A group of American poets who were to have performed at the White House before the event was canceled, gathered Sunday in Vermont for an event called “A Poetry Reading in Honour of the Right of Protest as a Patriotic and Historical Tradition.” “About 600 people gathered at a church in Manchester, Vermont to protest a war with Iraq.
Blog
Frida: The Art On Film
“Frida” has been one of the most talked-about movies of the season (at least by artists). But when Julie Taymor was offered the film to direct, she hesitated. “I wasn’t interested, even though I’m a painter, because normally I don’t think you can figure out why a painter paints. How do you know? You can suppose many things, but often the artist comes out quite monstrous, full of angst, and you never get behind the inspiration.”
Contemporary Art Is Art Market’s Big Winner
With tough economic times, what art is selling? Surprise – contemporary art is hottest. “The Zurich-Art Market Research Art and Antiques Index reveals that contemporary art has been by far the best performer, with prices for a sample group of artists increasing by 126 per cent since 1995 and by 26 per cent during the past year.”
Mutant Gene Responsible For Human Creativity?
Some researchers say population increase triggered creativity. But an anthropologist says human creativity is the result of a mutant gene. “There was a biological change, a genetic mutation of some kind that promoted the fully modern ability to create and innovate. When you look at the archaeological record before 50,000 years ago, it is remarkably homogeneous. There are no geographically delineated groups of artefacts. Suddenly, modern-looking people began to behave in a modern way, producing art and jewellery… manufacturing styles and different cultures.”
Subjecting Leonardo To Science
Dspite the small number of Leonardo da Vinci paintings there, they have never been studied with modern scientific instruments. So “the Universal Leonardo Project is being set up to coordinate the first scientific examination of all the artist’s paintings. Scholars are still unable to agree on which paintings should be attributed to Leonardo, with the number accepted by individual specialists varying from one dozen to two dozen. ‘Even the Mona Lisa has not been subjected to a sustained technical examination’.”
Founders Of Modern Drama (Even Though They Didn’t Like Each Other)
“It is tempting to see Ibsen and Strindberg as inherently antithetical. On the one hand, Ibsen: sane, progressive, rational, formal. On the other, Strindberg: neurotic, reactionary, religious, fragmented. Ibsen’s characters think and speak logically and consecutively: Strindberg’s dart backwards and forwards. They do not think, or speak, ABCDE but AQBZC. ‘I see the two men as violent, necessary opposites, who between them laid the foundations of modern drama’.”
Seattle’s ACT Theatre On The Verge Of Closure
Seattle’s A Contemporary Theatre is $1.7 million in debt, has $3,000 in the bank, and has reduced its staff from 65 to nine. If the theatre doesn’t raise $1.5 million by next week, one of Seattle’s oldest and most respected theatres will close its doors.
Home Rich, Cash Poor
Some trace Seattle’s ACT problems to its move from a comfortable (but run-down) home to an ambitious multi-theatre complex that’s expensive to run. Still… where was the theatre’s board?
About-Face For Taper’s Egan
“The [Los Angeles-based] Mark Taper Forum’s producing director, Robert Egan, known for fostering new plays and emerging writers, said Friday that he has changed his mind about running ACT Theatre, a major regional company in Seattle, because a worsening fiscal crisis there has nullified the adventurous artistic plans that made him want the job in the first place.” ACT ran a $500,000 deficit in 2002, and is making plans to trim as much as $2 million from its 2003-04 budget. ACT’s board has released Egan from his obligations to the company.
Colorado’s Theatre Boom
Colorado’s arts funding is down, but the state is in the middle of a theatre boom, with new projects sprouting everywhere. “The 20 projects range in cost from the city of Denver’s taxpayer-authorized, $75 million renovation of the Auditorium Theatre to the $75,000 it is costing John Ashton to turn a fur-storage shop into a new, 99-seat home for his 16-year-old Avenue Theater.”