“Of the 25 television pilots shown at the festival, about 10 garnered interest from development executives and talent agents, who contacted the writers and producers of the shows. None of the talks has culminated yet in any deals, but the debut year of the festival, which concluded Sunday night, accomplished its goal of introducing a new generation of artists to the industry.”
Blog
August Wilson – Some Historical Perspective
“Wilson stands alongside the foremost 20th century American dramatists, Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Though some may argue that Wilson never wrote a play as great as “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” “Death of a Salesman” or “A Streetcar Named Desire,” his finest works, “Fences,” “The Piano Lesson” and “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” have become pillars of modern American drama.”
Conventional Wisdom – Cultural Diversity
Canada is pushing for a vote at UNESCO on a convention on cultural diversity. “It is intended to allow sovereign countries to protect, promote or subsidize their cultural productions despite rulings by international trade tribunals. The convention, which has been endorsed by 53 of 58 members of the United Nations cultural organization’s executive, has been strongly opposed by the United States. The U.S., which has consistently fought guarantees for films that might put restrictions on Hollywood, as well as subsidies for film production and magazines, has argued that UNESCO does not have the authority to enact the convention, and that it would interfere with the free flow of ideas.”
Art Fairs Trip Over One Another
There are four major international art fairs this month. “Not only is the schedule punishing for exhibitors and collectors, but the competition between the fairs for galleries and audience ratings is intense. It is not just a question of filling the stands and making sales – there is an abundance of galleries eager to take part in any of these fairs. The key issue, say the fair directors, is the quality of art shown, by which they mean prestige: getting the most prestigious international galleries with the most sought-after artists and that A1 list of collectors and museum curators to attend.”
Doctor Atomic – Outside The Blast Zone?
“John Adams and librettist and director Peter Sellars have enjoyed some success in previous collaborations with Sellars directing Adams’ first two operas. Yet even with a talented cast, striking visual design and some extraordinary and often beautiful music by Adams, Doctor Atomic is fatally undermined by Sellars’ convoluted libretto and silly, distracting directorial conceits, which at times provoked unwonted laughter from the opening-night audience.”
Thinking About August Wilson
“Reading through Wilson’s cycle play-by-play today, there’s lots to enjoy and reflect on, but ultimately something exhausting and even programmatic in them, something forced and repetitive, although few critics say so. Reading the reviews of the early, more realistic plays, you would think that they stand alongside the masterpieces of the great American playwrights of the 20th century, or of the great playwrights of any century. At least one review compared Wilson to Chekhov. At their worst, Wilson’s plays are overly preoccupied by history. Wilson was a necessary playwright. His best work describes a world that few theater audiences had seen, and it punches holes in common wisdom about race.”
Harry Sells 300 Million Books
JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series has sold more than 300 million copies. “The tales of the schoolboy wizard and his fight against the evil Voldemort have been translated into 63 languages.”
Vettriano: I Don’t Copy
Jack Vettriano has denied he copied from a book for some of his most famous works. “The painter said he had never made any secret of using a 1987 illustrators’ guide for some of his figure drawing. Vettriano denied newspaper reports that he had copied the work or that he had kept his use of the book to himself. He said he had always been upfront about being self-taught and that, like many other artists, he used a reference book for some of his figure drawing.”
Recording Industry Wrongfully Bullying, Suing Downloaders
“Attorneys representing some of the 14,000 people targeted for illegal music trading say their clients are being bullied into settling as the cheapest way to get out of trouble. Collection agencies posing as ‘settlement centers’ are harassing their clients to pay thousands of dollars for claims about which they know nothing, they say.”
Vettriano – Popular? Yes. Artist? Definitely Not
“Jack Vettriano is not even an artist. He just happens to be popular, with ‘ordinary people’ who buy reproductions of his pseudo-1930s scenes of high-heeled women and monkey-suited men, and celebrities who fork out for the originals of these toneless, textureless, brainless slick corpses of paintings. I urge you to visit the National Gallery. Look at great paintings for a few hours. Now take a look at Vettriano. I’m not arguing with you; I’m telling you. I look at art every day and I know what I don’t like. There I go – being elitist. Art critics are, in the game Vettriano plays, snobbish patsies. Critical disdain is part of Vettriano’s success, making him ‘controversial’.”