Arts news

• Sondheim: Beware The Directors

  23-08-2017 23:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  When asked what he looks for in the people he entrusts to interpret his work, Stephen Sondheim said In London This week: "Mostly it's the directors you have to be careful of. Many, many directors, particularly in musicals, are more interested in serving themselves rather than serving the text, because musicals invite a lot of invention. Even if that director is inventive, he or she should be serving the piece, and you don't always get that. That's the thing I look for."
  
  Read more

• Mark Swed: Dudamel Is In Tough Political Position Over Venezuela's Fraught Politics

  23-08-2017 23:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "As bad as things are right now in Venezuela, a failed coup before the presidential election next year might lead to martial law. Maduro takes care of the police and army, so despite a few defections, they continue to support him for their own well-being. Against this background, Dudamel may deserve more credit for not speaking out."
  
  Read more

• London exhibition roundup: female Surrealists reclaim the body, a peek into Matisse’s studio and an exploration of the artist-sitter dynamic

  23-08-2017 23:00
  Dreamers Awake, White Cube (until 17 September)Surrealism was a movement dominated by men and obsessed with womenespecially their bodies, which the likes of Magritte, Ernst, Bellmer, Dali et al presented as a vessel for every conceivable male fantasy. But despite the female form suffering all manner of abuse at the hands of the surrealists, from the 1930s onwards many female artists were also associated with the movement, attracted by Surrealisms liberation of the subconscious, its emphasis on
  
  Read more

• A worthy core idea: on Frank Lloyd Wright at MoMA

  23-08-2017 23:00
  Frank Lloyd Wright was the elder statesman of American architecture. Nearly 60 years after his death at 91, the gerontocratwith his feathery white hair and flappy jowlsremains fixed in our imaginations. It is impossible to picture the man in any other phase of life. Perhaps we prefer our architects in their dotage, be they Wright or Frank Gehry, once the impudent aspects of personality, libido and work have ostensibly softened. Even then, the hoary auteur can still be animated by youth. A clien
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Mark Wahlberg Tops This Year's List Of Highest-Paid Movie Actors

  23-08-2017 22:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The Boston native recorded his highest-ever payday thanks to soaring fees for movies such as Transformers: The Last Knight and the forthcoming Daddy's Home 2. The former may have scored a miserable 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the lowest gross of the franchise to date, but Wahlberg need not worry--fixed compensation means he benefits even when movies don't do well.
  
  Read more

• Amie Siegel at Frye Art Museum, Seattle

  23-08-2017 22:09 via artnews.com
  See images from one notable show every weekday. Read More
  
  Read more

• Christopher Knight: Berkshire Museum's Plan To Sell Art Is A Threat To Every American Museum. Here's Why:

  23-08-2017 22:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "The public owns the painting, along with all the rest scheduled to go on the block, starting in November. Trustees and staff are stewards of the art collection, charged with taking whatever measures are best for it. Yet this museum’s leaders are behaving as if they are stewards of the institution, not the art. Absurdly, museum standards are being vandalized to protect the museum."
  
  Read more

• If The Art World Is Demanding Lighter Fare, What Happens To Artists Who Want To Be Serious?

  23-08-2017 21:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "Artists are being asked, even by the art world itself, to make work that’s easy, digestible, good for short attention spans, Instagrammable, marketable. Even the political stuff needs to be something one can “get” through the equivalent of a Hollywood pitch. Where does that leave the majority of our most dedicated artists?"
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Julianne Moore to Be Honored at MoMA Film Benefit

  23-08-2017 21:28 via artnews.com
  The annual event arrives in November. Read More
  
  Read more

• Police: Terrorists In Barcelona Had Planned To Blow Up Gaudi's Sagrada Família

  23-08-2017 21:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  According to local press, who spoke to court officials, Mohamed Houli Chemlal confirmed police suspicions – that the 12-strong cell had also been planning to use major explosives at the Sagrada Família, the basilica that is one of Spain's most important architectural landmarks.
  
