UK culture minister Kim Howells has big ideas about art. He wants boldness. He wants imagination. He wants something new. So you might think the art he made himself might be all (or even some) of these things. You’d be wrong. “It turns out that his idea of art, as manifested in the example of his own work sold at a charity auction (to the organiser, a friend) for £60 is disappointingly, or gratifyingly if you want to put the boot in, dull. Dull isn’t the word. This laborious, insipid excuse for a drawing is a piece of middle-class kitsch so lacking in life that it could win the Daily Mail’s competition for ‘real’ art. Howells’ drawing is nerveless and oddly lacking in warmth – the very opposite of his public persona.”
Blog
Spacey To Join Old Vic
Kevin Spacey has agreed to take an active role in the management of London’s Old Vic Theatre. “The actor, who is already on the board of trustees, is understood to have agreed to spearhead the theatre’s artistic and commercial endeavours. Despite playing host to some of the most celebrated actors, including Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike and Vivien Leigh, the theatre’s rich history has been overshadowed for some time by its lack of funds and desperate need for refurbishment.”
Kids – Forgetting The Classics?
Are kids losing touch with the literaryt kids’ classics? A survey in Britain reports that only three percent of children had read “Little Women.” “Only 12% had actually read Alice in Wonderland, only 2% ‘Swallows and Amazons’, and only 6% ‘The Secret Garden’. By contrast, 81% had read ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ scored 31%.”
Revising Stravinsky
David Schiff tries to sort out what’s Stravinsky and what’s Robert Craft in Craft’s revisionist history of his time with the composer. It’s a daunting task. “Are Stravinsky’s ventings on contemporary music, delicious to read but often spiteful and self-serving, omitted here, because, as Craft says, the musical scene has changed beyond recognition – wouldn’t that make them all the more interesting? – or because Stravinsky’s judgements have not stood the test of time, certainly not his dismissals of Britten and Messiaen and the plaudits for Stockhausen? Or because the stinging verdicts were not actually Stravinsky’s?”
Did HG Wells Plagiarize From Toronto Woman?
Did HG Wells plagiarize his “The Outline of History,” published in 1920, from a 50-year-old Toronto woman named Florence Deeks? Deeks spent a good part of the the middle and later part of her life trying to prove that Wells had based his work on a manuscript she had sent to Macmillan publishers in 1914. A new book takes up her case in an attempt to win justice…
The Internet: Friend To Musicians Who Aren’t Stars
One musician is angry about the recording industry’s attempts to shut down music file-trading. “The Internet means exposure, and these days, unless you’re in the Top 40, you’re not getting on the radio. The Internet is the only outlet for many artists to be heard by an audience bigger than whoever shows up at a local coffeehouse. The Internet allows people like me to gain new fans; if only 10% of those downloading my music buy my records or come to my shows, I’ve just gained enough fans to fill Carnegie Hall twice over.”
Model Attraction – This Year’s Best NY Art Show
This week, the competition for designs for the World Trade Center site is expected to be narrowed to two finalists. Regardless of which plans make the cut, the models of the proposed plans has been the hit art event of the season in New York. “Some days, the place gets so jammed—with people chattering in every language from Japanese to Italian—you have to rubberneck to get a decent glimpse. The models are like magical toys, some with moving parts and lights, others with stunning video displays providing a virtual-reality trip into the future.”
Philosophy Through Story?
A documentary on philosopher Jacques Derrida poses more questions than it answers. Can you learn about a philosopher’s ideas by telling his life story? “How much can be learned of the life of the mind from the life of a great mind? What can a narrative approach, whether in film or in writing, tell us about the seemingly timeless world of concepts and constructs? Derrida notes that he is constitutionally incapable of telling stories, and so he tells none.”
Missouri To Discontinue Arts Funding?
Missouri Gov. Bob Holden’s proposes to eliminate funding for the state arts council, which “distributed as much as $5 million in the flush year 2001 to organizations as varied as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to the family folk festival in St. Joseph, Mo. Holden proposes that the council pay for arts programs by dipping into the Missouri Cultural Trust, a state savings account that matches private donations with public money.”
Where’s Glenn Gould Avenue? And Why Isn’t There One?
“I think I’d be the teensiest bit more receptive to the fiscal argument against supporting and celebrating Canadian arts, if those who make it so stridently made any attempt to support and celebrate the arts in ways that did not involve spending lots of money. The Roman Catholic Church seems to have less stringent regulations about canonization than we have about naming streets after our artists. How much does it cost to put up a street sign? How much does it cost to weave into the fabric of our cities and towns the evidence of real artists creating real art?”