“The Los Angeles County Museum of Art said its upcoming exhibition of a major art collection from the State Pushkin Museum, Moscow, would open as planned July 27 — despite a lawsuit, filed against the museum by the grandson of a Russian aristocrat, which alleges that 25 of the works in the collection were looted from his family by Lenin’s Bolshevik government in 1918.”
Tag: 07.18.03
Newly Discovered Debussy Work To Be Performed In Sweden
“A piano piece by French composer Claude Debussy found two years ago will be played officially for the first time in a small church in central Sweden today. Debussy, the founder of the Impressionist movement in music, wrote the piece in 1917 during the First World War.” The work, which was discovered in a trunk in Paris two years ago, is less than three minutes long, and seems to have been written as a musical thank-you note to the composer’s coal supplier.
The Ultimate Topical Art
Editorial cartooning increasingly seems to be a dying art form, with one cartoonist after another falling prey to the budget axe in the increasingly profit-driven and corporate-dominated newspaper industry. But the tradition of the editorial cartoon is a vital part of American art culture, says Patrick Reardon, and deserves to be recognized as such. “Editorial cartoons are savage snarls. They’re rude and gross, crude and unfair. They ridicule the high and mighty. They slap down the pompous. They sting. They get the blood boiling. And they make their point — with the clarity and nuance of a right uppercut.”
Fortifying An ‘Arts Neighborhood’
“Standing by a South Boston construction site, Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday quoted Pablo Picasso, as the Fort Point Cultural Collaborative announced plans for Midway Studios, a 200,000-square-foot development that will house 89 new artists’ live/work studios, a gallery, a black box theater, and other cultural facilities in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood.” The project is designed to combat the seemingly endless cycle that sees artists move into a run-down urban neighborhood and breathe new life into it, only to be forced out by the rising property values that their good work makes inevitable.
Committing To The Arts In Elvis City
The city of Memphis is known mainly for barbecue and Elvis, but lately, the western Tennessee city has been making a concerted push to become what is commonly referred to as a “big-league town.” That means getting at least one major league sports franchise to move in: Memphis swiped Vancouver’s NBA team last year. It means a serious effort to revitalize the downtown area: check. And, according to the folks in charge of Memphis, it means creating major public-private partnerships to support the arts and cultivate a unique musical and artistic scene in the city. Despite the nationwide trend towards slashing arts funding, Memphis is launching “a fund drive to generate $25 million for the Greater Memphis Arts Council.”
Florida Phil Seeks More Time To Resurrect
“The uncertain saga of the Florida Philharmonic goes into federal bankruptcy court this morning, where the musicians union is expected to give its permission for a group of reorganizers to continue its efforts to raise money and generate community support in its bid to bring the orchestra back to life.” There has been no shortage of energy from the volunteer choristers who have been trying to save the orchestra from extinction, but they have yet to raise anywhere near the amount of money they need, and there just doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of community support for the ensemble, which collapsed this spring under a weight of ugly debt.
Buffalo Phil Aims For The Black
The Buffalo Philharmonic is a month away from closing out its books for the fiscal year, and, to the surprise of some, things are looking awfully good. In fact, the BPO, which ran a whopping $1.2 million deficit last year, is on the verge of breaking even in a year when many large orchestras are well into the red and many small ones are shutting down for lack of cash. Key to the turnaround seems to be improving ticket sales, which have jumped 15% in Buffalo from last season to this one.
Making Art Until the Cows Go Home
A new exhibition by a British graffiti artist features live sheep, cows, and pigs painted with various outlandish designs. “The exhibition includes pigs painted in police colours, sheep painted in concentration camp stripes and a cow covered in images of Andy Warhol’s face.” Animal control organizations have approved the exhibit, and the animal are all show animals used to being stared at. Still, it’s probably a good thing that the sheep can’t tell what’s been painted on his back…
Movie Painting Tradition Dying In India
In India there is a tradition of artists painting large murals advertising the latest movies. “Their work is stacked against each other, huge displays in bright epic colours, the faces of heroes and heroines, dwarfing the men on ladders touching up their lips and eyelashes.” But technology and the movie poster are killing this tradion. “No one wants our hand-painted work anymore. Everything is becoming computerised and the cinemas are being made into these multi-plexes.”
Recycle Me
“Is nothing new under the sun? some critics are asking (properly attributing that phrase to the writer of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, of course). Author Joan Didion pointed out in a 1996 speech that when she arrived at college ‘it was immediately impressed on me that all the novels necessary had already been written.’ Does that suggest we’re living in unimaginative times in which lazy artists simply mimic the past or, worse, slip into plagiarism? A quick scan of popular culture could suggest that.”