Arts news

• Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat turns spotlight on UK’s failure to take in more refugees

  27-01-2015 23:39
  
  The Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat has spent four decades on the front line of satire, skewering the evils of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime, but now the Middle East’s most famous living satirist has turned his pen on the British Government’s failure to help more than a handful of Syria’s most vulnerable refugees.
  
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• Bigger pictures on arts issues: workers at the National Gallery and BP’s sponsorship of Tate | Letters: Dr Nicholas Penny and Graham Bennett

  27-01-2015 20:14
  
  Polly Toynbee’s article (Inside the National Gallery, a portrait of modern inequality, 20 January) regarding our modernisation plans says “all gallery services go out to tender in April, something no other national gallery or museum has done”. I would like to clarify that our proposals are to contract out visitor-facing and security services – not “all gallery services” – and that many of the other national galleries and museums have already outsourced some of the equivalent roles.
  
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• Did Archaeologists Just Find Cervantes’ Grave?

  27-01-2015 19:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Archaeologists made the find over the weekend during excavations to solve the centuries-old mystery of where the famed Spanish writer was laid to rest. The initials on a plank of the coffin were formed with metal tacks embedded into the wood.”
  
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• Does Tate really need to take BP’s sponsorship money?

  27-01-2015 18:59
  
  The oil giant has been revealed to give an average of £245,000 a year to Tate. But is that worth all the bother the deal has got the galleries into?Walk through Tate Britain and it is impossible not to come across BP. The oil firm sponsors all the main galleries and individual artist displays, whether that is Henry Moore, JMW Turner or the brightly coloured fibreglass sculptures by Philip King that currently fill the central galleries. Even the 19th-century radical William Hazlitt is 
  
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• Does Tate really need to take BP’s sponsorhip money?

  27-01-2015 18:59
  
  The oil giant has been revealed to give an average of £245,000 a year to Tate. But is that worth all the bother the deal has got the galleries into?Walk through Tate Britain and it is impossible not to come across BP. The oil firm sponsors all the main galleries and individual artist displays, whether that is Henry Moore, JMW Turner or the brightly coloured fibreglass sculptures by Philip King that currently fill the central galleries. Even the 19th-century radical William Hazlitt is 
  
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• Adrian Henri and the painter-poets who turned the Mersey Beat into an art

  27-01-2015 18:48
  
  Paintings, posters and ephemera from Liverpool at the time of the Beatles show the city’s 60s scene rivalled New York for creativityIn 1965, Liverpool was “the centre of human consciousness in the world”, according to Beat visionary Allen Ginsberg. A small exhibition at the ICA offers a nostalgic taste of that moment when Beatlemania ruled pop and the Mersey Beat poets were at the forefront of the British avant garde.It is a display of paintings, collages, film clips and cases of posters,
  
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• What they don’t want you to see: the hidden world of UK deportation

  27-01-2015 18:33
  
  It is illegal to photograph the detention centres, closed courts, luxury lounges and private jets Britain uses to deport people. So artist James Bridle found another way to recreate these ‘invisible’ spacesIt’s a cold, wet night in December 2013. I’m sat in a car park on the far side of Stansted airport, and most of the day’s flights have already departed. This side of the runway is home to half a dozen private hangars. Harrods Aviation is here, providing engineering services and “fa
  
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• Smithsonian Considers Opening A London Outpost

  27-01-2015 18:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  “The institution announced today that it is considering opening an exhibition space in east London’s planned cultural quarter in Olympic Park. The 40,000-sq.-foot gallery would feature rotating and permanent exhibitions drawn from across the Smithsonian’s collection of 138 million objects, which range from Dorothy’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz to the space shuttle […]
  
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• Reinvent or die, say Old Master dealers looking to modernise

  27-01-2015 18:15
  
  The market loves contemporary, so galleries change look and stock
  
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• Will Simon Rattle take over at the LSO?

  27-01-2015 18:02
  
  The British music world is waiting to hear whether the London Symphony Orchestra has succeeded in appointing Simon Rattle as its new music director – and waiting, and waiting. Speculation is reaching fever pitch as his sold-out London residency with his current orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, approaches: a celebration of his 60th birthday including associated television and radio programmes, education and outreach activities and a scramble for box-office returns.
  
