“Most often associated with the Grupo Frente movement of the 1950s and ’60s, Palatnik was among the first Brazilian artists to take up a style called Concretism, which envisioned formalist geometric abstraction as a pure style of art-making that referred to nothing other than itself. … While he was a member of that group, Palatnik produced works that he called ‘Kinechromatic Devices’. … Composed of lights and industrial materials such as metal, fabric, and wood and positioned somewhere between painting and sculpture, these objects seemed to make lush abstractions lurch into motion when activated.” – ARTnews
What Do Artists Need Now? Why Not Ask Them?
“I think that’s the problem with the model. The institutions do have to exist, but when s**t gets hard they have to care about their staff, not their gig workers, or their artists. I mean they might say that they do, but there’s no net for the artists I don’t think because the artists aren’t employed by anyone. The artists are self-employed.” – Dance Magazine
Research: The Conditions Under Which Audiences Say They’ll Return To Theaters
What will it take to make people feel confident enough to return to going to shows? – American Theatre
With Theatres Shuttered, Broadway Stars Put On Their Own Audio Plays
“These shows have been assembled, wholly or in part, by stage actors in isolation. Some … have considerable voice-over experience. Others have little or none. … We spoke to performers about recording at home, building a role through phonemes alone and whether audio drama can replace live theater — for now, anyway.” – The New York Times
Do We Need To Change The Way We Depict Mental Illness In Dance? (Perhaps Not)
Kathleen McGuire: “The portrayals of distress can feel clichéd — Lady Capulet writhing on the floor, or, in Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre, the animalistic woman in the attic or the corps of men in Jane’s path to illustrate her mental demons. But as someone who has a lived experience of major depression, anxiety and grief, these representations do not offend me. … If we become too precious about these depictions in dance, it will work against a meaningful movement to destigmatize mental health issues.” – Dance Magazine
Social-Distance Shaming, The Internet’s Latest Scourge
Amanda Hess: “We are desperate for an outlet, and [online] finger-pointing is one of the few hobbies still accessible to those sheltering in place. Joggers have been accused of ‘manspreading’ their droplets across public airways. An infant was scolded for appearing maskless outdoors. Somebody called the cops on a guy for playing the trumpet, describing it as an ‘instrument that uses saliva and wind.'” Then there’s the iconic image of this phenomenon: the photo of sunbathers on Manhattan’s Christopher Street Pier. – The New York Times
Prediction: Elite Colleges Will Dominate In The Post-COVID Marketplace
There’s a recognition that education — the value, the price, the product — has fundamentally shifted. The value of education has been substantially degraded. There’s the education certification and then there’s the experience part of college. The experience part of it is down to zero, and the education part has been dramatically reduced. You get a degree that, over time, will be reduced in value as we realize it’s not the same to be a graduate of a liberal-arts college if you never went to campus. You can see already how students and their parents are responding. – New York Magazine
University Off The Campus? The Virus Will Radically Reshape Higher Ed
Already, the University of Michigan anticipates losses of $400 million to $1 billion this year across its three campuses. California’s university system suffered $558 million in costs due to the coronavirus in March alone. Meanwhile, the number of students pursuing a college degree could be the smallest in two decades. – New York Magazine
Igor Levit – A Singular Pianist
Alex Ross: “Other pianists of Levit’s generation may have achieved wider mass-market fame—Lang Lang and Yuja Wang come first to mind—but none have comparable stature as a cultural or even a political figure. In German-speaking countries, Levit is a familiar face not only to classical-music fans but also to a broader population that shares his leftist, internationalist world view. He has appeared on mainstream German TV shows; participated in political panel discussions; and attended the annual gathering of the Green Party.” – The New Yorker
For 600 Years, The Buddha Was Never Depicted In Human Form. How Did He Get A Face?