  Read more

• Bizarre Pollock forgery scam targets unwary collectors in the US

  23-08-2017 21:00
  A forgery scam that poses a significant threat to unsuspecting art buyers has been uncovered by the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), which has identified four fakes purportedly by Jackson Pollock that were brought to it for authentication by three different owners. All the works surfaced starting in 2013, and are said to have come from the collection of James Brennerman, who, as far as IFAR can determine, is a fictitious identity.
  The organisation, which has helped authenticate
  
  Read more

• Here’s the List of 19 Emerging Artists to Feature in New Studio Museum Show

  23-08-2017 20:34 via artnews.com
  "Fictions" will open in New York on September 14. Read More
  
  Read more

• Geffen Playhouse's Former Artistic Director Sues For Age Discrimination

  23-08-2017 20:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  In his 27-page complaint filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court (read it here), Randall Arney who was the theater’s artistic director for 17 years before leaving in February, claims that Geffen Playhouse board co-chairs Pamela Henderson and Martha Robinson “abruptly and without explanation changed the terms of his employment” shortly after he turned 55 in 2012, “presenting him with a contract limiting his employment to two years” with a G
  
  Read more

• University of Arkansas launches state’s first School of Art

  23-08-2017 20:11
  The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville today officially established its School of Artthe states first such schoolthanks to a $120m gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, set up by the family of the late Walmart founder, Sam Walton, to support charities in Arkansas. This is the single largest gift that has ever been given to an art school at an American university, including founding gifts.The new School of Art grew out of the art department of the universitys J. William
  
  Read more

• Arkansas gets first art school thanks to $120m gift from Walmart family foundation

  23-08-2017 20:11
  The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville today officially established its School of Artthe states first such schoolthanks to a $120m gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, set up by the family of the late Walmart founder, Sam Walton, to support charities in Arkansas. This is the single largest gift that has ever been given to an art school at an American university, including founding gifts.The new School of Art grew out of the art department of the universitys J. William
  
  Read more

• Music Licensing For TV, Commercials Has Become Big. Now Licensing For Middle-Class Musicians

  23-08-2017 20:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The company enables any artist to upload tracks to its online platform for free. Potential licensers can then search through the site’s entire catalog and listen to individual songs before cutting a deal directly with rights holders through Songtradr’s scalable pricing model.
  
  Read more

• Interesting: Gen Z Students Share Behavior Traits With Adult Students

  23-08-2017 19:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "Like their adult learner counterparts, Gen Z students attend college in order to get jobs and advance their careers. A 2015 study by Barnes & Noble College showed that the number one factor in choosing a college is career preparation. They lean toward practical degrees that lead to financial stability—even if that means leaving behind a more attractive but less career-oriented degree."
  
  Read more

• Russian theatre director’s house arrest raises chill of cultural crackdown

  23-08-2017 19:07
  Russias contemporary arts scene is on edge after a Moscow court placed the theater director Kirill Serebrennikov under house arrest until 19 October while he awaits trial on charges of defrauding the state of 68 million rubles (about $1.15 million). The decision has led analysts to predict further cultural crackdowns with the approach of the March 2018 presidential elections and a likely fourth term for Vladimir Putin.Serebrennikov, the artistic director of Moscows Gogol Center theater, was det
  
  Read more

• Brain-Training Apps Have Been Discredited. But Here's What Works

  23-08-2017 19:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "Science does show that some brain training programs do work. So which ones? As the Australian study showed, Mahncke’s BrainHQ and competitor Cognifit actually do have a real benefit. Because both are based on brain training that is focused on improving processing speed–the speed and accuracy with which the brain processes information."
  
  Read more

• Why What's Reality In Reality Is Different Than What's Reality In Real life

  23-08-2017 18:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "To put it simply: Much of digital technology seems to be, in the words of our YouTube debunker, not in sync. It doesn’t quite track. Twitter emotion doesn’t rise and fall the way human emotions do. Similarly, death, final by definition, is not final in Super Mario 0dyssey. GPS tech is not true to the temperature and texture of physical landscapes. Alexa of Amazon’s Echo sometimes seems bright, sometimes moronic, but of course she’s neither; she’s not even a sh
  
  Read more

• Why Identifying And Censoring Offensive Content Is So Difficult

  23-08-2017 18:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  To help sort through torrents of material, platform operators increasingly rely on computer algorithms. But these software programs are imperfect tools for assessing the nuances that can distinguish acceptable from unacceptable words or images.
  
