“In the debate over the 13 murals that make up The Life of Washington, at George Washington High School [in San Francisco], one side, which includes art historians and school alumni, sees an immersive history lesson; the other, which includes many African-Americans and Native Americans, sees a hostile environment. … [The muralist] depicted Washington, accurately, at a time when that was rarely acknowledged, as a slave owner and the leader of the nation that annihilated Native Americans.” – The New York Times
Tag: 04.11.19
Folger Shakespeare Library Plans Underground Expansion
“Inside the new space, the North Hall would feature a vault for the library’s 82 Shakespeare first folios, the first collections of Shakespeare’s plays published in 1623. In addition, four immersive galleries would … introduce visitors to Shakespearean themes. … Another new exhibition hall would display the library’s treasures” — it holds the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare-related materials — “as well as provide room for changing exhibitions.” – The Washington Post
Guggenheim Museum Faces Complicated Questions About Conceptual And Minimalist Art — And Even ‘Decommissions’ Some Works
“For nine years, [the museum] has been foraging for answers to some of the most confounding questions raised by Minimalist and conceptual art from the 1960s and ’70s: What makes a work genuine? If an artist decides he prefers an earlier or later iteration of his original work, which one should have pride of place in a museum? If an artist disowns a work altogether, how should the museum label and classify it?” The issues arise from the Guggenheim’s famous Panza Collection, acquired from 1990 to ’92. – The Art Newspaper
4,000-Year-Old Circle Of Standing Stones Vandalized
Sometime last weekend, someone carved graffiti into one of the 36 surviving stones in the Ring of Brodgar, part of a UNESCO Neolithic World Heritage Site, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. – The Herald
Germany Recovers Huge Trove Of Antique Books Lost In World War II
The works, which had belonged to the University and Regional Library of Bonn and “which were thought to have been irretrievably lost, included rare medieval manuscripts, early 15th-century prints, historical maps and the 19th-century illustrated bird books from the library of the celebrated German ornithologist and explorer Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied.” – The Guardian
How An Unlikely Art House Film Beat Superhero Blockbusters To Win China’s Box Office
How did such a strange project make an astounding $38 million on its release day of December 31, 2018? In the same way so many of its big-budget rivals did throughout the year—with good marketing. – The Atlantic
The Number Of Music Teachers In Scottish Schools Has Fallen 40 Percent In Seven Years. Here’s Why
The reason? Funding, of course. And more and more schools are charging for lessons, and now, even for instruments. This has decimated the number of students who sign up. It’s a vicious circle. – The Scotsman
“Chill” Music? Seriously? This Is Where Muzak Went To Die
This has become a popular music genre. But “the music wasn’t for anything. It merely existed to facilitate and sustain a mood, which in turn might enable a task: studying, folding laundry, making spreadsheets, idly browsing the Internet. Spotify presently classifies chill as a genre, and there are an incredible number of playlists devoted to insuring a chill experience.” – The New Yorker
Why Is this Museum Exhibition So Troubling?
Several weeks ago, I visited the Dallas Museum of Art to see an exhibition of works by Jonas Wood. His paintings, mostly, are striking. They have wall power. They are easy to like. But the whole thing makes me queasy. The museum is being used. – Judith H. Dobrzynski
Music that sends cats hunting
This headline is not kidding. To judge from the playlist for pets Yannick Nézet-Séguin created, his three cats are mostly Romantics. But the tastes of David Patrick Stearns’s four cats run more toward the experimental — and one piece, about a squid, brought out Daddy’s Little Predator. – David Patrick Stearns