Arts news

• This Weekend's Top AJBlog Posts 12.04.16

  04-12-2016 22:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  Two for One Dylan Crossman Dans(c)e shares a program with Caleb Teicher & Company at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center... read more
  AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-12-04This Week In Audience: Are Our Common Cultural Experiences Suffering Because Of High Ticket Prices? This Week: A relation between common experiences and ticket prices?… Some clues about why arts audiences in Canada have declined over 20 years… Netflix taxes reflect changing culture
  
  Read more

• This Week’s Top ArtsJournal Reads: An Artist Identity Crisis?

  04-12-2016 22:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  This Week: The next wave of arts journalism layoffs begins… Lots of debate about the role of artists in the Trump era… Prominent Canadian artists petition the government to “fix” support for creativity… It’s getting harder to define what “home” is… Is “mindfulness” overrated?
  
  Read more

• Young blood for Old Masters

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  Analysts are often quick to label Old Masters a dying branch of the art market, blaming generational changes in taste, a shrinking pool of dedicated collectors and the rarity of top-quality works for this perceived decline.
  However, recent dealer activity in Londons traditional Old Master strongholds of Mayfair and St Jamess seems to suggest that the narrative is one of adaptation and change, rather than decline.Johnny Van Haeften, the stalwart Dutch Old Masters specialist, is closing his galle
  
  Read more

• Why playing a Sumerian goddess is a real drag

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  Take Britains first out Muslim drag queen, throw in an ancient myth and add a bit of art: the result is a new show of works (until 13 December) by the UK artist Claire Hooper at Plymouth College of Art. Hooper interprets the Sumerian myth of the goddess Inanna descending to the underworld, encompassing a short film featuring Asifa Lahorethe drag queen in questionin the title role. Lahore says: This idea of Inanna wearing a wig, of shedding layers as she gets deeper into the underworld: these ar
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• What next for culture after a seismic year?

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  The year began with Iran and the West tentatively resuming cultural relations after the nuclear deal brokered by US President Barack Obama; the Belgian artist Wim Delvoye was quick to make a splash in Tehran with a solo show. It ended with works of Modern art from Tehran due to arrive in Berlin as we went to press. But the possibility that the works by Pollock, Rothko and Bacon, among others, bought before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, would one day come to Washington, DC, receded with the electi
  
  Read more

• The year in the art market: instability rules

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  The art market has not had an easy year. Auction houses have adjusted their strategies while buyers are shying away from speculation and looking for secure investments. Meanwhile, online art trading platforms are pushing for a bigger share of the market. Here are the top trends and stories of the year.Sales slumpSales totals were markedly down on last year, when auctions fetched sky-high results that many in the trade saw as unsustainable. Turbulent financial markets, a fall in oil prices and p
  
  Read more

• The year in museums: the building boom and the expanding canon

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  In an exclusive report in the April issue, The Art Newspaper reported that in the US alone close to $5bn had been spent on museum expansions between 2007 and 2014. Worldwide, we calculated an $8.9bn outlay by 75 museums in that period, which coincided with a devastating and prolonged global recession. That boom goes on: 2016 saw numerous landmark buildings open or re-open their doors. In the US, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) opened its rippling, gleaming white $305m exten
  
  Read more

• The year in heritage: digital scanning promises a brave new world

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  Earlier this year, archaeologists (as well as every 40-year-old whose childhood dream was to be the next Indiana Jones) were thrown into wild excitement when radar scans revealed that Tutankhamuns tomb may contain a secret chamber. The discovery gave credence to a theory that Nefertitithe chief consort of Tutankhamuns fatheris buried in the concealed room. Although a follow-up examination drew contradictory conclusions that require further tests, investigations that could lead to the discovery
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The year in art: uncertain times

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  Perhaps the most apt exhibition title of the year was that given by Jochen Volz to his So Paulo biennial: Live Uncertainty. These are indeed uncertain times geopolitically, not least in Brazil, but also in terms of the direction of art. While the Venice Biennale of 2013 prompted noticeable shifts, including a greater attention to so-called Outsider Art, the ripples of the 2015 edition have been less noticeable, perhaps because Okwui Enwezors politically dominated show had arguably been anticipa
  
