Performance Art Becomes Epic Spectacle

Marina Abramovic and Doug Aitkin “are not the only visual artists making complex musical theatre out of solo performance art, and doing it on a spectacular scale closer to opera. … Over the past ten years, [Matthew Barney] has turned to one-off, live presentations that unfold over many hours in several locations, employ large casts and crews, and require the planning and precision of an army mobilising for war.”

Remembering Cy Twombly

“Almost perversely, as soon as the American art world exploded in the sixties, with Twombly positioned near the center of it all, he left America for good. By the turn of the millennium, he hadn’t had a New York gallery show in almost 30 years. His work grew to seem exotic and once-removed.”

What’s The Value Of Art?

“Society has long debated how to assess the arts: What is their role? How do you know if a work is good and who chooses? Admittedly, deciding that a work is excellent is difficult, at times controversial and far from a science. But the absence of certainty had not been a problem with consequences for public funding, until recently.”