Continuing the recent public auditions for the next music director of the New York Philharmonic, Christoph Eschenbach stepped in for the ailing Kurt Masur this week. How’d he do? – New York Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
PULLING MUSIC APART
Thousands of musicologists converge on Toronto to dissect the elements of music. “The paradox is that Western thinking about music has provided the field’s lingua franca at the very moment that Western art music is considered least central.” – New York Times
WILDE ABOUT OSCAR
On the 100th anniversary of his death, Oscar Wilde is everywhere in London. His grandson is the biggest keeper of the Wilde flame. He “seems to tread a fine line between a personal crusade to defend the family honour and a belief in the strict observation of factual accuracy.” – London Evening Standard
WILDE IN AMERICA
Newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic made note, made fun and lionized, chronicling every change of attire and every quotable quote, whether he actually said it or not. And so was born the international legend known as Oscar Wilde, hitherto merely a London poetaster of some social notoriety. – New York Times
STOLEN CEZANNE SEIZED
“The French courts have ordered the seizure of ‘The sea at l’Estaque’ by Paul Cézanne, currently on show in the Musée du Luxembourg as part of the exhibition “From Fra Angelico to Bonnard: masterpieces from the Rau Collection”, at the request of Michel Dauberville who claims it was stolen from his grandfather, gallery owner Josse Bernheim-Jeune, during World War II.” – The Art Newspaper
GETTING MORE SERIOUS ABOUT STOLEN ART
Christie’s announced that it has helped raise $500,000 for opening up Nazi documentation which is in Russian archives, while Sotheby’s is to assist the Council of Europe in setting up a central website on looted art. These moves reflect the auctioneers’ growing concerns over the problem of war loot. – The Art Newspaper
A DOWN MARKET
The Picasso might have sold for $55 million, but otherwise this week’s art auction sales in New York were major disappointments. Some 40 percent or more of the artwork failed to sell. – New York Times
MATISSE SELLS FOR RECORD $17 MILLION
While works by Aristide Maillol and Berthe Morisot also set artists’ records, featured works by Degas, van Gogh, Renoir and Cezanne failed to find buyers at the sale of impressionist and modern art. Only 60 percent of the lots were sold. – Washington Post (Reuters)
BLOCKBUSTING
- Are museum blockbuster shows ruining museums? One art historian believes so. “Masterpieces are shunted around the world, often against the advice of conservation departments, primarily to bring prestige to the lenders, publicity to the sponsors and paying customers to the host institutions. Small or penurious institutions are deprived of their treasures, and objects which, for one reason or another, cannot be lent are increasingly neglected: less and less attention is paid, for example, to large pictures and artists who specialised in them.” – The Economist
A HISTORY OF CRITICS IN AMERICA
A new show tries to trace the beginnings of America’s art critics. “The stirring story of this development — at least, the New York part of it — is told by the academy in an entertaining hodgepodge of a show, ‘Rave Reviews: American Art and Its Critics, 1826- 1925,’ described as the “first comprehensive historical examination of American art criticism.” – New York Times 11/10/00