“I must admit I’m confused. I want to see it as a devastating satire on the modern world’s alienation from the past. Ever since the Chinese Revolution began in the early 20th century, political and economic ruptures have cut off China in particular from its ancient culture. Is Ai Weiwei parodying that? Or is he mocking western art-lovers who think all Chinese art is ancient (as they may have, back in 1995)?”
Tag: 02.20.14
You Can Never Go Home Again (It Doesn’t Exist As You Remember)
James Wood: “When I left this country 18 years ago, I didn’t know how strangely departure would obliterate return: how could I have done? It’s one of time’s lessons, and can only be learned temporally.”
Was Bach Really a Teenage Hoodlum?
That – in so many words (“a reformed teenage thug”) – is what conductor John Eliot Gardiner argues in his new biography, asserting that Bach, for all his musical skill and piety, grew up to be rebellious, resentful, and mistrustful of authorities for his entire adult life. Scholar and former American Bach Society George B. Stauffer takes a look at the evidence.