“On Friday, the state education watchdog Rosobrnadzor forced the European University in St. Petersburg, a private post-graduate school for the social sciences and humanities, to halt all education activities. The order came after a St. Petersburg district court ruled that the university had violated several legal regulations.”
A Dead End-End Career Track For English Majors?
“Traditionally, writing and teaching at the university level have been the career paths of choice for English majors. Nice work if you can get it. I never could, which is why I’ve spent most of my life as a librarian. My up and down career as a writer, on the other hand, has afforded me much satisfaction and very little money… My real career as a librarian is all very well, but since it’s fundamentally a paycheck, I can’t muster excessive enthusiasm for an institution that provides a lifelong education free of charge for the broadest conceivable public and generally represents American values at their best. I didn’t major in English to serve American values. I majored in English so that I could spend the rest of my life arguing about books and culture, even if I had to do so in my off hours, even if the argument was chiefly with myself. I still think it was the best decision I ever made.”
‘The Surrealist Country Par Excellence’ – Mexico, Cauldron Of Modern Art In The Americas
Mexico was called ‘the surrealist country par excellence’ by no less a Surrealist than André Breton himself. J. Hoberman writes that the show of Mexican Modernism at the Philadelphia Museum of Art “presents a … response to European art that, at least up until World War II, was equal to and in some regards stronger than that of North America.”
Have A Look At Oskar Schlemmer’s ‘Triadic Ballet’, The Original Bauhaus Dance
Last month we told you about an updated version of this work with choreography by Karole Armitage. Here’s video of a 1970s attempt at reconstructing the original.
What Do ‘I Love Lucy’, ‘Seinfeld’, ‘Arrested Development’, Rick And Morty’, And Every Other Sitcom Have In Common? The Magic Formula
“Almost all sitcoms can be divided into seven segments, each of which sets up or advances the plot in a specific way. As a result, it’s possible to predict at around what minute in an episode the main character will declare their goal, encounter their first obstacle, and succeed or fail at getting what they want. This formula is the reason sitcoms can be written at such a fast rate, and sometimes wind up seeming, well … formulaic. But it’s also the reason many sitcoms are able to find new and groundbreaking ways of being funny.”
Afrofuturism – A Cultural Genre Comes Into Its Own
“Familiar to some, exotic to others, the term refers loosely to an unlikely fusion of parts: Egyptian and other non-Western mythologies, mysticism and magical realism with Afrocentricity, modern technology and science fiction. A freighted concept in more ways than one, it gained traction this year, muscling its way into the pop cultural mainstream via the intertwined worlds of entertainment, art and style.”
Study: Watching Romantic Comedies Makes You More Empathetic
“Repeated exposure to romantic films led to increases in sensitivity for four of the five moral intuitions,” writes a research team led by Matthew Grizzard of the University at Buffalo–State University of New York. “At the same time, any exposure to action films seemed to erode those changes.”
From Victim To Feminist Heroine: Artemesia Gentileschi
Curator Judith Mann: “She is a phenomenon in terms of the history of art, because we really understood her life far earlier than we cared, really, about her painting. And the understanding of Artemisia as a painter, as an artist, followed the fanfare of her celebrated rape, and it made a rather skewed understanding of this artist. And now we try to go back and fill in and properly understand.”
They’re Still Trying To Find Ferdinand And Imelda Marcos’s Mysteriously-Disappeared Art Collection
“As time has passed, the government has tried out different, more innovative strategies to find the art. But the results have been slow to come in, and the Marcos family is once again gaining political power. … Earlier this year, it started an interactive website to crowdsource information. Like any respectable social media campaign, the website features a clever Twitter hash tag: #ShowMeTheMonet.”
Exit Interview: Alan Gilbert Prepares To Leave The New York Philharmonic
“In his wake, he leaves a formidable legacy of experimentation that expanded not just what an orchestra can and will do, but who it’s for. Gilbert and [Helga] Davis sat down in his office to talk about what he means by serving a community, the moments in performance he lives for, and how maybe he could’ve benefited from throwing tantrums and showing his stress more.” (podcast)
Bob Krasnow, 82, Executive Who Revitalized Elektra Records
“His first orders of business were far from easy: Firing over 200 employees and cutting the artist roster by nearly 90 percent … Starting nearly from scratch, he then built Elektra – via acts like Metallica, Anita Baker, Motley Crue, 10,000 Maniacs, The Cure, The Pixies, The Sugarcubes (featuring Bjork) and others – into a powerhouse.”
The Perilous Art Of Restoring Leonardo’s Art
In 2011, the Louvre’s director of conservation, Ségolène Bergeon Langle, resigned in the midst of a scandal that followed the restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne” (c. 1503). Begun in 2009, the restoration was supposed to be a celebratory event to kick off a series of restorations of Leonardo paintings in the Louvre’s collection (of 15 known to exist, the museum owns six). However, Langle, along with other experts, felt the conservators had gone too far in removing the various layers of yellowed varnish, eliminating or modifying original aspects of the painting.
