“To New Yorkers, Edward Hopper is likely to evoke visions of moody nighttime urban scenes. But the painter created some of his most famous work in the bright seaside town of Gloucester, Mass., on Cape Ann, where he spent time in the 1920s. The photographer Gail Albert Halaban has been locating the original houses in Hopper’s paintings there and taking pictures of them as they look today.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
No, We Won’t Boycott That Play, No Matter What Your Politics Demand
“Closing down and curtailing performances prevents people from different countries from exchanging ideas, songs, debating issues, and finding out what they have in common. This may well come to nothing more than enjoyment; I am not suggesting that the performance would be a political act of solidarity with others in trouble – that is too great a claim, but I am arguing that we see beyond borders in appreciating art, and in any future struggle for a better life. More art and more dialogue is always preferable to less.”
Student Finds New Katherine Mansfield Stories – And Stops The Presses
“The discovery – which also includes previously unknown photographs – was made by Chris Mourant, 23, a PhD student at King’s College London. Although in the university’s archives, the material had been overlooked until he spotted its significance. Learning that the University of Edinburgh was to publish the first complete edition of Mansfield’s fiction, he contacted Dr Gerri Kimber, senior lecturer at the University of Northampton and the edition’s co-editor with Vincent O’Sullivan. They were just about to send the first volume to press.”
William Morris House Saved From Closure, And Soon To Reopen
“William Morris, the philosopher, novelist and leading light of the Arts and Crafts Movement, once urged householders to have nothing they did not ‘know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ in their domestic environment, and soon visitors to Water House in Walthamstow can judge him at his word once more.”
Biennials: Competing (In Sometimes Bizarre Ways) For Artists, And Audience
“Now that there’s a glut of biennials, triennials and other festivals worldwide, not to mention the art fairs that serve as their commercial counterparts, the competition for visitors is fierce. It isn’t just biennial fatigue — it’s almost a backlash. Why go to a biennial today when there are so many other venues for discovering new art? What does a biennial offer that making the rounds at galleries can’t? Driven by such issues, many U.S. biennials are rethinking, refining or just plain abandoning their missions.”
Asterisks Only Bollocks Up The Issue (Just Fucking Go Ahead And Swear)
In a British trial, most newspapers have been excising the accused’s swearwords with asterisks. This is a problem: “First, people are being denied a full and accurate report of what the entire case hinged on: the swearing was central, not peripheral. Second, the shocking force of the language used is surely diminished by reducing it to asterisks. Third, readers are being treated as children, unable to cope with the reality – however unpleasant – of what, we now learn, highly paid professional footballers say to each other on the pitch.”
The Audition Of A Lifetime (And Where The Stick Went Wrong)
For a classical percussionist, news of openings at the Boston Symphony Orchestra spur a frantic attempt. “Tetreault says he spent almost a year preparing for the audition. This was his life during that period: After working a full day of patchwork gigs scattered across Colorado, he’d go to his practice space until about 1 a.m., then drive home and be asleep by 2 a.m. And then at 6 o’clock, he’d get up and start all over again.”
Alexander Cockburn, 71, Writer And Fierce Critic From (And Of) The Left
“Cockburn had, at various times, regular columns in ideologically disparate publications like The Nation and The Wall Street Journal and became known as an unapologetic leftist, condemning what he saw as the outrages of the right but also castigating the American liberal establishment when he thought it was being timid.”
The UK’s Volunteer Libraries May Endanger Author Royalties
“The government is facing anger from authors shocked to discover that they are not entitled to royalties for books borrowed from libraries run by ‘big society’- inspired volunteers. Such libraries are mushrooming as community groups are forced to step in to save their local libraries from closing as a result of spending cuts”
Theatre Critics Don’t Know Much About Their Subject. Why Is That OK?
“If you flip the dial around to reality and competition TV shows, you’ll see chefs and restaurant owners commenting on food, fashion designers sitting alongside fashion editors checking out new designs, interior designers celebrating the designs of others, famous models telling wannabe models how to model, etc. In the newspaper, you can read poets’ reviews of new books of poems, and major fiction writers describing the merits of the latest big novel. … Why aren’t more theater practitioners critics?”