The Art Gallery of Ontario has forged an unlikely partnership with Russia’s Hermitage Museum in recent years, and the AGO’s Matthew Teitelbaum is determined to take it to “‘the curatorial level,’ which, despite its formal-sounding nature, really means more of a hands-on deal between the Hermitage’s art experts and his own. In short, he wants AGO people to start arranging what the Hermitage might send our way. But put this in some perspective. Since the entire AGO, with or without Frank Gehry touch-ups, probably would fit nicely into the Hermitage’s cat-infested basement, Teitelbaum’s approach can be seen as remarkably progressive, pushy, or somewhere in between.”
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Giving The People What They Want
Ken Danby could be considered the Canadian answer to Thomas Kinkade – a stunningly prolific artist (650 original works in a 40-year career) who inspires revulsion in the art world for his nostalgic simplicity and his willingness to mass market his work, even to the extent of signing machine-made reproductions. Still, “Danby’s clientele know what they like and they are legion. His 1998 show at the Carrier Gallery attracted, he says, 10,000 visitors and sold $1.25 million-worth of pictures.”
Graham Greene’s New Relevance
Novelist Graham Greene, who would have turned 100 this weekend, will enjoy a posthumous resurgence this fall, thanks to a bevy of reissues put together for the occasion. The timing couldn’t be better, as Greene’s work seems to have a new relevance to modern events: “The Western world finds itself in international turmoil, in situations similar to those of Greene’s slumming characters, where it’s not always clear that one is doing the right thing. And we find ourselves trying to divvy up the world into categories of absolutes — Good and Evil — when our everyday existence, as echoed by Greene’s protagonists, tells us that things are much more complicated than that.”
Another Day, Another Contract Extension
Following the lead of the nation’s major orchestras, the musicians and management of the Florida Orchestra have agreed to continue working towards a new collective bargaining agreement despite the expiration of the musicians’ current deal. The orchestra’s current base salary is roughly $24,000 for a 31-week season.
Cleveland Museum Hires One Of Its Own
The Cleveland Museum of Art has filled a key curatorial post from within its existing staff. “Anita Chung, formerly an Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow at the museum, has been appointed associate curator of Chinese art. She is assuming responsibility for the Chinese collection, overseen for the past 6½ years by Ju-hsi Chou, who retired in June.” The Mellon Foundation has made a challenge grant to permanently endow the position of curator of Chinese art, which has yet to be filled.
Art That Travels
“What do you buy just before you board a plane? Most frequent fliers take what they can get: tabloids, Godiva chocolates, $5 paperbacks, duty-free liquor and cigarettes. But the brand-new Airport Gift Shop at [New York’s JFK Airport] has turned shopping into an art – literally. Designed and curated by New York artist Tobias Wong, the Airport Gift Shop is part of a just-opened art installation called Terminal 5 – which uses all the space in Eero Saarinen’s landmark (and defunct) TWA Terminal 5.”
Scaring Ourselves To Death
Whatever happened to America’s old swagger, the visible confidence of a nation that could simultaneously project ultimate strength and ultimate benevolence? The national character these days seems to be pure, unadulterated fear, augmented by the violent rage that accompanies the experience of being trapped in a corner. “We are a population whose vulnerabilities and insecurities have become a central focus of our popular culture and our politics.” From books to films to television and beyond, we have become a culture of terrified victims, lashing out not only at the dangerous world beyond our borders, but at each other.
Madison’s New PAC Good Enough For Chicago
Madison’s new Overture Center for the Arts, designed by Cesar Pelli and built at a cost of $205 million (all of which was paid by a single donor,) has opened its main concert hall with a performance by the Chicago Symphony, and if musician reaction is any indication, the little university town in Wisconsin has constructed one of the country’s great concert halls. “Several CSO players reported that they could hear themselves and each other with greater clarity than at perhaps any hall they have played… Pelli and Chicago-based acousticians Kirkegaard Associates have created a beautiful, bright and open auditorium with a feel of intimacy far exceeding that of the much smaller 1,500-seat Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago’s Millennium Park.”
Dave Eggers Wants You To Vote
Ohio is widely considered to be one of the three or four most important states in any presidential election, and presidential candidates sink millions of advertising dollars into the state’s television markets. And yet, voter turnout in the Buckeye State is no better than in any other part of the country. Enter Operation Ohio, a touring group of big-name authors holding get-out-the-vote efforts at colleges and universities across the state. The events are billed as non-partisan, but there is a distinct anti-Bush ring to the speeches.
Up Next, Valkyries Fired Out Of Cannons!
Wagner’s Ring cycle, as imagined by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, is a challenge in ways that go far beyond the musical complexities of the score. Some scenes, for instance, take place underwater, which many companies are content to leave as an implied setting, but which the Lyric has decided requires its Rhinemaidens to perform while suspended from bungee cords. The resulting midair dance is a wonderful sight to behold, but behind the scenes, it is one of the more complex staging endeavors ever mounted on the operatic stage, requiring not only split-second timing, but serious teamwork.