It was 50 years ago today that pianist Glenn Gould made his American debut at the Philips Collection in Washington DC. “With the exception of his celebrated pan of singing first daughter Margaret Truman (which elicited a threatening letter from the White House), this is probably the most famous review Washington Post critic Paul Hume ever wrote. And rightly so, for Gould’s debut stands out as one of the highest peaks in the history of Washington musical life — an unheralded Sunday afternoon concert in a small venue that helped set a magnificent career into play.”
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Victoria And Albert Museum Worker Stole Thousands Of Objects
The Victoria and Albert Museum suffered a series of losses to its collection that went unnoticed for decades, say records in the National Archives. “The thief, a man called Nevin, stole 2,544 items from the museum, prompting a security report in 1954. A subsequent stock-take revealed about 5,000 objects were missing, although not all were attributable to Nevin.”
Music In 2004 – Top 10 Disagreements
This is the time of year when most publications put out top ten lists. “The most glaring trend in these lists is the lack of agreement as to what constituted the best music of the past year, not only among critics but also – especially – between critics and popular tastes (as judged by album sales and radio airplay). Comparing the 10 best albums as ranked by the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, and Amazon.com, one finds that exactly half of the albums mentioned appear only once among the lists. Only one record – Kanye West’s “The College Dropout” – appeared on all of the lists; no other album appeared more than twice.”
The EU’s Resale Madness
A proposed levy in the European Union would grant a resale tax on every resold piece of art. “The measure will give artists, and their descendants for 70 years after their deaths, claims upon a levy imposed every time one of their works is resold. Very fair, some will say. Yet in practice, it will simply cause owners of contemporary art to send works for sale in markets where the levy is not applied, notably Switzerland and the US.”
A Big Buisness In Stolen Religious Art
Stolen religious art is big business in Mexico and all over Latin America. “Churches, convents and shrines all over Latin America are under siege. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency in Washington and the FBI, which will soon unveil a “rapid response” task force to fight trafficking in smuggled art, say they are beefing up enforcement efforts. A key tactic is monitoring the Internet, where much of the loot is sold.”
Music In Time And Place
“Today, the environments that music occupies have gotten either very small or very large: the isolation chamber of headphones or the anonymity of the stadium. Live, unamplified music still exists in the cloistered precincts of the concert hall; local bars soldier on and dance clubs still find new ways of embroidering a heavy beat. But for much of the world, music has become either a solitary experience or a form of mass ritual. Yet the history of music is inseparable from the history of places where people gathered.”
Art Of The Moment (After The Moment Has Passed)
“Art made from obviously impermanent materials that is being painstakingly preserved; art made to stay shiny and new that is being treasured for its age; art challenging the notion of originality that is being scrutinized for that quality; once-standard, off-the-shelf materials that are now hard to find; collectors who cling to a piece of paper that proves their dated light fixture is worthy of a museum, not a recycling bin; and caretakers of a reputation who make decisions that they readily admit run counter to the artist’s original intentions. Such is the strange afterlife of work that produces beauty from the banal, an object lesson in how the legacy of a strong-willed radical can be brought to heel by an even stronger force, the market.”
The Temporary Contemporary
What is with contemporary art’s fascination with disposable art? “Our age is obsessed with the glory of spent materials: we love scattered detritus, piles of old tyres, dirty beds surrounded with rubbish. The Young British Artist is part of a dumbshow now, each of them a performer too hung up on the joke of disposability, too unintelligent about language and image to avoid becoming poster campaigns for their own boredom.”
Oscar’s Documentary Problem
“In a year that was widely hailed (as was 2003) as the Year of the Documentary, with nonfiction films playing in record numbers of theaters and to record attendance, the Academy’s recently published list of the 12 semifinalists for 2004’s best-documentary statuette suggests that all is still not well in the house of Oscar.”
How Do You Save UK Churches?
An annual survey of churches in the UK shows that many are being shut and abandoned. “One survey estimates that the rate of newly redundant churches will double to 60 a year, as a result of dwindling attendance and changing centres of population.” So what can be done with the buildings? “Centuries ago the naves of many churches were used as meeting halls, as places where local business took place, or simply where people went on a daily basis to gossip and exchange views. ‘I see no reason why the naves of many churches cannot function in the same way today – almost as a parish hall. Let us let the people back in’.”