On the 1940 morning when the invasion began, “one of [the] Nazi officers had the misfortune to pass an elderly gray-haired lady on the street, who responded by remarking on his rudeness and smacking his hat off his head with her cane. After he apologized and fled, she chuckled to herself: ‘Well, we’ll each have to fight this war as best we can; that’s the fourth hat I’ve knocked into the mud this morning.'”
So, Is The Design At The Rio Olympics Any Good?
“The collapsed sailing ramp has been hauled out of the water, a Russian diplomat has heroically killed a carjacker (or maybe not), and 450,000 condoms await action in the leaky athletes village. Beset by construction problems and delays and with preparations decreed the ‘worst ever’ by the International Olympic Committee, how is the architecture and design of the XXXI Olympiad shaping up so far?”
52 Portraits: A Year Of Solo Dance Videos
The subjects of this Sadler’s Wells project, whose episodes are being posted online weekly through 2016, “range from the 29-year-old dance-maker Alexandrina Hemsley to the 91-year-old choreographer Robert Cohan, and from performance artist Hetain Patel to Royal Ballet principal Zenaida Yanowsky.”
Is The Seattle Art Fair Ready For The Major Leagues?
The brainchild of billionaire Microsoft tech giant, Seahawks owner and avid art collector Paul Allen, the 70,000-square foot, 84-gallery event brought 18,000 visitors to the Emerald City last weekend. A cursory rundown of SAF’s stats, which included an exhibitor list of heavy hitters like Pace and David Zwirner, presents like a fully formed Art Basel air-dropped on the West Coast via Jeff Bezos-commissioned drone, but it was the wave of companion fairs and satellite exhibits that elevated Allen’s main event from what could have been an impressive-yet-boring gathering to a unique addition to the contemporary art scene.
An Artist Residency In Creative Placemaking That Went Terribly Wrong
“The day after their termination, the artists sent out a joint statement claiming that they had been “run out of town” by MAA and that the Mill Hill Social Practice Residency was an “art-washing” scheme. This scathing essay set off a stink bomb that caused a flurry of national attention and made both MAA and the artists look unprofessional.”
America’s (One) Great Cubist
Robert Storr: “[Stuart] Davis was also the only first-class Cubist to emerge from North America. In my estimation he was the equal of the great Fernand Léger … I would even argue that, painting-by-painting, Davis was in some respects Léger’s superior.”
New Reality TV Show: Can You Beat This Music App?
“Beat Shazam has been picked up by Fox in the US where it will be produced by British executive Mark Brunett, and is basically a modern spin on Name That Tune, where contestants play against the music identification app to try and identify a song first. It has been a long and curious journey for Shazam but, unlike many of its peers, it is still going after 15 years, which is several lifetimes in digital music.”
Diversity In Books Isn’t Just About Writers, It’s Also About The Marketing
“If you go to most other independents, they will have a section of African-American books. But a whole bookstore filled with books on African-Americans? That’s something that people should see.”
The Largest Spray-Painted Artwork In The World? (In Rio)
“The work, entitled Etnias, covers more than 30,000 square feet of a formerly abandoned warehouse in Rio’s newly reinvigorated port district. Using a wild quiltwork of brightly colored geometric shapes, it portrays the faces of five indigenous men and women from five continents.”
Edinburgh Festivals Say They Need To Be More International Post-Brexit
“Veteran arts impresario Richard Demarco warned that the Brexit vote was the biggest threat to the Edinburgh Festival in its history and was a betrayal of its roots. Mr Barley admitted Brexit would mean a “seismic shift” in the UK’s cultural landscape but insisted this need not mean ‘doom and gloom’ for Edinburgh’s festivals, which are facing the prospect of public funding cuts in the next few years.”
What’s A Harpsichord For? It’s For Proving Us Wrong, Says Its Newest Star Player
“Think the harpsichord is an inherently limited instrument, too quiet, too inexpressive, too inferior to a modern piano? That, [Mahan Esfahani] argues, implies asking the wrong question to begin with. Think a harpsichordist must naturally align with an early-music movement that awakened so much interest in his instrument? Wrong. … Think that the harpsichord is exclusively an instrument for the music of centuries past? Wrong.”
