Arts news

• Beyond the Biennale: Shows Around Venice

  08-05-2015 23:35 via artnews.com
  “TV is triage these days,” New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum wrote recently, of the unwatchable number of television shows on the air right now, and you could say the same of viewing art exhibitions in Venice during the biennale. There is the … Read More
  
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• Big Changes Coming In The Way Songwriters Are Paid?

  08-05-2015 23:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Right now, publishers and songwriters are required to license their songs to anyone, at rates that are set by a special rate court. ASCAP and BMI have been pushing to raise those rates, but Pandora and other streaming services have pushed back. So far, the courts have sided with Pandora. Now, the publishers are trying […]
  
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• Joan Jonas: legendary American performance artist is the toast of Venice

  08-05-2015 20:18
  
  Representing the US at the Biennale, Jonas offers an ecologically themed installation that has proved a huge hit – and one that has long been deservedJoan Jonas can barely find a moment to talk in the Giardini; there is too much to celebrate, and too many people who want to say hello. In the garden that hosts the Venice Biennale, the world’s most important art exhibition, curators and collectors keep coming up to congratulate her, while her adorable white poodle Ozu looks on. No one should b
  
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• Tunisian First Novel Wins “Arab Booker Prize” (And Is Banned)

  08-05-2015 20:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Shukri al-Mabkhout’s award comes just a week after his publishers learned from an Abu Dhabi bookshop that the novel was banned from bookshops across the Emirates. ‘The Italian’ is the eighth winner of the $50,000 (£33,000) prize known as the “Arabic Booker”.
  
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• Party spoils and pink ladies: behind the scenes at the Venice Biennale

  08-05-2015 19:13
  
  Away from the millionaire collectors and the super-yachts, nosy neighbours peer out of windows and washing flutters in the street. Our photographers’ candid Instagram shots show the true heart of the Venice BiennaleFollow @guardianphotos on InstagramContinue reading...
  
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• Just what was the Venus de Milo doing with her arms?

  08-05-2015 18:52
  
  It is one of the most recognisable representations of a woman in the history of art, but the Venus de Milo leaves one question unanswered: what exactly was she doing with her arms?
  
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• A Three-Day Show in Venice

  08-05-2015 18:35 via artnews.com
  Tomorrow, May 9, in Venice, the biennale begins its six-month run, and “Please Respond,” the latest exhibition from the itinerant gallery ML Artspace, closes. As usual with ML, which is helmed by, and named for, its two organizers, New York … Read More
  
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• Peter Downsbrough at Kunstsaele Berlin

  08-05-2015 18:30 via artnews.com
  Pictures at an Exhibition presents images of one notable show every weekday. Today’s show: “Peter Downsbrough: Time,” is currently on view at Kunstsaele in Berlin until Saturday, June 13. A pioneering conceptual artist, Downbrough presents a series of photographs and … Read More
  
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• Why Female Comic Book Superheroes Look Like Porn Stars

  08-05-2015 18:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Maybe it’s not possible to create reasonable female comic-book superheroes, since their origins are so tangled up with magazines for men. True, they’re not much more ridiculous than male superheroes. But they’re all ridiculous in the same way.”
  
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• A One Sentence Review of the Opening of Drake’s Exhibition at Sotheby’s

  08-05-2015 17:59 via artnews.com
  Things started out fine, I suppose, except for the drunk construction worker at the bar where I was meeting a friend beforehand, who mumbled “fucking faggot” at me under his breath as I walked up to the place–which was also … Read More
  
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• Study: Facebook Doesn’t Create Echo Chamber, Our Behavior Does

  08-05-2015 17:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  “In a new peer-reviewed study published today in Science, Facebook data scientists have for the first time tried to quantify how much the social network’s formula for its News Feed isolates its users from divergent opinions. According to their findings, Facebook’s own algorithms aren’t to blame. It’s us.”
  
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• Tehran’s billboards replaced with artworks - in pictures

  08-05-2015 17:37
  For 10 days, images by the likes of Pablo Picasso, René Magritte and Henri Matisse are turning the capital into a giant urban art gallery Continue reading...
  
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• Breaking the Mystique of the Mosque: Christoph Büchel’s Icelandic Pavilion Opens

  08-05-2015 17:32 via artnews.com
  In the official guidebook for the 56th Venice Biennale, which opens to the public tomorrow, the entry for Iceland’s pavilion consists of nothing more than a schedule listing prayer times for Muslims in Venice. There is no artist mentioned, and … Read More
  
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• Breaking the Mystique of the Mosque: Chrisoph Büchel’s Icelandic Pavilion Opens

  08-05-2015 17:32 via artnews.com
  In the official guidebook for the 56th Venice Biennale, which opens to the public tomorrow, the entry for Iceland’s pavilion consists of nothing more than a schedule listing prayer times for Muslims in Venice. There is no artist mentioned, and … Read More
  
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• What will happen to the arts under another Tory government?

