“An Oscar has always been as much about commerce as about art; it ups an actor’s asking price and box office appeal. These days the trophy itself can mean cold cash as a collectible, worth up to $50,000 for a “common Oscar,” as experts call the technical and tangential awards, and from several hundred thousand dollars to $1.5 million for those bestowed upon famous films and actors. The trade in vintage Oscars through publicized auctions and an underground market has become a parallel universe as competitive and bitter as the annual acting derby itself.”
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Martins And The City Ballet Legacy
“Veteran New York City Ballet fans — who witnessed the glory days under Balanchine — habitually carp about Peter Martins’s ballets. Even these naysayers admit he has craft, but they sense the absence of imagination. They’re also put off by the aridity of his pieces in the classical mode and the hostility between the sexes that prevails in his contemporary-style works. It’s possible, too, that the detractors conflate Martins’s lack of choreographic genius with other perceived flaws. During his tenure, the custodianship of the Balanchine repertoire has, arguably, been careless.”
A Time To Reinvent The Getty?
“Museums win some, lose some. But over the years, the Getty has lost more than makes sense. The sports analogy for New Yorkers is the Knicks: rich, plagued by internal conflicts, infuriating, forever failing to meet sky-high expectations. But change is opportunity. The Getty should now go on a mission.”
Promoting Home-Grown On Hold
The City of Seattle is replacing its generic Muzak with recordings by local musicians. Anyone calling City Hall will be serenaded by locally-produced music while they’re on hold. “The program is a great way to support local artists and expose more people to the incredible diversity of music this city has to offer.”
Scholars Worry About Cooper-Hewitt Archive Plans
The Cooper-Hewitt Museum is considering moving some of its archives from its museum on Fifth Ave. in new York to another Smithsonian facility. But critics “argue that the Cooper-Hewitt offers the rare advantage of relating objects in the museum itself to documents, photographs and other materials in the archive.”
Peter Gelb’s New Met
Peter Gelb has big changes in mind for the Metropolitan Opera, and the opera world is interested. “He said he would emphasize directors with theater and film backgrounds, embrace digital delivery of opera, bring in conductors like Riccardo Muti who have never conducted at the Met before and introduce major voices in new roles, like Karita Mattila as Tosca. Mr. Gelb will also establish a joint commissioning program with the Lincoln Center Theater, which would solicit works from musical theater composers as well as from more traditional classical composers. He will increase the number of new productions from about four a season to seven.”
A New (Crossover) Met?
What do Peter Gelb’s plans for the new Met mean? “If Mr. Gelb wants to connect the Met to contemporary culture, then he must make the company something it has not been: a place that cultivates living composers. He has big plans here as well, though one program will indeed raise the specter of crossover opera to his doubters.”
Record London Art Auctions
Last week’s London auctions set records. “The winter auctions, featuring artists from Edvard Munch to Francis Bacon, were London’s biggest ever, exceeding 1989 totals before art prices last crashed. U.S. and Asian buyers pushed sale totals 5 percent above auctioneers’ top estimate of 245 million pounds. Last February’s total was 170.6 million pounds.”
Lee To Head Booker Jury
Hermione Lee has been named to head this year’s Booker Prize jury. “Lee was the first woman to occupy the posts of Goldsmiths’ Professor of English Literature at Oxford and Professorial Fellow of New College Oxford. Before taking up the posts she taught for 20 years at the University of York.”
Valentine’s Art With A Message
Chocolate too gooey to express your sentiments on Valentine’s Day? Then consider some art with a twist on the message…