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Art? Or ‘A Pre-Raphaelite Wet T-Shirt Competition’? ArtActivistBarbie Hits The Museums And Calls Out The Male Gaze

“Posing in her most glamorous handmade outfits, ArtActivistBarbie has been calling into question the representation of women on gallery walls” — the blonde doll is photographed in front of an artwork, generally one of a nude or topless woman such as Charles Mengin’s Sappho (1877), holding a sign saying, for instance, “Yet another painting where the male gaze is legitimised by fine painting & brushwork & a scholarly reference to Classical history.” – The Guardian

We’ll Need A New Model For The Arts. The Question Is What

Stephen Hetherington: “I think it unfortunate that the rise in state support has produced its own ideological and political adherents, creating for some a mythological differentiation between art and entertainment, and between the supposed coarseness of commercial motivation and a sacralised, Kantian notion of L’art pour l’art – “without purpose, for all purpose perverts art”. The evidence is quite different: artistic creations move freely between the subsidised and the commercial (but not necessarily profitable) sectors, while neither has a monopoly on quality.” – Arts Professional

A New York Times And Guardian Critic Tries Out ‘Remote Immersive Theater’ At Home

Alexis Soloski got texts from Romeo (who’s a bit of a jerk), helped someone held hostage in Venezuela undo handcuffs, failed to help a pilot land a 747, told an inspector for the Misplaced Keepsakes Division about her long-lost Piaget watch, and (“because I am a terrible props mistress”) scalded herself while attempting Play in a Bathtub. – The New York Times

New York’s Public Theater Cancels Shakespeare In The Park, Faces $10-20 Million Shortfall — But Still Has New Work Coming

Artistic director Oskar Eustis said that “there’s no way we can responsibly prepare, build and rehearse to get shows open in a timing that might match the quarantine’s timing.” 70% of full-time staff will be furloughed through the summer, with the rest taking pay cuts. Even so, the Public is now producing a videoconferencing play that Eustis calls “the best thing about how we live now in quarantine that I’ve read in any medium.” – The New York Times

What’s All This Fuss We Hear About Marina Abramović Being A Satanist?

“In one of the strangest art controversies in recent memory, a group of right-wing internet users and blogs have begun targeting Marina Abramović, accusing her of being involved in a Satanist cult. She has previously denied the allegations, but the claims have continued to be levied against her, and yesterday brought news that Microsoft deleted a YouTube advertisement for a new work by her after users had targeted it. But where did the claims come from in the first place? [Here’s] a guide to the controversy’s background.” – ARTnews

Are Non-Profits Too Averse To Political Advocacy?

Vu Le: “This is the problem. Our sector is afraid of advocacy, much less politics. And we have an absolute disgust for politics. We believe it is beneath us. We don’t want to get our hands dirty. Politics and anything associated with it is an ugly, terrible thing; we should focus on more noble, feel-good pursuits while virtue signaling by rabble-rousing about how we need to change systems yet simultaneously avoiding doing the one thing that would significantly change systems.” – NonprofitAF

There’s A Whole New World Of Coronavirus Slang Out There

If you don’t want to be a covidiot, spend some of your quatorzaine at home boning up on the new words about Miss Rona, from the Chinese tagline for social distancing to the German term for sports played in empty stadiums (and the one for the weight fans at home are putting on) to the metaphor for hoarding that a Dutch sign language interpreter came up with on the fly. – 1843 Magazine