Author: Douglas McLennan

FROM BEHIND THE FAMOUS FATWA

Salman Rushdie is still officially under a death threat. But, “his conduct, however, suggests that he’s trying to play two sides of the most famous death threat in the history of English letters. On the one hand, the literary apparatus that built Rushdie’s fame does not hesitate to stage rock-star events at which audiences are all but frisked before hearing the endangered master read. On the other, the man himself is finding that it’s tough to bask in the limelight from behind a scrum of bodyguards.” – Feed

TOO MANY MFA’s

Are there too many artists with university degrees? “We can no longer justify preparing more and more graduates to compete more stylishly for fewer and fewer jobs inside the academic pyramid. But, the important question remains: What do we do instead? Do something, is the obvious answer. But what?” – New Art Examiner

FAMILY FEUD

The Whitney Museum row over a controversial piece of art in the upcoming Whitney Biennial has split the founding family between those who are offended and want to withdraw their support and those who want to see the museum be adventurous. Any idea who’ll prevail? – Salon

DIGITAL DIMENSION

Creating a digital museum doesn’t just mean throwing up a bunch of images on the web – every museum does that these days. A Japanese museum has undertaken a much more ambitious sort of digital initiative – one in which its objects are digitized so visitors can “handle” them in all their dimensions. – Daily Yomiuri (Japan)

PROPAGANDA IN THE NAME OF ART

“There has long been a brisk trade in the kitsch symbols of communism – the hammers and sickles, portraits of Marx and Engels, red stars and Warhol’s Mao. The sales of this imagery, mostly among young people for whom it has little or no real historical meaning, soared after the Berlin wall crumbled more than 10 years ago, according to collectors. These days, however, there is also a burgeoning interest in the Socialist Realist art created under communism by good and occasionally great painters who were reduced to simplistic compositions-glorified workers with chiseled faces and bulging arms, happy comrades astride tractors, bricklayers building the concrete Stalinist fortresses that now mar the cityscapes of Central Europe.” – Chicago Tribune

THE STREETS ARE ALIVE …

Is that Julie Andrews you hear singing in the streets of Leicester? Yes! Along with scores of Londoners singing along to the 1965 film as it’s being displayed on a huge outdoor screen with accompanying karaoke-style lyrics. Also available at the event are sing-along kits, which include “a foam nun (to wave during the opening nun sequence), a fake edelweiss flower (for Christopher Plummer’s solo number) and Ricola mints for the ensuing sore throat.” – Singapore Straits Times (USA Today)