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• The Comcast/Time Warner Mega-Merger Once Seemed Inevitable. Now It Isn’t

  27-01-2015 18:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  “The landscape has changed dramatically since the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal was announced last February.”
  
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• Is There TOO Much Arts Journalism?

  27-01-2015 17:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  It’s uncomfortable to think that more arts writing is creating less substantive engagement with the arts, but the arts are not the only field wrestling with this issue. As Alice Robb reported (ironically, in The New Republic, last September), “Science has never been so democratic. It’s just not clear whether democracy is what science needs.” […]
  
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• An Ambitious Plan To Bring Out-Of-Print Academic Books Back To Life

  27-01-2015 17:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Over the past 100 years, tens of thousands of academic books have been published in the humanities, including many remarkable works on history, literature, philosophy, art, music, law, and the history and philosophy of science. But the majority of these books are currently out of print and largely out of reach for teachers, students, and […]
  
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• Quite a Few East Coast Museums and Galleries Are Closed Because of the Snow

  27-01-2015 17:45 via artnews.com
  Museums and galleries throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England are closed today because of the snowstorm that is passing through the area, so if you are planning to go look at art, it is probably best to call ahead. Among … Read More
  
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• She Won Two Oscars But Facing Moving Out Of Her Apartment For Lack Of Work

  27-01-2015 17:44 via feedproxy.google.com
  Dianne Weist “earned Oscars for best supporting actress for 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994’s Bullets Over Broadway, both directed by Woody Allen. But after that, she found she was only getting offered roles to play “a nice mom, and that’s it. That’s all that ever came, except in theater.”
  
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• UK Museums Are Hiding Away Artworks Depicting Muhammad

  27-01-2015 17:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  “The Victoria and Albert museum has attempted to conceal its ownership of a devotional image of the prophet Muhammad, citing security concerns, in what is part of a wider pattern of apparent self-censorship by British institutions that scholars fear could undermine public understanding of Islamic art and the diversity of Muslim traditions.”
  
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• Iconic Air And Space Museum Needs A Major Overhaul

  27-01-2015 17:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  “The window walls are outdated, skylights leak, the mechanical systems are dying, and the terraces are leaking into the basement car storage. But much worse than that, the stones that clad the building are bowing and cracking, which threaten to make it uninhabitable.”
  
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• Reconsidering The Maria Callas Phenomenon

  27-01-2015 17:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Callas wasn’t perfect, to be sure. (And perfect can be boring, as some of her successors have demonstrated.) But she was something more: even when she falls short of her best, she gives an intimation of what an ideal performance might sound like. Few more perfect singers have managed to do that.”
  
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• Dozens Of Artworks Missing From Irish Parliament Feared Stolen

  27-01-2015 17:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  “There are concerns that some may have been stolen. It is feared that others may have been moved amid the upheaval within Leinster House following the largest ever changeover of TDs following the 2011 General Election.”
  
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• Smithsonian accepts Mayor of London's invitation to launch satellite on British soil

  27-01-2015 16:47
  
  Exhibits could feature space rockets, natural history, art and Dorothy's ruby slippers if $50m project takes off
  
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• Sotheby’s to Raise Buyer’s Premiums

  27-01-2015 16:24 via artnews.com
  On February 1, Sotheby’s will raise its buyer’s premiums, according to an 8-K Securities and Exchange Commission form filed yesterday. The form reads: Effective February 1, 2015, Sotheby’s (the “Company”) will enact a new buyer’s premium rate structure. Generally, the … Read More
  
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• Fourteen Artists Tapped for UAE Pavilion at Venice Biennale

  27-01-2015 15:58 via artnews.com
  Sheikha Hoor bint Sultan Al Qasimi, the president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation and curator of the United Arab Emirates national pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, has selected work by 14 Emirati artists to go on view … Read More
  
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• Morning Links: Boyfriend Edition

  27-01-2015 15:51 via artnews.com
  Here’s an interview with Ryan Germick, the man responsible for Google’s daily “doodle.” [The Wall Street Journal] BP’s Tate sponsorship is much smaller than expected. The museum disclosed the amount–£4 million ($6.08 million) between 1990 and 2006. [The Art Newspaper] … Read More
  
