Five years ago, a derelict power station on the south bank of the Thames fit right into its desolate surroundings. Now, £135 million later, the building has been transformed to house the new Tate Modern, one of the great modern art collections in the world. – The Sunday Telegraph (UK)
Author: Douglas McLennan
THE POWER OF TRANSFORMATION
“It is all rich vindication for the once-mocked activity of making contemporary art, which has moved in only a couple of generations from marginal status in a philistine, insular culture, via such famous scandals as Carl André’s bricks and the Turner Prize dust-ups, to become the most glamorous, honky-tonky wriggle and pout in today’s self-consciously globalist Britain.” – The Observer (UK)
TICKET TO THE BIGS
Designing a major new museum has become the price of admission into the architectural big league. Now it’s happening for Herzog & de Meuron. – The Observer (UK)
PULLED PAINTING
A painting depicting a pope with an eye patch has been replaced in an Oklahoma state capitol exhibition after a conservative lawmaker called it anti-Christian. – Washington Post
TOO EXPLICIT?
Producer Arthur Cohn has gone to Israel to talk about the inclusion of forensic photographs of Israeli athletes killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics in his Academy Award-winning documentary “One Day in September.” Relatives of the slain athletes want the footage removed. – Jerusalem Post
AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME
Have we lost the will to be original? “The concept sounds strangely alien in a world in which novels routinely are based on previously published works or on history itself; in which the visual and photographic arts increasingly incorporate previous works; in which composers systematically layer previously produced works into their compositions; in which more and more plays are based on historical characters; in which a plethora of movies are based on previous movies or on TV shows; in which a steadily growing stack of TV shows are derived from earlier TV shows; in which ads raid movies and TV shows; in which people loot the Internet for whatever they want; in which everybody is copying from everybody else and nobody seems to mind.” – Chicago Tribune
OF BASQUES AND BILBAO
A year ago the Basques seemed “more optimistic than ever before about peace and prosperity in their little nub of Spain. Not only did the glorious Guggenheim Museum of Frank Gehry now hover over a once-nondescript city. But a truce declared by ETA, the murderous Basque separatist movement, was holding. Since then, ETA has assassinated a general, a politician, and a policeman, and the atmosphere is once again heavy with recrimination and uncertainty.” But perhaps the modernity of Gehry and of architect Norman Foster encourages Basques to look forward, not back” and towards some sort of resolution. – The Idler
THE RIGHT HOOK
Last year everyone in St. Louis arts management was talking about cultural tourism. This year it’s marketing. “The only way we can get on track is with a huge marketing campaign that lets people know everything available to them arts-wise in St. Louis. If we do a piddle here and a piddle there, it won’t get us anywhere.” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ONE LAST DRAG
For decades tobacco manufacturers have been major sponsors of the arts in Canada. Now, “determined to rid Canada of the demon weed, earnest politicians have banned all cigarette advertising, and side-swiped the arts in the process.” Faced with gigantic holes in their budgets, some arts managers wonder where the next sugar daddy is going to come from. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
LOVED TO DEATH
The crush of tourism is threatening Egypt’s prehistoric sites, the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists heard last week in Cairo. “Unless urgent measures are taken, Egypt will be left with not one prehistoric site intact.” – New Scientist