“The hype is an enormous psychological pressure on a writer. Not that anyone should weep for a writer who has earned loads of money. But the bottom line is, this is not a healthy thing to have in your head at eight in the morning when you’re trying to write something. It’s just very messy. Even in America you have a better chance of having a basically healthy literary career, at least in the beginning, than you do in England. We’re driven by the celebrity mania that this whole country is sunk in.”
Month: April 2004
Atwood: Art Explains/Inspires Science
Margaret Atwood ponders the worlds of arts and science: “A lot of people are funny: they think there’s more money in science than in art, and they are right. It’s absolutely true. The catch is that what drives us is not our rational brain but our whole human arsenal of emotions and thought. And our only way of understanding that is through the arts.”
When Poetry Outstrips The Audience
Poetry is popular but poetry doesn’t sell. It doesn’t get reviewed and people don’t buy it. “So the situation for poetry is bleak and not because of an indifferent nation. The fault is in the poets, whose demands for attention have outstripped any possible audience. Perfect. Poetry and poets in America love a state of siege.”
Webber: Musicians Paid By The Note? Yeah, Right!
Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber has “no sympathy for the shrill squeaks emanating from the Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn’s violin section, whose players are demanding more euros than the rest of the orchestra because they play more notes… An undoubted compensation of orchestral playing is the companionship among the musicians, who have a camaraderie that soloists rarely experience. Ours is a world where ships often pass in the night but seldom dock in the same port.”
Prominent Southern African Musician Killed By Robbers
Gito Baloi, 39, one of southern Africa’s most celebrated musicians, was shot and killed in central Johannesburg in an apparent robbery. Baloi was a bass guitarist and one-time member of the jazz group Tananas.”
Was A Prominent London Nightclub Pushed Out Of Business?
London’s Impreial Gardens nightclub was a breeding grounds for young black musicians, writers and producers. But then the club suddenly had to close when they land it was on was marked for redevlopment. “We were going to be the Motown of south London. All money raised by the club went to support artists, black record labels, writers and producers. We were part of a cluster of black business here and we were all pushed out. It seemed a bit like ethnic cleansing. They have found premises for the others but nothing suitable for us.”
Hughes: Freud Is First
Robert Hughes declares Lucien Freud is Britain’s greatest living artist. “There is a lot more humour and sweetness in Freud than he is credited with – it’s just that his unsparing wit and pitiless judgment, which allow the sentimental no room, tend to crowd them out of his never very accommodating public image. He finds many people banal, often unbearably so. He has, in abundance, the sheer mercilessness that Baudelaire attributed to the dandy as a type. People looking for art that will appease their expectations of warmth and unearned self-esteem do well to steer clear of him.”
The $5 Painting Worth A Million
A 29-year-old actor goes to a garage sale, finds a painting he likes and buys it for $5. Later he goes on the internet and discovers it is a Joseph Decker and might be worth something, contacts a gallery and when it arrived at the gallery, “I knew immediately it was a great find. It just looked right. I called him and told him it’s probably worth something in the vicinity of a million dollars. We offered it to the National Gallery. They acted quickly. A curator came in. They own two Deckers. They bought it in February.”
Musical Greatness – All About The Personality?
Why do some musicians capture the imagination of the public, while others, perhaps just as gifted, do not? “Nathan Milstein, popular though he was, never became as big a celebrity as Heifetz, and the reason for this can be found in his personality. Unlike Heifetz, an introverted man with few passions outside of music, Milstein was both outgoing and wide-ranging in his cultural interests, and he embraced the act of public performance with an enthusiasm alien to Heifetz’s tightly wound nature.”
Understanding Islam Through Art
In Europe there is more and more serious interest in presenting Islamic art. The Louvre is spending $60 million on new Islamic art galleries, and in London, the Victoria & Albert Museum is introducing a new Islamic wing. “Obviously, this has a political dimension. It’s a way of saying we believe in the equality of civilizations. Many immigrant youths do not fully adhere to our culture, nor do they know their own culture of origin. It’s good to show that the republic respects, displays and studies this culture.”