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• Sex, Mayhem, and Ghosts of the Unconscious: The Art World’s Multimedia Extravaganza

  27-01-2015 15:30 via artnews.com
  Antirealism, visual artifice, and stylized action are helping artists explore the irrationality of a changing world Read More
  
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• Warhols, Warhols everywhere at Singapore fair

  27-01-2015 15:17
  
  International names dominated, though sales were largely regional
  
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• Guardian Live: Moma and Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs review

  27-01-2015 13:06
  
  In our first Guadian Live event on American soil, Guardian US art critic Jason Farago spoke to Moma’s Jodi Hauptman and Karl Buchberg about the once-in-a-lifetime Matisse show they organised A landmark exhibition currently showing at Moma in New York, Henri Matisse: the Cut-Outs, has redefined the artist’s reputation. Once, the artworks he made with pieces of painted paper cut-outs were regarded as a frivolous, old man’s indulgence. Now, however, they are seen as a sudden blaze of new insp
  
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• UAE announces group show with 14 artists for its Venice pavilion

  27-01-2015 11:37
  
  Some will also be participating in the Sharjah Biennial
  
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• Southbank Centre bans street art event celebrating skate park's salvation

  27-01-2015 11:07
  
  After a ceremonial event to mark the preservation of the hallowed undercroft is blocked, skaters must question how open the space really isIt was a triumph of subculture against institutional might, a David and Goliath planning battle that ended victoriously for the low-slung trousered little guy. After an 18-month campaign, which saw legal action mounted on both sides, the skaters of the hallowed Southbank undercroft gained 150,000 signatures of support and forced the Southbank Centre to change
  
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• Navarra’s new museum gets the royal treatment

  27-01-2015 10:17
  
  King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain open region’s first Modern art space
  
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• San Diego Opera’s Joyful Return To The Stage

  27-01-2015 10:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  “The company survived the drama of its board leadership and longtime director trying to kill it and opened its 50th season Saturday night … with La Bohème. There’s nothing like a near-death experience to wake you up, and if the company had an elitist identity before its near-death experience, it now promises to become the […]
  
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• What Do Conductors Really Do? Two Of Them (Both Women) Tell Us

  27-01-2015 09:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  Rising young Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra and mid-career Australian maestra Simone Young discuss learning and shaping a score, keeping your head about you on and off the podium, and why they’d rather not have to deal with the woman-conductor thing. (audio)
  
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• A Charlie Hebdo Survivor’s Testimony

  27-01-2015 09:50 via feedproxy.google.com
  Philippe Lançon: “I thought about Bernard, Cabu, and the others in my narrow field of view, all dead now, and I wondered, with no idea of how seriously I was hurt, what determined life or death … The only difference between us was a couple of inches’ variation in the paths of the bullets and […]
  
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• Osipova And Goddard Make History At Britain’s National Dance Awards

  27-01-2015 09:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  “The Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova and contemporary dancer Jonathan Goddard become the first to win in both major dancer categories, while Carlos Acosta takes home the lifetime achievement honours.”
  
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• Thirty years on, the great film that liberated artists to explore the Holocaust

  27-01-2015 09:40
  
  On the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Polish artists share how Claude Lanzmann’s nine-and-a-half-hour epic has inspired them to create new narratives of the terrible events
  
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• The Many (English-Speaking) Lives Of “Anna Karenina”

  27-01-2015 09:35 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Why does a novel that already has at least six or seven English-language editions need yet another update? Journalist and author Masha Gessen discusses the difficulty of translating a literary masterpiece and argues the more the better.” (podcast)
  
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• Learning How To Sound Like A Woman After You’ve Become One

  27-01-2015 09:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  ‘The hormones used in male-to-female transitions have no effect on the vocal cords, meaning that even after a cosmetic and surgical transition into women, the male-sounding voice often keeps transgender people tied to their old identities.” So a small group of voice specialists have developed techniques to teach transgender women how to make their speech […]
  
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• Scientists Have Discovered What Makes Someone A Good Dancer

  27-01-2015 09:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Northumbria University conducted a study about the male dance moves that are attractive to women. Now you won’t have to think twice the next time you go to a wedding. Just take a look at the science.” (video)
  
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• Miroslaw Balka: what “Shoah” means to me

  27-01-2015 09:21
  
  The Polish artist on the influence of Claude Lanzmann’s epic Holocaust documentary
  
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• Henri Matisse – The Lost Interview

  27-01-2015 09:20 via feedproxy.google.com
  “On August 5th 1946, two years after Paris was liberated from the Germans, a young American soldier named Jerome Seckler visited Henri Matisse. … Until now this interview has never been published.”
  
