Earlier this month, with the Netherlands under COVID lockdown, raiders broke into a small museum and took van Gogh’s Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring. Writer Daniel Dumas talks to two experts in the recovery of stolen art about where the painting might be now, how and where they might try to sell it, who likely buyers might be, and how art thieves get caught. – Esquire
Tag: 04.10.20
Artists Have To Turn On Peak Performance On Demand. So Do Athletes. Enter Sports Psychologists
There’s a lot more money in pro sports, and athletes have benefited from psychologists who teach them how to turn in their best on demand. So it makes sense that the sports doctors are working with artists. – San Francisco Classical Voice
How’s The Bolshoi Handling The Epidemic And Shutdown? Nervously
In an extensive Q&A, Bolshoi general director Vladimir Urin talks about how the dancers, singers and instrumentalists are and aren’t continuing to get paid, how everyone is trying to stay in shape, trying to plan for a very uncertain future, what the Bolshoi’s (and the arts’) relationship with audiences will be (including the prices they’ll be willing to pay) post-COVID, and the best- and worst-case scenarios for Russia’s flagship ballet/opera house (“if we don’t open in September, it could go as far as the destruction of the theatre”). – Kommersant (Moscow) via Melmoth
Here’s To The Workers Disinfecting The World’s Great Historic Sites
“While non-essential workers are still housebound, pictures from around the world show surreal scenes of Tyvek suit-wearing workers spraying down eerily empty spaces like Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,” the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Great Mosque of Mecca. – Artnet
Even Burning Man Has Been Canceled
The giant annual alterna-conclave doesn’t take place until the end of August, but even so, “the organizers of Burning Man announced on Friday that they will not be assembling 80,000 people in the Nevada desert this summer to build giant works of art and then set them on fire.” – The Guardian
Essential Tool To Survive The Pandemic? Imagination
“Pandemics, wars, and other social crises often create new attitudes, needs, and behaviors, which need to be managed. We believe imagination — the capacity to create, evolve, and exploit mental models of things or situations that don’t yet exist — is the crucial factor in seizing and creating new opportunities, and finding new paths to growth.” – Harvard Business Review
How Museums In Europe Are Faring
Most are shut down, though in places such as Albania and Sweden where museums remain open, they’re seeing increases in visitors. Closed museums report an 80 percent loss of income. Many are increasing digital content and there is a spike in visitors there. – Arts Professional
How Artists Bear Witness To Events Of Their Time
Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler chose one way, conducting in Nazi Germany through World War II. Dmitry Shostakovich chose another in deep Soviet Russia. Joseph Horowitz contrasts the two in this podcast. – The American Interest
Comics May Not Survive The Pandemic
Comic-book publishing, comics stores, the writers, the artists, and everyone are in serious trouble. “The industry has been throttled at every juncture. Comic-store owners have shuttered their shops and the distribution of new titles has been frozen. Writers and artists continue to produce work, not knowing how or when readers will be able to see it.” – The New York Times
The View From Quarantine Easels
Artists from San Diego, Chicago, Saskatchewan, New York, and more weigh in. Dia Bassett, for instance: “With the COVID-19 pandemic, my life as a mom to a toddler is more confined. My parents are not able to come help with caregiving, so I’m caring for my daughter full-time. It means I create art on the fly, so I have some of my old childhood paintings and college drawings tucked in a corner by the couch to pull out at any given moment.” – Hyperallergic