Martin Mull’s first and abiding love is painting. It’s the TV and movie work that pays for the canvases and paint. – Los Angeles Times
Month: April 2000
HEAD HUNTERS
Thieves are literally chiseling off the heads of statues at Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, built some 1000 years ago. The trade in international cultural artifacts is hot – an epidemic that is irreparably ruining some of the world’s cultural treasures. – CNN
ART OF POLITICS
Do you know what your senator has hanging on his walls? Does it tell you anything about him or her? The Canadian Government’s Art Bank provides art to members of parliament. Too bad more of them don’t take up the offer. – National Post (Canada)
DIGITART
- Does putting art on the internet change the meaning of art? Students at Berkeley and Sonoma State Universities are posting and critiquing art to explore how the medium changes the process of art. “We are using the Net as our medium instead of print.” – Wired
DAILY RITUAL
There is no other 20th-century painter quite like Balthus. At the age of 92 he still paints, still in his own way, as always, resolutely ignoring the art-isms of his time – “I was never interested in other modern painters because I had my painting, which preoccupied my mind more than anything else.” – Financial Times
BOLLYWOOD BOOST
India’s Bollywood gets a big boost with the entry of a major new movie and production company aimed at exporting Indian movies to a worldwide audience. – The Straits Times (Singapore) 04/25/00
TRAILING AHEAD
The movie trailer business is booming. With so many films competing for ticket-buyers, trailers can help launch a film just the right way. But the cost is going up – they average about $100,000 currently. – CBC 04/25/00
WHO’S THE BOSS?
A Canadian judge’s ruling requiring the National Ballet of Canada to reinstate a dancer has Canadian artistic directors bewildered and outraged. It’s about control of art, and what does a judge know about running a dance company? Can you imagine if pro sports coaches couldn’t trade their players? – Toronto Globe and Mail
BRANCH OFFICE
The legendary Bolshoi Ballet has opened its first school outside Russia – in Brazil. “The mayor’s office paid for the ballet to set up the school and also funds scholarships given to a majority of the school’s 165 or so students, who range in age from 7 to 14. Most of the students’ families cannot afford the equivalent of $170 in monthly fees. But five days a week, three hours a day, they glide and stretch and twirl in the sun-swept practice rooms, take assiduous notes on the history of ballet and learn about the 233-year-old Bolshoi’s legendary dancers, many of whose pictures decorate the school’s gleaming walls.” – Newsweek
MUTI TO NY PHIL?
Riccardo Muti is said to be the choice of the New York Philharmonic as the orchestra’s next music director, succeeding Kurt Masur. – New York Times