“The new criticism is not emotional or personal but associational. We can say that a bad work of art is much like Alzheimer’s: it is the artist’s failure or inability to make good or new associations. Here is our ground! A work of art is an association. An idea is an association. All is made from associations. We critics can judge every art object on this biological basis and no longer be vulnerable to our enemy’s sole weapon: “this is just an opinion.”
Tag: 09.28.07
Why The Diva Went Missing
Angela Gheorghiu was fired from Chicago Lyric Opera for missing rehearsals. Why was she away? It was a stand-by-your-man thing. Husband Roberto Alagna was singing at the Met Opera. “I asked Lyric Opera to let me go to New York for two days to be with him and they said ‘no.'” She went anyway because, she claims, “I needed to be by Roberto’s side at this very important moment.”
Philadelphia Breaks Ground On New Home For Jewish History Museum
“It’s just 60 seconds closer to the action on Independence Mall than the current site a half-block north of Market, but it’s an important 60 seconds. With a translucent glass skin that grants anyone on Independence Mall a glimpse of what’s going on inside and an illuminated, simulated eight-foot flame near the top of the structure, the building will give this little museum that tells the history of Jews in America an expanded mission, a heightened presence, and, leaders hope, a big boost in attendance.”
America’s “Most Important TV Network”
RFD-TV, which bills itself as “rural America’s most important network, features “livestock auctions, polka music and tractor pulls. CNN it’s not. Or MTV. Or ESPN.”
Portrait Gallery’s Tax-Generated Funds Buy A Hockney
“A self-portrait of David Hockney standing before a work-in-progress while his friend and former assistant, Charlie Scheips, scrutinises the canvas has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. The £148,000 purchase is the gallery’s first painted self-portrait of Hockney. Completed two years ago, it was bought from funds raised by ‘gift aid’ in which the public donates money on buying an admission ticket….”
Farewell Tour? Ha! Dame Kiri Begs To Differ.
“Over the next several months, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, among operadom’s most beloved voices, will be singing on what is being billed as her farewell tour. … But Dame Kiri, as she prefers to be called, is having none of it. Reached by phone recently, the exquisitely preserved 63-year-old soprano immediately sets to correcting any impressions that a reporter may have had that this is her goodbye.”
Being On Broadway, It Turns Out, Doesn’t Suck
Off-Broadway regular Theresa Rebeck weighs in on making her Broadway debut as a playwright. “I am here to report that having a play on Broadway does not suck. The sets are bigger, the lights are prettier, the seats are more comfortable, and if you play your cards right, the actors are so blindingly brilliant that you burst into tears in the rehearsal room, overwhelmed by the privilege of listening to artists of this calibre say your words.”
Goldin Photo Rekindles Art-Vs.-Porn Debate
The controversy over Elton John’s seized Nan Goldin photograph “resurrects a familiar debate about censorship: does the context of an image determine whether or not it breaks the law? In other words, does it matter that a photograph of a naked child is in a respectable art gallery – rather than in a seedy magazine or on an illegal website? Or is explicit child nudity – which is how many would categorise Goldin’s picture – unacceptable and illegal, per se?”
Pioneering Fiber Artist Lenore Tawney Dies At 100
“Lenore Tawney, an artist whose monumental sculptural weavings redefined the possibilities of both sculpture and weaving in the second half of the 20th century and helped create the genre of fiber art, died Monday at her home in Manhattan.”
Found In Translation: New Worlds Of Poetic Language
“Is there any purpose in translating poetry? … It is perfectly true that you will never get a replica of the original – nor would you wish to. The way it works, when translator and original are in tune, is that a third poem is created. It is the child of two parents and simply couldn’t exist without them.”