The Real Underground Art Movement Most people wouldn't think of a subway car as artistic inspiration, but apparently, there are more than a few individuals who do. "It turns out that New York's subways have long been associated with art, and have themselves even been considered art, ever since the first IRT train rolled down the tracks in 1904." From the subway's original turnstiles to long-forgotten ads exhorting the public to use the service, to the stations themselves (no, not all of them,) art is everywhere in the New York underground, if you can just see through the grime. Chicago Tribune 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 6:18 am
Przybilla Leaving Atlanta Museum The curator of contemporary art at Atlanta's High Museum has resigned in order to study for her Ph.D. at nearby Emory University. Carrie Przybilla had been at the High Museum since 1988, and was responsible for the acquisition of an importantg collection of Ellsworth Kelly paintings, which will have their own gallery in the new building being constructed for the High. The museum will conduct a national search for a new curator. Atlanta Journal-Constitution 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 5:50 am
Art Or Advertising - Hmnnn.... "As fine art's conceptual leanings are increasingly difficult to distinguish from the facile surfaces of advertising, this ironic fusion of art and commerce is perhaps an inevitable progression.
Yet, despite the irony, fine art is faced with a very real problem presented by a rapidly evolving technological world, which means, in effect, a rapidly changing commercial world. What actually distinguishes "fine" art from the advertising techniques that it parodies and appropriates?" The Guardian (UK) 04/15/04
Posted: 04/14/2004 9:47 pm
The London That Never Was (Or Will Be) "The game of what-ifs in architecture is addictive. The organisers of a new Hayward Gallery touring exhibition had the brilliant idea of exploring the never-never land of building, drawing on the collections of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Victoria and Albert museum. So many of these visions are a great deal more exciting than the buildings we actually got." The Guardian (UK) 04/15/04
Posted: 04/14/2004 9:44 pm
Britain's 13,000-Year-Old Culture "The discovery of 13,000-year-old rock paintings in Nottinghamshire last year rewrote ice-age history in Britain. Today, archaeologists from all over Europe are in Creswell to discuss how the finds form part of a continent-wide culture known as the Magdalenian." The Guardian (UK) 04/15/04
Posted: 04/14/2004 9:41 pm
Sci-Fi Museum - Beam Me Up Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum in Seattle is getting close to opening. "Despite some forward-looking, hopeful exhibits, like “SETI Fiction and Fact,” which will explore the Paul Allen–funded effort to receive communications from actual ETs, SFM will essentially be, like any museum, retrospective. It will celebrate a past when geniuses could envision happier futures and it will chronicle sci-fi’s evolution into negativity, including the bleakness expressed in Planet of the Apes (the costume of Dr. Zaius will be on display)." Seattle Weekly 04/14/04
Posted: 04/14/2004 7:38 pm
You Notice No One Seemed To Care About The Viola "An 18th-century Italian-made violin reported missing earlier this week was found in an alleyway near the Manhattan bar where its owner had left it, police said. Odin Rathnam, the first-chair violinist for the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, had been in New York for a meeting and left the violin, along with a borrowed viola, at Yogi's bar on the Upper West Side. The violin, valued at about $95,000, was made by Bartolomeo Calvaros of Bergamo, Italy, between 1750 and 1755; the viola belonged to a friend." A bar patron actually claims to have hocked the fiddle at a local pawn shop for $600, but doesn't have a good explanation for how it ended up back in the alley. Miami Herald (AP) 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 5:34 am
Progress vs. Public In France, the peculiar type of civic modernization often referred to as "progress" by politicians is frequently met with anything from skepticism to outright hostility, and the construction of a huge new bridge over the Tarn River is the latest battleground. "The project is paradoxical. Nobody can dispute that it is going to be one of the most beautiful bridges in the world... But the bridge will do much more than lop two hours off the journey from Paris to the southwest coast. It is proof that in one of the most centralized countries in Europe, a bureaucrat in Paris can draw a line on a map and, at a stroke, bypass any local objections." Washington Post 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 7:04 am
Kara Walker Wins Smithsonian Art Prize "The Smithsonian American Art Museum will announce today that New Yorker Kara Walker has won its annual Lucelia Artist Award, worth $25,000. Walker, one of the country's most prominent African American artists, is best known for taking the genteel medium of the Enlightenment silhouette and enlarging it to wall size, then using it to convey surreal images of the antebellum South." The result is frequently shocking and controversial imagery conveyed in the normally soothing medium of silhouette, making Walker's art a fascinating reflection of America's shadowy history of race relations. Washington Post 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 7:08 am
