“In the 1950s, when all eyes were on New York and nobody cared about the regions, that’s when, paradoxically, the most distinctive regional art emerged: Bay Area Figurative, the Northwest School, L.A. Cool, and New Image in Chicago. Although they were tuned in to what was going on in the national and international context, their audiences weren’t, necessarily. The audiences were focused on their home team. That support didn’t stifle innovation, it seems to have helped make it possible. In today’s pluralistic context, there is no home team and no label to describe the rich diversity in any one place.” So how about Seattle Serial?
Month: March 2006
Budick: Whitney Biennial Premise A Cliche
We’re told that artists in this year’s Whitney Biennial are “challenging concepts,” “transgressing boundaries,” “blurring lines” and “investigating relationships.” But Ariella Budick has some news for the curators: “There are no boundaries left to transgress. Art can’t be liminal in the absence of the thresholds. How can you challenge conventions that have already been burned beyond recognition? There’s something almost quaint about the use of these cliches. Where have the curators been for the past 20 years?”
The Mozart Requiem, Brazilian Edition
An unknown version of Mozart’s unfinished Requiem has been hidden in the archives of a former Brazilian cathedral. A new recording of the Requiem on the specialist K617 French label has been released, “in a version written 30 years after Mozart’s death by an Austrian-born composer, Johann Sigismund Neukomm. It has lain forgotten in a Rio de Janeiro vault for nearly 200 years.”
Gummed-Up Painting Taken To The Lab
That Helen Frankenthaler painting damaged last week when a 12-year-old boy affixed a wad of gum to it in the Detroit Institute of Arts has been taken to the conservation lab. “Museum officials said they are optimistic that the picture will make a full recovery. But in contrast to comments earlier this week in which relieved officials said decisively that the 1963 painting, ‘The Bay,’ would be fine, the museum issued a more tempered statement.
Gum Boy Gets Slammed
The 12-year-old boy who stuck gum on a valuable painting during a school visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts probably got more than he bargained for. “He’s slammed with a suspension from school, a front-page newspaper account, derision from morning-ride DJs and mentions in media across the world. At 12 years old, he becomes Gum Boy. Forevermore, everyone expects the worst from him. His parents keep their shades drawn.”
Black And White – End Of An Era
When Kodak announced last June that it would no longer manufacture black-and-white printing papers, the decision did more than terminate 117 years of production. By severing a vital supply line long taken for granted, the company reminded photographers of their humbling dependence on equipment and materials—and how quickly both they and the equipment and materials can go out of date.
Guild Formed To Combat Russian Art Forgery
To combat the rising incidence of art forgery, Russian scholars are forming a new guild to act as an authority. “The Guild’s main goal is to establish rules and standards for authenticating art works. It plans to license art experts, act as a lobby for the art market in Russia and provide information and legal assistance for collectors.”
Publisher: Stop Google’s Larceny
Publisher Nigel Newton says that Google’s print digitising project must be stopped. “In Dickens’s spirit, I believe we need to take action against Google. Its quest to monetise for its own benefit the literature of the world must be stopped. So I call upon internet users worldwide to boycott the Google search engine until it ceases to scan books in America without prior permission, and desists from its mission to place ambient advertising on the great literary works. Switch your search engine from Google to MSN or Yahoo today, until you hear Google has withdrawn from the type of activities that have been described in another context as acts of ‘kleptomania’.”
Louisville Orchestra Rejects Musicians’ Proposal
“The Louisville Orchestra has rejected a proposal by its musicians to cut six weeks from the upcoming season, a move musicians say will save $400,000 in that contract year. But management believes that the cost savings would be closer to $200,000 because of the loss of potential revenue during those weeks and that the musicians’ one-year proposal isn’t sufficient to address the orchestra’s longer-term needs.”
A Little Darkness Falls On The “Painter Of Light”
Thomas Kinkade has made millions as a self-styled “Painter of Light.” But some of his gallery owners are suing him, and they paint a pretty dark picture. “In litigation and interviews with the Los Angeles Times, some former gallery owners depict Kinkade, 48, as a ruthless businessman who drove them to financial ruin at the same time he was fattening his business associates’ bank accounts and feathering his nest with tens of millions of dollars.”