  Read more

• University of Arkansas To Establish New School of Art With $120 M. Gift From Walton Family Foundation

  23-08-2017 17:54 via artnews.com
  The new initiative will be the first of its kind in the state. Read More
  
  Read more

• Five Degrees Of Liking - How Netflix Is Using Viral Affinity To Understand Its Audience

  23-08-2017 17:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The Defenders provides Netflix with a unique case study. Instead of merely allowing it to find out if someone who likes, say, House of Cards also will like Daredevil (yes, BTW), it tells them which of the people who landed on Daredevilbecause of House of Cards will make the jump to The Defenders.
  
  Read more

• A Tiny Town In Arkansas Has A Plan To Thrive - Using The Arts

  23-08-2017 17:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  A $70 million infusion is key to the project: The money comes from a combination of donors, including Murphy Oil Corporation, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and the Walton Family Foundation. The first phase of the initiative, the $54 million, six-block Murphy Arts District in downtown El Dorado, is making its debut on Sept. 27. The district’s five-day opening celebration will have performances by artists like Brad Paisley, Smokey Robinson, Ludacris and the
  
  Read more

• Magnum Photographers from Different Generations Talk About the Fabled Agency’s Past, Present, and Future

  23-08-2017 16:55 via artnews.com
  For its 70th anniversary, the institution is looking back on its legacy in a series of exhibitions. Read More
  
  Read more

• Report: NY Cultural Institutions Are Disproportionately White

  23-08-2017 16:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "The information reflects findings in a study last year that city officials called “troubling”: While 67 percent of New York City residents identify as people of color, only 38 percent of employees at cultural organizations describe themselves that way."
  
  Read more

• Studios, Networks Negotiate On Releasing On-Demand Movies While They're In Theatres (Maybe Not)

  23-08-2017 16:03 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Apple could also eventually join Netflix and Amazon as a threat, but for now, the studios have cast the Cupertino colossus as a PVOD savior. Accelerating the window on movie transactions doesn’t have the importance of, say, iPhone 8, for Apple, but it’s not a trivial matter, either. Coming days after the company made clear its intent to spend $1 billion on original programming, premium VOD would provide just the kind of boost Apple needs to follow through on CEO Tim Cook’s
  
  Read more

• MoMA PS1 Names Ruba Katrib Curator

  23-08-2017 16:00 via artnews.com
  She comes to the Queens institution after five years at SculptureCenter. Read More
  
  Read more

• Thomas Meehan, 88, Wrote Annie, The Producers, Hairspray

  23-08-2017 15:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  He is the only creative to have written the books for three shows that ran more than 2,000 performances on Broadway: the aforementioned Annie (2,377 performances), The Producers in 2001 alongside Mel Brooks (2,502 performances), and Hairspray in 2002, which he wrote with the late Mark O’Donnell (2,642 performances). He earned Tonys for all three shows.
  
  Read more

• Sometimes When Your Editor Yells At You, He's Entirely Right (No Matter How Much It Hurts)

  23-08-2017 15:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Thomas Ricks labored over his new book, making it just so. When he was done, his editor hated the result, and harshly told him so. In completely rewriting it, Ricks discovered not only that his editor was right but that he could produce something much better...
  
  Read more

• Morning Links: Milady’s Bar Edition

  23-08-2017 15:00 via artnews.com
  Here's what we're reading this morning. Read More
  
  Read more

• Ai Weiwei To Build Fences Across New York City

  23-08-2017 14:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The exhibition uses fences as a way to explore immigration, boundaries and the ongoing refugee crisis. Ai, who lived in New York in the 1980s when he was a student, says it is “a love letter to the city and its people”. The outdoor show will include large-scale site-specific sculptures as well as photography to be presented in more than 300 spots, both public and privately owned, across the city
  
  Read more

• The Time Miles Davis Drag-Raced With Herbie Hancock

  23-08-2017 14:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "We both get to the stoplight at Sixth Avenue. It’s like 2, 3 o’clock in the morning. I knew what was going to happen: As soon as the light turns green, we’d floored it, right! So we drove several blocks before the next red light. I got to the light shortly before Miles, and I smoked Marlboros in those days. I grabbed one, lit it, rolled down the window as Miles drives up."
  
  Read more

• Could A Woman Be The Next Director Of The Met Museum? If So, Who?

  23-08-2017 14:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Just as I would love to see a woman president, I would love to see a woman director at the Met, and there are women who are ready to step into the role,” says Geri Thomas, the president of the firm Art Staffing, which has worked with museums including the Met.
  
