Thirty years into his revolution, conceptual artist Sol LeWitt is still making his audience nervous. He doesn’t do his own work, doesn’t make originals and doesn’t follow his own rules. – Salon
Blog
AND YOU THOUGHT IT WAS JUST BRICKS AND MORTAR
Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center is planning to expand. But more than just a $50 million addition, museum leaders see the the project as an opportunity to “reshape the center as a populist gathering place where myriad art forms intersect in new ways,” have “the potential to alter the art center’s relationship to its neighborhood and downtown Minneapolis, and to become an international model for how contemporary art is housed and valued, integrated and presented.” – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
SPLIT DECISION
London’s Tate Museum is about to split itself up in a long-overdue expansion. The moves bring questions about art and national identity. – The Sunday Times (UK)
CONTEMPORARY SUCCESS
When LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art hired a new director last year, many were skeptical. High on art-world credentials, Jeremy Strick lacked administrative and fund-raising experience. Eight months into the job, Strick has placated the skeptics. – Los Angeles Times
VANDALS DAMAGE —
— famous reproduction of Canadian Confederation painting. – CBC
NEW MOZART OPERA
London’s Hampstead and Highgate Festival will present a recently rediscovered opera, “The Philosopher’s Stone” which Mozart was a collaborator on. The production, scheduled for May, will be the first time the opera has been heard in Europe since 1814. – BBC Music Magazine
PRINCESS DI OPERA
An opera inspired by the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, debuts in Germany. Called “A Lady Dies,” it is a savage indictment of the news media. – BBC
THE HEALING POWER OF MOVIE MUSIC
- Film scores can provide nice background music, enhance the pictures and words on the screen; they can be filled with pop songs that raise the film’s grosses; they can hype the love, the fear, the horror you see unfolding on screen. Can movie music also help us psychologically, by “making the ritual complete, helping us heal through catharsis”? – Ovation 03/12/00 [text and audio]
BBC ARTS – BATTERED, BRUISED AND CRITICIZED
In the past year the BBC’s arts section has been accused of dumbing down, giving up, cutting back and banishing things so far to the edge of the schedule that they have all but fallen off. What to do? Create a new arts initiative – “Arts Zone” is designed to be “the home of arts on terrestrial television”. – The Sunday Times (UK) 03/12/00
WHAT IF I LOSE?
It’s awards season again, and the potential fulfillment of many a childhood dream. Get nominated and everybody loves you. But….what if you lose? – New York Times 03/12/00