The Museum of Modern Art’s new building won’t be the only new acquistion on display when it opens next week. “In the last three years, the museum has added well over $100 million worth of art and objects, officials there estimate. Some have been purchases, others gifts from trustees or museum lovers.”
Tag: 11.12.04
Deferring To Dizzy
“Other trumpeters idolised Dizzy Gillespie. But now, more than a decade after his death in 1993, his reputation is in danger of fading away. Miles Davis was in some ways a Gillespie disciple, but one may find 20 of his CDs in a shop to every one of Dizzy’s. What’s more, the trumpeter Jon Faddis, co-leader of the alumni band, has complained about ‘the assertion that Charlie Parker was the sole genius of the bebop era’. Why should this be so? One answer is that Gillespie’s contribution was partly theoretical.”
The Cartland Book Industry – Death Is No Impediment
Barbara Cartland spent many of her 99 years writing. And she wrote so much, much of it has yet to be published. “Four years after her death, two new Cartland novels trickled on to the market yesterday. And there are 158 more to come, at the rate of one a month – enough to satisfy her admirers for about 13 years.”
Edinburgh Fests Rally To Stay On Top
With other UK cities planning big new summer festivals, the 11 Edinburgh festivals have formed a new association to better represent themselves. “The new Association of Edinburgh’s Festivals will act as a unified voice and lobbying group at a time when Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle are preparing for major arts events of their own.”
Opera Australia Moving To Casino?
Opera Australia has to find a temporary home while the Sydney Opera House is being refurbished. Where to go? One option is a local casino. The company “declined to speculate on how opera audiences might feel about mixing with casino clientele, but said everything possible would be done to make the experience enjoyable.”
Curating China
Contemporary art is booming in China. But who is choosing art to be shown? Before 1980, curators were unheard of in China. “Not until in 1993 when a curator from the famous Venice Biennial came to China, did we know that holding an exhibition needs a curator. From then on, as more and more contemporary artists went overseas to give shows, this word and this function became better understood.”
Dan Glickman, Anti-Pirate
Dan Glickman used to be a Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture. Now he’s fronting for the Motion Picture Association of America. “The overlying issue is piracy and how we fight it,” Mr. Glickman said, a day after announcing plans to sue people who illegally download movies off the Internet, a provocative way to begin his stewardship. “I still believe lawsuits are only one part of the strategy. Education and awareness and embracing new technologies is part of it. It’s important that we be seen embracing technology.”
MoMA Vs. Tate Modern
For the past few years Tate Modern has been the preeminent modern art museum. But the new Museum of Modern Art will reclaim the title soon. “As a theatre of contemporary art, Tate Modern is exceptional. But as a place where we can learn why Picasso matters, it fails – and wants to fail. A couple of weeks from now, Moma will once again be the place to learn about 20th-century art. Maybe Tate Modern can never tell the story of the modern world’s art as well as Moma; but it could try.”
Women’s Review Closing
The Women’s Review of Books is publishing its final issue. It’s closing after losing money since the mid-90s. “The story sounds familiar. It involves shrinking library budgets, increasing costs for printing and postage, and changes in reading habits. The cumulative effect has been to undermine the stability of a journal that was publishing review essays by and about Kathy Acker, Raya Dunayevskaya, Marilyn Hacker, and Adrienne Rich when some of today’s “third wave” feminist scholars were in kindergarten.”