A show in Miami brings together designs for 25 museums built in the past decade. “It’s a confounding mandate. Museums can no longer be temples-on-the hill, built by and for a tiny elite, but they must serve a larger and more diverse public without compromising artistic standards. The architecture must not be inaccessible, and yet it must be exceptional, enough to draw public interest and attract crowds with architecture that is both part of and apart from the city. All these are fodder for thought, and the 25 projects on view certainly can lift the level of dialogue.”
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The Underground World Of Art-Assisting
You know, of course, that many artists don’t literally “make” all of their work. Enter the assistant. “Being an artist’s assistant is an underground thing. I didn’t know how it worked at all, that most artists have them. I couldn’t do what I’m doing without full-time assistants. Nor could I do it without a computer. But even without, I’d still be an artist and I’d still make things. That’s my nature – just like a fish that grows to the size of the tank, assistants allow us to grow our work yet remain the same’.”
The 100 Most Loved Books (In English) Of All Time?
The BBC is about to name a list of the 100 most-loved books of all time. But the Observer has come up with its own list. “First of all, our list is fundamentally English and inevitably reflects the age, sex and education of its Observer contributors. We started with an intra-office email, inviting nominations for a top 10. The matrix of replies produced a surprising unanimity. Top of the list were the universal favourites: Austen and Dickens, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. When a vociferous and influential minority, led by the editor, argued for Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales, we had to introduce a few basic rules.”
Artist Recreates American Prison In Inner City Manchester
A performance artist recreates the American prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, in the inner city of Manchester. It’s a bit of a shock. And why do it? “There is nothing complicated about it. This is a fully-operational miniature version of the US internment camp at Guantanamo Bay. What is the point of painting a picture of it or showing photographs or a video of it? People have seen those and are immune to them.”
The ‘David’ Beneath The Dirt
“Slowly but surely, despite concern in the international art world over whether anyone should be touching one of the world’s most admired statues at all, Cinzia Parnigoni has stripped 130 years of grime from the statue’s perfectly proportioned left elbow, providing a glimpse of what is to come. By spring next year, in time for his 500th birthday, she aims to have cleaned every nook and cranny of this famous but filthy marble man.”
Explaining Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is so easy in her dispensation of wisdom, she’s like a “Dial-an-Oracle” “Asked about the popularization of her poetry, she has a quick answer to any suggestion of criticism. ‘A friend of mine responded negatively when I told him that I was going to write greeting cards for Hallmark. He said, ‘Oh, I hope not. You are the people’s poet in this country and you don’t want to trivialize that.’ But I thought about that. ‘What am I doing? What am I talking about?’ I asked myself. If I can say something on a card that can reach somebody’s heart and mind, let me try. And I found that that is almost the most difficult writing that I have done. It might take me three pages of prose to write an epigram that is two or three sentences’.”
At The Gramophones: Bartoli Named Most Popular
Cecilia Bartoli has been named the world’s most popular classical music artist at this year’s Gramophone Awards. “The mezzo soprano beat Sir Simon Rattle and Nigel Kennedy to the Classic FM listener’s choice prize, voted for by fans of the radio station.”
Christo Wraps Doghouse
Christo has wrapped a dog house – “Wrapped Snoopy House” in honor of his friend and Charlie Brown creator Charles M. Schulz. “In 1978, the cartoonist memorialized Christo’s work in his daily strip, with the beagle pondering what the Bulgarian artist would do next. The final panel on the strip has Snoopy standing before his wrapped doghouse – a prediction of the latest sculpture.”
John Adams, Composer Laureate
John Adams is at the stage of his career that a little self promotion may be in order. Not necessarily for more attention. But his work does need an advocate. “You know that basically I’m a very private person, the outgrowth of my Yankee upbringing. Lately I’ve had to reconcile that attitude with the demand for public works; without blowing my own horn, I like to link myself with Frank Gehry. Large pieces — operas, orchestra works, concert halls — need to preserve the personality of the maker while pleasing the outside world, and it’s not always easy.”
A Chrismas Tale
Doug Chrismas is something of a mystery in the art world. “As director of Ace Institute of Contemporary Art, he’s provided a home for some of the world’s most demanding art since 1966. The subject of dozens of rumors alleging that he stiffs artists, has produced and sold unauthorized fabrications of sculptures, poaches artists from other dealers, and occasionally sells artworks that he fails to deliver to the buyer, Chrismas has become something of a local legend, partly because nobody really seems to know much about him.”