Tag: 10.29.04

Ruscha In Venice

Ed Ruscha has been chosen to represent the US in next summer’s Venice Biennale. “Ruscha, 66, was selected by directors and curators from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.”

Hughes: What MoMA Means

How important is the Museum of Modern Art to America? Robert Hughes: “To put it plainly: Moma, to give it the acronym by which it is always known, made modern art mandatory in America. It did this not only by collecting it, showing it, moving big money into place behind it and evangelising for it, but by setting the prime example whereby, in the US, the function of the museum shifted from accumulation to teaching. This came to apply to almost all museums, not just those dedicated to a hitherto enigmatic or marginal ‘modernism’.”

Bookstore Customers Burning Out On Political Books

As the American election gets close to resolution, “many independent, Chicago-area booksellers are yanking the most partisan books out of their store windows and off their most visible shelves. The reason? It’s just not worth the grief.” Too many customers were complaining. “I don’t remember this four years ago. I think everybody feels the stakes are higher this year on both sides.”

Wal-Mart Returns Carlin

Wal-Mart has returned about 3,500 copies of George Carlin’s new book, saying it hadn’t ordered it. The publisher begs to disagree (since he will take a loss on the books). “Publishing sources say it’s unlikely that Wal-Mart — known to skip books that might be deemed politically or religiously provocative — would have ordered the book in the first place. But it’s also unlikely that the books would have been shipped from the warehouse by accident. The most likely scenario is that someone ordered them, and then thought better of it. Retailers can return any unsold books to the publisher or distributor, at any time, at the publisher’s expense.”

“Reality” Show To Kill Buildings

A new “reality” show asks viewers to name their most hated piece of architecture. At the end of the season the building will be demolished. “The show’s announcement has triggered a paroxysm of designating. All over Britain, architects and civic associations have singled out for elimination buildings–generally works dating from the 1950s and 1960s–deemed “unworthy” of keeping company with the icons of modern architecture (such as Lord Foster’s recent “Gherkin Building”) or deemed eyesores.”