Arts news

• Lee Kit at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

  08-06-2016 23:43 via artnews.com
  Pictures at an Exhibition presents images of one notable show every weekday.Read More
  
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• First Time In 70 Years: Edinburgh Festival Offers Fewer Shows

  08-06-2016 23:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “The 1.3 per cent drop is also mirrored in a six per cent slide in the number of Fringe venues this summer, when the event will go head-to-head with the Rio Olympics. Fringe organisers said the drop in the number of shows was down to a number of site-specific venues not reappearing this year and a decision not to include events in its own headquarters.”
  
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• What is art for? Science shows it’s in the eye—and brain—of the beholder

  08-06-2016 23:00
  
  The text below is an edited transcript of Eric Kandel’s presentation at The Art Newspaper’s 25th anniversary celebrations, hosted at the Museum of Modern Art in New York last month and sponsored by Volkswagen. Kandel was among the speakers invited to investigate the subject What is Art For? Videos of the different speakers—Eric Kandel, a Nobel Prize-winning neuro-psychiatrist, James Davis of the Google Cultural Institute, J. Tomilson (“Tom”) Hill III, the collector
  
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• The ICA’s grand and grungy 70th birthday extravaganza

  08-06-2016 23:00
  
  The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London celebrated its 70th birthday in both grand and grungy style last night (8 June). The bifurcated gala dinner found half the guests overlooking the Mall to the sound of a string quartet in the high-end, West End-themed Nash Room, with the rest getting down and dirty out back to a throbbing disco in the East End-styled Brandon Room. Hosting the West-Enders was the impeccably-credentialed, former Christie’s director (and half brother to Prime
  
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• The Greeks in Egypt: on Sunken Cities at the British Museum

  08-06-2016 23:00
  
  Two thousand years ago, Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus, two cities on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, were thriving cultural melting pots. Traders from the Greek world and the Levant flowed into the cities' ports with goods, ideas and religious beliefs. The Egyptian god Osiris, king of the blessed dead, was celebrated along with the wine-loving Greek god Dionysus, among many other deities. In both cities, as elsewhere in Egypt since the 650s BC, Egyptian and Greek cultures slowly fused, an evolutio
  
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• Smuggled out of East Germany, now in New York

  08-06-2016 23:00
  The current exhibition includes more than 20 paintings and sculptures the artist made in Dresden during the 1960s and early 1970s, when the political circumstances in the then-German Democratic Republic “kept most contemporary works of art underground”, says Gordon VeneKlasen, the director of the gallery who organised the show.
  “Most of his early work was inspired by the art books that he saw, which, like his own works, were smuggled between the Eastern and Western Blocs&rdquo
  
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• Revealed: how altarpiece broke in disastrous fall at London's National Gallery

  08-06-2016 23:00
  
  The Art Newspaper has learned that a 14th-century Italian altarpiece from the National Gallery in London fell and broke in two in 1989. According to recently published trustees’ minutes from the time, the gallery’s then-director, Neil MacGregor, told the board that it was “probably the most serious non-malicious damage in the gallery’s history, [and] particularly regrettable as the altarpiece had one of the very few original 14th-century frames surviving”.At the ti
  
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• British doubts over Joan of Arc’s ring

  08-06-2016 23:00
  
  The Joan of Arc ring, which was temporarily taken out of the UK in March before an export licence was applied for, may not have belonged to the saint. After being taken to France by its new owner without proper documentation, it was quietly returned to London after pressure was exerted by the British authorities, The Art Newspaper has learned. An export licence was then applied for and was quickly granted, on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence that the ring had really once belonge
  
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• A sickly flower of Decadent London: on the work of Aubrey Beardsley

  08-06-2016 23:00
  
  During his short career, the English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98) gained a formidable reputation as an unwholesome genius – a brilliantly original draughtsman intent on corrupting and scandalising. He should be a peripheral figure working in a minor medium (illustration) on the fringes of art movements that were stronger in applied art than in fine art, yet Beardsley’s art is not only unforgettable, it is the defining graphic manifestation of Aestheticism, Decadent art and
  
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• A Rotten Tomatoes For Books

  08-06-2016 23:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Book Marks will showcase critics from the most important and active outlets of literary journalism in America, aggregating reviews from over 70 sources – newspapers, magazines, and websites – and averaging them into a letter grade, as well as linking back to their source.”
  
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• An Orchestra Bassist Explains What Most Conductors Don’t Understand About The Bass

  08-06-2016 22:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “From my own experiments I am convinced that small double basses sound louder and carry further than large ones, without any lessening of the depth and warmth of sonic production. Because conductors face the stage, they often misjudge the sonic projection of the double bass as heard by the audience, and therefore favour large instruments.”
  