  08-05-2015 17:26
  
  Prior to the election shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman warned that another Tory government “would continue to devalue creativity in education and would take public spending back to levels seen before the Arts Council had even been conceived of.” Well, she would, wouldn't she?
  
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• Whatever Happened To Chicago’s Big Keith Haring Mural?

  08-05-2015 17:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  “When the project ended, the media attention dissipated, the students returned to their regularly scheduled high school programming, and after a couple additional days during which he painted two more murals at Rush University Medical Center, Haring went home to New York. The Grant Park mural stood for about a week before it was dismantled—and […]
  
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• Cartoonists take on the terrorists

  08-05-2015 17:00
  
  Draw the Line Here is a collection of British cartoonists’ immediate reactions to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. The book includes 66 cartoons by Andrew Birch, Ralph Steadman, Steve Bell, Dave Brown, Martin Rowson and Peter Brook, as chosen by the Professional Cartoonists Organisation (PCO). Recurring themes include pens and pencils used as weapons and the black balaclava of the terrorist. The majority of the cartoons were drawn especially for the book, which will raise money for the vic
  
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• Artist draws controversy turning church into Venice's first mosque

  08-05-2015 16:59
  
  Local authorities and biennale organisers don’t want the project in their city, says the curator who wants to save Muslims the hour-long trip to the current mosqueIn a tranquil corner of Venice’s Cannaregio district stands a handsome church with an icing sugar white baroque facade. Its origins stretch back to the 10th century, but the last mass was celebrated here in 1967, since when, deconsecrated and in private hands, it has stood silent and unused.On 9 May, however, as the 56th Venice Bie
  
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• Ukrainian artists occupy Russian pavilion at Venice Biennale

  08-05-2015 16:55
  
  Mock occupation by activists in military uniforms mimics Russia’s military incursion into east Ukraine Mimicking the Russian military involvement in east Ukraine, a group of Ukrainian artists and activists have staged a mock-occupation of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, descending on the venue in camouflage fatigues.The artists then urged visiting tourists to take selfies wearing military uniforms they handed out.
  #Ukraine artists staged action in russia pavilion at #BiennaleArte2
  
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• Venice Biennale begins with a bang – the week in art

  08-05-2015 16:35
  
  Sarah Lucas’s smoking vaginas descend on Venice, as Peter Kennard’s subversive pacifist art takes over the Imperial War Museum and Frida Kahlo’s lost wardrobe gets opened up. Plus Grayson Perry’s Taj Mahal in Essex and Cornelia Parker remakes the Magna Carta – in your weekly dispatchPeter Kennard
  Britain’s unofficial war artist has been making pacifist art for decades, turning Constable’s Hay Wain into a CND protest image and more recently creating Tony Blair’s Iraq War selfie. G
  
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• Sir Antony Gormley interview: 'I don’t have any choice over this: it's what I was born to do'

  08-05-2015 16:33
  
  Sir Antony Gormley, 64, is lying on his back on the smooth concrete floor of his studio and is swinging his long legs from side to side. Paint-spattered trousers, red socks, hiking boots, all cutting a lanky, alarming swathe through the air.
  
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• Does Tory UK Election Win Mean Disaster For The Arts?

  08-05-2015 16:03 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Proposals for further enormous cuts that have more to do with ideology than necessity, combined with the Conservatives’ politically desperate promises not to destroy the NHS or education, mean the cultural sector will effectively be demolished by a second Cameron government.”
  
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• Why Is It So Difficult To Make A Good Film About Writing?

  08-05-2015 16:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  “One of the main problems with films about writers is that the films are too often very inarticulate when talking about books.”
  
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• Morning Links: #GuggOccupied Edition

  08-05-2015 15:52 via artnews.com
  Whitney curators talk about their decision to include 5 anti-lynching prints in the museum’s inaugural show, “America is Hard to See.” [SEEN] Linda Nochlin, author of ARTnews’ famous 1971 feature “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” will speak … Read More
  
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• Art And The Cherished American Right To Do Something Stupid

  08-05-2015 15:50 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Congress has made no law abridging the right of free speech for this or any of the other hack artists. The show itself was proof enough of that. But neither is there a law that requires liking their cheap propaganda.”
  
