Just last September, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) opened in a repurposed grain silo on the Cape Town waterfront. And just last week, the Norval Foundation, funded by real estate financier Louis Norval, opened in a new building on a suburban estate near Table Mountain. What’s more, both the executive director and the chief director of the Norval came from Zeitz MOCAA.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Top Posts From AJBlogs 05.02.18
Hearts for Hartwig: My Appreciation for Getty’s Soon-to-Retire Communications Head
It’s not like me to sing the praises of museum communications officials, even though I constantly rely on them for help (and they often are extremely helpful). As a critic and investigative journalist intent on clarifying what’s been blurred by PR spin, my relationship with spokespersons is often more adversarial than collegial. Not so with Ron Hartwig, … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-05-02
When Music Critics Could Kill: A Look Back At The Glory Days Of Pitchfork
Amos Barshad: “It’s been years since the site had the kind of cultural cachet on which it built its empire. But music fans of a certain age can still rattle off the acts that landed notorious reviews and landmark 0.0 ratings – Travis Morrison! Robert Pollard!! Liz Phair!!! … A few months ago, I decided that I wanted to look back at those last moments when critics could kill. … I would talk to Black Kids and to Travis Morrison and to the other targets of Pitchfork‘s most infamous reviews, asking them: How did it feel? What did those reviews do to you?”
Another Reason The Whole Shakespeare-Couldn’t-Have-Written-Shakespeare Argument Is Ridiculous
Most of the Will-Shakespeare-of-Stratford skeptics, such as Mark Rylance, seem convinced that no one from a 16th-century small-city artisan-marchant background could possibly have written such artful and erudite drama. That’s ridiculous because, points out Oxford historian Jonathan Healey, “many, perhaps most, of the greatest minds of the age were people of ‘middling’ origins.”
Why I Turned Marx’s Communist Manifesto Into A Graphic Novel
Martin Rowson: “After I graduated I sold a cartoon series to New Statesman titled ‘Scenes from the Lives of the Great Socialists’, based on hideously contrived puns on the defining dicta of Marxism. … I had unfinished business with Marx, and occasionally images would flash into the back of my mind of great geological slabs of History grinding against massive clumps of the Dialectic. Then SelfMadeHero asked if I fancied adapting The Communist Manifesto as a comic book for Marx’s 200th birthday. The whole thing came instantly into my head.”
Art Fairs Are Like America – Broken, Says Jerry Saltz
“As a system, art fairs are like America: They’re broken and no one knows how to fix them. Like America, they also benefit those at very top more than anyone else, and this gap is only growing. Like America, the art world is preoccupied by spectacle – which means nonstop art fairs, biennials, and other blowouts. … This art-fair industrial complex makes it next to impossible for any medium/small gallery to take a chance on bringing unknown or lower-priced artists to art fairs without risking major financial losses. Meanwhile high-end galleries clean up without showing much, if anything, that’s risky or innovative.”
Dancers Are Choreographers, Too, And It’s Time For Dance Criticism To Reflect That
Dancer Benedict Nguyen: “We make contributions to creative processes all the time. Some of these are obvious: We often improvise material or generate entire phrases to be incorporated into a work. Others are more innocuous: Dancers are sometimes asked to give feedback that ends up shaping the composition of a work. This is choreography. As working relationships between dancers and choreographers evolve, the dialogue on crediting authorship needs to reflect the collaboration at the heart of so many works.”
Arts Orgs Fear They Simply Can’t Afford To Turn Down Donations From Ethically Dubious Sources
“Although the vast majority are concerned that taking the ‘wrong’ sort of money could damage their reputation, just one in four report that their organisation has any sort of ethical fundraising policy. The findings emerge out of a survey of over 500 arts workers who shared their views on ethical fundraising and sponsorship. Their comments also reveal why organisations do or do not have a policy in place, and how useful they consider such policies to be.”
Resellers Who Use Bots To Buy Up Hot Tickets Could See Their Fines Soar
Under a new law submitted in the UK Parliament last week, “anyone caught using automated software to instantly buy tickets in such a way will face an unlimited fine. The move is part of a wider government drive to protect ‘real fans’ whose experience is being soured by inflated prices and limited ticket availability.”
In Interview On Record-Breaking Episode, ‘Simpsons’ Creator Matt Groening Puts His Foot In It
With its 636th having aired last weekend, The Simpsons now holds the record for most episodes of any scripted prime-time series. Said Groening, “I actually sometimes meet a famous actor and say, ‘Aw, you should do The Simpsons sometime.’ And they say, ‘I already did.'” But that’s not where he put his foot in it – his comment about the Apu controversy is what has Twitter a-twitter.