“Promiscuous Picasso, Lord Byron the philanderer, Dylan Thomas the boozy womaniser: these were not simply bonking Bohemians, it seems, but artists doing what their genes told them to do. According to the researchers the greater the artistic endeavour, the larger the sexual appetites. (There are some obvious exceptions to this rule: Julio Iglesias once boasted that he had had sex with 3,000 women, but has never yet sung a decent song.) Artists have more sex, of course, because that is what they are expected to do. As rule breakers, they are assumed to act on impulse, unconstrained by the mores that apply to the rest of society.”
Tag: 12.02.05
Latin-American Art Takes On World
“Latin American art, which used to be collected mainly by Latin American buyers, is now reaching a broader audience than ever before. US, European and Southeast Asian collectors make-up 50% of the market today.”
Jazz In Crisis? Maybe Not…
“Perhaps it is an exaggeration to say that jazz is in crisis. It tootles along perfectly respectably, but inevitably lacks the resonance of its pioneering days. The same thing has been happening, for a couple of decades, to pop music too. The early 21st century has other wonders, so we should not worry unduly. An appreciation society is as good a way of saying it as any: this music is a magnificent part of our cultural history. Let us not be ashamed of looking back, and revelling in it.”
Hugo Boss Finalists
The Guggenheim Foundation announces six finalists for this year’s Hugo Boss Prize. “This year’s finalists are an international sampling of today’s trendiest artists. The group is heavily tipped toward performance art; none of the finalists are painters.”
Wendy Wasserstein Hospitalized With Leukemia
“Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein is battling leukemia at a New York hospital, a source close to her said yesterday. The Brooklyn-born writer’s condition was especially grave because an unspecified infection has prevented doctors from administering chemotherapy, the source said.”
Color Purple – Hurry Up And Wait
“Watching this beat-the-clock production summons the frustrations of riding through a picturesque stretch of country in a supertrain like the TGV. The landscape looks seductively lush and varied; the local populace seems lively and inviting, like people you might want to know; you can even hear tantalizing snatches of folks singing in an intriguing idiom as they go about their work. But it all passes by in a watercolor blur. This show isn’t stiff and anemic like its chief musical competition this season. But it never slows down long enough for you to embrace it.”
The New New Basel Miami
Art Basel Miami opens with a flourish. “While many top galleries returned, 55 percent of the galleries chosen were new this year — a deliberate attempt to keep the fair fresh, said Art Basel director Sam Keller. The strategy worked, said many fairgoers.”
Solving Classical Music With Technology?
“A growing number of classical music purveyors are looking to the new digital technology for solutions to some of their most vexing problems. Just as it makes sense for recording companies with declining CD sales to jump aboard the download bandwagon, so too does it make sense for classical groups seeking new audiences to break ground in cyberspace.”
Color Purple An Honorable Attempt
“Vastly improved from its pre-Broadway incarnation in Atlanta, Griffin’s ambitious production opened here Thursday night with its dignity intact and no cause whatsoever for embarrassment by any of the impassioned parties involved. This is an earnest, honest, intermittently engaging and competently directed attempt to wrestle the chronological sweep of Walker’s epic and intensely personal novel about the 40-year journey to self-worth of an abused rural Georgian named Celie into an accessible, middle-brow Broadway musical. It is an almost impossible task.”
Save Venice By Flooding Her?
Presented last week to city leaders, the $117-million project would involve injecting seawater under Venice to raise it 30 centimeters (12 inches) in 10 years. “Our hypothesis entails drilling 12 holes, each 30 centimeters wide and 700 meters long, within a 10-kilometer radius around the city. Each hole will pump seawater into the ground beneath Venice. At 700 meters below ground there are sand formations saturated 100 percent with water, which will expand if we put more in. This would generate an increase in volume and the raising of the floor.”