Tag: 08.03.04

In Germany – Little Progress In Tracking Art Stolen By Nazis

Five years after German politicians directed the country’s museums to search their collections for artwork that might have been stolen from Jews by the Nazis, only a handful of artworks have been turned up. There has been little cooperation from the museums – “only about 165 of Germanys 6,000 museums have reported” that they have any suspicions of artwork that might have been stolen.

Russian Artists Protest Housing Plan

A plan to take away subsidized housing for artists in St. Petersburg, Russia has brought out the artists to protest. “A number of them arrived at the Legislative Assembly with banners bearing the slogans: “[Governor Valentina] Matviyenko, don’t be grudging, buy paintings!”; “St Petersburg is for the rich, the bandits and the thieves”; “Culture’s grave-diggers are Russia’s grave-diggers”; “The artists’ canvasses bind the feet of the city administration”; and also a quotation from Nekrasov – “There have been worse times, but none as mean!” “If the studios are going to be sold, then the artists will either have to leave for the West, or change their profession”.

Edinburgh’s Smart New Festival Art Space

Edinburghers are proud of the new visual arts exhibition space for the annual Edinburgh Festival. “For more than 50 years, it has not been possible to complement the drama and music programme of the Edinburgh International Festival with a large-scale exhibition of visual art, because of the limited gallery space in the city. With the completion of the Playfair Project, that barrier no longer exists. Scotland now has a world-class exhibition space of the size to take the largest international shows, and mount them in perfect conditions.”

Taking A New Look At The NYT Book Review

What will the New York Times Book Review look like under new editor Sam Tanenhaus? “It still feels like there’s an institutional history that I don’t want to necessarily disrupt. We’re responding to the cultural moment, which seems a contentious one, and trying to capture those diverse energies. We’re also trying to capture the breadth of the literary culture, the highs as well as the lows. We’re trying to do justice to commercial and mass-market books as well as the serious and rarefied works of literature that come out. We’re trying to have a balance, and trying to have a mix of voices—the established writers but also newer writers. We’re encouraging reviewers to speak in their own voice and trying to accommodate their sensibilities. We might run a very long review for one writer and also run some short punchy reviews of mass market books and mix the two together. The biggest changes will probably be in appearance and presentation, though.”

Of Ashton And Tudor

Although Frederick Ashton is the genius on whom British ballet is based, it could have been Anthony Tudor who got the crucial job. In a few brilliant years in the 1930s, between them they produced a handful of masterpieces that have endured 70 years, and will surely endure further. Ashton was making larky, sophisticated modern entertainments such as Façade and Les Rendezvous when Tudor made two ballets that were shocking in their time, for exposing emotions never talked about and opening up a rich seam of ballet that is feverishly mined by today’s choreographers.”

Athens’ Olympic Cultural Legacy

“The Olympics is not, you might think, a cultural event. No one worries about the influence of Euro 2004 on the Portuguese art scene. But the return of the ancient games to Athens is a moment so rich in historical, artistic, architectural and even mythological associations that it becomes by definition a cultural as well as an athletic festival. Athens is staging a “cultural olympiad”, a collection of exhibitions and concerts under the aegis of the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, even the new stadium and its surrounding complex aspires to be a work of art.”