“The story of how the image of Buddha finally broke forth into the world after 600 years of symbolism is one of the most intriguing in the history of art — one that is inextricably tied up with the advent of a new dynasty in India that, unconstrained by the conventions of the past, was able to set the image of the Buddha free into the world of men.” – T — The New York Times Style Magazine
How A Soap Opera Institution Is Returning To Shooting While Maintaining Social Distance
“They stand five feet apart, cannot hold hands, kiss or simulate a brawl, but the cast and crew of Neighbours — a long-running Australian soap opera that returned to production in late April amid coronavirus restrictions — still hope to convey the same heightened conflict, intimacy and drama that the show’s fans have come to love. … [The series] could set an important precedent for the global screen industry as it tries to figure out how a phased reintroduction to shooting television series and films might work.” – The New York Times
Some Young Afghans Turn To Writing Erotic Poetry To Get Through The Lockdown
In the land of the Taliban? Yes — Afghanistan is historically part of the Persianate world (Dari, the official language, is a Persian dialect), and metaphor-filled erotic poetry has a thousand-year history in Persian literature. Hundreds of young writers have lately been posting their amorous verse on social media, and while there has certainly been backlash, there’s no censorship by the Afghan government. – The Guardian
Amid The Epidemic, There’s One Place Where Dance Goes On (Almost) Undisturbed
“This rural compound in India’s southern tip is one of the few places where professional dancers can still do what the rest of the performing arts world can only dream about. At Nrityagram, dancers experience neither loneliness nor confinement. They gather in the same dance hall for hours at a stretch, every day, to train, rehearse and perform — if only for one another.” – The Washington Post
This May Be The First US Theater To Call Off Its 2020-21 Season Due To COVID
In place of a regular mainstage season, Theater Latté Da in Minneapolis will expand its “Next” workshopping program, “making public the shows it is developing for the future, keeping writers, actors and other artists busy creating work even though it’s not certain when it will be shared with audiences.” – Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Movie Theatres In UK Won’t Open Until At Least July 4
“[A] 60-page document, entitled Our Plan to Rebuild, sets out that cinemas are part of a ‘high-risk’ group of businesses that will be the last to reopen from July 4 onwards” — and even that date is not guaranteed. – Variety
Jerry Stiller, 92
“[He] rose to national prominence on a barrage of one-line jokes and sly ethnic humor, with his Jewish background and [wife/partner Anne] Meara’s Irish Catholic heritage forming a comic motif. With age, he transformed into a master of righteous indignation and raucous anger, drawing on memories of fights between his parents to create some of the funniest moments of the 1990s’ most celebrated and popular sitcom.” – The Washington Post
March 8 Choral Concert In Amsterdam Led To 4 Virus Deaths
Of the chorus of 130, 102 were diagnosed with the virus. – Diapason
Musicians Lobby For Greater Share Of Streaming Revenue
The campaign calls for solutions to the problems that the lockdown has inflicted on musicians. The suspension of live music under lockdown has cut off most artists’ one dependable source of income: gigs. And payments from streaming services such as Spotify are so negligible that they cannot hope to fill the massive hole in artists’ incomes. – The Guardian
NY Public Library Acquires Martha Graham Archive
“For the dance division, it really was the only significant gap left that we had in telling the story of early American modern dance. We’ve had material belonging to Martha Graham in the archive for a very long time, but Martha herself, throughout her lifetime, had always said that she didn’t want there to be an archive.” – The New York Times
AMC Stock Soars On Rumors Amazon Might Buy Theatre Chain
The stock movement was notable. AMC shares were trading at $5.62, up nearly 40%. They had been up as much as 70% in premarket trade. – Deadline
The Productive Value Of Anger
“Anger is epistemically valuable not just for the individual, but also for those around them. When co-opted skilfully by just causes, anger enables victims to identify similarities in their lived experiences, overcoming the superficial differences that drive them apart.” – Aeon
This Author Published A History Of Two Millennia Of Restaurants Just As Every Restaurant Shut Down
What does he think will happen now? “Nothing will go back to how it was and the new normal will reflect some aspects of lockdown life. More people will work from home, more people will cook at home, more restaurants will deliver food and more producers will have a closer access to consumers. These are morsels of good fortune that we should cling to.” – LitHub
The CDC Uses A Chinese Textile To Illustrate A Cover Story On Virus Transmission
Or rather, misuses the textile, a late-18th-century military rank badge. “Byron Breedlove and Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, authors of the cover feature ‘Auspicious Symbols of Rank and Status,’ try to give an art historical analysis of this textile their best shot. However, their attempt at intertwining art and science takes a disastrous, even comical turn in the sixth paragraph, in which they state that ‘The birds and animals featured on the various rank badges (excepting, among others, dragons, unicorns, and qilin) may also serve as zoonotic reservoirs capable of transmitting viral pathogens that can cause respiratory infections in humans.'” – Hyperallergic