  Read more

• Slings and arrows: the outrageous fortunes of the art world in 2016

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  Good yearTehran Museum of Contemporary Art
  Iran began to flex its cultural diplomatic muscles this year. Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) is sending around 60 works by Western and Iranian artists, including paintings by Rothko, Pollock and Bacon, to Berlin, and then to Romes MaXXI. In Tehran, the museum hosted a solo show of Wim Delvoyes new work, including pieces made in Iran, and a group show of Arab Modern art lent by the Barjeel Art Foundation. J.P.Ragnar Kjartansson
  The Icelandic
  
  Read more

• On the list

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  As the debate continues about the place of identity politics in the 2016 United States presidential election, the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles is showing portraits shot by the filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders that explore the meaning of different forms of identitysexuality, race, gender, ethnicity, classas well as the diversity of individuals within groups. Identity: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders the List Portraits (until 26 February) includes 151 large-format photographs from
  
  Read more

• Leading figures’ highlights and lowlights of 2016

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  Gabriele Finaldi 
  Director, National Gallery, LondonAmong the highs were the amazing achievement of the opening of the new extension to Tate Modern, Team GBs success at the Olympics, the Bowes Museum acquiring Boutss Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin and Child, huge numbers of visitors at the Bosch centenary exhibitions in Holland and Spain. And there is much to look forward to in 2017: Hull as UK City of Culture and Michelangelo and Sebastiano at the National Gallery, among other things. Howe
  
  Read more

• A year of wonder or an annus horribilis?

  04-12-2016 22:00
  
  A GOOD YEAR FORRagnar Kjartansson
  The Icelandic artist wowed visitors at the Barbican gallery in London and the Hirshhorn in Washington, DC, and had a similarly acclaimed show at Copenhagen Contemporary. He was also awarded the annual honorary City Artist award in his native Reykjavik, Iceland. B.L.
  Almine Rech
  The Belgian dealer with a stable of heavy-hitters (Koons, Prince, Turrell) added a second London space in Mayfair and hung out a shingle in New York with a splashy Calder/Picasso show, b
  
  Read more

• This Week In Audience: Are Our Common Cultural Experiences Suffering Because Of High Ticket Prices?

  04-12-2016 21:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  This Week: A relation between common experiences and ticket prices?... Some clues about why arts audiences in Canada have declined over 20 years... Netflix taxes reflect changing culture... Does culture have to have social or political relevance?
  
  Read more

• Do These Photos Show A Glimpse Of Gauguin In Tahiti?

  04-12-2016 18:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  Maybe. "If these two photographs are actually of Paul Gauguin, then they tell us a great deal about his state of mind and his social entourage during the summer of that year."
  
  Read more

• The Tale Of An Actor Who Looks Like The Vice-President-Elect

  04-12-2016 18:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  Howard Sherman tracks down the actor playing "Mike Hot-Pence" - and raising money for Planned Parenthood - in Times Square: "I decided to have some fun with it and dress as 'Sexy Mike Pence.' Once I decided on jacket and tie for the top half and short shorts for the bottom half, the 'Hot-Pence' moniker popped into my head."
  
  Read more

• William Christenberry obituary

  04-12-2016 17:41
  
  Photographer and artist who chronicled the changing face of rural AlabamaWilliam Christenberry, who has died aged 80, was a pioneer of American colour photography. His richly hued images of the vernacular architecture of the deep south – wooden churches, shacks and dilapidated houses – were all made in Hale County, Alabama, south of close to the city of Tuscaloosa, where Christenberry was born and raised. Their cumulative power comes from the strong sense of place they evoke, as well
  
  Read more

• Why Don't We Have More Famous Black Sci-Fi Writers?

