Author: Douglas McLennan

REFORMING AN ANCIENT STORY

Every ten years since 1634 the villagers of Oberammergau, in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, have been staging their six-hour passion play about the death and resurrection of Jesus. “It is a Roman Catholic play about Jews, performed in German before a largely Protestant audience, most of whom will be American or British. The newly refurbished Passion playhouse holds 4,700 people, and 112 performances have been scheduled.” This year the winds of reform have altered how the play will be presented. – New York Times

THEATRE AS TEST

Michael Frayn’s play “Copenhagen” imagines a philosophical conversation about the implications of quantum physics. The play’s been getting raves, but does anyone understand it/ The New York Times tested audience members on the way out of a performance. – New York Times

NO LIBEL

A French appeals court has ruled that art historian Hector Feliciano did not commit libel for suggesting in his book about art stolen by the Nazis that the late art dealer Georges Wildenstein may have collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. – Nando Times

NO LIBEL

A French appeals court has ruled that art historian Hector Feliciano did not commit libel for suggesting in his book about art stolen by the Nazis that the late art dealer Georges Wildenstein may have collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. – Nando Times

WHO GOT THE BUZZ?

Artists, that’s who. “It is pointless to start flinging labels around and referring to art as the new rock ‘n’ roll or the new fashion or even the new film industry, since what actually seems to have happened is that the art world has subsumed all these things and turned them into, well, art. At the same time, the players at the centre of all the excitement, the artists themselves, have emerged as the absolute celebrities of the moment, with the (now, not so) Young British Artists attaining a kind of super-supremacy, like the super-models and rock superstars before them.” – London Evening Standard

SO MUCH FOR THAT EXPERIMENT

MGM Grand has announced it will sell off its part of the $400 million worth of artwork it acquired with its purchase of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Former owner Steve Wynn had opened a gallery in the hotel to show the art, and charged visitors admission. MGM says it will use the money to finance its acquisition of the hotel. – Las Vegas Sun

THE ART OF THE E-AUCTION

“The eBay con artists get all the attention, but what about the lesser-known eBay artists? That’s right. There is a new breed of artist using the Internet auction site as a forum for creative expression. Their work is hard to categorize; it’s a combination of conceptual art and performance art, sort of like a digital happening in cyberspace. Where else can an artist reach a potential audience of millions? What better place to make a wry comment on our materialistic consumer culture?” – Boston Globe

EXPENSIVE CHALLENGE

Bernard Arnault is trying to challenge Sotheby’s and Christie’s by pumping life (and a lot of money) into No. 3 auctioneer Philips. The company debuted this week’s auction with an ambitious lineup with about $81 million in art. Less than two thirds sold, however – bringing in just $40.1 million – so Arnault will have to make up the difference himself  because of the minimum prices he guaranteed to his sellers. – New York Post

CHARITY AUCTION OR SERIOUS ART SALE? “The auction began nearly an hour late, and then it started with an announcement that 3 percent of the hammer prices would go to the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Dressed in a bright orange dress with matching lipstick, the movie star Sharon Stone, campaign chairwoman for the charity, made a speech about AIDS. Throughout the evening, she wandered up and down the aisles trying to drum up excitement in the otherwise dead room.” – New York Times