Irina Antonova has been director of the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow for 41 years. “Such longevity would be remarkable anywhere — even in the United States Senate — but Russia is a particular case. Mrs. Antonova’s career at the Pushkin, which began one month before the end of World War II, has survived Stalinism, democracy and everything in between, including unresolved disputes over looted and lost art.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
The Iron Lady Of Russian Museums
Irina Antonova has been director of the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow for 41 years. “Such longevity would be remarkable anywhere — even in the United States Senate — but Russia is a particular case. Mrs. Antonova’s career at the Pushkin, which began one month before the end of World War II, has survived Stalinism, democracy and everything in between, including unresolved disputes over looted and lost art.”
My Fair Box Office
London’s National Theatre began the year with a £626,000 debt, which it hoped to eliminate by next March. But thanks to the commercial box office success of My Fair Lady, the theatre popped into the black last March, about a year early. But, the theatre warns, financial prospects for the next season look less certain than usual.
Exit Smiling
Trevor Nunn leaves the National with a record of success As director, he introduced many new plays, generated lots of buzzand even…gasp.. made some money with high-profile commercial prouctions…Still, there were those pesky critics who refused to leave him alone.
Magazines On Magazines
“This month, two prominent magazines have published dishy articles about nefarious doings at other prominent magazines: Vanity Fair covers the absurd rise and pathetic fall of Rosie, while GQ covers the reign of terror unleashed by a despotic honcho at the magazines published by the mega-conglomerate now known as AOL Time Warner.” Navel gazing? Maybe. Schadenfreude? Sure. But it’s worked for television for years, so corporate types may be banking that it’ll sell copies.
Bridget Jones’ Groupies
Why are so many of the most popular female characters among American readers so… well… British? From Bridget Jones to Kate Reddy to Hermione Granger, there seems to be something about the UK’s women that’s attracting their colonial counterparts. “[Writer Allison] Pearson believes the British gift for pessimism and irony has served her — and her countrymen — well in print. She says, ‘ ‘Bridget Jones’ and Nick Hornby’s books and mine have extreme irony in common. And irony isn’t the normal American mode.'”
Boosting A Nation’s Profile Through Film
Alexander Dovzhenko is a legend in Ukraine, but in the West, he’s about as well-known as, well, Ukraine itself. A new festival of Dovzhenko’s work at Washington’s National Gallery is designed to increase American appreciation of both the filmmaker and his homeland, and to that end, is being bankrolled in part by the Ukrainian government.
Harry In Trouble?
Is the Harry Potter franchise running out of steam? “The third movie will be late, the fourth book is proving unadaptable, the director is burned out and the boy wizard is facing a greater enemy than Voldemort – the march of time.”
The “Un”-Turner
The “Alternative Turner Prize” is a plea “for a wider and more generous choice of art and artists” than is recognized by the Turner Prize. This year’s shortlist of eight has three painters, two internet artists, a sculptor, a photographer and a graffiti artist. It will be judged by a panel of critics drawn from conceptualist and traditional schools. Organizers “insist it is not an anti-Turner event, and is at great pains to distance itself from the Stuckists, who protest outside the Turner Prize ceremony every year.”
The New Cultural Entrepreneurs
A group of English artists travels to China and discovers the business of culture is big business there. “Britain now is as insular as I’ve ever known it. It is not as vibrant or as young feeling as somewhere like Beijing. It is going to be an interesting century for them and for us. But one thing is for sure, if anywhere gets left behind, it won’t be Beijing.”