“A massive collection of art amassed by the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent is expected to fetch up to $452 million at auction, Christie’s has announced… The several hundred pieces going on sale include works by Picasso, Goya, Matisse and Mondrian, as well as drawings, art deco pieces, sculptures and antique furniture.”
Tag: 09.28.08
The Stained Glass Windows Are of Microwaves
“At a time when the gulf between religion and science is growing ever greater, an artist has erected a temple for scientific worship. Jonathon Keats, designer of the petri dish God, built The Atheon to get people thinking about what a scientific religion (or religious science?) would look and feel like.”
Gen Y’s Answer to Karen Finley Takes On the Father of Our Country
“The same Ann Liv Young who has stepped onstage, torn off all her clothes and rolled around in her dog’s ashes like a bereaved stripper (‘Tribute to Elliot’) and has been penetrated with a dildo (‘Snow White’) has a new piece she describes as ‘the love story of Martha Washington, George Washington and Oney, their slave.'”
Finding Fact in the Iliad and Odyssey
Most scholars in recent decades had concluded that Homer’s epics were more or less fiction, with little, if any, basis in actual history. But a range of evidence – from ancient Hittite tables to modern studies of comparative anthropology – indicate that the works “contain a hidden key to ancient Greek history – though not necessarily the key that Homer’s readers once thought they were being given.”
Plain Dealer‘s Ombudsman on Replacement of Classical Critic
“[Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz] Welser-Möst’s contract extends to 2018. [Critic Donald] Rosenberg has made it clear, over and over, that he believes the conductor routinely fails to get the most out of the orchestra, a view he seems unlikely to change or mute… Just as we would not assign a book review to a critic who is already on the record as loathing a certain author’s style or genre, is it reasonable to continue assigning a music critic to review performances by a conductor whose leadership he is unlikely ever to approve?”
Dallas Symphony’s New MD ‘Applauded from Every Corner’
“So far, most everyone agrees that [Jaap] van Zweden has measured up to the dazzling first impressions. And top music aficionados elsewhere in the United States are talking about the new guy in Texas.” That includes his players. “‘I have not heard one negative comment, and for musicians, that is saying something,’ says Erin Hannigan, the DSO’s principal oboist.”
With Its Eyes On Broadway, Off-Broadway Suffers
A Broadway transfer is considered validation of an Off-Broadway show — but what about plays that have no chance of drawing a mainstream crowd? “Whatever happened to the thriving scene that supported artists and seduced audiences with edgy, serious, unconventional work that didn’t need to attract thousands of customers a week or compete with ‘Mamma Mia!’ and movie stars for attention?” Linda Winer asks, sounding the alarm.
Luckily, He Didn’t Write On A PC
“George Bernard Shaw’s typewriter is up for grabs at AbeBooks.com — it could be yours for roughly $8,600.”
For Gay Actors, How Candid Is Too Candid?
“Hollywood, with its depictions of cowboy lovers and lesbian neighbors, has done much to make gay men and women part of mainstream American life. … Yet for most gay actors, Hollywood is not a warm and fuzzy episode of ‘Will & Grace.’ Today, it is certainly more acceptable to be openly gay. But these actors must still answer wrenching questions: Just how candid do you want to be? Would you be happy appearing only in comedies, or being pigeonholed as a character actor? And what does the line ‘You’re just not right for the role’ really mean?”
The New British Invasion
“West End dramas and musicals are again the rage in New York, an American opera has a UK director – and a Brit is running the Museum of Modern Art… In fact culture, in the broader sense, blown in from England has never been held in higher esteem.”