The Arthur Miller Phenomenon At the age of 88, Arthur Miller is still cranking out work. He's got two plays in production, and a very busy schedule. "I still love the form. It's a great, great human adventure. Imagine having a human being stand up on a platform and mesmerize an audience and sometimes even illuminate something for them. You don't need machinery. It's a very primitive art. That's the beauty of it." The New York Times 04/15/04
Posted: 04/14/2004 9:36 pm
Towards A New National Black Theatre Nationwide, black theatre companies have "cut programming and reduced staff. Some troupes have had to cancel shows or suspend production in recent years. Other respected companies, like the Freedom Theater in Philadelphia and the New Jomandi in Atlanta, have struggled financially as public and private support continues to dwindle." But one hardy soul is traing to "establish something almost unheard of since the heyday of the black theater movement in the 1960's and 70's: a national black theater company." The New York Times 04/14/04
Posted: 04/14/2004 9:09 pm
NY Fringe Fest Roars Back The New York Fringe Festival has shaken off its financial misfortunes and says that more than "800 applications were received this year, a better than 10% jump over the 2003 total of 716. This was the first year artists could submit applications online; if one includes incomplete and late submissions (which are not adjudicated), that figure rises to over 900. The total two years ago was 585." Backstage 04/14/04
Posted: 04/14/2004 9:05 pm
Shaking Up Canada's Canonical Publisher "Venerable Canadian publishing company McClelland & Stewart is shaking off its dust jackets with the announcement that Doug Pepper will replace Douglas Gibson as the company's new publisher and president, effective May 31. Gibson, who became publisher of M&S in 1988 and president in 2000 will continue to work at M&S, returning to oversee the imprint Douglas Gibson Books, which he founded in 1986, on a full-time basis... Founded in 1906, M&S's catalogue is often viewed as the canon of Canadian literature with a list of authors that includes Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Rohinton Mistry, Alice Munro and Guy Vanderhaeghe, many of whom came to international prominence during Gibson's tenure." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 6:31 am
A Dictionary For The Clueless And Uncreative Everyone hates cliches, but no one does anything about them. In fact, at the end of the day, most of us would have to admit, with all due respect, that we are driven round the bend on a daily basis by friends and co-workers who can't stop tossing out overused metaphors and meaningless catchphrases. So what to do? Run right out and pick yourself up a copy of "The Dimwit's Dictionary," a compendium of 5,000 of the worst abuses of the English language, as well as reasonable alternatives for the more overused and irritating entries, all authored by the man who wrote the book on tired expressions. The tome may be a work in progress, but it's almost sure to be an overnight success with language geeks. Chicago Tribune 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 6:07 am
All In The Family - The Pulitzer Franz Wright won this year's Pulitzer Prize for poetry, but he's not the first in his family to win one. His father - James Wright, who died in 1980, "won the Pulitzer for poetry in 1972; the two Wrights are believed to be the first father and son ever to win the award." The New York Times 04/15/04
Posted: 04/14/2004 9:16 pm
Banff TV Fund Files For Bankruptcy One of Canada's most venerable arts institutions is in an unexpected financial crisis. The Banff Television Foundation yesterday "confirmed that the 33-person operation, cash-strapped and burdened with debt, sought protection yesterday from its creditors in a Calgary court. The organization mounts cultural events such as the 25-year-old Banff Television Festival." Officially, the foundation is blaming the SARS epidemic and the war in Iraq for much of its fiscal decline, but sources inside the organization are whispering that a pattern of mismanagement is the real culprit. The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 6:26 am
Kazaa Gets Sued In Oz, Adds New Lawyers The makers of the Kazaa file-sharing software have made some big changes to the team of lawyers defending them from charges of aiding and abetting piracy. The shakeup in the legal team occurred after the Australian recording industry launched a lawsuit against the company. The new lawsuit charges that Kazaa's very existence constitutes a breach of fair trade practices, and that the company engages in "misleading and deceptive conduct." Wired 04/15/04
Posted: 04/15/2004 5:26 am
Passion Sells Passion of the Christ may or may not be a good movie. But it's breaking box office records around the world and making a ton of money. "It's clear that the film has tapped into something which Hollywood normally avoids like the plague: Strong, assertive religious belief. Mel Gibson, who directed and financed the film himself outside the usual channels, will make a fortune from his enterprise, but it mirrors his strong belief." BBC 04/14/04
Posted: 04/14/2004 6:19 pm
Corleone - An Offer Film Critics Can't Refuse US film critics have named Mafia boss Vito Corleone, as played by Marlon Brando in The Godfather, as the greatest movie character of all time." BBC 04/14/04
Posted: 04/14/2004 6:13 pm