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• Nepal's national art collection at risk in building damaged by earthquake

  08-05-2015 15:40
  
  Academy of Fine Arts building in Kathmandu reported to be in danger of collapse and contains 700 paintings, some of which date back to the time of Buddha
  Nepal’s permanent national art collection is trapped inside a building that is in danger of collapse at any time, its chancellor said on Friday. The Academy of Fine Arts, a neoclassical building in Kathmandu dating from the 1930s, was critically damaged during the earthquake and Ragini Upadhyay, its chancellor, said a vital part of the countr
  
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• Can Silicon Valley Build Better Schools?

  08-05-2015 15:35 via feedproxy.google.com
  While “information technology has vastly expanded access to information, a major challenge remains: How do you figure out what kind of information each child needs, when, and in what way? Not surprisingly, Silicon Valley is home to an unusual number of schools devoted to solving this problem.”
  
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• LA School District’s Ambitious Technology Bet – And How It Failed

  08-05-2015 15:34 via feedproxy.google.com
  “If one of the country’s largest school districts, one of the world’s largest tech companies, and one of the most established brands in education can’t make it work, can anyone?”
  
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• How Dance Lives In Iran Through YouTube

  08-05-2015 15:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  “A new film set in Iran celebrates freedom of expression through rhythm. Desert Dancer tells the true story of a group of friends who studied YouTube videos for tips on technique in a country where dancing in public is banned.”
  
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• Opera Australia Squeeze: Bigger Audiences But Not Enough Money

  08-05-2015 15:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Even as audiences grew, the company’s decisions to hold ticket prices relatively stable and offer discounts and packages meant the total box office of $67.4 million was lower than expected.”
  
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• When Big Architectural Firms Get Too Big

  08-05-2015 14:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Though small firms long for the workload stability that large firms can achieve, the management of the multiplicity of talent spread globally can be extraordinarily difficult. A large firm can form a 100-person team of engineers and architects for an infra-structure project in Hong Kong, but day-to-day it finds it has too many mechanical engineers […]
  
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• The restoration game: painting revealed as genuine Titian

  08-05-2015 13:00
  
  English Heritage conservator uncovers artist’s signature on painting known as Titian’s Mistress in Duke of Wellington’s collection at Apsley House
  It was a heart-stopping moment when the conservator Alice Tate-Harte gently cleaned off centuries of thick black paint and grime and uncovered square Roman letters spelling out the name TITIANUS. The reputation of the bare-breasted young woman in the painting was instantly transformed: she has turned out to be a genuine work by one of the most r
  
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• Sketches of VE Day from 70 years ago

  08-05-2015 12:22
  Janet Smith Salabelle and Desmond Knox-Leet were in their early 20s on the day the second world war ended in Europe. They had both been art students before the war and went on to have renowned careers after; Desmond co-founded the perfume business, Dyptique in Paris and Janet became a respected yoga teacher in Cambridge. They were lifelong friends. This is their account of that momentous day 70 years ago – in sketchesYou can see more VE Day contributions or share your own on GuardianWitnessCon
  
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• The LA street artist who sees beauty in the cracks of our cities

  08-05-2015 11:52
  
  Paige Smith’s Urban Geode street-art project brings a hint of the magical to derelict corners of Los Angeles, and – with a network of fans worldwide – her crystalline forms are spreadingDown a narrow alley between two brick buildings in a Los Angeles warehouse district – now an expensive loft neighbourhood – in the small corner of a ground floor window filled in with concrete, a small plastic growth spreads out from the sill. Like sculpted globs of clear ice, the crystalline shapes spi
  
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• Cincinnati Symphony Gets New Contract That Expands (!) Orchestra

  08-05-2015 10:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  “The orchestra announced Thursday that a successful fund-raising campaign, and a new contract that it reached with its musicians, would allow it to hire 14 more full-time players over the next four years, expanding the size of the ensemble to 90 as other orchestras around the country, from Philadelphia to Atlanta, have shed positions to […]
  
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• Henry Moore Foundation To Artist: Do Not Use Moore’s Work To Make A Political Statement – Not Even In Photoshop Mockups

  08-05-2015 10:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Three years ago, Kansas City-based artist A. Bitterman proposed moving a vacant, dilapidated house, located in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, to the lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum … In place of the house, Bitterman suggested, the museum should install its prized Henry Moore sculpture Sheep Piece (1971–72). The house and the Moore lie […]
  
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• Boston Unveils an Enormous, Rainbow-Colored Spiderweb

  08-05-2015 10:44 via feedproxy.google.com
  “The untitled piece hangs above the Rose Kennedy Greenway and was made by local artist Janet Echelman … Though it appears lightweight, the 600-foot-wide entanglement weighs 2,000 pounds and required 100 miles of rope and a half-million knots.”
  
