While some were surprised by Russian president Vladimir Putin’s dismissal of Bolshoi director Vladimir Vasilyev this week, others were not. “While critics could forgive Mr. Vasilyev his shortcomings as an administrator, they were angry about his failure to revive the Bolshoi artistically. His staging of ‘Swan Lake’ was deemed a flop, but what critics found even more dismaying was his inability to introduce the new ideas he had promised when appointed.” – New York Times
Month: August 2000
FASTER, LOUDER, PAINTIER?
A former Canadian Olympic athlete has proposed an Arts Olympics. “The plan is to create an Olympics that will celebrate emerging artists from around the world in five categories: film, dance, music, literature and visual arts. The effort also proposes to bring an element of competitiveness back to the arts, which has always played a large role in the Olympic movement, dating back to the beginning of the modern Games in 1896.” – National Post (Canada) 08/31/00
US AGAINST THEM
Norman Jewison says “The Hurricane” is the best film he ever made. “It seemed to have Best Picture written all over it,” wrote the Washington Post. But the movie sank w/o much of a ripple. Jewison is angry at the way directors are treated by studios. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
“MILLIONAIRE” MAULS MOVIES
The Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” is such a ratings hit in India, movie theatre owners say it’s killing their business. “If things continue the way they are, our trade will be almost finished. Nobody is interested in coming to the theatres when the game show is on.” – BBC
DEALING WITH THE LAW
Andrew Crispo, a Manhattan art dealer who was “acquitted in a 1980s sex-torture case, was sentenced to seven years in prison on Wednesday for threatening to kidnap a lawyer’s daughter in an attempt to get money from a bankruptcy trustee.” – Yahoo! (Reuters)
FRINGE BENEFITS
As part of his job Thomas Foley, U.S. ambassador to Japan, gets a mansion to live in, a driver, full in-house staff…and his own private art collection. A beneficiary of JFK’s 1964 “Art in Embassies Program,” Foley is particularly fond of American Abstract Expressionist paintings…as you can tell by looking at his website. – Japan Times
ODE TO DANTO
Arthur Danto is a prominent philosopher as well as art critic for The Nation. “Philosophers, at least in theory, are seekers after truth. Truth, the poet says, is beauty. Thus it makes perfect sense that Danto, who philosophizes by day, should moonlight as one of America’s best-known art critics.” – Boston Globe
ASSEMBLY-LINE KITSCH
Who are these “artists” who paint the “genuine oil paintings” for $29.95, and why do they have to be so bad? “The pedestrian banality, if not downright kitsch, of these offerings is as numbing as a TV sitcom or Norman Rockwell Christmas card. Seagulls, sand dunes, beached rowboats, heeling sailboats, wooden pilings, twinkly lighthouses and ineptly drawn old-time sailing ships parade endlessly by as evocatively as place mat decorations.” – Chicago Tribune
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST MOVIE
Jackson Pollock movie to debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. – Variety
DEALING WITH THE LAW
Andrew Crispo, a Manhattan art dealer who was “acquitted in a 1980s sex-torture case was sentenced to seven years in prison on Wednesday for threatening to kidnap a lawyer’s daughter in an attempt to get money from a bankruptcy trustee.” – Yahoo! (Reuters)