Perhaps it’s a mistake for the UK to spend millions of pounds trying to “save” art from being exported from the country. “Sir Nicholas Serota said it was not necessarily better to buy pieces to display in the UK rather than abroad just because they were already here. Speaking at an acquisitions conference, he suggested more should be spent on 20th Century and contemporary art.”
Tag: 11.11.03
Sucking Up To Guinness
Today, the Guinness Book of World Records will sell its 100 millionth copy. In honor of the occasion, Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten is making an attempt to get himself into the book with “the shortest bylined newspaper story ever written.” (For the record, his blatant suck-up is 1/56 the length of this blurb about it.)
The Irony Of Success
“Space for a writer is sometimes the most precious of commodities. It’s possible, in fact, that if a certain government official in Tanzania hadn’t been so pig-headed, Moyez Vassanji would be practising electrical engineering in that country instead of having to deal with the emotional effects of winning this year’s Giller Prize.”
No More Fund Drives? Dream On.
So, now that NPR has $200 million of the late Joan Kroc’s money, it can stop holding those awful on-air beg-a-thons, right? Wrong. While fans of the public radio network may be dreaming ecstatically of what that kind of money could do for listeners, NPR execs are hoping that, if anything, the Kroc gift will inspire more large donations. There is also some fear of a backlash: NPR is not popular with the Republicans currently in charge of Congress, and many would like to see the network’s public funding eliminated.
Legacy And Profit: The Riopelle Battle
“Jean-Paul Riopelle’s three children fear some of their father’s key works of art will be sold at the same fire-sale prices that purchased his beloved vintage cars… Yseult, Sylvie and Yann, the three children of the noted abstract artist, are asking the [Quebec Superior Court] for an injunction to stop what they describe as an unnecessary, amateurish auction. They say if so many Riopelles are sold at once on short notice, the value of Riopelle’s art will diminish.”
Goya And The Art Of Violence
Goya’s images of war atrocities were shocking and appalling to the audiences of his time, which isn’t surprising, since ‘war art’ in the early 19th century tended to consist of “generally heroic allegories, made to present a larger story of conquest and nobility through grand compositions and bold lighting.” But why should the same images still shock us today, in an age when wars are broadcast live on television? Could it be because contemporary art has simply never found a serious way to deal with the horror of war?
Are Thug Feuds Killing Hip-Hop?
Renee Graham has had about enough of the ongoing lyrical battle between rappers Ja Rule and 50 Cent, and she’s also begun to wonder whether the hip-hop community really took notice of the violent deaths of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. seven years ago. “This was a cautionary tale written in blood to rappers, their fans, and the media that helped stoke the so-called East Coast-West Coast rap war. Less than a decade on, it’s as if no lessons have been learned from the pointless deaths of two of the most influential artists in the history of rap music.”
As If A Sing-Along Sound of Music Weren’t Trauma Enough
Eight audience members who plunged twenty feet into an orchestra pit while participating in a sing-along performance of The Sound of Music are suing the theatre which produced the show. “Several ‘nuns’ and others dressed in lederhosen suffered a variety of serious injuries after being invited on to a temporary stage set up over the orchestra pit for the Sing-a-Long Sound Of Music show. It is understood that the victims intend to claim damages for the psychological trauma of being involved in the ‘horrific’ incident, as well as their physical injuries.”
Two Strads For Sale
Two Stradivarius instruments, a violin valued at $1.3 million and a cello estimated to be worth over $800,000, hit the auction block this week in London. As usual, there is little chance that either instrument will be purchased directly by anyone who can play them, as most of the world’s high-end instruments are now bought and sold by collectors, who may choose to lend them out to performers, or not. Earlier this week, another million-dollar Strad violin failed to sell at auction when no one met the asking price.
Good Thing They’ve Got Those High Ceilings…
“The world’s largest signed Pablo Picasso canvas, which has not been seen in public for 20 years, was unveiled in London on Tuesday. A 10-metre high reproduction of his work Deux Femmes Courant Sur La Plage is on show at the Royal Opera House. The painting was copied from the original in 1924 by a scene painter for use as a stage curtain in a ballet. It will go on permanent display at London’s Theatre Museum as part of a £12m redevelopment.”