For 103 years, the Art Gallery of Ontario has been a middling player on the global art scene. It has built a respectable international reputation and a loyal local audience by mounting innovative shows, such as a Yoko Ono exhibit, and by specializing in such areas as Canadian art. Its Canadian paintings include windswept pines, moody lakes, and rugged mountains by the Group of Seven, the landscape pioneers whose works are now Canadian icons. The museum has a solid collection of European art, and its grouping of sculptures by Britain’s Henry Moore is considered one of the world’s best.” Now it’s been given a major collection and is into planning for a new Frank Gehry building.
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Art In Groups
“As more artists work collaboratively or in art collectives, the stereotype of the lone artist in a garret is fading. In place of the romantic ideal of the figure sweating in front of an easel is a growing teamwork ethos, particularly among young artists. As a result of a greater focus on the process than the product, ‘do-it-ourselves’ now seems more hip than do-it-yourself.”
Oundjian To Lead Toronto
Canadian-born violinist and conductor Peter Oundjian will be officially introduced today as the new music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The TSO has been director-less since Jukka-Pekka Saraste quit in something of a quiet huff in 2001, and in the two years since, the orchestra has struggled with massive deficits, the threat of bankruptcy, and an ongoing dispute between the musicians and orchestra management. Oundjian, who took up conducting after an injury drove him from his place in the Tokyo String Quartet, is widely considered to be a rising star among North American conductors.
SF Opera Cuts Concerts, But Not Brain Cells
The San Francisco Opera, forced by budget constraints to trim its season, unveiled the revised schedule of performances this week, and the results are at least somewhat encouraging, says Joshua Kosman. While the number of productions may be down, the company “has refused to compromise on some of [its] more adventurous programming decisions. The season will open Sept. 6 with the company premiere of Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein’s 1947 collaboration The Mother of Us All, and will also include productions of Busoni’s Doktor Faust, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen.”
Down Mood As Sundance Opens
The mood is not positive as this year’s Sundance Festival opens. “Though Sundance continues to be the most important platform for American independent film and the one place where the entire indie world comes together to make deals and to take stock, there is a widespread sense that the market for independent film financing is depressed.”
Getting Used To Stardom
Ever since Salvatore Licitra stepped in to fill the shoes of an ailing Luciano Pavarotti at the Metropolitan Opera last year and brought the house down with his powerful tenor, he has been tagged as the Next Tenor. These days, preparing for his Carnegie Hall debut next week, Licitra is starting to adjust to being a star, but thankfully, he’s not speaking in cliches yet. He complains that Pavarotti never even called to wish him luck on the night of his unexpected Met debut, and jokes that being a tenor has its downside – all the operatic tenor characters, he insists, are “stupido” or “son of a beetch.”
Thumbs Up For Sundance
Pessimism? At Sundance? Well, maybe so, but you won’t hear any booing from Roger Ebert’s seat. “I have just spent an hour with the 2003 program for the Sundance Film Festival, and I am churning with eagerness to get at these films. On the basis of track records, this could be the strongest Sundance in some time — and remember, last year’s festival kicked off an extraordinary year for indie films.”
And Joni Begat Anne, Who Begat Celine, Who Begat…
What is it about Canadian women and their dominance of the American pop music scene? From Joni Mitchell to k.d. lang to Alanis Morissette to Avril Lavigne, Canadians produce an astonishing percentage of America’s favorite music. Is it the simple purity of the Great White North, as contrasted with the over-produced, predictable offerings coming out of market-driven L.A. studios? Is it savvy Canadian marketing infiltrating the Yankee sensibility? Is it just a big coincidence? Um, yes. All of that, and probably a few more things we haven’t thought of yet.
When David Sat For Lucien
Last summer David Hockney sat for a portrait by Lucien Freud. “Britain’s two greatest living painters spent 3 months in each other’s company, Freud sitting for Hockney for four hours before he became the subject of Freud’s gimlet eye for considerably longer: 120 hours.”
A Fake Van Gogh In Oslo Museum?
Is a famous Van Gogh self-portrait in Oslo’s National Museum a fake? One expert says he can prove it. “The main arguments for it not being a Van Gogh are, first, it does not resemble other of his self-portraits and an x-ray examination has shown there is another painting beneath it – though this is not very unusual, and proves little.”