“Bad news this evening from Bristol Old Vic – the oldest continuously running theatre in the country – which is to close its doors at the end of July. About 60 jobs are to go and artistic director Simon Reade is to depart. The question is this: will the doors ever open again on one of the most beautiful theatres in the country?”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
NYC To UK: Thanks For Funding Our Theatre
In Jeremy McCarter’s opinion, “now may be a good time to offer a few words of gratitude to the most underappreciated patron of New York theatre: you, the British taxpayer. … Thanks to plays such as [The Coast of Utopia and Stuff Happens] from the National, and Frost/Nixon from the Donmar Warehouse (which doesn’t get as much support as the NT, but would still be the envy of many an American producer), a direct line runs from your wallet to award podiums all over Manhattan.”
Paean To A Font So Fair (At Fifty)
“It undoubtedly counts as font fetishism, design geekery, Mac zealotry and any number of unappealing, sub-obsessive-compulsive habits, but I’m going to declare it anyway: I love Helvetica. … And this year, though surely it is shaped from the geometry of eternity, Helvetica is 50.”
To The Barricades! A Call For Artists’ Political Activism
“Artists who create work that supports or opposes an ideology can contribute to the general discourse, and the collectors who buy such work can show their support for the ideas it expresses. But active participation in politics, whether financially or through personal activism, is also needed.”
From A British Critic, A Defense Of MoMA’s Virtues
Why are US critics so eager to complain about MoMA? Jonathan Jones is baffled. “I can see that if I were a New York critic I would be finding fault with MoMA too. I’m glad I’m not, and can look at it with the healthy romanticism they doubtless feel when they contemplate Tate Modern’s vast spaces, so refreshingly uncluttered by all those Picasso paintings MoMA is burdened with.”
Blair And Classical Music: Mutually Impervious
“Would English National Opera have commissioned a work like the benighted Gaddafi had not the woolly notion of opening up opera to the untapped younger audience seemed such a politically expedient idea to embrace? And would the Proms before the Blair years ever have dreamt of including an evening with Michael Ball in its season? Those are the negatives, driven by the wholly false idea that popular art must by definition be good art….”
Literature Under Blair: How Has It Fared?
“The key, and positive, change to the arts that has taken place under Blair – the advent of a fluid sense of identity – has gone hand in hand with the rise of spin: the deliberate use of ‘semantic slippage’ to achieve political and commercial ends or obfuscate moral embarrassments in those fields. Postmodernism, by nature a free-going sort of animal, turns very nasty when harnessed to deliberate ends.”
Smoking To Be A Factor In Rating Movies
“The Motion Picture Assn. of America announced today that smoking will be considered when rating movies and ‘depictions that glamorize smoking or movies that feature pervasive smoking outside of an historic or other mitigating context may receive a higher rating.’ Smoking will become a factor in decisions by the Classification and Rating Administration, along with violence, language, nudity, drug abuse and other elements.”
From Gilbert & George, Free Art (Download Required)
“An original work by artists and national treasures Gilbert and George would normally set you back many thousands of pounds. But from 11.30pm tonight a piece is being made available to anyone who wants it – for free. The work, called Planed, can be downloaded from the Guardian and BBC websites from 11.30pm, for 48 hours only. It will be the first time that artists of this stature have made work available in this way.”
For These Artists, Why A Second Go At The Turner?
“Artists need a very strong incentive to go through the Turner Prize mill of media attention a second time. They would need to think that they not only could, but would win. Otherwise, why bother? At this stage in their careers neither Mike Nelson (a nominee in 2001) nor Mark Wallinger (previously nominated in 1995) really need the Turner Prize in the way they once did. They certainly don’t need the exposure.”