“Dropping in to Tate Modern’s new underground oil tank spaces this summer might mean seeing a performance of minimalist dance, taking part in a debate on what it is to be an immigrant or experiencing work by an artist who most recently filmed naked men playing five-a-side football.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
International Publishers Flock To India As Book Sales Soar
“With the printed word considered an endangered species in much of a rapidly digitizing world, India now represents one of the best English-language book markets in the world. … Beneath this publishing boom are demographic changes, rising literacy and the increase of Indians speaking English, the lingua franca of economic growth.”
Louis Langrée Named Music Director Of Cincinnati Symphony
The 51-year-old maestro, currently music director of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and chief conductor of Camerata Salzburg, succeeds Paavo Järvi, who left last May. Langrée begins his initial four-year term in the 2013-14 season.
Where Artists’ Copyright Meets Commerce, Things Get Messy
“Even if a painting (or drawing or photograph) has been sold to a collector or a museum, in general, the artist or his heirs retain control of the original image for 70 years after the artist’s death. … If someone wants to reproduce the painting – on a Web site, a calendar, a T-shirt, or in a film – it is the estate that must give its permission, not the museum.” Issues arise everywhere from Google Art Project to the 3-D re-release of Titanic.
Actor Playing Judas In Passion Play Accidentally Hangs Himself
“Tiago Klimeck, 27, was enacting the suicide of Judas during a Good Friday performance in Itarare, southern Brazil. The audience and his fellow actors didn’t realise anything was wrong for more than four minutes. Kilmeck died this week after being in a medically induced coma for the last 16 days.”
Christopher Hitchens Snubbed By Orwell Prize
“Hitchens has been described as the heir to Orwell, but never won the £3,000 prize which seeks to reward the art of political writing. It was widely whispered among critics that Hitchens, who died aged 62 in December after a long battle with cancer, would likely receive posthumous recognition this year.” But his final book, Arguably, did not make this year’s shortlist.
Philadelphia Orchestra Settles Case With Musicians’ Pension Fund
“Resolving the most quarrelsome aspect of its bankruptcy, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association has settled with the national musicians’ pension fund that had threatened expensive and time-consuming litigation over the orchestra’s withdrawal from the fund.”
Words Change Meaning All The Time – Even Within A Single Conversation
“[In] fact conversations are often designed to help this shifting take place. That is, when we engage in conversation, much of what we say does not involve making claims about the world but involves instructing our communicative partners how to adjust word meanings for the purposes of our conversation.”
How Schiele’s Portrait Of Wally Changed The Art World (Decades After It Was Painted)
“Far less graphic and edgy than the works that made Schiele’s reputation, the painting is nevertheless destined for iconhood because of its history as Nazi loot and the 13-year legal battle waged for it.”
UK Science Fiction Writers Ask To Be Matched Up With Scientists
“A group of six major British science fiction authors including Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod and Geoff Ryman are calling urgently for closer collaboration between the arts and the sciences,” including a body like the US National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange, which connects scientists with fiction projects that need expertise.