Roberta Smith: “What made the 2010s the most thrilling of all the decades I’ve spent in the New York art world was the rising presence of black artists of every ilk, on every front: in museums, commercial galleries, art magazines, private collections and public commissions. During this exhilarating sea change new talent emerged, older talent was newly appreciated and the history of American art was suddenly up for grabs — and in dire need of rewriting.” – The New York Times
Tag: 11.24.19
Dorothy Seiberling, Editor Who Explained Avant-Garde Art To The Public, Dead At 97
“As Life magazine’s art editor, Ms. Seiberling helped shape public opinion about the 20th century’s foremost avant-gardist artists” — most notably, Georgia O’Keeffe and the Abstract Expressionists — “encouraging open-minded consideration of their importance.” – The New York Times
The 10 Most Influential Films Of The Decade (Per The New York Times)
Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott: “The most popular movies and the movies we love most aren’t always the ones that shape the industry, reflect the times or change the terms of cultural discourse — for better or worse. The films on the first list, whether we like them or not …, made a difference in the world of entertainment and beyond.” (also includes ten favorites from each critic) – The New York Times
Vienna State Opera Finally Stages Work Written By A Woman (It Only Took 150 Years)
“I really want to shake up this old-fashioned, beautiful, wonderful place a bit,” says composer Olga Neuwirth, 51, whose adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando opens on December 8. (The house actually commissioned an opera from Neuwirth back in 2004, only to reject the libretto written by Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek.) – The Guardian
Kanye West Popped-Up An Opera – So How Was It?
Mark Swed: “Typically, a new opera is a multiyear project, so the very notion of this pop-up one, which seems to have been in the works for a couple of weeks at most, is extraordinary. But if you go back to the 18th and 19th centuries, operas were popular entertainment put on with the regularity and immediacy that television shows are today.” – Los Angeles Times
Women Writers Still Don’t Get Respect For Their Work
“Ten years ago I went to a speed-dating event in Belfast where I told a succession of potential dates I was a writer and was met with a unanimous sense of disappointment. “I thought you might be a nurse,” one man said, his face falling.” – Irish Times
Propwatch: the climbing tackle in ‘Touching the Void’
How do you capture the scale, the struggle, the elemental extremity of mountain climbing? In the theatre? It’s simpler than you think. After all, they both use the same kit. – David Jays
Hollywood’s Blockbusters Are Squeezing Out Everything Else
“These huge franchise pictures are elbowing out midrange and lower-budget movies. It’s harder for midsize movies to get theaters in the first place, much less hold onto them long enough to build an audience.” – The New York Times
In 1988 The Shroud Of Turin Was Declared A Fraud. But…
Oddly the original data was unavailable to researchers. But in 2017, a legal request under the Freedom of Information Act obtained the raw information for the first time. Their results, published recently in Archaeometry, show that the issue of the dating of the Turin Shroud is far from settled. – The Daily Beast
How Taylor Swift Took On Equity Firms Over Ownership Of Her Music
At a time of public outrage over corporate greed and a heightened awareness of gender-based power dynamics, the 29-year-old Ms. Swift was able to turn a commercial dispute into a cause célèbre. – The New York Times