Wonder how the shapes of everyday objects get their designs? “Once we start to look, we will find no shortage of suggestions of living forms in the furniture and houses around us. There are penguins in our water jugs and stout and self-important personages in our kettles, graceful deer in our desks and oxen in our dining-room tables.”
Blog
A Book Selection Gone Wrong
Ohio State University decided to pick a single book that its freshmen would all read. But the project of choosing that book has unraveled. “The suggestion of one member of the book selection committee that an anti-gay book be picked angered many faculty members, some of whom have filed harassment charges against the person who nominated that book. The faculty members in turn are being accused of trying to censor a librarian — and a conservative group is threatening to sue.”
Cut The Talk – It’s Time To Listen
More and more, performers of classical music concerts are speaking to their audiences. Andrew Clark isn’t impressed: “The trouble with speaking to the audience is that it limits the imaginative scope of the music. Listening to someone discussing a piece of music before you have a chance to hear it pre-programmes your responses. The music has no chance to communicate freely. You are left with a number of objective ideas about what to think and feel, circumscribing the subjective impressions that music seeks to create in the listener through the medium of sound.”
Broadway Theatre Gets Thuggish Over Cameras
A patron complains that at a Broadway Theatre recently, audience members were forced to surrender their cameras upon entering the theatre. “At the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre to catch a preview of Richard Greenberg’s ‘Three Days of Rain,’ starring Julia Roberts and opening officially Wednesday, he and other patrons were ordered — rather rudely, he says — to surrender their cameras before going in or to give up their tickets. Despite years of theatergoing, he says, he’s rarely experienced treatment so brusque.”
The Art Of Security
Want to spend your days around art? That’s what museum security guards do. So “when it comes to the people who guard art, visitors might be surprised to find that in more than a few cases, underneath that stern visage and pressed uniform there beats the heart of an artist.”
Aussie Art Cracks Millionaires’ Club
The market for Australian art is on the rise, with a couple of million-dollar sales recently. The managing director of Sotheby’s says “people were in for a few surprises in the next few years on what the Australian market could achieve. It’s not fully priced … one could argue the whole market is undervalued.”
British Embassies Lose Paintings
Dozens of paintings have disappeared from British embassies around the world in the past decade. “At least 42 paintings, prints and sculptures from the Government Art Collection have been stolen, lost or destroyed, according to information gained through the Freedom of Information Act. None of the works were insured and apart from objects that were known to have been stolen, more than half the total simply disappeared for no known reason.”
Chihuly Inc. – Questions About The Artist Inside?
Dale Chihuly is the superstar of the glass art world. His enormous operation sells millions of dollars worth of glass each year. But lately Chihuly has hit a rough patch. He’s suing, he’s being sued, and he’s had major health problems…
The Smithsonian’s Greek Revival Revival
“The original Patent Office in Washington, D.C., considered one of the America’s best examples of Greek revival architecture, is nearing the end of a $300 million renovation. When the building reopens on July 1, the two Smithsonian museums it houses – the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum – will be newly accessible to the public.”
Email Intrudes Into The Concert Hall
Gadgets of our electronic age are increasingly becoming a distraction in the concert hall. A woman next to Robert Hurwitz in a concert recently spent the performance working on her Blackberry while the music played. “The concert hall is not a church or a temple, but in many ways it is a sanctuary from modern life. It is not, and should not be merely an escape where we hear pretty, soothing melodies or music that relaxes us (for that, smooth jazz radio stations or New-Age records will do just fine). It is, rather, a refuge where we can go and still be fully engaged.”