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• East, West, Home’s Best: At China’s Pavilion, and the Collaboration Between India and Pakistan

  08-05-2015 10:37 via artnews.com
  While the Venice Biennale is over 100 years old, participation in this global event is strictly a 21st-century development for many of the countries now here, including China and India. China only had its first official pavilion in 2003, and India last participated in … Read More
  
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• Producers Turn To Indiegogo To Finance Completion Of Orson Welles’s Last Film

  08-05-2015 10:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Add a few more twists to the decades-long quest to release The Other Side of the Wind, the unfinished final film of Orson Welles.” Says Peter Bogdanovich, one of the film’s stars, “I think it would amuse Orson to have the fans able to contribute to the completion of the film. As you know, he […]
  
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• At Venice Biennale, A Historic Church Becomes A Real Working Mosque

  08-05-2015 10:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  On Friday, the old Santa Maria della Misericordia “will open its doors as a functioning mosque, its Baroque walls adorned with Arabic script, its floor covered with a prayer rug angled toward Mecca and its crucifix mosaics hidden behind a towering mihrab, or prayer niche.” The project constitutes all of Iceland’s pavilion, and it has […]
  
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• The Chinese Art Of The Choreographed Crowd

  08-05-2015 10:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  No country, not even North Korea, is better than China at staging precise movements by huge numbers of people. “Whether the subject is military parades or world-record attempts, mass exercises or enormous performances, the images are frequently remarkable. … (Note: a few of these images can create a dizzying effect when viewed while scrolling, which […]
  
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• Jerry Saltz Shares A Dozen Stories Of Sex In Museums

  08-05-2015 10:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Museums are incredibly sexy spaces to me, but I have never had sex in a museum. Over the years, though, I’ve heard from those who have. … So I asked people on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram if they’d send their stories or reports of sex in the museums. Here’s just a few of the stories […]
  
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• Frances Stark, Mark Godfrey Win the 2015 Absolut Art Award

  08-05-2015 10:00 via artnews.com
  The 2015 Absolut Art Award has been given to Frances Stark (in the category of art work) and Mark Godfrey (in the category of art writing). Stark will receive a £20,000 ($30,500) stipend, as well as £100,000 ($152,600) towards the … Read More
  
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• The Two Dancing Men Blazing Across The Broadway Stage

  08-05-2015 09:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Alastair Macaulay: “Both men are playing roles associated, in the film versions of these shows, with Gene Kelly; neither suffers from the comparison with that Hollywood legend. And each gives the most remarkable performance in his musical.”
  
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• Why It’s No Good Blacklisting Theater Critics From Shows (According To A Theater Critic)

  08-05-2015 09:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  Lyn Gardner: “While the producers of any show may argue that as it’s their party, they can invite whoever they want, the principle of extending invitations across the board to established newspapers and reviewing outlets is a sound one. Trying to exclude particular reviewers is not – if for no other reason that it makes […]
  
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• Banning A Critic From A Show Never Works Anyway (Says Another Theater Critic)

  08-05-2015 09:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  Mark Shenton allows as how a banned critic will probably get to see the show somehow and write about it anyway.
  
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• Lost Songs From “My Fair Lady” To Be Performed For First Time Since 1956

  08-05-2015 09:34 via feedproxy.google.com
  “The numbers were removed from the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical after the show’s first preview in February 1956 on Broadway. They were discovered, alongside a ballet penned for the musical, in boxes at the Library of Congress.”
  
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• Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project To Play Cannes Festival

  08-05-2015 09:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  “When the luminaries of world cinema convene at the Palais des Festivals next week to open the annual Cannes Film Festival, they will be treated to a performance by a dance company from Los Angeles.”
  
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• Boris Charmatz's Tate Modern takeover gets tourists dancing

  08-05-2015 09:00
  
  The French choreographer will lead 100 dancers in a weekend of participatory performances among the paintings – this exhibition really will move youTate Modern is to be transformed into a Musée de la danse, as the French choreographer Boris Charmatz and a company of 100 dancers will place London’s cathedral of modern art under temporary occupation next weekend, 15-16 May.Under Charmatz’s direction, the cavernous space of the Turbine Hall will become a venue for classes, workshops an
  
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• Why Militant Atheists Who Insist We Choose Science Over God Are Doing It Wrong

  08-05-2015 08:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Does God have to be part of our understanding of the universe? No. But if scientists tell the public that they have to choose between God and science, most people will choose God … Meanwhile, many of those who choose science find themselves without any way of thinking that can give them access to their […]
  
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