Step one: Do not be bashful. (A historical anecdote.)
Tag: 03.29.10
Arguing With Robert Hughes’s The Mona Lisa Curse
Peter Plagens: “I walked up to Canal Street a couple of weeks ago to buy a porn video and was ripped off. When I got home and opened the DVD case, instead of the advertised ‘Naughty Stewardesses,’ Part VI, there before my eyes was a disc containing a documentary film by the renown art critic, Robert Hughes…. (This is my official cover story….)”
Surviving The Khmer Rouge To Become An Artist
On the eve of his first European solo show (opening March 31 in London), Cambodian painter/collage artist Leang Seckon talks about his early childhood amidst Nixon’s secret bombing, his adolescence as a buffalo boy during Pol Pot’s regime, and making his way as an artist under his nation’s all-too-imperfect semi-democratic government.
West End Producer Jailed For Tax Fraud
Andrew Fishwick, whose company, The Fish Partnership, produced Little Voice and Three Days of Rain, has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for collecting more than £200,000 in tax rebates on charitable donations that were never actually made – and depositing those rebates into a personal bank account.
Charleston Symphony Cancels Season, Suspends Operations
“A significant drop in fundraising dollars, exacerbated by the recession’s ‘strong headwind,’ has forced the Charleston Symphony Orchestra to suspend its operations, effective immediately, … It is the first time in the orchestra’s 75-year history that a performance season has been disrupted because of acute financial difficulties, and next season’s fate is far from certain.”
Ballet Stars Start Twittering (Sometimes Even During Intermission)
Sample tweets: “Hi, I’m Devin and I’m an MRI-aholic.” “What you didn’t know – fell in my dress reh. Fri, tweaked my foot, and couldn’t finish! Thurs was the first time I did the whole ballet!” “Don’t let me be fat.”
At Her MoMA Sit-In, Marina Abramovic Meets Her (Exact) Match
When Marina Abramovic took her place at an empty table for her performance/installation The Artist Is Present one recent day, “the first visitor in line was a young woman who showed up dressed in [Abramovic’s signature] long dark blue dress and a black braid swept over one shoulder. As Abramovic’s doppleganger, she sat across from her and assumed a mirror pose. And there she sat, to the bafflement of the museum staff and visitors, all day.” A Q&A with the perp.
Why The Cheap Seats Are Cheap
“For £10 it’s possible to see [Jez Butterworth’s play Jerusalem] from a (very) creaky balcony seat, roughly at eye level with the light fittings and ceiling sconces of the Apollo, with a view of the stage that’s, to put it mildly, vertiginous. The actors seem very far away indeed.” Is it worth it?
It’s Permanent: Emily Molnar No Longer Ballet BC’s ‘Interim’ Artistic Director
“Ballet B.C. has announced it’s just signed a contract to make Emily Molnar its long-term artistic director. Molnar stepped into the position temporarily in July 2009, following the departure of John Alleyne and on the heels of a financial crisis at the company.”
Brits Gamble More On Lottery Giving Culture Fund Big Boost
“The nation’s attempt to gamble its way out of the recession has generated a bonanza for ruined castles, weedy public parks and neglected archives. Thanks to an increase in lottery ticket sales, the Heritage Lottery Fund will have an extra £25m a year to distribute in grants from now until 2018.”