“Now that billionaire “Star Wars” creator George Lucas and his wife, Ariel Investments President Mellody Hobson, have taken their plans back to San Francisco, their team appears to have learned a lesson from their doomed approach in Chicago.”
Tag: 08.31.16
Cultural Equity You Say? So What Does That Mean?
“Over the course of the past half-century, conversations about diversity have tended to focus first on audiences, then on programming, and finally on leadership. Diversity’s core concern is about who is ultimately benefiting from the work; if diverse audiences are taking advantage, then that is the surest sign of success.”
Photojournalist Marc Riboud Dead At 93
“The portrait became iconic overnight. Photographed in Washington D.C. in 1967, it showed a Vietnam War protester, Jan Rose Kasmir, holding a flower as she confronted a row of National Guard servicemen outside the Pentagon. The image became a symbol of the flower power movement and helped change public opinion against a war that had already lasted more than a decade.”
Thieves Steal 12 Tons Of Marble And 10-Ton Sculpture From Anselm Kiefer’s Studio
“Early in the morning on Sunday, 28 August, the German artist Anselm Kiefer’s 35,000sq. m studio and warehouse space in Croissy-Beaubourg, about 25km west of Paris, was burgled and robbed … The thieves are suspected of cutting through wire cages and making off with a ten-tonne lead sculpture of stacks of books – valued at €1.3m – and 12 tonnes of raw marble, worth around €1m.”
That Smudge On Munch’s ‘The Scream’ Is Not Bird Poop, Say Scientists
“Munch painted four versions of the artwork during the 1890s, but an 1893 iteration which resides in the Norwegian National Museum has long had a white smudge of unknown origin near the screaming subject’s shoulder. … After years of speculation, scientists from the University of Antwerp in Belgium have finally solved [the] mystery.”
Google Restores Dennis Cooper’s Blog, And Explains Why It Was Deleted Without Warning
“Artist and author Dennis Cooper re-launched his popular blog on Monday after months of legal disputes with Google, whom many accused of censorship. The artist posted a message on the blog’s Facebook account on Friday to explain Google’s reasoning for erasing his 14-year-old blog.” (It was a 10-year-old post.)
New York Times Axes Arts And Culture Coverage In Suburbs: Report
“The New York Times this week quietly ended its coverage of restaurants, art galleries, theaters and other commercial and nonprofit businesses in the tri-state region, laying off dozens of longtime contributors and prompting protests from many of the institutions that will be affected. They foresee an impact not only on patronage but, in the case of the nonprofits, on their ability to raise funds to survive.”
The Dancer Who Came Back From A Shattered Leg To Become A Company Principal
“Dragged under the wheel of a London bus, ballet dancer Joseph Skelton was told he might never walk again without a limp.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 08.31.16
Guillermo Del Toro at LACMA
I must admit to being the kind of museum-goer instinctively suspicious of exhibits about popular culture. I say this as someone who loves pop culture and spends most of his life there. But these … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2016-08-31
From Private Delectation to Public Display: The Prado’s Once Hidden Nudes Flaunted at the Clark
The seemingly robust attendance (figures not yet available) at the Clark Art Institute’s current summer extravaganza — Splendor, Myth and Vision: Nudes from the Prado (to Oct. 10) — runs counter to Robin Pogrebin’s assertion in the NY Times … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2016-08-31
Explosion of harps
So, yesterday I blogged about how complex Wagner’s orchestration is in Götterdämmerung. Far more complex than it is in earlier Ring operas (apart from the last part of Siegfried). Today, a quirky orchestral detail. So quirky. Weird! … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-08-31
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Proposition: Culture = Power Whereas Art = The Power Of Beauty
“Ultimately, democratic politics are a numbers game. Politics are what concern everyone, which is why “everyone” talks about politics. Art, by contrast, is what concerns one person, intimately. Culture is a matter of power; art is a matter of beauty. It’s also a matter of freedom—of spiritual freedom, of free-spiritedness—and so it’s also political, though not in any immediately recognizable way and, above all, not in any way that lends itself to the think-piece brand of discourse. The power of beauty, the impact of beauty on a single person, eludes discussion and invites silence, even as it incites something radically different from analysis: ecstasy. That’s the force behind the side of criticism that, if it’s any good at all, converges with the work of art by being itself a literary, poetic, philosophical inspiration.”