12.03.00 – ArtsJournal Wayback

BIDDING ON LA DIVINA

Maria Callas’s personal things are being auctioned off. “Among the 415 lots are a pair of seamless, black stockings, a pale pink satin slip, a purple and black silk corset, and the much-photographed white mink stole that Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis gave her before he abandoned her for Jacqueline Kennedy.” – CNN

KENNEDY CENTER HONORS

The Kennedy Center honors Placido Domingo, Chuck Berry, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Clint Eastwood and Angela Lansbury. The Washington Post profiles each. – Washington Post

GOOD FOR THE GOODMAN

In the 14 years since Robert Falls became artistic director of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, he has turned an already esteemed theater into one of the country’s finest. Thursday night an audience filled its new $46 million home for the first time. “We’ve got resources now that very few theaters anywhere in America have, and we’re going to make full use of them.” – New York Times

MUSEUM MAKEOVER

The British Museum’s major redesign, including its controversial centerpiece Great Court, will be unveiled to the public this week. – CNN

WHAT MUSEUMS WANT

What exactly do museums want today? New York’s fall schedule of shows at major museums is perplexing. “The lineup of fall shows suggests that museum professionals, driven by the desire to be financially secure, wildly popular or socially relevant, opt for one of two alternatives: exhibitions that look like upscale stores, or exhibitions that look like historical society displays.” – New York Times

THE NORTON SIMON WAKES UP

“Long known as a sleepy, essentially private enclave and only open four afternoons a week, the Simon has been transformed during the past year, since the grand opening of a celebrated $6.5-million renovation designed by architect Frank O. Gehry. Officials have extended its hours, expanded its outreach and upped its advertising budget. The payoff has been dramatic.” – Los Angeles Times

THE DISAPPOINTING TURNER

“The last time we had a worthy and substantial winner of the Turner Prize, a winner who was going to be remembered in the annals of British modern art for decades to come, was four years ago, when the intelligently transgressive Gillian Wearing won. Since then, the prize has gone to a succession of irredeemably minor artists for whom winning the prize will be seen as the summit of their careers. When petits maîtres like Tillmans win, we can be sure that the Turner has had to resort to some serious barrel-scraping.” – The Sunday Times (UK)

GWENDOLYN BROOKS DIED —

— on Sunday at age 83. Brooks won the Pulitzer prize for her poetry in 1949, and completed her most recent volume of poems late this summer. – New York Times (AP)

THE BATTLE FOR JAZZ

“In this month’s Jazzwise magazine, saxophonist David Murray, the most recorded artist in the history of jazz, issues a declaration of war against Wynton Marsalis. Murray accuses him of stifling the creativity of a music which is inherently about change and improvisation, and of using his power to exclude those who do not adhere to his conservative agenda. ‘This is the most non-creative time in the whole history of jazz. They’ve stopped the clock and gone back again, to the 1960s and late 1950s, to define jazz. These guys are not doing jazz a service’.” – The Independent (UK)