Arts news

• Can Language Unify Black Culture?

  09-09-2024 19:30 via newyorker.com
  
  Everyone knows what it means to capitalize “Black.” But how does it feel? On your tongue, on the page? If we act like affect isn’t what truly rules how we talk to, and around, one another, we won’t get to the whole of the matter. – The New Yorker
  
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• How To Keep A Community’s Soul While It’s Under Gentrification Pressure

  09-09-2024 19:15 via theconversation.com
  
  In order to be successful, any urban regeneration has to tap into the local culture and heritage of a place. This means embracing what makes the area unique, whether it’s through traditional arts, music, local stories, or even something like baking bread. – The Conversation
  
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• Nabokov Said Rereading Distinguished Who The Real Readers Are. He Was Wrong

  09-09-2024 19:02 via theparisreview.org
  The correct and virtuous way to read, according to those who knew about reading and writing, was to reread. Rereading was that which separated the real reader from the average book consumer. – Paris Review
  
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• Just How Terrible Is The Art Market Right Now?

  09-09-2024 18:44 via culturedmag.com
  
  For market participants who entered the game after 2020, all this turbulence may come as a surprise. Auction prices for some young artists have crashed as much as 90 percent since the peak of demand in 2021. Auction houses’ revenues are down significantly. – Cultured Magazine
  
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• Internet Archive Ruling On Fair Use Is A Disaster For Libraries, Writers And Readers

  09-09-2024 18:32 via abovethelaw.com
  Even though this outcome was always a strong possibility, the final ruling is just incredibly damaging, especially in that it suggests that all libraries are bad for authors and cause them to no longer want to write. – AboveTheLaw
  
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• ‘We need safe routes’: artist Es Devlin to open refugee portrait show

  09-09-2024 18:18
  Fifty drawings of displaced people will be exhibited in a London church, in collaboration with UN refugee agencyProviding safe routes for asylum seekers should be the focus of the UK government if it is to stop small boat crossings, according to the artist Es Devlin, who is unveiling 50 portraits of refugees that she wants to challenge misconceptions.Devlin, who is best known for her spectacular theatre and opera stage sets, decided to create her Congregation project in collaboration with the UN
  
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• Brexit Has Been A Disaster For UK Musicians Wanting To Tour In The EU. Can It Be Fixed?

  09-09-2024 18:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Since Brexit, musicians touring the EU have faced barriers introduced in the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). They can work up to 90 out of every 180 days, which causes problems for longer tours, musicians who work in multiple bands or orchestras, and crew required on site before and after performances. – The Guardian
  
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• How Mick Herron Went From Obscurity To The World’s Top Spy Fiction Writer

  09-09-2024 18:00 via wsj.com
  “I was only ever a hair’s breadth away from being exactly as much of a failure as the people I write about,” he said by Zoom from Nashville. – The Wall Street Journal
  
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• An Illustrated Guide To Museum Etiquette For Dummies

  09-09-2024 17:32 via nytimes.com
  
  Absolutely do not go on opening day, and always be prepared to leave your friends behind. – The New York Times
  
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• Artist Gary Hume: ‘I use sex less now – but I still find the world an erotic place’

  09-09-2024 17:03
  
  He once said all his paintings were inspired by sex. What’s changed? As the former YBA’s new show opens, Hume talks about his many obsessions – from swans to mirrors to doors – and explains how he uses dreams to solve painting problems Gary Hume’s studio is overrun with swans. They don’t quite outnumber all the tins of Dulux gloss, his go-to paint, but it’s close. Avian necks and elegantly drooping heads, liquefying into abstraction and then curdling bac
  
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• Could This Documentary Fix Our Relationship To The Internet?

