Blog

Adjaye Unveils Denver MoCA Design

The design of the new permanent home of Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art has been unveiled, and it stands in stark contrast to the flashy, eye-catching architecture that currently dominates the museum scene. “[Architect David] Adjaye’s concept puts the emphasis on dramatic interior spaces. Rather than jutting angles, the 25,000-square-foot building offers a placid interplay of light… Most of the exterior will be sheathed in glass, its color yet to be determined. About a foot inside the glass will be walls of translucent plastic, which will… allow in some diffused light during the day and radiate a glow from inside at night.”

Chicago Negotiations Down To The Wire

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians’ contract will expire at midnight tonight, and the players have already cleaned out their lockers at Symphony Hall in anticipation of a possible strike. “CSO contract negotiations are usually contentious, and settlements typically come at the last minute. Though there was no strike in 2000, the talks that led to the CSO’s current four-year contract were regarded as particularly acrimonious.”

We’re Critics, Not PR Flaks

At the recent symposium on the future of classical music criticism, a familiar argument raged over the role of the critic in promoting the form. “The assumption seems to be that music journalists can help keep classical music alive by constantly writing how wonderful it is and how terrific all those folks are who play it.” But besides being an absurd line of reasoning, doesn’t cheerleading demean the whole idea of intelligent criticism? “Critics, in every field, are indeed advocates. But not only for performing artists. We also must consider the audience and defend them from mediocrity and worse. At the core of this job is an allegiance to great art, and to those who create it.”

Ruscha In Venice

Ed Ruscha has been chosen to represent the US in next summer’s Venice Biennale. “Ruscha, 66, was selected by directors and curators from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.”

Hughes: What MoMA Means

How important is the Museum of Modern Art to America? Robert Hughes: “To put it plainly: Moma, to give it the acronym by which it is always known, made modern art mandatory in America. It did this not only by collecting it, showing it, moving big money into place behind it and evangelising for it, but by setting the prime example whereby, in the US, the function of the museum shifted from accumulation to teaching. This came to apply to almost all museums, not just those dedicated to a hitherto enigmatic or marginal ‘modernism’.”

Bookstore Customers Burning Out On Political Books

As the American election gets close to resolution, “many independent, Chicago-area booksellers are yanking the most partisan books out of their store windows and off their most visible shelves. The reason? It’s just not worth the grief.” Too many customers were complaining. “I don’t remember this four years ago. I think everybody feels the stakes are higher this year on both sides.”