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• This Is One Crazy-Ass Linguistic Analysis

  08-06-2016 22:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Let’s face it, there is no depth to which linguists will not sink in their hunt for the oddities of language. … Just to emphasize, yes, there are actual serious-ass, um, analyses about the word ass.”
  
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• Why Curators? We’ve Become Irrelevant And Self-Delusional

  08-06-2016 21:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Once as curators we were preaching to the converted. Whoever dared to say that an empty shoe box in a museum was a joke was considered an imbecile. Today if you are not able as a curator to articulate in a comprehensible language why the shoe box is a masterpiece YOU are the imbecile. So I don’t think it is the fault of the audience if they reject certain obscure encrypted exhibitions or works of art.”
  
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• The Diary of Mark Flood, Part Three: Attack of the Drones

  08-06-2016 21:23 via artnews.com
  Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in a multipart series about Mark Flood’s experience organizing his first museum survey. You can read the other parts here and here. The diary is slightly backdated because, as mentioned, he was busy organizing … Read More
  
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• Olafur Eliasson Installs A Giant Waterfall At Versailles

  08-06-2016 21:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “A towering waterfall appears to fall from midair into the Grand Canal at the Palace of Versailles as part of Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson’s latest exhibition. Cascading from high above the surface of the pool, the Waterfall installation appears as a torrent of water of with no discernible source when viewed from the front steps of the palace.”
  
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• I Gave Up TV For A Month. It Changed Me.

  08-06-2016 20:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  While week one was filled with fighting the urge to turn on the TV and brainstorming other activities, weeks two and three were when things started to change for me physically and mentally. Most notably, I felt less stressed. A lot of the programs we used to watch, like Dateline or 48 Hours Mystery, had elements of suspense, drama, and violence. Had this stuff been rubbing off on me?
  
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• Venus Over Manhattan Names Anna Furney Partner

  08-06-2016 20:18 via artnews.com
  Venus, the gallery founded in 2012 by collector Adam Lindemann, announced today that gallery director Anna Furney has been made a partner. Furney has been with the gallery since March 2012, when Lindemann opened its original space in Manhattan. The gallery has hosted … Read More
  
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• One Of Television’s First Pop Stars, A Piano-Playing Indian Pandit, Was Really A Black Guy From Missouri

  08-06-2016 20:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “According to press releases from the time, [Korla Pandit] was born in New Delhi, India, the son of a Brahmin government worker and a French opera singer. … Not once in 900 performances did he speak on camera, preferring instead to communicate with viewers via that hypnotic gaze. … The way he came to fame is one of those only-in-America fables where the audience and the performer are both invested in the illusion.”
  
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• Rambert Dance At 90

  08-06-2016 19:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “The vast majority of contemporary dance groups operate within their own present moment, developing individual styles and audiences; thanks to the drive and spirit of Marie Rambert, this company has deeper roots; plus some of the world’s best dancers. It’s always surprising to me how many people recognise the Rambert name. If there’s a national brand in British contemporary dance, this is surely it.”
  
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• Creative Time Extends Duke Riley’s ‘Fly By Night’

  08-06-2016 19:00 via artnews.com
  Creative Time and the Brooklyn Navy Yard have announced that they will be extending Duke Riley’s performance involving pigeons, Fly By Night, through June 19. The project, which has been sold out since it opened and currently has a waitlist of 40,000 people, … Read More
  
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• All The Coins People Toss Into Fountains – Where Do They End Up?

  08-06-2016 19:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Turns out the answer is different in different places – and, with one famous exception, less change gets collected than you might think.
  
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• 'Poor art' pioneer Michelangelo Pistoletto set for Bleinheim Palace show

  08-06-2016 18:48
  
  Italian artist will bring work including his Venus of the Rags sculpture to the World Heritage site in September, following in footsteps of Ai WeiweiAn Italian artist acclaimed as a founding father of 1960s Arte Povera – the “poor art” movement that only used worthless everyday materials – will be next to colonise the stupendously grand halls of Blenheim Palace. Related: Portrait of the artist: Michelangelo Pistoletto, artistContinue reading...
  
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• Actual Revolution: Chelsea’s Jack Shainman Gallery Transforms Into Headquarters for an Artist-Run Super PAC

  08-06-2016 18:44 via artnews.com
  Last night, as primary polls in New Jersey were getting ready to close, a woman at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York decided she was going to taste something called White Tears, a product bottled by the People’s Kitchen Collective, … Read More
  
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• Russian political artist Pyotr Pavlensky released from custody with $15,000 fine

  08-06-2016 18:34
  
  A Moscow court has ordered political performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky to pay nearly 1m rubles (about $15,400) for setting fire to the door of the Federal Security Service (FSB) headquarters in a performance called Threat last November. Pavlensky was released from custody on Wednesday, 8 June, and given a fine of 500,000 rubles for damaging a “cultural heritage” site and 481,000 for the cost of replacing the door—but the artist told reporters he refused to pay.“Of cours
  
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• An Artistic Director Is Fired. Now He Wonders Who Owns His Work

  08-06-2016 18:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  I was told that “the company is going in a different direction” and that “I didn’t have the qualifications or the time” to continue in my role as artistic director. When I asked what the new direction was or how it pertained to the company’s new mission statement that I recently wrote, I was told I “couldn’t be privy to that information.”
  