Arts Council England Report: Arts Organizations Not Doing Enough To Serve Disabled
“According to the annual population survey, the percentage of the working age population with some form of disability is 19%. The report found that, in 2014/15, 26 of the largest NPOs – those that employ more than 50 people – had no disabled employees at all.”
Paul Dresher Remembers Pauline Oliveros
“While she was fully grounded in the practicalities of making music, living and thriving in the physical world, she was always able to connect directly to that place in our less-than-conscious experience of the world—a place where we experience the moment more deeply than we assume possible and a place that can reveal mystery and magic.”
Trump To Offer Inaugural Gig To Andrea Bocelli?
A source exclusively told Page Six, “Trump has a long-standing relationship with Bocelli, and wants to ask him in person to perform. The plan is to have acts at the inauguration that are meaningful for Trump, and he’s a huge fan of Bocelli.”
Only Marina Abramović Could Have A 70th Birthday Party Like This
“Facilitators in white lab coats’ – art students who told me they found the gig through Craigslist and similar services – were stationed about the atrium, applying swatches of gold leaf to participants’ mouths. … The decoration was meant to recall both Orthodox Christian icons and the Ayurvedic practice of feeding gold and honey to infants. It was messy and got in the men’s beards and made everyone look like they had just swallowed a Klimt.”
When Music Teams Up With Other Art, The Results Can Be… Less
Anne Midgette: “This kind of conceptual kinship, an inspiration of approach, is the only real link between a painting and the work of music it inspires. Yet the idea that music can convey something literal, and that conveying it will make the resulting piece more “accessible,” is widespread, and pernicious.”
US Senate Passes Bill Protecting Art Loaned By Foreign Museums From Seizure
The legislation could end a years-long cultural cold war with Russia, which has refused to loan works since 2010 due to lawsuits filed in the US over objects seized during the Bolshevik Revolution.
New York Times Kills Its ‘Inside Art’ Column
“[The paper’s art editor] said that cramming a bunch of art-market nuggets into a single day had become inconvenient, especially as websites publishing market scoops (this one included) became able to put up those kinds of stories untethered to a publication schedule.”
Whoa, Did Mozart Really Outsell Beyoncé This Year?
That’s what Universal Classics says: a major Mozart release this fall has sold 1.25 million CDs so far. In fact, it all depends on what exactly you’re counting.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.12.16
What We Learned In Audience This Week: How We Define “Audience” This Week: Two stories worth noting – the segregation of DC theatre audiences and what it might tell us… The translation of live theatre to the small screen is more than just filming a … read more
AJBlog: AJ Arts AudiencePublished 2016-12-12
The National Gallery: Blazing More New Trails
Last year about this time, I praised the National Gallery in London for creating and publicizing an “Angel Trail” of artworks in its galleries that include portrayals of angels–for the Christmas season. This year, I’m … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-12-12
Four Dances Mingle As One
Bill Young revives his Interleaving at 100 Grand Street, December 9 through 11. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-12-12
Monday Recommendation: Erroll Garner
Erroll Garner, Ready Take One (Octave/Legacy) … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-12-12
The Cult of El Sistema Keeps Playing On In a Different Key Anne Midgette of the Washington Post wrote a sobering review of Eric Booth and Tricia Tunstall’s recent book “Playing for Their Lives”. As the Executive Director of the El Sistema inspired program Play On … read more
AJBlog: Orchestras Everywhere Published 2016-12-10
First Look At A Massive New Project For LA’s Arts District
“The risk — as with all of the projects emerging from BIG’s huge and increasingly busy office — is that the project, in final form, won’t quite make the leap from clever and opportunistic to something more architecturally powerful or profound.”
Golden Globes Surprise: Nominations Go To Youth Over Stars
“Awards shows have long tangled with a dilemma. As a venue for industry recognition, they tend to value dues-paying — rewarding personalities who have put together a long body of work and earned industry goodwill. But the shows also rely for income on a television world that tends to favor, particularly in its advertising dollars, younger viewers and newer talent.”
San Francisco Symphony Cancels Tour To North Carolina In Protest
“In the months after HB2 became law, we have closely watched the fluctuating political landscape in hopes that the law would be overturned,” said Executive Director Brent Assink in a statement. “Because that has not yet happened, and due to pressing internal travel deadlines, the San Francisco Symphony has made the decision to cancel its concerts at this time.”
The Golden Globe Nominees Are Announced, With Some Notable Exceptions
Mel Gibson is back, but movies from Tom Hanks’ Sully to Denzel Washington’s Fences and (surprisingly) Martin Scorsese’s Silence get snubbed.