  Read more

• Village Voice To Quit Print Publication

  23-08-2017 14:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The Village Voice was founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher and Norman Mailer, and for decades it sold a weekly version thick with classified ads. Its mix of political and cultural coverage created a model for alternative weeklies around the country, many of which have since folded. In 1996, facing competition from publications like Time Out New York and The New York Press, it changed to free distribution to boost circulation numbers, but gradually it came to rely on ads for sex and escor
  
  Read more

• Scotland's Herald Newspaper Cuts Coverage Of The Edinburgh Festivals In Half

  23-08-2017 13:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  “We are collectively concerned about the impact that this will have on the Herald's coverage of the country's vibrant arts scene, the fringe and all Scotland's festivals. The arts thrive on quality arts journalism and an enormous contribution has been made by the excellent team of arts writers and critics at the Herald."
  
  Read more

• Alberto García-Alix's best photograph: self-portrait in a dress made by Elvis

  23-08-2017 13:41
  ‘Things weren’t good. My liver was in trouble. I’d been told the drugs had to stop’I had a friend called Elvis who made really beautiful knitted clothes. I’d known her since the end of the 1970s, when Spain had just been freed from Francoism and all the drugs began. She had a band and she was really wild – a true character.Elvis and I ran into each other again in 1999 or 2000 and I said I would shoot her clothes, which were modelled by friends as there wasn&rs
  
  Read more

• Want To Act On Broadway? These Schools Have The Most Graduates On Broadway Stages

  23-08-2017 13:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  This Playbill list was gathered from actor bios published within Playbill Magazine and Schools of the Stars at the beginning of the 2017-2018 season, and is reflective of its August 21st, 2017, publication date.
  
  Read more

• Lewis Carroll’s portraits of the real Alice in Wonderland to go on show in London

  23-08-2017 12:54
  Claims that the English author Lewis Carroll had an interest in sexualising young children will be countered in an exhibition of Victorian photography opening at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London next spring.Victorian Giants: the Birth of Art Photography (1 March-20 May 2018) is to feature Carrolls well-known portraits of a young Alice Liddell, the real model for his Alice in Wonderland, as well as the delicate original negatives. Less-familiar portraits of Liddell as a grown woman b
  
  Read more

• Flushed out of the Guggenheim, where will Cattelan’s gold loo go?

  23-08-2017 10:59
  Where will Maurizio Cattelans golden loo end up? The mischief-making Italian artist installed the 18-carat gold, fully functioning toilet at the Guggenheim Museum New York almost a year ago. The working WC, entitled America (2016), has been a huge hit, but soon there will be no more number ones (or twos) in the eye-popping lavatory, which comes off display on 15 September. In a blog posted by Nancy Spector, the Guggenheims artistic director, she writes that the gold toileta cipher for the excess
  
  Read more

• ¡Hola Banksy! Spanish town puts out call for superstar street artist

  23-08-2017 10:12
  Advertisements have popped up in UK national newspapers stating: Dear Banksy, we have reserved a space for you on one of our streets so that you can freely express your most personal interpretation of Las Meninas and help us to make our neighbourhood a more beautiful place to live. The cheeky entreaty comes from the residents of the Barrio de Canido neighbourhood in Ferrol, a town in northern Spain which has been transformed by public art pieces based on Vlazquezs 17th-century masterpiece. Artis
  
  Read more

• Nick Cave and Jeanne Gang balance art and architecture in Chicago

  23-08-2017 04:56
  A collaboration between the sculptor and performance artist Nick Cave and the architect Jeanne Gang on a site-specific work for Chicagos Navy Pier is part of the ongoing transformation of the historic waterfront space from tourist trap into cultural destination. Here Hear Chicago, a performance series featuring work by Cave in a setting designed by Gang, opens on the pier during the fair Expo Chicagos vernissage on 13 September and migrates to an outdoor location on Saturday as part of the prog
  
  Read more

• Classical Music, The YouTube Symphony And Neo-Liberalism

  23-08-2017 00:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  "By combining economic and cultural discussion with interpretations of musical sounds, I have tried to reveal some of the ways new music—its composition, performance, and reception—has been shaped by assumptions drawn from neoliberal dictums. More importantly, I have attempted to argue that when classical music (or any other beloved art form or practice) is pragmatically re-oriented to align with hegemonic values, it contributes to the propagation of those values throughout society."
  
  Read more

Follow @ArtsUKnews on Twitter!