“The role of the famous writer’s widow is an awkward one. She is the custodian of the work. She is responsible for the placement of archives, the decision about what remaining material should or should not be released to the world; the keeper of the flame. Tess Gallagher says it was never her intention to become simply ‘a function of Ray’s absence’. As much as she was Carver’s spouse, she is also a writer herself.” – The Telegraph (UK)
Tag: 07.16.00
CRITICAL PATH
Martin McDonagh seemed to have it all three years ago. Coming from nowhere, suddenly “several of McDonagh’s ferociously comic and unsettling plays” won great reviews and top literary prizes in the US and Europe. But then there was a drunken squabble with Sean Connery at an awards ceremony, “some cranky critical backlash and a few damning interviews” and McDonagh retreated. Now he’s back with a new play. – Seattle Times
REMEMBERING RUSKIN
What was it that made John Ruskin the greatest art and social critic of the Victorian age? A new book is great at exploring his life; less successful at capturing his rhetorical lightning. – Boston Globe
CANADIAN BARITONE Louis Quilico —
— dies at age 75 after complications from surgery. – CBC
THE ART OF COLLECTING
Collecting art for a museum is an “exhilarating, suspenseful, satisfying and frustrating” game. Some of the more interesting acquisitions come through unlikely means… – Chicago Tribune
ADDING ON TO DENVER
The Denver Art Museum wants to add to its building. But the challenge is how to make the $62 million addition fit in between its neighbors – the aggressively-profiled Gio Ponti main building and the Michael Graves-designed addition to the public library. Three finalists for the job present their ideas this week. – Denver Post
NEW PROFILE FOR THE MENIL
People travel from all over to Houston to see the famed Menil Collection. But the museum has always thrived on being low-profile. Now a new director and a new attitude. “Cab drivers don’t even know where we are. What’s wrong with publicizing the place? Maybe we’ll get twice as many people in the galleries, which may mean 30 instead of 15.” – Dallas Morning News
REMEMBERING RUSKIN
What was it that made John Ruskin the greatest art and social critic of the Victorian age? A new book is great at exploring his life; less successful at capturing his rhetorical lightning. – Boston Globe
NEW PLANS FOR BERLIN
The rebuilding of Berlin is apace. But the new structures are directed to fit into tradition, not reach for grand contemporary gestures. “But this is not the city that the Prussian monarchs built with the help of Karl Friedrich Schinkel; it is the product of developers led by Sony and Mercedes stumbling to fill the vacuum left by 50 years of uncertainty.” – The Observer (UK)
MAKING OVER THE MAKEOVER
London’s Royal Opera House has finished its first season after a £200 million makeover. Was it worth it? Well, “the ROH is, first of all, seen as the home of the toffs and fat cats, whose lush, velvet pleasures are paid for by the sweat of the working man. Second, it is technically incompetent, with shows routinely being cancelled. And third, it is a gilded cage full of bitching queens and grandes dames, all of whom regularly flounce out of meetings and lock themselves, sobbing, in the loo.” – The Sunday Times (UK)