That Helen Frankenthaler painting damaged last week when a 12-year-old boy affixed a wad of gum to it in the Detroit Institute of Arts has been taken to the conservation lab. “Museum officials said they are optimistic that the picture will make a full recovery. But in contrast to comments earlier this week in which relieved officials said decisively that the 1963 painting, ‘The Bay,’ would be fine, the museum issued a more tempered statement.
Tag: 03.03.06
The Shakespeare Industry At Full Roar
The who-was-Shakespeare industry is currently in full gear. “Last year saw no fewer than three hefty biographies, distilled from the slim documentary record of Shakespeare’s existence and coloured up into portraits through socio-historical detail and complex deductions from the plays and poems. Soon the Royal Shakespeare Company will launch a multinational season of the “Complete Works” at Stratford-upon-Avon, with 41 full-scale productions. And now we have the National Portrait Gallery’s Searching for Shakespeare, an exhibition centring on eight pictures that have at one time or another been accepted as true images of the Bard.”
British Museum Lends To China
The British Museum is loaning 272 of its most precious artefacts to the Capital Museum of Beijing in one of the highest level cultural exchanges between the two countries. “Ancient Egyptian tablets, Greek busts and the world’s oldest tool will be among the items on display in the first major overseas exhibition staged at the new museum – a gleaming structure of glass, steel and stone that opened in December.”
Stolen Matisse Offered For Sale Online
One of the paintings stolen in Brazil has shown up for sale on the internet. “Henri Matisse’s Luxembourg Gardens, which was taken from the Chacara do Ceu museum in Rio de Janeiro, was advertised on a Russian website. Brazilian police say they believe the stolen pictures are still in Rio.”
Doctorow Marches To Book Critics Prize
E.L. Doctorow’s “The March” wins the National Book Critics Circle prize for fiction for his acclaimed story of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s ruthless Civil War campaign.
The Whitney’s Collaborative Biennial
This year’s Whitney Biennial opens. Michael Kimmelman: “Conservatives will no doubt dismiss the whole exhibition as another political show like the 1993 biennial. But this show’s not like that one, which went out of its way to thumb its nose at many people.”
DC’s New TV Ratings System Charts Precipitous Drop In Viewers
Washington DC’s TV stations are now using Nielsen’s Local People Meter to measure viewership. The system is said to be much more accurate than the old system. But the LPM has measured some alarming audience declines. “Some of the steepest declines were in the early-morning period, when four local stations air competing two-hour newscasts at 5 a.m. — a time slot that reflected growing viewership prior to LPM ratings.”
Lobbying For A Women’s History Museum
The US Congress is being lobbyied to create a National Women’s History Museum. “The founders and a coalition of women’s professional groups said the museum would provide a solid understanding of the roles women have played in the nation’s history and correct an oversight in the lineup of Washington museums.”
Writing By Hand In An Age Of Email
Who writes letters anymore in the age of email? Except, maybe email makes us appreciate the written note more. “E-mail may have revolutionized our communication, making it faster, easier, more practical. But that doesn’t mean the handwritten note is dead. Instead, the act of putting pen to paper seems to have gained in currency. Now it’s what you do to say something special, or heartfelt, or really important.”
This Year’s Whitney – Best In Show
Jerry Saltz calls this latest edition of the Whitney Biennial “the liveliest, brainiest, most self-conscious Whitney Biennial I have ever seen. In some ways it isn’t a biennial at all. Curators Chrissie Iles and Philippe Vergne have cleverly re-branded the biennial, presenting a thesis not a snap-shot, a proposition about art in a time when modernism is history and postmodernist rhetoric feels played out.”