Minnesota state legislator Cy Thao is a prominent figure in the Twin Cities’ large population of Hmong, a nomadic people of Chinese origin who fled to the U.S. from Laos following the Vietnam War. As a lawmaker, Thao is one of only two Hmong officeholders in America (the other is also from St. Paul,) and is steadily gaining influence at the Capitol. But Thao is also an accomplished artist who is determined to break the thousand-year cycle of lost Hmong history through his work. This week, a series of 50 of Thao’s oil paintings goes on display at a Minneapolis museum.
Blog
Artists Of The Computer Underground
“The idea that every hacker is an artist and every artist is a hacker isn’t groundbreaking — recent gallery and museum shows have focused on the link between art and coding — but a new book by programmer Paul Graham gives the concept a fresh twist by advising hackers to improve their skills by borrowing creative techniques from other artists… Graham slams the artistic conceit that all art is good and taste is purely subjective, pointing out that if you aren’t willing to say that some creations aren’t beautiful then you’ll never develop the aesthetic muscles necessary to define and develop good work.”
Radiohead Frontman Gets BBC Composer Post
The guitarist for the art-rock band Radiohead has been named the BBC’s newest composer-in-residence. Jonny Greenwood will fill the role for the next two years, and is committed to composing at least one orchestral work in that time. Greenwood, who is a classically trained viola player, has never formally attempted composition before, although Radiohead’s songs have been hailed by many in the art music world, and pianist Chris O’Riley has even transcribed them for solo piano.
Man With The (NYT Culture) Plan
As the New York Times’ new culture editor, Jon Landman will oversee a plan to revampt the paper’s cultural coverage. “Executive editor Bill Keller, in a staff memo, conceded that Mr. Landman — best known as the Metro editor who tried to warn higher-ups about Jayson Blair—’does not bring to the job a thick portfolio of cultural expertise.’ So how’d he become the new culture boss? ‘Bill asked me to do it,’ Mr. Landman said. ‘Sometimes life is simple’.”
Is Success Killing UK Museums?
Britain’s museums are a big success both in terms of the quality of their collections and with the audiences that throng to see them, writes Nicholas Serota. “But the museum economy itself is near breaking point. The success of free entry has placed ever greater demands on resources – at Tate Modern we have even found a sponsor for lavatory paper. With art prices reaching astronomical levels, we are having difficulty in renewing the collections that are at the heart of what we do.”
New Deal For Toronto Performing Arts Center A Threat To Some Tenants?
A controversial motion passed recently by the Toronto City Council to change the governance of the St. Lawrence Centre for the Performing Arts, has raised concerns that it amounts to a takeover by primary tenant CanStage.” The center’s six other, smaller resident tenants charge that their survival would be in doubt under the new arrangement.
Moore Wows Cannes
“It took five separate screenings to accommodate the press demand to see Michael Moore’s heavily anticipated anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday, and when it came to turning up the political heat here, neither the movie nor its maker failed to disappoint. The audience at a afternoon gala screening responded with a 20-minute standing ovation.”
Off_broadway’s Fearless New Generation
“American theater always manages to reinvent itself at the worst of all possible times. The best of our new theater practitioners have already begun to imagine a set of goals and procedures in which perception requires no other justification than the beauty that entitles it. In this dramatic universe, theatrical high jinks are their own reward; and so it is with the new plays one is beginning to encounter these days in New York.”
Judge: Playright Owns “Stones” Authorship
“A theatre director has lost her high court claim that she should be credited as joint author of the hit West End play Stones In His Pockets by award-winning writer Marie Jones. But Mr Justice Park, sitting in London, ruled that Pam Brighton, who claimed she had made an “extraordinary” creative contribution to the comedy, did have copyright in a draft opening script of the play.”
The Politics Of The Next Big Thing
What’s the Next Big Thing in visual art? Some are making the case for figurative painting. But the truth? “There is no next big thing. In any case, the novelty of the YBA generation wore off a decade ago. For younger artists, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin probably look as old hat and establishment as Howard Hodgkin or Henry Moore. Emulating the strategies of the past generation – in terms of self-promotion as well as their more formal devices – would be pointless and self-defeating. Artists have to carve out their own territory.”