“A diamond in the rough, the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art houses works by more than 1,500 Egyptian artists, mostly from the middle and late 20th century … Overshadowed by Egypt’s pharaonic and medieval Islamic heritage, and the more recent upsurge in interest in contemporary Arab art, the country’s modernist artists elicit scant respect.”
Month: February 2012
When We Can’t Speak, Could Our Brain Waves Speak For Us?
“Researchers have demonstrated a striking method to reconstruct words, based on the brain waves of patients thinking of those words.”
Akram Khan Suffers At Home As His Company Roams America
“This is torture,” moaned the immobilized choreographer in his South London home, his bandaged leg recovering from the snapped Achilles tendon he suffered in January. Yet his company has gone ahead with its winter US tour, dancing Khan’s acclaimed work around a country where it’s little-known.
A Dance Critic Watches Josephine Baker
Judith Mackrell looks at the few, short surviving video clips of Baker at work – and is thrilled at how Baker animates and subverts her often stereotyped material with wit, precision, keen timing, and her “rare freedom, vigour and joy.”
How Can Skeptics Make Convincing Religious Art?
Terry Teachout observes that, in many genres, “great works of devotional art have been created by skeptics, not a few of whom were fire-breathingly militant about their doubt.” How do we recognize this paradox? Teachout finds a clue in one instance where Ralph Vaughan Williams meets Plato.
Caravaggio, Violent Hothead And Marketing Genius
“In the seething cesspool of Caravaggio’s Rome, violence was a form of advertisement; it let people know you were, so to speak, the wrong guy to f#@k with. Caravaggio’s notorious life was good publicity, too for the new, gritty style of painting he created vivid, theatrically lit, psychologically realistic slices of life.”
The Problem With Enhanced E-Books
“You can’t really pay much attention to anything else while you’re reading, so in order to play with any of these new features, you have to stop reading. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, then the attentional tug of all these peripheral doodads is vaguely annoying, and if you’re not engaged by the story, they aren’t enough on their own to win you over.”
Wilton’s Music Hall In London Out Of Danger (For Now)
The historic but dilapidated venue – the very last of England’s old music halls, and the venue for several of London’s best-known experimental productions in recent years – was in danger of having to close for safety’s sake after failing to secure Lottery funding for repairs. Now a little-known government trust has contributed £700,000, enabling the first stage o renovations to begin.
Damien Hirst With Your Spot Paintings, Eat Your Heart Out
“The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama transformed a completely white room, including furniture, into a spectacle featuring her signature dots, helped by children who visited the exhibition over two weeks and placed brightly coloured stickers throughout the installation.” (Much more fun than Hirst’s rigid grids.)
The Asianization Of Classical Music
“Despite classical’s deserved reputation as the whitest of genres, Asian attendance rates match or surpass the national average up through the 45- 54 age range. To put it one way, the younger the classical audience gets, the more Asian it becomes. To put it another, the only population that is disproportionately filling seats being vacated by old people dying off is Asians.”