“As late as 1920, Marcel Duchamp said he didn’t know what Dada was. The accounts of the original participants in Zurich are conflicting; there is even uncertainty about where the name came from. The most plausible version is that Ball and Huelsenbeck found the French word for ‘hobbyhorse’ accidentally in a French–German dictionary while looking for something else. Another possibility is that it came from the name of a popular hair-strengthening tonic. Whatever its origin, the word, which in several Slavic languages sounds like an emphatic declaration of agreement (“yes, yes”), quickly became as popular as a brand name: a one-word manifesto guaranteed either to amuse or to irritate.”
Tag: 08.10.06
Thinking Big, But Winding Up At The Same Boring Place
When the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League set out to build their new stadium, they went outside the usual parameters, hiring former “bad boy” architect Peter Eisenmann to take charge of the design and create a modern structure unlike anything else in the NFL. But somewhere between concept and execution, much of Eisenmann’s personality got lost amid the budget constraints. “The typical stadium designer today is a corporate servant who churns out formulaic structures, either crudely serviceable or slathered in nostalgic references to the Roman Colosseum. By contrast, Eisenman is an architect who sometimes gets trapped in his own head: he is known for conceptual references that, while playful, can border on the impenetrable.”
Madison PAC Close To Choosing New Head
Madison, Wisconsin’s acclaimed new Overture Center for the Performing Arts has announced the roster of finalists for the job of executive director. The finalists include the center’s acting director, an operations manager with the Chicago Symphony, and an arts center manager from Ohio. The center’s previous director was forced to retire last year following allegations of sexual harassment.
Probable Hitler Works Go On The Block
To look at them, the pictures wouldn’t seem to be worth much. “But next month the salesroom at Jefferys, a modest auction house in Lostwithiel in Cornwall, is expected to be buzzing with collectors from all over the world bidding for the sketches. They will be interested not in the aesthetic value of the pictures but in the signature, sometimes AH, sometimes A Hitler. The watercolours are – probably – the work of the young Adolf Hitler, painted while he served on the border of France and Belgium as a corporal during the first world war.”
Poetry In Motion: Writing A Libretto For Opera
Poet and lyricist Simon Armitage discusses the surprisingly rewarding experience of writing an opera libretto. “It was Craig Raine who said that librettists are to opera what toilets are to theatres. So when someone from the Edinburgh festival asked if I’d be interested in writing the words for a newly commissioned opera, I hesitated. I’ve never thought of what I do as a mere functional necessity and, despite having the surname Armitage, I don’t take kindly to being pissed on. But in the end I couldn’t say no.”
Russia To Undertake Long Overdue Art Audit
“Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a nationwide inventory of cultural treasures after valuable works were stolen from the Hermitage Museum… Art experts say Russian museums, galleries and archives have been suffering from lax security, poor record-keeping and lack of funding for years.”
Will Skills Of Barnes’ New Leader Attract The Needed Millions?
With Derek Gillman plucked from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to become executive director and president of the Barnes Foundation, Edward J. Sozanski wonders how the new leader will handle a project that “promises to be several orders of magnitude more demanding than anything Gillman has tackled so far.” His primary task? Raising “the several hundred million dollars the foundation needs to underwrite a radical transformation from school and domestically scaled gallery to international tourist attraction” as the collection is relocated to Philadelphia.
Girl Muppet Shatters Glass Ceiling, Alights On “Sesame Street”
“After almost 40 years with Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster and the androgynous Big Bird, ‘Sesame Street’ is getting a fresh injection of estrogen. When the PBS Kids series kicks off its 37th season on Monday … it will introduce the program’s first new lead character in 13 years. And it’s a girl.”
Tattoos A Hidden Mark Of Hipness In Iran
“It’s an undercover movement–literally: Tattoos have become a fad among many young Iranian women who proudly display them in private but must keep them under wraps from authorities.”
Through A Bookstore, Preserving Armenian Cultural Identity
“Thirty years ago, with his native Lebanon going up in the flames of civil war, Harout Yeretzian, a Lebanese Armenian, came to Hollywood and joined his brother in founding a magazine devoted to the Armenian language and culture. One thing led to another. The magazine spawned a print shop, which spawned a bookstore, which spawned a small publishing house. Three decades later, the brother is gone. So are the magazine and the print shop.” But Yeretzian still has a bookstore, and through it he continues to pursue his mission: “to help his fellow Armenians maintain their ancient identity.”