“In February, when the embattled Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, announced it had reached an agreement with the state’s attorney general to sell as many as 40 works from its collection, the juiciest detail was that an undisclosed institution had agreed to purchase and exhibit the lot’s most valuable work: a Norman Rockwell masterpiece titled Shuffleton’s Barbership (1950).” That institution has now been disclosed: it’s the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, founded by Star Wars and Indiana Jones creator George Lucas and now under construction in Los Angeles.
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Poet J.D. McClatchy, 72
“The author of eight volumes of poetry, Mr. McClatchy was considered one of the country’s foremost men of letters. He was also a prolific editor, anthologist, translator and critic, as well as the author of a string of acclaimed opera librettos, among them Our Town, for Ned Rorem’s setting of Thornton Wilder’s enduring drama of village life, and the Metropolitan Opera’s condensed English-language production of Mozart’s Magic Flute, designed by Julie Taymor.”
How Houston Ballet Kept Going And Got Its Season Onstage After Hurricane Harvey
“Reality set in when news broke that the damage to the Wortham Center turned out to be much worse than first anticipated. The artistic and administrative team found out that the floodwaters had gone all the way up to the basement ceiling. Costumes from some 50 ballets, which accounts for 60 percent of the repertoire, were destroyed. The theater would remain closed until September 2018, and the company would need to find other venues for the remaining season. But as artistic director Stanton Welch made clear … hurricanes shouldn’t mess with ballet dancers. The company would get through this, and be stronger for it.”
As They Thaw, Mongolia’s Ancient Tombs Are Getting Looted
“The history and archaeology of Mongolia, most famously the sites associated with the largest land empire in the history of the world under Genghis Khan, are of global importance. But they’re facing unprecedented threats as climate change and looting impact ancient sites and collections. Climate change and looting may seem to be unrelated issues. But deteriorating climate and environmental conditions result in decreased grazing potential and loss of profits for the region’s many nomadic herders.”
Elaine May To Play Broadway For First Time Since 1960
“The iconic actress, comedian, writer and director” – now 85 – “will star in the first Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery, a poignant and timely drama about an elderly gallery owner in Greenwich Village determined to cling to her independence and fight off the effects of aging.”
Gillian Ayres, One Of Britain’s Most Popular Abstract Painters, Dead At 88
“She matured as an artist in the 1950s, in the heyday of ‘experimental art’. Her disobedient aesthetic sense helped her to become one of the first British admirers of Jackson Pollock. With Pollock in mind, but also instinctively, she formed pools of colour and spread-out lines, dashes and bravado meanderings. House paint was used on hardboard and her long formats resembled panels or friezes.”
Andrew Davis To Leave Chief Conductor Post At Melbourne Symphony
“Sir Andrew Davis will step down from his role as Chief Conductor with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at the end of his contract in December 2019, the Orchestra announced today. The British maestro, who has led the MSO since 2013, will continue his artistic relationship with the orchestra as Conductor Laureate.”
Museums Try Out Virtual Reality As An Artistic Medium
“As VR technology has gotten better and cheaper, more artists and curators are experimenting with it as a new medium for expression.” Reporter Andrea Shea checks out two new virtual-reality works at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary of Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.11.18
Berkshire Blurbs: Lucas Museum Buys “Shuffleton’s”; Sotheby’s Lowers Some Estimates
No surprise here: The planned Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, which broke ground last month, today announced its acquisition of Norman Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop from the Berkshire Museum (price undisclosed). This means that … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-04-11
The Internet Is Broken. Is It Too Late To Fix It?
“I no longer believe that the Internet can be saved: it’s too late. The arguments that it can be saved by a bill of rights-style Magna Carta or through more specific regulation are too little too late. That is because calls to save the Internet are based on the false assumption that it is a neutral system. The Internet’s central design features – protocols, domains, networks, servers, data, codes – and its governance structures are deeply political and embedded within political and economic structures.”