In Weirdest Art Case Of The Year, Painter Says He Didn’t Paint This Work, But Owner Insists He Did And Sues Him For Lying About It
“The artist Peter Doig took the stand here Monday in an odd federal court case in which the owner of a landscape painting is accusing Mr. Doig of falsely denying that he created the work while a young man in Canada.”
Alberta Ballet, Working Its Way Out Of Deficit, Asks Each Supporter In The Province For $50
“Alberta Ballet will be asking supporters across the province to each donate $50 to the organization over the next seven months to help weather financial hardships the company has suffered over the last few years. It’s part of a $1-million fundraising campaign launched on its 50th anniversary to help put the organization, the second-largest ballet company in Canada, on steadier ground financially after revenue fell drastically in its 2013-2014 season.”
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Makes All Regular Concerts Free For Students
“The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, already a national leader in offering affordable concerts, said Tuesday it is offering free tickets to school and college students to unlimited concerts during the 2016-17 season. Students can go online now and order tickets a week before single tickets go on sale to the general public.”
Soprano Patrice Munsel, 91, Star Of Opera And Television
At age 17, she became the youngest singer ever to debut at the Met, where she was known for soubrette and coloratura roles and sang 225 performances over 15 years. She sang popular standards on her own radio show in the 1940s, became a beloved leading lady on Broadway, and even had her own variety series, The Patrice Munsel Show, on ABC in 1957 and ’58.
Opera Director Kay Walker Castaldo Dead At 67
“[She] directed productions for Opera Company of Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Teatro Colón, and New York City Opera. Since 2012, she had been associate professor at the School of Music, Theatre and Dance at the University of Michigan.” Says former Opera Company of Philadelphia chief Robert Driver, “She is probably the only director who never raised her voice.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.09.16
Fifth Anniversary Highlights: Art for Art’s Sake?
During the month of August, Engaging Matters is republishing some of the most widely read articles from the five years this blog has been in existence. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-08-09
Lookback: Our Girl in Chicago on preparing to see a movie
From 2006: I sometimes do too much fieldwork before seeing a movie, building up a whole structure of preconceptions that I then have to trundle into the theater with me and crane my neck to peer around at the thing itself. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-08-09
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Poetry Versus The Machines
“Artificial intelligence and machine intelligence are about decreasing the length of human perception. Google autocomplete is an attempt to shorten the time and path between thought and a response — to decrease the time and path between seeing something and categorizing it or identifying it and moving on. To me what poetry in particular is so good at is defamiliarization. Increasing the length of perception.”
Breaking Shakespeare’s Grip On How Theatre Tells History
“That Shakespearean model, with its focus on kings and the high-born, is wedded, one might argue, to the Great Man theory of history. Commoners must fight for space on Shakespeare’s stage—and it’s not obvious whether the drunkards and prostitutes who populate the tavern where Prince Hal escapes the burdens of court, for instance, serve as rehearsals for responsive sovereignty, critics of royal ideology, or comic baggage to be shed on the way to the throne.”
Say Goodbye To “The Digital Divide” (It’s Gotten More Complex)
“Traditionally, the way the digital divide has been portrayed has definitely been a binary,” says Crystle Martin, a postdoctoral researcher at University of California–Irvine who specializes in studying digital literacy. “It’s been viewed, if you give people access to technology, they will be able to be online and able to access all the things available. But it actually doesn’t turn out to be true.”
FX TV Network CEO: How We Changed Our Diversity Equation
Regarding directors, “we just happened to all be working in a system that was racially biased, and weren’t taking responsibility for stepping up and acknowledging that and saying, ‘OK, we will be the change,’” he added.
Increasingly We’re Using Technology To Do Art History. But It Has Limitations
“One of the beautiful but frustrating things about art history is that it can never be an exact science. Whatever forensic examination becomes available must be interpreted by human beings. Just as the introduction of DNA evidence has permitted huge strides forward in criminal investigations, but has not proven definitive in courtrooms, so too, digital art-historical discoveries have offered ‘eureka moments’ that have led to duelling opinions rather than resolutions.”