and colleague Jayne Loader, “[he] gathered archival material that had been created to ease Americans into the nuclear age and turned it into The Atomic Cafe, an acclaimed, darkly comic documentary film released in 1982.” Also notable among his six directing credits are Blood in the Face (1991, about far-right groups such as the Ku Klux Klan), The Last Cigarette (about the worldwide marketing of American tobacco products), and Harvard Beats Yale 29-29. – The New York Times
New Yorker Cartoonist Henry Martin Dead At 94
“[He] brought a wry, genial sense of humor to nearly 700 cartoons published in The New Yorker over 35 years. They were set in conference rooms and homes, on desert islands and roadsides, at Heaven’s gate and in maternity wards.” – The New York Times
ArtPrize 2020 Is Cancelled As Entire Staff Is Furloughed
What’s more, says artistic director Kevin Buist, “It’s not clear if there will be an event in 2021, and if there is, it’s not clear who will run it.” The largest contemporary art exhibition in the U.S., which takes place over three weeks in 160 spaces in Grand Rapids, Mich. and features two $200,000 grand prizes (one given by a jury, the other by public vote), ArtPrize typically draws about half a million visitors. – Artnet
Rodin Museum In Paris Will Sell Bronze Casts To See Itself Through COVID Crisis
“A measure of relief may come from a century-old system set up by Rodin himself allowing the museum to sell up to 12 replicas of select sculptures every year. The bronzes are cast in special workshops in a process overseen by the museum and bought by art galleries, private collectors or other museums. Rodin’s priceless originals are mainly carved out of marble.” – Yahoo! (AP)
An Academic War On Free Speech?
There are four problematic recent norms in academia: first, an academic career depends on personal and political matters; second, compliance is rewarded over scepticism; third, academic complaints are increasingly anti-intellectual; and fourth, logic and evidence are subordinated to feelings, even in the hardest of hard sciences. – The Critic
40 Years Ago The Walkman Changed How We Listen To Music
Up to this point, music was primarily a shared experience: families huddling around furniture-sized Philcos; teens blasting tunes from automobiles or sock-hopping to transistor radios; the bar-room juke; break-dancers popping and locking to the sonic backdrop of a boom box. After the Walkman, music could be silence to all but the listener, cocooned within a personal soundscape, which spooled on analog cassette tape. The effect was shocking even to its creators. – The New Yorker
A Long List Of Cultural Leaders And Artists Sign Letter Supporting Open Debate
“The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation. The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away.” – Harper’s
What I Learned Zooming Opera
This is what I saw with the livestreams: our traditional modes of live performance are not a good fit for the new world we find ourselves in. Rather, as we continue to create live performance in the months ahead, we must seek new modes of performance that actively engage with the technologies we’re using. – Howlround
How Will The Art Market Realign? It Is
With wealthy collectors no longer travelling, most art business is now conducted online. Art dealers are typically reporting a 70% drop in sales, according to a recent survey conducted by The Art Newspaper and Pownall. Up to a third of galleries are expected to fold, with smaller ones particularly vulnerable. The shift to online auctions has seen an equally dramatic slump in secondary market revenues at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips. – The Art Newspaper