  09-09-2024 17:00 via theatlantic.com
  
  “The question of how to use images responsibly isn’t new, but in our era of endless transmission and surveillance, even a project meant to honor someone can become more than a little exploitative. The conundrum derives from the lack of agency we have over our digital selves.” – The Atlantic
  
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• Stop The Sexist Art Versus Craft Debate And Embrace A Third Way

  09-09-2024 16:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Novelist Tracy Chevalier: The middle ground “is where people (women!) make things and are not patronised for it. ‘Crafter’ … is being superseded by the vaguer but more muscular ‘maker.’ The Swedish have even merged the two concepts into one word: konsthantverk, or artcraft.”- The Guardian (UK)
  
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• We’ll Probably Never Get To See A Revealing New Nine-Hour Documentary About Prince

  09-09-2024 16:00 via nytimes.com
  
  “This creature of pure sex and mischief and silky ambiguity, I now saw, was also dark, vindictive and sad. This artist who liberated so many could be pathologically controlled and controlling.” – The New York Times
  
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• These Two Guys Aren’t Forty Yet And Have Gone EGOT As Of Sunday Night

  09-09-2024 15:45 via latimes.com
  
  They met as freshmen at Michigan. “They won an Oscar in 2017 for their original song ‘City of Stars,’ featured in the film La La Land.” Then they won a Tony for the score of Dear Evan Hansen. Then that cast recording won a Grammy in 2018. – Los Angeles Times
  
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• The Guys Who Design Those Really Intense Movie Theatre Popcorn Buckets

  09-09-2024 15:30 via slate.com
  “The most difficult products are the ones that have a human face, because getting skin tones and the shadows and all that stuff can be challenging. Once the paint is figured out, we make sure it functions the way we originally intended it to.” – Slate
  
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• Maria Benitez, Who Popularized And Championed Flamenco In The States, Has Died At 82

  09-09-2024 15:15 via nytimes.com
  
  Benítez was “an American dancer and choreographer who, as the founder of a popular Spanish dance troupe, played a major role in making New Mexico a hotbed for flamenco.” – The New York Times
  
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• What The Internet Archive Decision Means To All Of Us

  09-09-2024 15:00 via lithub.com
  
  The Internet Archive “is the only keeper of the internet’s first days, via the Wayback Machine. … The archive is a huge source for Wikipedia citations, and makes a stand against publisher monopolies. Most of all? If it’s destroyed, millions and millions of cultural items could be lost to history.” – LitHub
  
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• As The British Empire Died, Tropical Modernism Came To Dominate Postcolonial Architecture

  09-09-2024 14:45 via hyperallergic.com
  A new exhibition shows how local architects in Ghana and India took the British idea of tropical modernism and turned it into a symbol of postcolonial self-determination and self-rule. – Hyperallergic
  
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• Michael Lerner, Founder Of The Influential, Controversial Magazine Tikkun, Has Died At 81

  09-09-2024 14:30 via nytimes.com
  
  “By the late 1980s, Tikkun had established itself as an outlet for writers who shared his conviction that some form of Palestinian self-determination was not just morally correct but also Israel’s best way forward.” – The New York Times
  
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• German installation artist Rebecca Horn dies aged 80

  09-09-2024 14:19
  
  Born in 1944, Horn’s surreal and witty work used birds, mechanics and masks to create ‘art machines’ and visual representations of soundRebecca Horn, the German installation artist known for her surreal and sensual “art machines” incorporating musical instruments, bird feathers and mechanical engineering, has died aged 80, her foundation has confirmed.According to the Moontower Foundation, Horn’s death was on Friday evening in Bad König, in her native wes
  
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• Amid A Wider Exodus From China, Ballet Dancer Du Hai Finds His Place In Japan

  09-09-2024 14:15 via apnews.com
  
  He tried the United States for a while, but then a spot opened in Japan – and, like many other Chinese intellectuals, he’s found his spot in a country closer to home, with a changing immigration policy.– Associated Press
  
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• Millennial Nostalgia Is Driving Pop Culture

  09-09-2024 14:00 via fastcompany.com
  Just as Boomer nostalgia influenced Gen-X for far longer than it perhaps should have, Gen-Zers (and the rest of us) will have years of Millennial-influenced pop culture in our lives. – Fast Company
  
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• Kate Winslet Opened The Door For Another Woman To Get A Big Credit On Her New Movie

