Biennales are generally big agglomerations of a lot of “stuff” that rarely works together to deliver a coherent statement. But “last weekend, in a minor miracle of contemporary curating, New Yorker Robert Storr opened the fifth Santa Fe biennial, titled Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque. Storr’s show, held at a contemporary art center called Site Santa Fe, channels the unnatural elegance of Raphael’s Vatican decor, almost 500 years after the Italian master’s death. At Site’s invitation, Storr has brought together 53 contemporary artists whose works speak to one another, and to how the ancient notion of the grotesque pans out today.”
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Australian Publishers Withdraw Khouri Book
The Australian publishers of Norma Khouri’s controversial book, Forbidden Love, have withdrawn the book from sale and advised booksellers to do the same after doubts surfaced about whether the bestseller’s tale is true as claimed…
Is Khouri’s Story A Fake?
Norma Khouri’s frightening story of fleeing her Middle Eastern homeland in fear for her life became a worldwide bestseller. But now she is being attacked and her story branded a fake. “Far from being a Jordanian who fled her home in the late 1990s after the “honour” killing of her best friend, Khouri is accused of being an American passport-holder who lived in Chicago from the age of three.”
UK’s Latest “Big Project” Disaster: Diana’s Fountain
London’s memorial fountain to Diana, Princess of Wales, opened only last month by the Queen, has turned into a disaster. “The £3.6 million fountain, supposed to express Diana’s spirit and love of children, is closed indefinitely over the school summer holidays after three people were hospitalised in accidents while paddling, among them a child who had to be treated for a head injury. It is the third and most serious stoppage, following break downs due to a malfunctioning pump and ‘a rogue leaf’. An urgent investigation is now under way.”
Lebrecht: Regretting The Walkman
The Walkman is 25 years old. Norman Lebrecht says it transformed (and cheapened) music. “Its advantages were many, mostly unforseen. Actors learned their lines by Walkman on the bus into rehearsal. Splenetic executives used it for lunchtime meditation. I once heard Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony on a vertical Alpine train as a thunderstorm crashed all around. In unforgettable settings, music acquired unsuspected dimensions. But these benefits were soon outweighed by its corrosive effects.”
Goldberger: Eyes On Shanghai-On-The-Hudson
“To just about everyone except the tax authorities, the Jersey City waterfront is a part of New York,” writes Paul Goldberger. “Cesar Pelli’s tower is the anchor of a new city, a kind of Shanghai on the Hudson, that has sprung u over the past decade on what was once industrial land. It is an enormous complex—by far the largest cluster of skyscrapers in the region outside Manhattan.”
Those Overweight Medieval Monks
“A recent study of skeletal remains from monks that lived during the Middle Ages (476-1450 A.D.) that revealed most monks were overweight, but perhaps not entirely jolly because they suffered from conditions associated with obesity, such as arthritis.”
A Real Look At Realism – Where Is It?
Considering their importance in literary history, there’s relatively little scholarship being done on realist authors. Postmodern suspicion of any claim to be able to represent reality is only part of the problem. “Realist works tend to be forthright and explicit, so there’s less of an overt challenge for scholars to ‘crack’ them. Nor is it that easy to get students to crack the novels.”
Vandals Destroy/Steal Art In Venice And Rome
“Italy’s rich heritage is under attack as never before from vandals and professional thieves. In a series of incidents in the past four weeks in Venice and Rome, hammers have been used to smash statues and fountains. In some cases, the heads of Roman statues more than 2,000 years old have been cleanly cut away using powerful circular saws, more than likely by professional thieves working to order.”
The Mona Lisa’s Serious Deterioration
“Leonardo’s most celebrated work, the Mona Lisa, has deteriorated so significantly over the last year that conservation experts at the Louvre have ordered urgent analysis of its condition. It will then be moved to a new, specially-designed gallery as part of a E2.3 million project paid for by the Japanese company, Nippon TV. Although this project was announced a few years ago, it is finally coming to fruition.”