Is the continuing spread of blockbuster traveling exhibitions distracting museums from what should be their primary focus? Art Institute of Chicago president James Cuno thinks so, and he’s raising eyebrows by saying so in public at a time when many museums view high-profile exhibits and big, fancy in-house gift shops and restaurants as the only things keeping them afloat. In his years at Harvard, Cuno “came to espouse what has been called an ‘essentialist’ view. It’s a view that seeks to refocus attention on the acquisition, preservation and presentation of research of museums’ permanent collections.” The theory works in academia, but can it fly in the open market?
Blog
Atheneum Takes A New Track
Hartford’s Atheneum has seen a 27 percent drop in attendance in three years. It’s dropped an expensive building expansion and is embarking on an alternative plan. Changes in the museum’s focus are underway. “The idea that the Atheneum can do an important blockbuster show year in and year out is simply not true anymore. Those shows were, in my judgment, the product of an economy which no longer exists, and they are a product of a certain way of thinking about museums that I’m not so sure that in the end was productive.”
Spiegelman’s New (Personal) Holocaust
Twelve years after winning the Pulitzer Prize for his Holocaust-themed comic book, Maus, artist Art Spiegelman has again put ink to paper to memorialize a great human tragedy. This time, the tragedy is 9/11, and the work is autobiographical. “In content and theme, Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers share some ground. Each of the books deals with a relatively ordinary man, a Spiegelman of one time and place, confronting mass murder (on vastly different scale and a wholly distinct nature, of course) and an arrogant, power-hungry regime (again, on a far different level). Both focus on the primacy of family and tribe to their protagonists, and both evoke the incoherence, the gruesomeness and the vainglory of war.”
The Forgotten Art That Won’t Go Away
“When it comes to swimming against the tide, Olympic gold medals should go to all representational artists. For half a century, they have been almost completely ignored by museums, boycotted by prestigious galleries and scoffed at by critics.” Still, a renaissance of figure drawing has been evident for some years, led by countless amateurs and enthusiasts, and embraced by a few diehard pros. But “in a society that values quick and easy success… and when so many galleries and museums prefer to give their space to video art, conceptual art and installation art, why do so many keep struggling to master a skill that art critics insist is anachronistic and old hat? Why this continuing compulsion to draw?”
When Do They Find Time To Practice?
David Finckel and Wu Han, the new co-directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, could be said to be the poster children for 21st-century musical multitasking. The two are chamber music’s power couple of the moment, with Mr. Finckel best known as the cellist of the Emerson Quartet. They run their own internet-based record label, founded a stunningly successful chamber music festival in California last year, and each maintain a full performance schedule. Unusual? Sure. But in these days when classical music is increasingly serving a niche market, it takes that kind of dedication and willingness to diversify to succeed.
Naipaul’s New Story
At the time of his Nobel Prize in 2001, Sir Vidia Naipaul claimed to be finished with fiction. There was nothing for him – or any other novelist – left to say. So why the new book of fiction?
Pursuing The Enablers
U.S. government officials are recommending that Congress amend the nation’s copyright law to hold companies which “rely on copyright infringement to make a profit” liable for the actions of consumers who use their products. The new regulations, which are aimed squarely at file-trading enablers such as Kazaa and Grokster, are very controversial, with privacy advocates insisting that previous Supreme Court rulings prohibit such wide-ranging prohibitions.
Architecture: Computers Can’t Substitute For Imagination
The Venice Architecture Biennale is full of plans for fancy projects made possible with the wizardry of computer design. But gadgetry doesn’t make up for lack of imagination…
A Phoenix In St. Louis
It was only four years ago that the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra faced the very real prospect of bankruptcy, with the best-case scenario seeming to be a drastic cutback in the ensemble’s artistic quality and national profile. And yet, as the SLSO prepares for its 125th season this fall, it has raised $80 million for its endowment, appointed a new high-profile music director (David Robertson) to replace the late Hans Vonk, and generally sent out word that it is as viable an organization as any in the U.S.
Change Coming In Detroit, But Don’t Hold Your Breath
“Neeme Jarvi says his impending exit as music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra wasn’t strictly his idea. He also declares he’d be happy to spend several weeks a year with the DSO while a search committee headed by Anne Parsons, the orchestra’s new executive director, looks for his successor. With Jarvi starting his final season at the artistic helm and Parsons just settling in, the landscape around the DSO might appear to be shifting. But don’t expect sudden upheaval.”