“The manuscript of a key chapter of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses, expected to fetch up to £1 million ($2.7 million) at auction next month, reveals how the author agonised over the epic work.” – Sydney Morning Herald (Telegraph)
Author: Douglas McLennan
HONORING OURSELVES
What’s the point of literary awards? They’re such an exercise in self-pleasuring. “Good evening. We are here to honour writers who have already been honoured yet must be honoured and will need honouring again, shortly. We do so because they are our ghastly, yet glorious, companions from the legion of Toronto Lit-Elite.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
PROBING THE PHILADELPHIA SOUND
What is it about the Philadelphia Orchestra that makes (made?) that distinctive sound? – New York Times
BUILDING A HOUSE OF JAZZ
The Lincoln Center jazz program is establishing a place for itself among New York’s cultural institutions. But what about those who say that institutionalizing jazz is to kill it? Wynton Marsalis: Those who say that are “closet oppressors armed with a ‘fake mythology’—the kind of people who not only don’t play it, but don’t even like it. It’s like telling somebody who’s in a two-room house, ‘You’ve done OK in a two-room house—why y’all want to build a five-room house?’” – Metropolis
BE-BOP FOR BOYS
While women have made notable inroads in the jazz world as singers and instrumentalists, they are still noticeably missing behind the bandstand – a fact not lost on detractors of the plans for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the lavish new home of Wynton Marsalis’s Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Their response to Marsalis’ claim that he runs a meritocracy and is waiting to find more female talent? “The argument that women will eventually be good enough is very old. There have been women good enough to be included for at least 60 years.” – Village Voice
THE LINE BETWEEN ART AND COMMERCE
More and more museums are showing commercial work sponsored by corporations. Commercial work as in motorcycles or clothes or advertising. The shows have proven popular both with audiences and corporate interests. But to what extent are museums selling their souls for such shows? – Chronicle of Higher Education
THE OLD SUPPLY AND DEMAND PROBLEM
Last week’s big auction sales in New York starkly reflect the problems of an almost overly robust art market: There are now so many wealthy buyers ready to throw their disposable income onto their walls that the auction houses are having trouble meeting demand with high-quality works. “Rich collectors are under no financial pressure to sell, and when they decide to do so they often have hopelessly unrealistic, some would say greedy, expectations of the prices they will get. This problem is compounded by the fact that three auction houses are now fishing in a pool where once only two cast their bait.” – The Telegraph (UK)
WHERE ART AND VALUES COLLIDE
JSG Boggs travels the world racking up bills that he then offers to settle with his drawings of money at face value. Think this $100 bill isn’t worth a $100? You’d be a fool not to take it. – New Statesman
ANOTHER USE FOR CRAWL SPACE
With its collection bursting the seams of its main museum spaces, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has created a new Byzantine art gallery to be unveiled this week in the dark, brick-lined space beneath its Grand Staircase – nicknamed “the Crypt.” – New York Times
A BATH FOR ART
The owner of an seniors’ home in the UK called his insurance company after a water tank drenched the lower floor of his house. “While counting the cost of repairs, they found the torrent had washed away a coat of grime which coated the dining room ceiling below. And to their amazement, they realised the panels were decorated with antique paintings, hidden from view for decades at the 250-year-old residential home. The paintings are worth £500,000. – The Sun (UK)