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• ‘Everything In Moderation’ Is Actually Useless Advice

  08-06-2016 18:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “It’s an instruction so vague as to be fundamentally unhelpful. And in the absence of any standard measure, we’re each left to our own devices to figure out what moderation actually means. Which isn’t really a great strategy.”
  
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• Orchestra Proposes Selling Its Rare Viola To Balance Its Books

  08-06-2016 17:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “According to sources at the TSO, one of Canada’s oldest and largest musical institutions expects to post a $4-million-to-$6-million deficit for the current financial year, which ends on June 30, due to higher-than-expected spending on programs and administration.”
  
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• MOCAD Receives $100,000 Matching Grant in Support of Mike Kelley’s ‘Mobile Homestead’

  08-06-2016 17:17 via artnews.com
  The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts announced this morning that the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit has received a $100,000 matching grant in support of its programming at Mike Kelley’s Mobile Homestead. The money will be provided over a period of … Read More
  
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• Meet A Crew Of New York City Subway Dancers

  08-06-2016 17:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Who are these dancers scraping by on their earnings? A new, short cinéma vérité documentary, We Live This, shines a light on the world of one crew, whose four young members perform on the J train. They are talented, hardworking, committed, and full of dreams, the film shows. But for some, the obstacles are high, and the alternatives slim.” (video)
  
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• Women Cinematographers Of The World, Unite!

  08-06-2016 16:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Cinematographers XX, whose website went up in February, is one of several new efforts among professionals in the industry to correct its gender inequity. The International Collective of Female Cinematographers, a networking and resource site that went live in April, is another. It was formed, a spokeswoman said, ‘out of the desire to get rid of the singular excuse we hear so often: ‘There just aren’t enough female D.P.s.””
  
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• 'This is not America': a Chilean artist's newly electric message to Trump

  08-06-2016 16:29
  
  Alfredo Jaar’s inflammatory billboard Logo for America lit up Times Square years ago. Now it will be installed in Piccadilly Circus – and it couldn’t be more urgent“This Is Not America” declare the yellow neon letters transposed on to a glowing outline map of the United States. “This Is Not America’s Flag” reads a following pixellated sentence, as the image changes to the stars and stripes. The Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar’s billboard, named A
  
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• Harold Cohen obituary

  08-06-2016 16:18
  
  My colleague Harold Cohen, who has died aged 87, was a computer art pioneer and developer of the popular Aaron program.He was born in London, the son of Victor and Leah Cohen, who ran a general store and expected Harold to enter the family business. His passion, however, saw him enrol at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he obtained a diploma in 1951. He then spent a year on a fellowship in Rome and came back to Britain to teach at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts in London a
  
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• A ‘Hamilton’ Film Could Resurrect The Entire Movie Musical Genre

  08-06-2016 16:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “As long as Hollywood doesn’t see Hamilton as ‘what gimmick can we glean to slap on other projects for money’ … but takes risks for the audience to enjoy, then we could start to see movie musicals marching back toward their live action origins. Book of Mormon, Next to Normal, and many other musicals not even created yet could be the revitalization of the genre – but Hamilton is the linchpin.” (Lin-Manuel Miranda may beg to differ.)
  
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• Disney’s Doing Three Different Stage Versions Of ‘Frozen’

  08-06-2016 15:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Keeping all the efforts untangled can be challenging. Is the theme park show a miniversion of the Broadway one? What about the Disney Cruise Line production? Here’s what we know about the live-performance versions of Frozen underway.”
  
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• ‘An Untenable Situation’: Cleveland Opera Theater’s Founding Director Steps Down

  08-06-2016 15:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Citing the creation of an environment at the company in which it would be ‘impossible for me to continue,’ the soprano [Andrea Anelli] this week announced that she had stepped down from the troupe she launched in 2006 as Opera Per Tutti.”
  