  04-12-2016 17:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  Double problems: The U.S. literary fiction establishment's problems with genre, and the genre's racism. "The space for black authors in speculative fiction is continually being built, while the existence of those very spaces is still being challenged by their gatekeepers."
  
  Read more

• What Images Of Flowers Have To Do With International Politics (And, How To Recover Your Art When You're In Shock)

  04-12-2016 17:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  Teju Cole takes note of Taryn Simon's work, and makes marching orders for our time: "We don’t turn to history because it is demonstrably relevant, and we don’t look at art only because it is monumental or beautiful."
  
  Read more

• If Julian Barnes Can Admit He Was Wrong About E.M. Forster, We All Have Hope For Re-evaluating Books (And Writers)

  04-12-2016 16:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  Barnes thought Forster was stuffy and boring, and perhaps a little straitlaced. Then he read an anthology of English food writing. "Where was that fusty, musty, dusty writer I had imagined Forster to be? Nowhere at all."
  
  Read more

• The New Coolest Thing Online

  04-12-2016 16:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  'Mom' is now the highest form of flattery. Witness one Twitter response to a photo of Beyoncé with her daughter: "Beyoncé just ENDED your moms, moms mom, moms mom’s cousin, your moms mom’s cousin’s friend, and your moms mom’s cousin’s friends dog."
  
  Read more

• Katie Holmes On Being A Director - And How To Make That Happen For More Women

  04-12-2016 16:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  The interviewer asks Holmes if the producers of a Jackie Kennedy Onassis miniseries simply asked her to direct one episode. Holmes, who also just directed a feature film: "Well no, I told them I wanted to. I said, 'You’ve got to give me one episode.' We gotta speak up ... and get what we want, because no one’s going to give it to us."
  
  Read more

• What's so bad about taking sponsorship money from Big Oil?

  04-12-2016 16:00
  
  Banks and oil giants should keep out of temples of culture, shouldn’t they? Andrew Dickson thought so – until he made a documentary about sponsorship and the increasingly desperate search for funding
  Even if you didn’t glimpse the BP-branded sea monster that invaded the British Museum during a protest in September, and managed to avoid a naked man being slathered with oil at Tate Britain, you’re unlikely to have missed the bitter guerrilla war raging between Big Oil and s
  
  Read more

• What Art Will Make A Comeback In The 21st Century?

  04-12-2016 16:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  Painting, of course. Jonathan Jones says: "Maybe, after years of being told by po-faced curators that we 'should' revere video art and various live interactive post-artistic phenomena, we just wanna have fun."
  
  Read more

• A 360-Degree Video Of Anna Netrebko, Backstage At The Met

  04-12-2016 15:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  This is a New York Times experiment that you'll need to play, and play with, in order to appreciate.
  
  Read more

• Here's A Prize For Actor Alan Tudyk: He's (Probably) The First Actor To Play A Chicken And A Robot At The Same Time

  04-12-2016 15:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  The actor, known for "Firefly," discusses how he did research to play the rooster in "Moana" and the robot in the new Star Wars film. "It’s amazing to me that they’ve got four hours’ worth of me making chicken sounds. It’s very thorough. How do you choose from Take One to Take Six, which 'pee-cawwwwww' really sells it?"
  
  Read more

• Why Isn't Britain's Turner Art Prize Engaging With Britain's Political Scene?

  04-12-2016 15:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  There's a lot going wrong in today's Britain (let's not even speak of Brexit): "Drastic cuts to public funding have led to the demolition of social housing, and to the closure of public libraries, galleries and museums. ... The arts and humanities are disappearing as educational options: most recently the preparatory step of A‑level art history was placed under threat."
  
  Read more

• Despite The 20-Year Sentence For A Ukranian Filmmaker, Putin Says He'll Protect Artistic Freedom

  04-12-2016 15:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  Putin met with non-jailed filmmakers and claimed he was a supporter of artistic freedom. But: "Meddling in the arts by government officials and the Russian Orthodox Church is raising worries over a return of censorship not only to political news, but also to plays, movies and art exhibitions."
  
