Naturally, when re-evaluating the canon of the last five decades, there were notable omissions. The group failed to name many artists who most certainly had an impact on how we view art today: Bigger names of recent Museum of Modern Art retrospectives, internationally acclaimed artists and high earners on the secondary market were largely excluded. Few paintings were singled out; land art was almost entirely absent, as were, to name just a few more categories, works on paper, sculpture, photography, fiber arts and outsider art. – The New York Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
Spotify Slammed For Its “Dance Like Nobody’s Paying” Ad Campaign
The campaign comes after longstanding complaints about the company’s royalty payments, not to mention its attempts to appeal the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to increase songwriter rates by 44% over the next five years and its recent determination that it had overpaid music publishers by an undisclosed amount in 2018 and is requesting a refund. Predictably, songwriters and music industry pros aren’t happy about the new campaign, which seems to add insult to injury after the above incidents. – Variety
Yes, The Show Must Go On… Even Without Lights
Performers from multiple Broadway shows gave impromptu renditions to crowds along the streets outside the theaters when the power went out in Manhattan Friday night just before shows were about to start. – Washington Post
The Break Out Break-dancing Millennial Counter-Tenor
The singers who performed in operatic works by Handel or Vivaldi in the eighteenth century were the musical celebrities of their day, and Jakub Józef Orliński’s approach is to gleefully inhabit that space of stardom, rather than to handle the repertoire as if he were a reverent museum curator. “I treat Baroque music as, basically, pop music, but in their time.” – The New Yorker
Why It’s Not Good To Invite A Writer Into Your House
Is it a good idea to invite someone into your home whose occupation it is to observe everything? The writer as host might be no better. Even the most thoughtful guest will undoubtedly interfere with the writer’s productivity during the visit. – The New York Times
Wondering How A Neural Network Works?
Grant Sanderson has a video explainer that shows you how machines are learning to learn. – Aeon
Vandalism And Self-Mutilation As Art (Jail Too)
For Pyotr Pavlensky, the judicial process is an integral part of the artwork. “The government’s aim is to suppress or neutralize art, to reduce me to a vandal, a madman, a provocateur, but the criminal case becomes one of the layers of the artwork, the portal through which you enter and see the mechanisms of power exposed.” – The New York Times
Fewer Musicians Are Auditioning For The Pittsburgh Symphony. Does It Mean Anything?
In the three years since the musicians’ 55-day strike took place in the fall of 2016, that number has dropped significantly, from around 250 applicants per position to 150 applicants per position, according to an orchestra employee who asked that a name not be used. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Proposed New International Airport Threatens Machu Picchu
The site draws up to 5,600 foreign visitors daily, more than double the 2,500 recommended by Unesco. The new airport could quadruple tourists, to 6 million from 1.5 million a year, which would mean a lethal burden of 22,000 visitors a day, or almost 10 times the limit set by Unesco. – The New York Times
Will Grassroots European Presenters Stop Booking UK Artists Post-Brexit?
“Across Europe, voluntary promoters, programmers and enthusiasts employ UK artists. They don’t get paid, they don’t receive funding and they often lose money from their own pockets to keep the show on the road. They do it because they love it, because they want to share the art they love in the communities where they live – and they love British artists. They create vital grassroots ecosystems that are all but invisible to UK policy-makers, whose narrow view of culture is constrained to the assemblage of creaking institutions to which they are bound.” – Arts Professional