Matthew Westphal – Page 805 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Columbia University’s Visual Arts MFA Students, Appalled At Quality Of Program, Demand Refunds

The MFA in visual arts program at Columbia is by reputation one of the best in the country, and it’s almost certainly the most expensive, with annual tuition of $63,961. Yet the art studio building suffers from burst pipes, flood damage on the floors, crumbling ceilings and walls, and poor heat, and the star faculty members that lure students turn out not to be there. 51 of the current 54 students in the program have demanded their tuition fees back – and the university provost agrees that the program is a “disgrace” (though he won’t refund the money).

David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle Arts Editor And TV Critic, Dead At 70

“His long career at The Chronicle began when he was hired in May 1992 as a temporary copy editor in the section he would go on to oversee, Datebook. Wiegand distinguished himself as someone with empirical knowledge about every art form, high and low, from opera to ballet to country music to the latest trends in pop culture. Over the past several years, he had added his own voice to the paper’s roster of critics, providing incisive, award-winning television reviews.”

Menil Collection’s New Drawing Institute Has Solid Opening Date

“The Menil Drawing Institute, which has looked so enticingly ready for months from Richmond Avenue, will open Nov. 3 with an exhibition of works on paper by Jasper Johns that has been almost as highly anticipated. The now-official date falls more than a year after the Menil Collection initially planned to open the world’s first building dedicated to modern and contemporary works on paper.”

‘One Of The Most Innovative, Influential Magazine Art Directors Of The 20th Century’, Art Paul Of ‘Playboy’, Dead At 93

“During [his] tenure as art director, Playboy won hundreds of awards for illustration and graphic design and influenced the visual appearance of scores of other magazines and newspapers. … In addition to designing the look of the magazine” – including the bunny logo, one of the most recognized corporate logos on earth – “Mr. Paul hired artists to create original paintings and illustrations. He commissioned work from Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, LeRoy Neiman, James Rosenquist and Shel Silverstein, telling them their work should reflect the spirit of the article and should stand alone, without need of a caption.”

Bankrupt Weinstein Company Has A Buyer

“The Weinstein Company on Tuesday named a Dallas private equity firm as the winning bidder in its bankruptcy sale, spurning an offer by the Broadway producer Howard Kagan. The victor – for now, at least, as a bankruptcy judge still has to sign off and the decision could be challenged by creditors – is Lantern Capital Partners. It entered the sale as the studio’s prearranged bidder, or ‘stalking horse,’ which set a price floor. Lantern offered $310 million plus the assumption of about $115 million in debt.”

Tarantino, Streep, Gyllenhaal, Other Stars Say Weinstein Co. Owes Them Millions, Object To Bankruptcy Sale

Director Quentin Tarantino, whose relationship with the Weinstein brothers goes back more than 20 years, claims that he’s owed well over $4 million in royalties for his four most recent movies; numerous major film actors say they were never paid promised back-end profits from their Weinstein-produced titles. All are objecting to the bankruptcy sale of the company, fearing that the transaction will leave them unpaid.

It Costs An Awful Lot To Change A Country’s Alphabet – Just Ask Kazakhstan

The Kazakh language has used a modified version of the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet since the early Soviet days. Now the government of the Central Asian republic has adopted a plan to switch entirely to the Latin alphabet by 2025 – with a budget of more than $660 million.

Half Of Theatre Company Board Resigns In Disgust Over Management Issues

Five members of the board of directors of the prominent English touring company Out of Joint “have walked out in reaction to a range of issues, including the way Arts Council England treated the company following the departure of [founding artistic director Max] Stafford-Clark, who was accused of inappropriate behaviour by a number of former colleagues last year. … The members are also understood to have become increasingly unhappy with the way the company was being run by new artistic director Kate Wasserberg and executive producer Martin Derbyshire.”

Paris’s Opéra-Bastille Closed For 18 Days Due To Mishap With Fire Curtain

Last week, two 18-ton cables that serve as counterweights to the stage’s metal fire curtain snapped. While no one was injured and the fire curtain did not fall to the stage, Paris Opera management has closed the auditorium until the cables can be repaired and other cables can be inspected. All of last week’s and this week’s performances at the Bastille have been cancelled; the theater should reopen on May 13. (in French)

Author: Matthew Westphal