“For a city of its huge size – 10 million people – and economic heft, Jakarta lacked many things one might expect of a thriving Asian metropolis: a metro system, for one, as well as a major international modern and contemporary art museum. The metro system will be operational in 2019, but the contemporary art museum has come even sooner. On Nov. 4, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara, known as Museum Macan, opened its doors to the public.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.27.17
Women’s wages and employment at the top of the art world
I would venture this: the more a “top” position has multiple, inflexible time demands, the greater the gender differences will be. Does that mean we can look at the gender distribution of orchestral conductor or museum director positions and say “well, that’s just market forces”? No, we don’t have to do that. … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2017-11-27
False Dichotomy: Boston Globe’s Deaccession-or-Die Editorial on the Berkshire Museum
With surprising disregard for the facts, the Boston Globe‘s editorial writers yesterday flatly (and wrongly) asserted that the Berkshire Museum needs to sell “40 of the museum’s most valuable works” in order to “remain viable.” … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-11-27
Monday Recommendation: Jones, Lewis & The Vanguard
Lisik and Allen, 50 Years At The Village Vanguard (SkyDeck)
Dave Lisik and Eric Allen tell the story of The Vanguard Orchestra and its predecessors. In a huge book illustrated with hundreds … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-11-27
A Brief History Of The Fabergé Egg
“It’s really unusual to have a piece of decorative art (not a painting) that has as much cultural resonance as a Fabergé egg,” says curator Jo Briggs. “It’s almost the Mona Lisa of the decorative art world.”
Is It True That Barbara Hannigan Won’t Sing The Queen Of The Night Because It’s Too Easy?
Nope. She won’t sing the role because she doesn’t want to get typecast in it – “It would drive me nuts.” But it is true, as she tells David Patrick Stearns, that she hums Pierre Boulez to herself.
Spike Lee Talks About Turning ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ Into A TV Series – And Hiring Women Scriptwriters
“This was a story that didn’t need to be told entirely through a male gaze. I’ve been accused of telling things through a male gaze, and I didn’t want to give people any more ammunition. Plus, why wouldn’t I want Lynn Nottage to write scripts? She’s won two Pulitzer Prizes, for Ruined and Sweat. Why wouldn’t I want Eisa Davis, Radha Blank, even my sister Joie wrote a script?”
The ‘Psychedelic Dream Homes’ Of El Alto, Bolivia
A Times 360 video tour of the exuberant architecture of Freddy Mamani Silvestre, a Bolivian architect whose house designs for the world’s highest city (El Alto, at 14,000 feet, sits on a plateau above La Paz) incorporate visual motifs and colors from the indigenous Aymara culture.
‘Singin’ In The Rain’ On Stage, Looking Like An Old Black-And-White Movie Musical
Robert Carsen’s production of the old Gene Kelly classic for Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet (and which he hopes to bring to Broadway) isn’t entirely in black-and-white: “We use sepia toning sometimes. If it’s in a garden, it’s tinted green. If it’s indoors, it’s tinted pink. In the fantasy section, when it’s not in Los Angeles anymore or making a movie but dreaming of being on Broadway, in the Broadway melody, that all goes into gold and warm tungsten stage lights.”
Architect Albert Ledner, 93, Famous For His Portholes
“[He] gave Modernism his personal, often whimsical spin, putting portholes in buildings in New York and using things like ashtrays and salvaged convent windows in unusual ways in houses in New Orleans.”
Putin’s Cultural Forum Turns Into Debate Over Artistic Freedom In Russia
“The Russian government’s annual St Petersburg International Cultural Forum (16-18 November) set off a new round of debate about the state of artistic freedom in Russia, with officials saying it is flourishing and a model for the world and the liberal intelligentsia saying it is under attack.”
Ten Ways To Tell If Your ‘Nutcracker’ Is Traditional (And They’re Not Necessarily The Ways You Think)
As Alastair Macaulay points out, changes to the original Tchaikovsky/Petipa scenario have been made ever since the ballet’s 1892 premiere. “Many people crave a traditional Nutcracker, often the one they grew up with. But frequently it turns out that their notion of Nutcracker tradition goes back only to the mid-20th century. … So here are 10 Nutcracker checkpoints to help you work out where your Nutcracker is or isn’t true to the ballet’s heart and (a different thing) its tradition.”