  09-09-2024 13:45 via theguardian.com
  Winslet is playing Lee Miller, a photojournalist in WWII (and also the lover of Man Ray and a model for Vogue). She wanted another woman to direct, though “potential investors had been ‘patronising’ in their dismissal of Lee as ‘a woman’s story.’” – The Observer (UK)
  
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• Disney Plans An Entertainment Merger In India To Strengthen Its Existence

  09-09-2024 13:30 via bbc.com
  
  “This gives Disney a stronger foothold in the challenging Indian market while supporting Reliance’s expansion efforts. It also pits the new entertainment behemoth against popular rivals such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Sony and 50-odd other streaming platforms.” – BBC
  
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• Is There Any Merit To Musicians’ Copyright Claims Against The Former President For His Campaign Rallies?

  09-09-2024 13:15 via artsjournal.com
  “Music industry experts and copyright law attorneys say the cases, as well as Trump’s decision to continue playing certain songs despite artists’ requests that he desist, underscore the complex legalities of copyright infringement in today’s digital, streaming and licensing era.” – Washington Post
  
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• Artist Rebecca Horn, Whose Sculptures Saw The Body As A Portal To Other Dimensions, Has Died At 80

  09-09-2024 13:00 via artnews.com
  
  Horn created performance-oriented works in the 1960s that “envisioned new possibilities for women’s bodies, outfitting her participants with appendages that caused them to seem more like animals.” Later, she created “objects made from metal, liquid, mirrors, and more that seemed not quite human yet not quite inorganic.” – ARTnews
  
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• Author Tracy Chevalier: forget the tired old art v craft debate – this is the age of konsthantverk!

  09-09-2024 09:00
  
  When does a quilt stop being craft and start being art? It’s a question full of sexist overtones, writes the novelist Tracy Chevalier, but there’s a Swedish ‘third way’ that changes everythingThe art versus craft debate is almost as old as the question: “What is art?” Boiled down to its gnarly, still disputable essence, art is created to make us think and feel, while craft is made to be used. A painting on a wall makes us ponder, whereas knitted scarves keep u
  
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• Artist Lap-See Lam: ‘My work is a way to connect generations’

  09-09-2024 09:00
  
  The Swedish artist’s new installation explores how the culture, motifs and cliches of Chinese restaurants reflect the evolving diaspora – and she’s made it a family affairFor the artist Lap-See Lam, the Chinese restaurant abroad can be anything: a pragmatic business pursued for the sake of economic survival, a magic realist self-kitschified illusion, or a very real place where families gather, childhoods are made and memories are forged. Often it is all these things and more. L
  
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• Little Free Library Plans To Get Banned Books Into The Hands Of The People

  08-09-2024 22:30 via lithub.com
  
  Check the map. “Florida and Texas have the most bans in place, with 2647 and 1469 in place respectively. Thankfully the number of Little Free Libraries is higher in both states: Florida has 2886, and Texas has 2373.”– LitHub
  
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• An Unconventional Approach Can Put The Life Back Into Autobiography

  08-09-2024 22:00 via theatlantic.com
  
  That’s what Janet Malcolm did for Sylvia Plath in 1994, and thirty years later, that’s what Alexis Pauline Gumbs decided on for a new book about poet and essayist, publisher and teacher Audre Lorde. – The Atlantic
  
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• Flood the golf courses, demolish the freeways: what could Melbourne look like in 2070?

  08-09-2024 17:00
  
  The NGV’s first landscape architecture exhibition has invited eight visionaries to picture the future of different sites along Birrarung – the Yarra RiverGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailIn half a century, should Melbourne’s golf courses be flooded and transformed into wetlands? Could the city’s freeways be replaced with public parks? Will underwater robotic drones have a part to play in ridding our waterways of invasive species?These are some of the questions e
  
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• ‘I have taken risks, but Damien is a staggering risk-taker’: Michael Craig-Martin on style, the YBAs and being the great late bloomer of British art

  08-09-2024 12:59
  
  Ahead of a major retrospective at the Royal Academy, the veteran artist and mentor to Hirst, Lucas et al talks about his nomadic early years, halcyon days at Goldsmiths – and the moment he stopped being ‘frightened’ of colourIn 1961, aged 20, Michael Craig-Martin enrolled at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture and immediately found himself all at sea.“Back then,” he recalls, “abstract expressionism was still lingering and painting was painterly.
  
