So post-modernism is dead. And what’s to succeed it? Perhaps a period of critical realism? “Clearly, critical realism is by now a diffuse and interdisciplinary movement, covering a wide spectrum of opinions. The question is: how broad a church can critical realism be if it is to remain both critical and realist?”
Blog
The Royal’s Hold On Europe
London’s Royal Court has an outsized influence on European theatre. “Instead of engaging in the difficult process of cultivating new local writing, directors from Warsaw to Lisbon appear to be simply scanning the forthcoming programme at the Royal Court and snapping up the rights. One major appeal of these plays is that they afford a progressive gloss without risking any kind of dangerous formal experimentation or tackling relevant issues that might challenge local audiences.”
The Man Who Saved The National Arts Center
Peter Herrndorf is an arts turn-around artist. His latest triumph is revitalizing Ottawa’s national Arts Center. And he didn’t do it by playing safe. “The trouble was that as money got tighter through the nineties, people [within the NAC] became risk-averse, and this is an organization where you want the sensibility to be exactly the opposite. We’re going through a fascinating experiment. We’re trying to take an organization and say it will play an important national role, not in rhetorical terms, but in its ability to support arts organizations in different regions and to build communities and have this organization raise funding across the country.”
Another Melbourne Fest Hits the Books
This year’s Melbourne Festival comes to a close. “Festival-goers could take their pick of about 70 offerings this year, but it seemed that most wanted to talk about just two of them: the public program Dancing In The Streets and the controversial Belgian production I Am Blood. The former was roundly judged a success, having attracted nightly crowds averaging about 1000 to dance classes at Federation Square, many of them people who had never attended a festival event. But Jan Fabre’s bloody meditation upon humanity’s inhumanity won few fans.”
The Fictional Rorem
Hard to believe composer Ned Rorem is 80. “His masterpiece is his artistic personality. He’s an extremely acute observer and a master of paradox, which is very French. He was able to import French culture while remaining a thoroughly American figure. In an era of dumbing-down and slipping standards, he really does stand for something.”
George Orwell Named Names
Orwell outed those he believed were communists to the government. His list is contained in a notebook that is about to be released. “The final list contained 38 names of journalists, scholars and actors, including film comic Charlie Chaplin, actor Michael Redgrave, historian E.H. Carr and left-wing Labour MP Tom Driberg. Its discovery earlier this year was proof that Orwell, after conscientious second thoughts and deletions, had sent the Foreign Office some names from his notebook drafts.”
“Power 100” List Demotes Saatchi, Promotes Dentist
ArtReview Magazine’s new “Power 100” list of the most influential collectors of art contains a few surprises this year. Charles Saatchi will be knocked from first place to sixth. But perhaps just as surprising is the man who ranks No. 100: the dentist who fixed the teeth of the Young British Artist set. Artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin gave their dentist work in trade for his tooth care. “Emin has regularly sung his praises, telling interviewers: ‘My dentist is the best in Britain!’ She said last night: ‘He’s a really good and kind dentist who took my teeth on when no one else would go near them with a barge pole’.”
The Turner’s New Outrage…(Really?)
“This week, art’s most respected competition, the Turner Prize, invites its biggest controversy with a display of a graphic and sexually explicit sculpture by two of Britain’s foremost artists.”
Germany’s Crisis In Architecture
German architects have little to do. “There is certainly no future in the inner cities, where all museums, government buildings, company headquarters and shopping streets have already been completed. The crisis in German architecture is not just an economic problem, but also an issue of ideology.”
Is Art Gallery Of Ontario Cynically Keeping Visitors In The Dark?
The Art Gallery of Ontario has a Degas show that is deeply suspect. Rather than explain some of the complications to the public, the AGO says nothing. “Following the Royal Ontario Museum’s 2001 display of Auguste Rodin plaster casts that were repudiated by the Musée Rodin in Paris, the show reveals a depressing willingness from leading Canadian museums to abandon their educational role and fudge ethical standards to move bodies through the turnstile.”