  Read more

• The Pittsburgh Symphony May Be Playing Again, But Its Financial Problems Continue

  04-12-2016 14:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  The symphony hasn't had a balanced budget since the 2007-2008 season (you may recognize that as right before the Great Recession, by the way).
  
  Read more

• Can 'The Nutcracker' Actually Be Working-Class, Christopher Wheeldon?

  04-12-2016 14:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  This is a huge reimagining of the Robert Joffrey "Nutcracker" for the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago: It's set at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, and a lot of money - like, a lot of money - is riding on its success.
  
  Read more

• After 'The Help,' Octavia Spencer Says, 90 Percent Of The Roles She Was Offered Were Maids

  04-12-2016 14:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  Spencer and actor Dev Patel talk about representation at the movies, and why what they're doing is important. Patel: Their films are "anthems of diversity, they’re anthems of love, and they’re anthems of perseverance."
  
  Read more

• The Needle Arts, Having Their Moment - And Maybe Their Movement

  04-12-2016 14:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  If you've been making fun of "yarn bombing" or knitting as a cute little thing that women do, think again, buster. It's street art. And now is its time.
  
  Read more

• Lost (And Found) Stravinsky Piece Performed In St. Petersburg

  04-12-2016 13:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  It's only been 107 years since the "Funeral Song" for Rimsky-Korsakov was last performed. "Getting it played in the narrow, status-conscious musical world of tsarist Petersburg cost him almost as much emotional effort as it has cost to get it replayed now."
  
  Read more

• The Heartbreak Of The Oakland Fire And Young Artists' Need For Underground Spaces

  04-12-2016 13:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  With nine confirmed dead and dozens missing, the fire on Dec. 2 has devastated a whole community. Vital members of Oakland's arts and music scene - and many queer and trans artists of color - are likely gone. Some who survived say "these non-permitted residences that host underground shows are often the only safe place for marginalized people, those who find above-the-board and sanctioned venues unsafe or inhospitable."
  
  Read more

• Robert Rauschenberg review – the combine master, uncut

  04-12-2016 09:00
  
  This thrilling retrospective gives us Rauschenberg whole, from his collages to his ballets to his own wild performancesRobert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) is America’s Leonardo – ceaselessly inventive, a mind in perpetual revolution. That is the revelation of this exhilarating show. If all you knew of him was the famous goat girdled in a tyre, or the collages of JFK raising a warning finger, then think again. Rauschenberg changed artists’ ideas of what painting, sculpture and even
  
  Read more

• Laura Cumming: best art of 2016

  04-12-2016 08:00
  
  Portraits woke up, the tiny Goldfinch flew in, the Switch House switched on, and junk art triumphed• Observer critics’ reviews of the year in full
  It was a year of dramatic arrivals and departures. Masterpieces by Botticelli, Caravaggio, Delacroix and the elusive Giorgione flew in from round the world – who can forget Giorgione’s glowering 1510 man, head moving, eyes turning: like watching portraiture wake up. The National Portrait Gallery swapped its Chandos Shakespeare w
  
  Read more

• Fire at California artists’ collective claims 33 lives

  04-12-2016 06:22
  
  At least 33 people were killed in a fire that destroyed a warehouse that housed an artists collective in Oakland, California. The fire, one of the deadliest in the US in a decade, broke out during an electronic dance party late on Friday night, and quickly spread to engulf the entire building.
  Known as the Oakland Ghost Ship, the warehouse has been described as a warren of studios, filled with sculptures, canvases, antiques, rugs and furniture. The building had been under investigation by city
  
  Read more

• Bertolucci And Brando Conspired To Make 'Last Tango In Paris' Rape Scene Actually Non-Consensual For Maria Schneider

  04-12-2016 06:21 via feedproxy.google.com
  So, this is abhorrent: "According to Bertolucci, he and Brando agreed not to tell Schneider what would happen to her because he wanted her reaction 'as a girl, not as an actress.'"
  
  Read more

Follow @ArtsUKnews on Twitter!