“Danièle Huillet, the French-born filmmaker who, in collaboration with her husband, Jean-Marie Straub, created some of the most challenging and intensely debated motion pictures of the modernist era, died on Monday at the home of friends in the Loire Valley in France. She was 70.”
Tag: 10.12.06
Two Postwar Masterpieces Change Hands
Two paintings by Jasper Johns and Willem de Kooning have been sold for $143.5 million in a private transaction. Media mogul David Geffen was the seller, and the buyers are a pair of hedge fund billionaires looking to up the profile of their own collections.
Libeskind’s Self-Portrait?
Nicolai Ouroussoff says that Daniel Libeskind’s new addition to the Denver Art Museum is a mighty piece of work, but also one which embodies “all of the contradictions within Mr. Libeskind’s oeuvre. Its bold, often mesmerizing forms reaffirm the originality of his talent, yet its tortured geometries make it a daunting place to install or view art — hardly a minor drawback. And for all its emotional power, the building seems eerily out of date, and its flaws readily apparent.”
It Looks Like Denver (And That’s Quite An Accomplishment)
Inga Saffron loves the new Libeskind addition. “When the prow of the museum’s new Hamilton Building cruises into view, it is a staggering sight. Its slashing, titanium-sheathed planes thrust up from Denver’s wide-open city grid like a newborn Rocky Mountain… In contrast with its ponderous, earthbound neighbors, his museum looks ready for a springy takeoff.”
This Is What Happens When You Hand Out Champagne In A Museum
An installation piece by San Francisco artist William T. Wiley was damaged over the weekend during the opening celebrations of the newly expanded Denver Art Museum. Parts of the installation were knocked to the floor when a visitor tripped into them. Museum officials aren’t saying how severe the damage is.
Pollock Paintings To Get Viewing, Whether Real Or Not
“The director of the only museum that has agreed to show a group of recently discovered paintings attributed to Jackson Pollock said today she’ll show them even if laboratory tests show that the works are fake… Harvard University has said it soon will release the first physical analysis of the works, which include two dozen paintings and a dozen sketches and studies on paper. The analysis likely will show whether the materials used to make them existed during Pollock’s lifetime.”
Insult Dealers, Get Expelled From School: One Man’s Roadmap To An Art Career
Seattle artist Jesse Edwards is a jerk. “Some of his paintings are garbage but some are great. They’re great, but he’s intolerable. He heckles the art dealers whenever they talk here. He swaggers when he walks and breaks all rules. He still leaves me obnoxious phone messages. He has no social skills. I’m behind him all the way.”
Important German Manuscript Collection Might Be Liquidated To Pay Castle Bills
The Counts of Baden in Germany “are broke and need 70 million euros to fix up their castle.” So they propose a “selloff of 3500 of the 4200 medieval manuscripts – many of them of the highest importance -” from the collection in the Badische Landesbibliothek of Karlsruhe.
Pittsburgh Opera Taps Australian
Pittsburgh Opera has named Australian conductor Antony Walker as its next music director, beginning later this season. “Walker has worked closely with [Sir Charles] Mackerras on many opera productions in Australia and Europe, and benefited from his personal relationship with, and advocacy by, the world-renowned maestro.”
How The Kitchener-Waterloo Fiasco Got This Bad
It was August when executives at the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony learned that their ensemble was in serious danger of not being able to complete the 2006-07 season unless a major financial turnaround was achieved. The KWSO had ended the ’05-’06 season $600,000 in the red, even after a $750,000 behind-the-scenes fundraising campaign. “The symphony, after studying solutions struggling orchestras in Vancouver and Calgary have used, realized it would have to go public with its problems.”