More and more museums are showing commercial work sponsored by corporations. Commercial work as in motorcycles or clothes or advertising. The shows have proven popular both with audiences and corporate interests. But to what extent are museums selling their souls for such shows? – Chronicle of Higher Education
Tag: 11.13.00
THE OLD SUPPLY AND DEMAND PROBLEM
Last week’s big auction sales in New York starkly reflect the problems of an almost overly robust art market: There are now so many wealthy buyers ready to throw their disposable income onto their walls that the auction houses are having trouble meeting demand with high-quality works. “Rich collectors are under no financial pressure to sell, and when they decide to do so they often have hopelessly unrealistic, some would say greedy, expectations of the prices they will get. This problem is compounded by the fact that three auction houses are now fishing in a pool where once only two cast their bait.” – The Telegraph (UK)
WHERE ART AND VALUES COLLIDE
JSG Boggs travels the world racking up bills that he then offers to settle with his drawings of money at face value. Think this $100 bill isn’t worth a $100? You’d be a fool not to take it. – New Statesman
ANOTHER USE FOR CRAWL SPACE
With its collection bursting the seams of its main museum spaces, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has created a new Byzantine art gallery to be unveiled this week in the dark, brick-lined space beneath its Grand Staircase – nicknamed “the Crypt.” – New York Times
A BATH FOR ART
The owner of an seniors’ home in the UK called his insurance company after a water tank drenched the lower floor of his house. “While counting the cost of repairs, they found the torrent had washed away a coat of grime which coated the dining room ceiling below. And to their amazement, they realised the panels were decorated with antique paintings, hidden from view for decades at the 250-year-old residential home. The paintings are worth £500,000. – The Sun (UK)
BUILD ON THIS
Promoting a movement called the “second modernity” Holland is considered to be Europe’s top nation for architecture. Is it? – The Independent (UK)
PROTECTING THE RIGHT RIGHTS?
Seven years after it was proposed, a bill designed to protect the basic rights of artists awaits approval by the Australian Senate this month. “The bill contains three basic rights: the right to attribution, the right against false attribution, and – the most contentious – the right to integrity. This would allow artists to protest against ‘derogatory’ treatment of their work – a book published with a chapter removed, for example, or a painting hung in the wrong position.” Sounds great, but film and television groups have already expressed concern that the bill might discourage industry investment, and writers fear they’ll lose the modest bargaining power they already possess. – The Age (Melbourne) 11/13/00
ARE WE DUMBING DOWN?
“There simply is no clear evidence of any dumbing down except by the most crude and irrelevant criteria. The accusation is the final gasp of an upper-class male elite and their co-optees. They took it on themselves to define the distinction between high and popular culture and then police its boundaries. They were the high priests guarding the purity of the canon of cultural tradition. Even the language – high, low, low brow – demonstrates the snobbish elitism used to buttress their position of power. They’ve lost that, and now they’ve lost the debate.” – The Guardian 11/13/00
PARIS OF THE EAST
Shanghai’s artists are vying to recapture the city’s pre-Communist reputation as a thriving international art center – the “Paris of the East,” as it was internationally known before the Cultural Revolution. One problem: government authorities would rather showcase high-budget imports like the recent 3000-cast member “Aida” rather than allow exhibits of the controversial art of China’s politically conscious youth. – The Age (Melbourne) (AFP) 11/13/00
FUNDING ENVY
Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Director Robyn Nevin said in a recent lecture that the Australian government’s long-awaited arts blueprint – which was intended to increase funding for performing arts organizations – has in fact fallen far short of delivering enough funding to enable the theater to thrive. By comparison, “Britain’s National Theatre received 20 times the subsidy granted to the STC though its audience base was half that of Sydney’s and its average ticket prices were about 40 per cent higher.” – Sydney Morning Herald