“Pop culture imagery and canonical works from art history were frequent subjects of Leirner’s painting and collages; think Velázquez’s court ladies swarmed by flies or a football stadium packed with Incredible Hulk cartoons and Power Rangers. Little in the zeitgeist was safe from Leirner’s ironic translation, which was rendered with a keen attention to composition and color.” – ARTnews
Blog
What’s In The UK’s First Post-Brexit Culture Budget
The next overall budget for the Department for Digital, Media Culture and Sport (DCMS) will increase by £100 million to £1.7 billion; it will include £250 million to support local libraries and museums (which could help reverse the hundreds of library closures due to austerity in recent years), £27 million for maintenance at national museums, £90 million for cultural development outside London, and £25,000 given to every secondary school each year for “arts activities.” – The Art Newspaper
Vienna’s Albertina Museum Opens New Branch For Modern Art
The Albertina Modern — housed in the newly-renovated 1868 Künstlerhaus on the Ringstrasse, the site of the Nazis’ notorious 1939 “Degenerate Art” exhibit — will focus on postwar Austrian art and its connections with modernism in other countries. (Of course, no one is actually allowed to go see it just now.) – The New York Times
Just A Couple Of Years Ago, Louis C.K.’s Career Seemed Over. Now He’s Selling Out Theatres.
Until late 2017, he was one of the most admired comedians working, seen as something of an auteur of stand-up. Then reports emerged of, er, unprofessional behavior with younger female colleagues; he admitted they were true; and he lost his agent, his movie, and his TV deal. When he began a comeback last year, many observers feared he’d gone over to the alt-right. But he’s now dropped the worst of that material, reports Elahe Izadi, who went to see his show and talk with some of the enthusiastic audience. – The Washington Post
Macmillan May Be Trying To Back Away From Its War With Libraries Over E-Books
“At the recent ALA Midwinter meeting in Philadelphia, Macmillan CEO John Sargent told librarians that he would come back in March with potential alternatives to the publisher’s controversial library e-book embargo. And this week, Macmillan made good on Sargent’s statement, with an email to a select group of librarians seeking feedback on three proposals that could inform new e-book license terms for public libraries.” – Publishers Weekly
Cancel The Concerts And Close The Theatres Now, Says Leading Critic — This Virus Is Too Dangerous
Justin Davidson: “It’s easy for me to call for a shutdown. I’m not the one who’ll be hemorrhaging millions every night or facing months of unemployment. … [But] the evidence suggests that the choice is not between a shutdown and no shutdown; it’s between shutting things down now, when the disease is still relatively rare in our area, or waiting until more people have died, the virus has propagated further, and the medical system starts to be overburdened.” (Charles McNulty agrees.) – New York Magazine
Broadway Theatres Ask Actors And Audiences To Stop Gathering At Stage Door
Neither producers nor performers and crew nor patrons want to suspend all performances until COVID-19 is under control (whenever that may be), so the theatre owners and producers of the Broadway League are “highly recommending that all stage door activities be eliminated for the time being.” And folks are cooperating, mostly. – The New York Times
One Of World’s Top Art Fairs Quickly Shuts Down After Exhibitor Comes Down With Coronavirus
TEFAF, held in the Dutch city of Maastricht and the world’s leading fair for art and antiques, opened last Saturday and closed Wednesday evening (four days early), just hours after an exhibitor was reported to have tested positive for COVID-19. – ARTnews
Arts Activist Named New NYC Cultural Affairs Director
Gonzalo Casals is an immigrant from Argentina who identifies as queer. Since 2017, he has led the Leslie-Lohman, a museum with roots in the L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights movement, diversifying its collection and programming with contributions from the gay community. Mr. Casals previously served as deputy and interim director at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem, a major center for Latino art and culture, where he stepped in after Margarita Aguilar left amid turmoil. – The New York Times
Remembering McCoy Tyner
It’s enough, more than enough, really, for an artist to simply find a voice, to chisel it out of the noise and to keep it ringing clear across a lifetime. Though he tried lots of modes and moods, Tyner began his professional career in the early sixties as a fully formed artist, and his last albums, from the aughts, are not unlike his first. – Paris Review