A years-long dispute between the UK and the European Union over art sales and those who benefit from them is coming to a head this month, with the EU set to try and force Britain to accept the “artists’ retail rights levy” already in force on the continent. “Supporters of the levy… say that artists and their descendants should benefit from rising prices, while opponents argue that it will drive business away to nations that do not impose it, such as the United States and Switzerland.” UK officials say that they would be disproportionately hurt by the levy, since the country accounts for better than 50% of the European art market.
Tag: 12.20.05
A Revolution In Full Color
Andre Derain painted 30 landscapes of London during two brief visits in 1906 and 1907. Inspired by Claude Monet’s paintings of the River Thames just below the Houses of Parliament, Derain’s works in fact changed the face of landscape painting, and caused a generation of artists to rethink their use of color. “By saturating his London views in colours so fierce it hurts to look at them, Derain was entering into unknown aesthetic territory – territory in which colour had become independent of the form it was used to construct, a pictorial element in the picture subject only to the painter’s expressive intentions.”
BBC Reverses Course on Newfangled Architecture
“When the BBC commissioned three landmark new buildings it was praised as a patron of cutting edge architecture. But now the architects of two of the projects have been dropped and the third may not even happen… The BBC has hardly been forthcoming about these expensive schemes – understandable, perhaps, considering the regular bashings it has had in recent years – but isn’t it fair to ask what, exactly, it has been doing with the vast sums of the public’s money earmarked for these buildings?”
Antiquities Market Strong Despite True Trial
“The antiquities market appears to be thriving in spite of adverse publicity from the trial in Rome of Marion True, the former curator for antiquities at the Getty Museum in California… At Christie’s £8.2 million antiquities auction this month, its second highest total ever, a 4,000-year-old, 14in statue of a family group made a record for any Egyptian antiquity, selling for £1.6 million to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas… Looking ahead, another local market worth watching could be Greek art of the 19th and 20th centuries. Proceeds from the Greek art sales at Bonhams and Sotheby’s in London have nearly doubled in the past four years, rising to more than £8 million this year.”
Dublin Throws Struggling Theatre A Lifeline
Ireland’s beleagured Abbey Theatre is to receive a €4 million ($4.77 million) aid package from the federal government which will wipe out its €3.4 million debt and allow it to begin to dig out from several years of “catastrophic box office returns.”
UK’s National Portrait Gallery: 150 Years Of Art Crossed With Celebrity
“It is not always easy to grasp what Britain’s National Portrait Gallery is for. Is it about fame or the art of portraiture? And, if the former, how to differentiate it from Madame Tussaud’s or a historical [celebrity magazine]? … It was on a different wave of self-confidence that Lords Stanhope, Ellesmere and the others floated the idea of a National Portrait Gallery 150 years ago. They wanted a gallery that would reflect the Whig view of history, a parade of personalities who could fairly be seen as the cultural and political ancestors of what had only recently become an administratively centralised world empire. What they got, and we have still got, is rather different: a gallery that shows art in the service of human individuality.”
The Long Journey Back
Pianist Alexei Sultanov’s motor skills may have been destroyed by a crippling series of strokes, but the part of his brain that allowed music to reach him survived, and he fought to regain his ability to play the piano, even as more basic tasks such as walking or speaking eluded him. “On a cellular level, the musical brain remains virtually uncharted territory. The calamity of Sultanov’s strokes, though, showed how quickly a virtuoso’s brain can be robbed of its gifts–and how slowly and painstakingly they can be reclaimed.”
The Real Greatest Generation (Just Ask Them)
The first wave of the massive generation known as the Baby Boomers is about to turn 60, and Alex Beam can think of nothing worse than continuing to live in a world where the culture is dominated by his fellow self-absorbed children of the ’60s. “The continuing cultural hegemony of the boomers means that, for the rest of my life, every time I turn on a radio, I run the risk of hearing the song A Horse With No Name. Now there’s a reason to move to Canada. How does one loathe the boomers? Let me count the ways.”
Are We Too Hung Up On Acoustics?
“Music lovers, critics and writers worry too much about acoustics. Truly bad acoustics – whether you hear too little or too much – cannot be ignored, but the imperfect world that lingers between the two extremes just has to be dealt with. The hall is too bright (Walt Disney in Los Angeles); the hall is dead (Royal Festival Hall in London). There are devils everywhere intent on spoiling your listening pleasure. Go to concerts, and hear people cough and cellphones ring. Stay at home, and your CD player skips or an ambulance goes by the door. Relax. Rise above it.”
Seeing The Book Business From Both Sides
“Laurence J. Kirshbaum, who spent 30 years in the book business, nearly all of it at Time Warner and its corporate forebears, made his mark in the staid publishing world by signing up celebrity authors like Madonna and offering million-dollar advances to franchise writers like James Patterson and Nelson DeMille. Now he has become part of a steady stream of editors and publishers who, over the last two decades, have jumped to the agenting side of the business.”