[contextly_auto_sidebar id="npP8u6de6KK3cPDVFRq7dyGjkAQtokuK"] OFTEN I wonder how visual artists -- most of whom are not rich and not famous -- are faring while the global art market booms and auctions hit new heights. Solid data is hard to find, and much of the market is opaque. But an illuminating new story makes clear: Rising rents make it hard for artists in big cities to hold their … [Read more...]
Are Artists Really Eccentric?, and Forgetting the Beatles
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="K7jgN35EvK3IGRvlOHBgaw79mmby3Zkj"] ARTISTS, writers and musicians have been considered "eccentric" for hundreds of years, at least since the Renaissance and perhaps as long ago as the prehistoric age of the shaman. What's behind it? Is it just a narrow-minded stereotype? Are crazy artists better than sane, conventional ones? Whether artists really are eccentric, … [Read more...]
The Corcoran Gallery, and Help for Indie Bookstores
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="7mQJ6eVfmMvVhLp6vBoK3Zj91LEskmke"] THE big news in the culture world right now is the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and its new, uh arrangement. There are several ways to look at this, but I'm persuaded by a strong piece that calls this the effective end of an institution that was the city's first art museum (founded 1869.) This from Philip … [Read more...]
New NEA Chair and More on Starving Artists
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="0LTdLuqZwPqtzeNA2d7ehmGpnFkQovIb"] AT long last, we have a National Endowment for the Arts chair. The president has nominated Jane Chu, who runs Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Chu and has also been a performing pianist; she seems to be well-liked among people I know, considered “low key,” and capable. (This story, from Chu's hometown paper, … [Read more...]
“The Creative Economy,” and Malcolm Cowley
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="d46qMqunSiyQZaayiQ00FiACRUSOSiOO"] AN important survey has just come out from Otis College of Art and Design – its annual report on the “Creative Economy.” Previously concentrated on the Los Angeles area, the survey is now statewide. What motivates this study, and reports on things like "cultural tourism," is the urge by arts and culture types to show that we’re … [Read more...]
Calder, Bookstores and the Death of Cool
TODAY I’ve got a few smallish items to catch up on. First, it’s hardly news that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been on a roll recently. Over the weekend, I caught the Calder exhibit – “Calder and Abstraction” – and parts of it blew me away. I’ve seen my share of Alexander Calder sculptures over the years – there is a “stabile,” the stationary version of a mobile, outside the train … [Read more...]
What Are the Arts For?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="n5XpwhQfRtKBHPK1BXtQynuCSQpBNl9j"] WHY do we fight? Whether you are a World War II soldier trying to save an Italian Renaissance painting from the Nazis, or a 21st century American, trying to produce, assess or defend culture in a marketplace that's less and less interested in it, the question is the same. The answers -- some of them proposed by a new film -- may be … [Read more...]
Week in Review: Obama on Art vs Factories, and More
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="UzOdqTdRr0f4bA3skq8em9vtTLiLXNnZ"] WHAT seems to have been a throwaway line on the impracticality of the "art history major" by President Obama is stirring up art-world folk. I first read about it in this Hyperallergic post, "Obama Loves Art History But Thinks It's (Economically) Useless," which describes him praising skilled manufacturing jobs over, you know, artsy … [Read more...]
Rachel Kushner and Laura Owens
RECENTLY I spoke to novelist Rachel Kushner, whose The Flamethrowers is far and away among the most celebrated novels of the year, and artist Laura Owens, whose recent show of recent paintings in her own Boyle Heights space reminds us why she became the youngest artist to have a career retrospective at the MOCA.The two -- longtime friends and aesthetic allies -- talked about their own work, their … [Read more...]
Rachel Kushner’s "The Flamethrowers"
ONE of our favorite debuts in recent years is Rachel Kushner's Telex From Cuba. I was aware of this novel only because of a tip from New York literary agent Chris Calhoun, and once I read the galleys I was a bit abashed to see what a substantial talent was here in my city, until then invisible to me.In any case, Rachel is invisible no more. Here sophomore novel, The Flamethrowers, which came out … [Read more...]