Body Found Off Jersey May Be Prominent Artist

“The body of a man found Sunday about 4 miles off the Jersey Shore might be that of Jeremy Blake, a rising star in the modern art world who was last seen wandering into the ocean off New York’s Rockaway Beach a week after his girlfriend had killed herself… The apparent double suicide of the glamorous, intellectual couple has confounded and disturbed the worldwide art community, which has held them both in high regard.”

Nothing Wrong With A New Violin

What with the ever-expanding collectors’ obsession with violins, violas, and cellos made by old Italian masters like Stradivari and Guadagnini, it can be easy to overlook living luthiers and their work. But there are plenty of modern masters whose work is delighting players who know that the old classics are frequently overpriced. Those who play modern instruments frequently develop a bond not only with their makers, but with others who play the same “model,” much to the delight of their creators.

Stagehands’ Contract Won’t Come Easy

Broadway stagehands and the theaters that employ them are bracing for a possible strike that could hit the country’s biggest theatre scene hard in the pocketbook. “The talks come after a record-breaking season at the box office for Broadway, when grosses reached $939 million. But statistics provided by the producers’ league underscore the rising costs of the theater business and, by extension, the high rate of failure.”

Beijing’s New (Truly) Global Modern Art Center

“If you wanted to illustrate the increasingly global nature of the money and influence driving the art world these days, you might invent a wealthy Belgian couple who live in, say, Switzerland, and plan to use the money they made selling a collection of English masterworks (Turner watercolors) to establish a center for contemporary art in Beijing, where one early show will probably feature a well-known German artist.”

An Escape From Reality? Not At The Movies…

A new wave of films focusing either on the war in Iraq or the fallout from the conflict at home is preparing to sweep through Hollywood. That such movies are being made before the war is even concluded is an indication that the industry is hoping to embrace the immediacy of modern media, while the emotions inspired by the hugely unpopular war are still fresh.

The World’s Greenest Building?

“Nestled into the fog and forest of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the California Academy of Sciences aims to be the world’s largest eco-friendly public building when it reopens in 2008… Architect Renzo Piano used a textbook’s worth of enviro-engineering tricks for the seven-year effort, an almost total teardown and rebuild. At $484 million, it’s one of the most expensive museum projects in a century.”

Young Wagner’s Debut Scorned By Bayreuth Crowd

“The 29-year-old great-granddaughter of composer Richard Wagner was loudly booed following her directorial debut… Katharina Wagner’s interpretation of The Mastersingers of Nuremberg [amounted to a] seven-hour staging, which featured full frontal nudity and rewrote the plot. The reaction may come as a blow to the young director, who is competing for control of her great-grandfather’s legacy.”

Learning The Ropes (Or The Stick, As It Were)

Young conductors trying to get started in the business face a daunting set of obstacles, not least of which is the fact that conducting is a solitary affair, and there is frequently no one around to answer your questions about how to properly cue the second bassoon, or convince the strings not to drag in the slow movement. For the last ten years, David Zinman has been looking to change that, from his post as head of the Aspen Music Festival.

Prettying Up The Outer Package

Increased competition and a changing national conversation that emphasizes pop culture and disdains anything viewed as snooty are forcing arts groups to embrace “branding” techniques designed to get them noticed by an increasingly distracted public. Where once a museum or a symphony orchestra might not have worried much about its logo, or even bothered to have a slogan, such things are considered indispensable tools for luring ticketbuyers today.

Can Old Movies Work On Stage?

“You don’t have to have an especially long memory to wonder what on earth possessed Budd Schulberg to rewrite, though not reinvent, his Oscar-winning screenplay of On the Waterfront for the stage. Not as something new, like the libretto for an opera, say, or the book for a musical, but as [an] earnest, perfunctory, overproduced straight play.”