A US court has ruled that an elderly Los Angeles woman can sue Austria to recover six Gustav Klimt paintings worth $150 million seized by the Nazis in 1939. The contested paintings by the Austrian artist are now displayed in the government-run Austrian Gallery in Vienna. The “decision marked the first time in Holocaust reparations litigation that a federal appeals court has ruled that a foreign government can be held accountable in a U.S. court.”
Blog
Support Is Wasted On The Young?
Everyone agrees young writers need whatever help they can get. But really… for the older writer looking on (probably just as much in need of some help), this obsession with ferreting out the young is dispiriting. “Anyone who wanted seriously to improve the state of British writing could start by endowing half-a-dozen bursaries for pensioners and sponsoring a Best of British Senior Novelists award. There are other decent talents out there whose only fault is that they happen to be the wrong side of 50, scribbling on in undeserved obscurity.”
NJ To Abolish Poet Laureate Job?
New Jersey’s governor tried to fire him, the state legislature has been debating ways to remove him. New Jersey lawmakers are angry at state poet laureate Amiri Baraka for his poem that “implies Israel had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.” After trying to oust him, now legislators are working on a plan to abolish the post of poet laureate altogether…
Bite Me – How A Show Could Go So Wrong
“Dance of the Vampires” had some of the worst reviews in recent Broadway history when it opened last week. So who’s responsible for the mess? “A producer who bought an opera then decided he wanted a musical comedy. A temperamental star who wrote his own jokes – then cut all of his co-star’s. A choreographer who couldn’t choreograph, and a composer who refused to attend his own opening night…”
Calgary Phil Needs Emergency Cash To Survive
The Calgary Philharmonic, which shut down this winter because of money problems, has proposed cutting its season and musicians’ salaries to survive. But it also needs $1.5 million. “I must make it very clear. Our next step is to secure funding to implement this plan. Without funded support, we will not be able to return to the stage.’ The CPO suspended operations Oct. 15 when it filed for bankruptcy protection in an attempt to restructure its way out of a $1.2-million deficit, dwindling ticket sales and falling corporate donations.”
American Dreaming
Canadian arts funding is collapsing. So should arts organizations adopt more of an American system to survive? “In Canadian arts circles, the United States is often belittled for its laissez-faire, private-sector-driven approach to cultural funding that tends to emphasize artists’ commercial viability over their innovation and ideas. Arts managers across the U.S. profess embarrassment at the woeful state of public support. But the U.S. is also a shining example of how an active, educated and very well-endowed private sector can serve as the primary benefactor for individuals and institutions.”
New In AJ LETTERS
“I found the article by Andrew Eaton in the Scotsman on the Turner Prize very poorly wrought. I, for one, am perfectly willing to admit anything into the category ‘art’ that comes into being to evoke response. But being art doesn’t necessarily imply that something has value…”
You Can Make A Law To Ban Them, But How Do You Stop The Performance?
Cellphone interruptions of performances in theatres and concert hall have become a way of life. “Performers have little choice but to respond creatively to electronic intrusions. ‘I think peer pressure and embarrassment are going to be far more effective than fines. Legislation banning cellphones would be difficult to enforce. Theaters don’t have the manpower to `police’ audiences. Although it would bring a whole new meaning to live theater.”
Reinventing Art In Moving Images
Traditional museum experience had the viewer moving in front of art. “With video art seizing more territory, the paradigm is reversed. Viewers stand still while images move before their eyes. Nothing short of a reinvention of the language of art has transpired. This means viewers must learn to translate this language, based on pictures that flow by in fast or slow-motion.”
The Loveably Untrue
“If Hollywood is merely America’s most idealized projection of itself — and if no country has culturally institutionalized the creative and infinite reinvention of oneself quite so deeply as the United States — it should come as no surprise that nothing would love a liar more than a movie would.”