When a painting by Nikolai Astrup goes up for auction later this fall, it will be the first time in almost a decade that a work by the Norwegian master will have been made available for public sale. “What is more remarkable about this work, which can fetch around [US$200,000], is that it was acquired for a three-cent lottery ticket in 1926, newspaper Bergensavisen reports.”
Tag: 08.27.03
Wood Panelling
“The Library of Congress has acquired veteran cartoonist Art Wood’s enormous collection of 36,000 works by 2,800 artists, the largest private collection in the world.” Wood is arguably the most passionate collector and admirer of cartoon art in the world, and he has a long history at the Library, having first taken a job there at the age of 16. A successful cartoonist in his own right, Wood has always been fascinated with the medium, once writing that a good cartoon “scratches across the surface of life, whether the raw slums of the teeming city or the palatial mansion of the millionaire. It tells perhaps better than any medium what people are really like.”
You Mean Movies Have Writers?
“In the movie world, writers are rarely treated with respect. Far from being considered sacred text, their words are routinely trampled on through endless script drafts, rewrites and ‘final polishes.'” But at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, an astonishing number of well-known authors and novelists are among the list of screenwriters, and Martin Knelman hopes that the star power of such writers as Barbara Gowdy and Mordecai Richler will lead to a sea change in the way the film world views the people who write the scripts.
Emerging From The Pack
“Vendela Vida is a part of a coterie of writers — Heidi Julavits, Dave Eggers and Michael Chabon, to name a few — who are young, gifted and both blessed and cursed. While they are admired for their work and for leading a renaissance of literature, publishing and philanthropy in San Francisco, they are also major snark targets, annoying others for seeming to have so much brilliance, youth and charm.” She’s also married to Eggers, and the two of them may be the closest thing the American literary scene has to a power couple. Still, Vida seems a bit nonplussed by the whole fame thing, and seems genuinely to wish that the world would just pipe down and let her write.
O’Neill, King Of Broadway
This summer’s biggest Broadway success story wasn’t some cutting-edge musical featuring agressive tap-dancers, and it wasn’t a provocatively-titled, fast-paced romp from the mind of one of theater’s hot new stars. No, the king of Broadway this summer was none other than the late Eugene O’Neill, whose four-hour play, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, has garnered rave reviews and standing-room-only attendance in its 5-month run. Some of the success of the revival can be chalked up to star power and savvy marketing that pandered to the ‘serious’ theatregoer. But some see it as a sign that Broadway crowds are ready to be challenged.
Gays On TV: Breakthrough or Backwards?
The recent explosion of gay-themed programming on American TV has been well-chronicled, but not everyone in the gay community is happy about it. While media visibility is certainly something gays have long sought, shows like Bravo’s much-hyped Queer Eye For The Straight Guy are little more than stereotype-laden “gay minstrel shows,” according to Christopher Kelly. “Nearly a decade after television’s representations of gay life finally started moving in provocative directions – on shows like L.A. Law, thirtysomething and Roseanne – we are back at square one. Or square zero. There are now virtually no complex, gay people on television, and the future looks none too promising.”
Audio Books On The Rise
Call it a byproduct of the American car culture, a side effect of the rush to multitask, or simple consumer laziness: whatever the cause, sales of audio books are on the rise, and the publishing industry is taking notice. One installment in the Harry Potter series sold 575,000 audio copies in three days, and Hillary Clinton’s recent autobiography has sold 90,000. Audio sales are still miles away from print sales, of course, but the industry is beginning to treat audiobooks as a serious part of its product line.
Innovation Or Power-Grab?
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has been around since the days of John Adams, who founded it, and traditions run deep within its membership, which is elected from within and includes an array of intellectual and moneyed elites. So it’s not a big surprise that Leslie Berlowitz, who was brought in to shake up the academy in the late 1990s, has made a lot of enemies since she took over. “Berlowitz’s supporters say she is an agent of change who has breathed new life into what was once a moribund clique of inbred Cambridge academics. Her detractors say she is a manipulative, imperious power grabber who has needlessly alienated academy fellows and staff alike.”
Crunch Time In Pittsburgh
The financially strapped Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is trying some unconventional tactics to save money and get a new contract negotiated with its musicians. The PSO has asked a former board member to mediate this year’s negotiations with the musicians – the current contract expires on September 21. Also, the orchestra has asked 7 older musicians to voluntarily take early retirement, presumably as a cost-cutting move. But none of the musicians have accepted, and the union says that any retiring musicians would have to be replaced, anyway.
92nd St. Y Considers Downtown Outpost
New York’s 92nd Street Y, a mainstay of the city’s culture and a fixture on the upper East Side, is considering a downtown branch at the site of the Wolrd Trade Center. “The Y is talking with several other organizations, including the New York City Opera, the Joyce Theater, the Tribeca Film Festival and Hunter College about sharing space in the performing arts center designated for the World Trade Center site or in other locations nearby. ‘We want to be a central part of a wheel out of which many spokes come’.”