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• Alex Katz: Quick Light review – a bright burst of life in freeze-frame

  08-06-2016 15:07
  
  Serpentine Gallery, London
  His huge colourful canvases may look painfully simple, but the pain is in knowing no one but Katz could create work this lucid, direct and movingEmma in a black swimsuit, painted six times against the yellow ground, her arms going here and there, her feet splayed as if she is a dancer posing on a beach. Vivien, also painted six times, not quite sure what to do with her hands, her sandals firmly planted on a ground that’s more orange in hue. Grey shirt, black slac
  
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• Orchestra Musicians Vote Three-To-One Against Renewing Chief Conductor’s Contract

  08-06-2016 15:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  As part of a larger survey distributed by management, the musicians of the Orquestra de València were asked, “Are you in favor, once his current contract expires, that a vote of confidence should be renewed and [Yaron Traub] should continue as conductor of the OV?” Well …(in Spanish; Google Translate version here)
  
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• The What-Classical-Music-Needs-To-Change List To End All What-Classical-Music-Needs-To-Change Lists

  08-06-2016 14:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  It seems the classical web has acquired its own version of The Onion and Clickhole.
  
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• ‘Both Solid Box And Blob’: Bjarke Ingels’s 2016 Serpentine Pavilion

  08-06-2016 14:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Viewed side-on, the pavilion is rectangular. But when seen from the front or at an angle, its curving silhouette is revealed. It also changes from opaque to see-through, depending on the viewing angle.”
  
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• Serpentine Gallery Erects Four ‘Summer Houses’ To Accompany Pavilion

  08-06-2016 14:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Architects Kunlé Adeyemi, Asif Khan, Yona Friedman and Barkow Leibinger … have created structures to reference Queen Caroline’s Temple in Kensington Gardens, designed by architect William Kent in the early 18th century.”
  
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• Meryl Streep Does Donald Trump Even Better Than She Did Margaret Thatcher

  08-06-2016 14:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “She may have already played inspiring political figures like Margaret Thatcher and Emmeline Pankhurst on the big screen, but let’s face it: this is the role of a lifetime. At New York’s Shakespeare in the Park gala on Monday night, Meryl became the Donald.” (includes video clips)
  
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• Morning Links: Muhammad Ali Edition

  08-06-2016 13:51 via artnews.com
  Must-read stories from around the world Read More
  
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• Orlando Ballet And Philharmonic Hire New CEOs

  08-06-2016 13:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Caroline Miller “becomes the ballet’s seventh leader in five years. The leadership turmoil has been accompanied by significant financial struggles, even as the ballet seeks to raise millions for a new headquarters.” Christopher Barton “replaces veteran leader David Schillhammer, the only executive director the Philharmonic has ever known. The Phil has an unblemished record of balancing its budget but is in the midst of a large fundraising campaign to renovate its new home
  
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• Russian court frees radical performance artist Petr Pavlensky

  08-06-2016 13:33
  
  Judge hands down unexpectedly lenient sentence to performer who set fire to Moscow’s security service HQA Moscow court has freed Russia’s most notorious performance artist, who was jailed for setting fire to the headquarters of Russia’s security services last year. The court fined Petr Pavlensky just 500,000 roubles (£5,319) for damaging the cultural site and ordered him to pay a further 481,000 roubles to compensate for the cost of repairs.Pavlensky is free pic.twitter.c
  
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• Gyula Kosice, Pioneer Of Kinetic Art, Dead At 92

  08-06-2016 13:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “Always at the forefront in plastic and sculptural movements, Kosice was the first artist to ever use water and neon gas as part of an artwork in 1946. … Among his most impressive pieces, Kosice was the creator of hydraulic sculptures which used water and light as their fundamental elements.”
  
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• Francis Crick portrait unveiled to honour breakthrough DNA work

  08-06-2016 13:11
  
  Posthumous painting by artist Robert Ballagh celebrates scientist who, along with James Watson, made pioneering discovery A posthumous portrait of the scientist Francis Crick, commissioned by James Watson, with whom he famously discovered the structure of DNA in 1953, has been revealed on Wednesday, the day that would have been his 100th birthday.The portrait by the Irish artist Robert Ballagh, who has previously painted Watson, will hang in the Francis Crick Institute, a new science centre name
  
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• New Christo art installation 'The Floating Piers' nears completion in Italy

  08-06-2016 12:27
  
  People will be able to 'walk on water' for 3km free of charge as 150 volunteers watch over safety
  
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• Arte povera founder Michelangelo Pistoletto is latest artist to show at Blenheim Palace

  08-06-2016 12:14
  
  Michelangelo Pistoletto, one of the founders of arte povera who made a name creating art out of cheap everyday materials, will have an exhibition in the opulent setting of Blenheim Palace in September. The 82-year-old Italian is the third contemporary artist to be given a show at the palace, seat of the dukes of Marlborough and one of Europe’s great secular buildings.
  The English Baroque style of architecture may not be altogether at odds with Pistoletto: he grew up surrounded by Renaissa
  
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• We're living in a pimp state

  08-06-2016 12:10
  
  In her controversial new book, Kat Banyard claims that the sex trade – increasingly tolerated and regulated by governments – is inherently sexist
  
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