“Marian Griffiths, who was for two decades the director of the Sculpture Center in its original Manhattan location, transforming it into a dynamic exhibition center that helped draw public attention to the medium, died at her home in Manhattan on Sept. 8. She was 86.”
Tag: 09.29.08
LACMA Gets $45 Million For Pavilion
“In a move that will significantly bolster the ongoing expansion and refurbishment of the region’s largest public art museum, a Los Angeles philanthropic couple will give $45 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and be honored with a new exhibition pavilion bearing their names.” Lynda and Stewart Resnick, “longtime art collectors, have also promised LACMA unspecified gifts of art valued at $10 million.”
So You Want To Be An Artist
The Times of London is asking a group of leading artists to explain how they got their start, how they learned to balance authenticity with success, and what aspiring artists should expect to encounter. The answers are diverse and fascinating: “I never knew I wanted to be an artist – it was just a sort of burden that I was born with… I find the hardest bit is generating ideas – sitting there and thinking things through makes me feel lazy if I don’t come up with stuff.”
Writers: Stop Writing About Writing!
“Whenever a novel starts with the character of a writer sitting in a Hampstead kitchen, struggling to finish a novel, I throw the book straight in the bin… Kafka once advised writers to sit in a room and wait for the world to reveal itself to them. Right now, I’d rather get out and explore.”
A New Music Evangelist Assesses The Scene
“Holland’s long-time modern music champion, Reinbert De Leeuw… and his players [in the Schoenberg Ensemble] have forged remarkable bonds with a veritable who’s who of European modern music masters,” and literally changed the way the world listens to new music. “Wonderful things are happening and there’s much more variety in musical life than there was 40 years ago. We had to fight for it. Now there’s a much more favourable climate.”
A Future Dance Star Emerges In London
“Adam Linder, 25, won The Place Prize for dance 2008 for his contemporary duet Foie Gras, a critique of modern mass consumption. He was the youngest of 20 choreographers chosen from 174 hopefuls to compete for the £25,000 award.” And just like that, a quiet kid from Australia became one of the hot new personalities of the international dance world.
The Difficulty of Being Lionel Trilling
“‘I have one of the great reputations in the academic world,’ he wrote in his journal after being promoted to full professor in the Columbia English Department, in 1948. ‘This thought makes me retch.'”