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• Why TV Is the Perfect Place for Indie Filmmakers

  27-01-2015 09:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  James Poniewozik: “There is, arguably, richer potential in landing a TV deal than making an independent movie, shopping it around, and trying to get it attention in theaters. … But I’d also argue that TV is a good match for indie filmmakers for other than economic and practical reasons.”
  
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• Which Show Pioneered Race-Blind Casting On Broadway? (Hint: It Was In 1944)

  27-01-2015 09:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Bucking Broadway’s trend,” the musical’s creators – all children of Jewish immigrants, and so no strangers to discrimination themselves – “cast African-Americans to play ‘full-fledged citizens who were portrayed equitably with their white colleagues’.” And they cast a Japanese-American as the ingenue – in 1944.
  
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• Is Disney Diluting Its Brand As Animator of Classic Children’s Tales?

  27-01-2015 09:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  “A crucial part of the Disney magic has always been its total control over ‘the vault,’ its 80-year-old catalog of animated features that are only released for sale for a limited time before becoming artificially scarce again.” But the studio has been busy remaking many of its classic animated titles – Sleeping Beauty (as Maleficent), […]
  
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• The Art of Literary Expletive Avoidance

  27-01-2015 08:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Swearwords pepper modern novels, not least in genres like detective fiction where they lend colour and authenticity to hard-boiled dialogue. But there are times when a writer can say more by not saying them.”
  
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• Old Master Paintings Are Almost Cheap These Days

  27-01-2015 08:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  “That $3 million Caravaggio is looking like a bargain compared to an $81.9 million Andy Warhol.”
  
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• Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.26.15

  27-01-2015 08:49 via feedproxy.google.com
  Sotheby’s Raises Its Buyer’s Premium. How Much Is Too Much? AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2015-01-26 Monday Recommendation: Bley, Sheppard, Swallow AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-01-26 Equal Parts Hip-Hop and High Art, Seattle’s Amy O’Neal Finally Tours AJBlog: Fresh Pencil Published 2015-01-26 Ruff stuff (David Jays on reviving Jacobean tragedy) AJBlog: Performance Monkey Published 2015-01-26 AAMD’s Midwinter Meeting: […]
  
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• Singapore Art Week stresses the Southeast Asian hub’s cultural and artistic diversity

  27-01-2015 08:02
  
  Multi-media and multi-culturalism is the norm in a country known for its ethnic mix
  
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• [Conference] Superscript: Arts Journalism and Criticism in a Digital Age

  27-01-2015 04:49 via feedproxy.google.com
  How is the web changing the way artists work? The role of the critic? How we think about art? This first-of-a-kind conference looks at the present and possible futures for online arts publishing.
  
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• 2015 Bradshaw Conference: “LA as a Lab: Innovation in Arts and Culture”

  27-01-2015 04:44 via feedproxy.google.com
  2015 BRADSHAW CONFERENCE - March 28, 2015: Some of the most interesting innovations in the arts and culture sectors in the world are happening in Los Angeles right now.
  
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• The Show Must Go On: Blizzards Don’t Shut Down Broadway (Well, Almost Never)

  27-01-2015 03:20 via feedproxy.google.com
  Playbill looks at two decades worth of big storms, and has to go back to 1996 to find one that closed more than a very few shows. (Except for Sandy, which didn’t have any snow.)
  
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• But This Snowstorm IS Shutting Down Broadway (Blame Gov. Cuomo)

  27-01-2015 03:18 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Broadway theatres will go dark the evening of Jan. 26 as a major winter weather system bears down on the Northeast, with anywhere from 18 to 24 inches of snow forecast to fall across the New York City area in the next 24 hours. Several productions have already canceled Tuesday performances.”
  
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