Blog

Fischer-Dieskau At 80

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was the greatest lieder singer of he 20th Century. “It is more than 12 years since the most influential singer of the 20th century stepped quietly out of the limelight and brought the curtain down on his 50-year career. Now, to mark his 80th birthday on May 28, there will be ceremonies and awards; a new pictorial biography by Hans Neunzig; large selections from his enormous recorded legacy are poised for reissue by DG; and the singer himself is giving a steady stream of interviews in the Berlin house where he has lived for more than half a century.”

Bill T – Still Speaking His Mind

More than 10 years after a controversial essay trashing his work appeared in the New Yorker, Bill T. Jones still finds himself having to defend himself. “An articulate and forceful advocate for his work and his company, Jones is keenly analytical and self-aware. In conversation, he spools off tightly argued paragraphs aglint with references to John Cage, Euripides, Merce Cunningham, high modernism, Marcel Proust, avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage and Krishna consciousness. His programs invite viewers to trace references, make comparisons and find patterns.”

What’s Wrong With The Modern Book Review

“Book reviews should inspire reading. They should excite, stimulate, agitate and empower readers to discover new books and avoid bad ones. They should turn you on to undiscovered authors, prompt you into finally reading the writer you have never quite got round to, and make you wonder at the world of delights that remain unread. But let’s be honest. They don’t, do they?”

Who Buys This…Stuff?

Auction season in Manhattan is a two-week spending spree of paddle-waving rich people and art dealers in Prada suits, all of them vying for highbrow booty at Christie’s and its archrival, Sotheby’s. The regulars were asking questions like “How much will the Hopper fetch?” and “Which house will gross more?” But if you’d never visited Planet Expensive Art, you didn’t care about that, not after you spotted those Friedmans. After that, all you could wonder is: How does an artist peddle his doody, not to mention his doodle? And here’s another stumper: Who would buy it?

Kurtz Decries New McCarthyism

Artist Steven Kurtz, who has been investigated for bio-terrorism because of his artwork, has condemned the government’s investigation. “There’s no doubt that this is a politically motivated case, to my mind. Look back to the tendencies of the government and the Department of Justice. . . . There’s fanaticism in the air. I think we’re in a very unfortunate moment now in U.S. history. A form of neo-McCarthyism has made a comeback. . . . We’re going to see a whole host of politically motivated trials which have nothing to do with crime but everything to do with artistic expression.”

Banksy Strikes Again (This Time It’s The British Museum)

A rock was hung on a wall in the British Musuem. It had a caveman-like picture of a man pushing a shopping cart. “The rock was put there by art prankster Banksy, who has previously put works in galleries in London and New York. A British Museum spokeswoman said they were ‘seeing the lighter side of it’. She said it went unnoticed for one or two days but Banksy said three days.”

Manhattan’s International Freedom Center – A Lot Of Politics

A new museum in lower Manhattan that will house the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center is desitgned by the Norwegian firm Snohetta. The design is “strangely seductive: with some fine-tuning, it could even become a fascinating work. It is already closer to the standard set by Santiago Calatrava’s soaring glass-and-steel transportation hub than that of the site’s troubled Freedom Tower, for example. But ultimately, the museum is more about politics than architecture – a theme-park view of American ideals in an alluring wrapper.”