Month: February 2000

HECKLE THIS

Frederic Stocken once briefly formed a group of anti-modern malcontents called The Hecklers, who made headlines when they disrupted the first revival of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s opera “Gawain” at Covent Garden in 1994. Now Stocken’s considered one of Britain’s brightest young composers. “He composes modern music according to pre-modern principles. He hates the idea that artists should, by definition, be provocative and sees no reason why the fundamental laws of harmony had to be broken by 20th century composers.” – Sequenza/21

i-FILMS AND THE FUTURE

“If you love Hollywood movie-making you are in heaven right now,” says filmmaker David Cronenberg. “If you are making so-called alternative films that is what you are fighting, not Hollywood per se, because they don’t care about you, but people’s expectation of what a movie is. Expectations have to change and I think something like the Internet might be the only way for that to happen.” – National Post (Canada) 02/28/00

NO PAIN, NO GAIN

“Pessimists are worried that Christie’s and Sotheby’s may not even survive the crisis. Derek Johns, a London dealer who was once a director of Sotheby’s, says, ‘It would be devastating if they became bankrupt.’ The optimists, on the other hand, say that Christie’s and Sotheby’s have survived drama and scandal in the past, and that a better, more competitive and less arrogant art market may eventually come out of all this.” – The Telegraph (UK)

  • Previously: EBAY TO BUY SOTHEBY’S? Five-year-old eBay is reported to be interested in buying the troubled 256-year-old auction house. Valued by the stock market, eBay is worth nearly $20 billion, 16 times Friday’s closing price for Sotheby’s. – The Independent (UK)

  • OF SINS AND SCANDALS: So what’s a little collusion? Other auction house practices may be legal, but they’re far from fair. – Artnewsroom.com

  • SELLERS’ MARKET: “This sends a bolt of lightning through the marketplace,” said Scott Black, president of Delphi Management, a Boston money-management firm, and a serious collector who has spent tens of millions of dollars on fine paintings. “When you step into that auction room and raise your hand, you assume it’s a fair market. . . . I think a lot of people are going to think twice about the spring auctions.” – Washington Post

PICTURE PERFECT

Portrait artists are seeing an increase in business. “I think the baby boomers have realized there’s more and more that needs to be maintained, that a portrait is a gift you leave for future generations,” says Toronto artist Gail Hill. Indeed, many of Hill’s clients are women in their mid-40s to mid-50s: “We are the most beautiful we’ve ever been, the most powerful, the most confident and competent,” she says. “And we’re also able to buy art.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

SACRED GROUND?

Frederick Ashton created his ballet “Marguerite and Armand” for Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, and wherever danced it, “people saw the love story not only of the courtesan Marguerite and the hopeful young Armand, but also (they fancied) of Margot and Rudi themselves.” The piece was so identified with the couple that when they gave their final performance of it in 1977 – when Fonteyn was 58 – it was unthinkable that anyone else could ever dance it. And now the Royal Ballet has announced a new production.  – London Telegraph

  • Nicolas Le Riche: Nureyev’s protégé, France’s best dancer and its best-kept secret, takes on “Armand” – London Sunday Times 02/27/00