“National Heritage officials [have] backed off a bid to transfer [four] paintings – Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights and Table of the Mortal Sins; Tintoretto’s The Foot Washing; and Rogier van der Weyden’s Descent from the Cross – to a €160m museum due to open in Madrid by 2017 to house the Royal Collections.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Composing The Score For The Barneys Holiday Windows
‘Barneys, the department store with, arguably, the most extravagant Christmas windows in New York City, if not the country … has four over-the-top installations, each with their own musical compositions. Hannis Brown is the composer for two of those installations.” (audio)
Is A Tyler Perry Musical About The Crucifixion Of Christ – On Live TV – Really A Good Idea?
“No one [at Fox] stopped to think that maybe a musical about the death of Jesus broadcast live from New Orleans, which culminates with a 20ft illuminated crucifix being paraded through the streets, would be a good idea. … There are so many ways this could go wrong and/or verge into unmitigated camp that it’s absolutely unbelievable.”
New Director Starts To Calm The Waters At Turbulent Miami Art Museum
“[Franklin Sirmans] had just started his job as director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami at a time when the institution had committed to increasing its private contributions and art collection in a city without a tradition of cultural philanthropy – and with a benefactor who alienated the potential donor base by having the new building named after himself.”
With A Revamped National Gallery, Singapore Hopes To Make Itself The Nerve Center Of Southeast Asian Art
“More than 600 million people live in the 10 Asian nations roughly south of China and east of India, in what Eugene Tan, the director of the National Gallery, described as ‘one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world.’ Yet much of its art has been overlooked by the West, and many significant works have been confined to private collections, partly a legacy of colonialism.”
The Mysterious Life Of ‘Japan’s Greta Garbo’
“We’re always hearing about the ends of eras, but the recent death of the great actress Setsuko Hara really is the end of an era – the era of the classic Japanese film … Her death at the age of ninety-five, more than fifty years after her voluntary retirement from the screen – and from all public life – still comes as a shock. There’s now no one left of this astounding constellation of talent; and that she was by far the most emblematic figure of the era makes her disappearance reverberate even more strongly.”
Do Students Study History In Order To Forget It? Wendell Berry On The Univ. Of Kentucky Mural
“I cannot understand the University of Kentucky’s decision to hide Ann Rice O’Hanlon’s fresco in Memorial Hall. The reason given is only that it shows people doing what they actually did. Black people did work in tobacco fields. Black musicians did play for white dancers.”
They’ve Picked A Site For London’s Long-Awaited New Concert Hall
“A new concert hall for London would cost £278m and should be built near St Paul’s Cathedral on the site of the Museum of London, a six-month feasibility study has concluded. … [The venue] would be home to the London Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Sir Simon Rattle.”
Mezzo-Soprano Stella Doufexis Dead At 47
“[She] was an acclaimed recitalist as well as oratorio-singer and opera-performer (in which her roles embraced Cherubino, Dorabella, Octavian, Niklaus as well as modern works like her husband, Christian Jost’s Hamlet). She was also a regular recording artist, appearing on, among other projects, Graham Johnson’s Schumann series for Hyperion … and [that label’s] Fauré song series.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.16.15
About that University of Kentucky mural
At the University of Kentucky a 1930’s WPA-funded mural by Ann Rice O’Hanlon has been temporarily covered while the university administration, faculty and students deliberate on the presentation of the work and its depiction of African-Americans. … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2015-12-16
The Sun Shines (not so) Bright on My Old Kentucky Home
When I was a kid in Lexington, KY, the town was known for two things: being the centre of the Bluegrass thoroughbred horse-breeding industry, and the University of Kentucky. When I was born in 1941 it was a small college town with a population of 45,000. … read more
AJBlog: Plain English Published 2015-12-16
Bach at the Armory with gongs, noise-canceling headphones and deck chairs
Igor Levit and Marina Abramovic Every concert should be like this. Bach’s Goldberg Variations was heard in a piece created by the famous performance artist Marina Abramovic that was a marriage made in – well, the drill hall of the Park Avenue Armory in New York. … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2015-12-15
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