Arthur Danto is a prominent philosopher as well as art critic for The Nation. “Philosophers, at least in theory, are seekers after truth. Truth, the poet says, is beauty. Thus it makes perfect sense that Danto, who philosophizes by day, should moonlight as one of America’s best-known art critics.” – Boston Globe
Author: Douglas McLennan
ASSEMBLY-LINE KITSCH
Who are these “artists” who paint the “genuine oil paintings” for $29.95, and why do they have to be so bad? “The pedestrian banality, if not downright kitsch, of these offerings is as numbing as a TV sitcom or Norman Rockwell Christmas card. Seagulls, sand dunes, beached rowboats, heeling sailboats, wooden pilings, twinkly lighthouses and ineptly drawn old-time sailing ships parade endlessly by as evocatively as place mat decorations.” – Chicago Tribune
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST MOVIE
Jackson Pollock movie to debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. – Variety
DEALING WITH THE LAW
Andrew Crispo, a Manhattan art dealer who was “acquitted in a 1980s sex-torture case was sentenced to seven years in prison on Wednesday for threatening to kidnap a lawyer’s daughter in an attempt to get money from a bankruptcy trustee.” – Yahoo! (Reuters)
ONE MAN’S MUSIC…
Nearly 30 years after his composing debut, Steve Reich’s music still receives tumultuous receptions wherever its performed, splitting audiences between those who hear genius and others who just hear noise. “’Minimalist’ is a label he hates but how else to describe his music, much of which involves a great deal of repetition? Think of Andy Warhol with his repeated pictures of Campbell’s soup tins and translate that visual image into sound. – The Herald (Scotland)
ONE MAN’S MUSIC…
Nearly 30 years after his composing debut, Steve Reich’s music still receives tumultuous receptions wherever its performed, splitting audiences between those who hear genius and others who just hear noise. “’Minimalist’ is a label he hates but how else to describe his music, much of which involves a great deal of repetition? Think of Andy Warhol with his repeated pictures of Campbell’s soup tins and translate that visual image into sound. – The Herald (Scotland)
PASSING THE GRIME TEST
Londoners are apparently breathing easier these days; air pollution in the city is the best it’s been since the Industrial Revolution. How do they know? Scientists have been monitoring the walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral to test for acidification and stone condition – since 1720, an inch of stone has dissolved from the cathedral’s balcony. – London Evening Standard 08/30/00
URBAN (ART) PLANNING
Is it possible for a single artist to turn an entire town into a regional arts center – to use his aesthetic choices to facilitate socialism, creativity, and togetherness? One town, in Israel’s Upper Western Galilee, has hired an artist to do just that. – Haaretz (Israel) 08/30/00
MONUMENT TO WOODSTOCK
New York billionaire Alan Gerry announces plans for a performing arts center on the grounds of the original Woodstock Festival in upstate New York. “The plan calls for a 4,000-seat covered theater with 15,000 additional open-air seats. The Gerry Foundation will own and operate the $40 million facility; the state will pay $15 million of the construction costs.” – New York Daily News 08/30/00
MEXICAN POLITICAL TURN HAS ARTISTS WONDERING
“No matter how we voted, for many of us in the arts and letters the election of the charismatic Mr. Fox is as bracing as a cold shower. No one really expected the plain-spoken rancher from Guanajuato to win, and we’re flummoxed by a world turned suddenly inside out: a political right that has promised to reject its traditional religious, censorious, and invasively straight-laced stances, and a left adrift without a compass. Artists and intellectuals dependent on government largesse are at a loss as to how to court the unknown.” – Christian Science Monitor 08/30/00