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• Put levy on smartphones to help creatives survive AI threat, top UK artists tell Labour

  08-09-2024 10:00
  
  Open letter to culture secretary also proposes ‘freelancers’ commissioner’ to champion cause of the low-paid in creative industriesMore than 4,000 artists have called on the government to create a levy on smartphone sales to fund ­visual art in the face of cuts, studio closures and the rise of generative AI.Creatives including Sir John Akomfrah, Britain’s representative at the Venice Biennale, and Dame Sonia Boyce, the first black woman elected to the Royal Academy of
  
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• Donna Huddleston: Company; Liorah Tchiprout: I love the flames, but not the embers – review

  08-09-2024 10:00
  
  White Cube Mason’s Yard; Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London
  Puzzling portraits mine the memory in Donna Huddleston’s stylised look at the 70s, while Liorah Tchiprout paints a cast of dolls inspired by women from Yiddish theatreTwo new shows by London-based artists tell stories, or imply backstories, through the art of painting. Both feature the same group of characters. And as so often in today’s contemporary art, these characters are all women.The Irish Australian artist Donna
  
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• The big picture: Hara Mikiko captures a Tokyo tryst

  08-09-2024 08:00
  
  ​The ​Japanese actor turned ​photographer ​seeks an element of chance in her ethereal scenes from everyday life
  International interest in Japanese photography has tended to focus on male photographers; a new book featuring 25 Japanese women practitioners, I’m So Happy You Are Here, aims to redress that balance. The collection takes in the history of Japanese women photographers with particular emphasis on those working from the 1950s to the 1990s.Many of the early s
  
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• Frederic Leighton’s only known painting of moon over water to go on show after being lost for a century

  07-09-2024 12:00
  
  Painter’s Bay of Cadiz, Moonlight, bought by Leighton House Museum in June, will star in November exhibitionHe was the most distinguished artist of the late 19th century – a grandee who entertained Queen Victoria at his home in Holland Park and was president of the Royal Academy for nearly two decades.Frederic Leighton was feted for his portraits of women, especially his stunning Flaming June, currently the centrepiece of an exhibition at the Royal Academy. But he actually preferred
  
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• ‘I wanted hairstyles that would complement the extravagant surf vibe’: Fede Kortez’s best phone shot

  07-09-2024 11:00
  
  The photographer co-opted hair artist Afro Ele to find the perfect rip curlLast year, visual artist Fede Kortez travelled to the west of Ghana to direct a documentary on surfers. His base was Busua Beach, well known for attracting the worldwide surfing community to its swells. Kortez took a day out of the documentary schedule for the shoot, the idea for which he had been ruminating on for more than a year.“I wanted to take some boys with their boards and style them up with vibrant hairstyl
  
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• From Starve Acre to Roy Lichtenstein: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment

  07-09-2024 07:00
  
  Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark star in a creepy new folk horror, and there’s an exhibition of iconoclastic works by the king of pop artStarve Acre
  Out nowMatt Smith and Morfydd Clark play a couple beset by grief in this powerful adaptation of Andrew Michael Hurley’s dark folk-horror novel. Directed by Daniel Kokotajlo, it’s an unsettling trip into earthy, supernatural superstitions, set in rural 1970s Yorkshire. Continue reading...
  
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• British pop art pioneer Derek Boshier dies aged 87

  06-09-2024 18:41
  
  Portsmouth-born, working-class artist was known for collaborations with David Bowie and the ClashDerek Boshier, the working-class artist who was a key part of the pop art movement and a collaborator with the Clash and David Bowie, has died aged 87.The Portsmouth-born artist studied at the Royal College of Art in London from 1959 to 1962 alongside David Hockney and was profiled with Pauline Boty and Peter Blake in Ken Russell’s 1962 film about the pop art movement, Pop Goes the Easel. Conti
  
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• Simon Verity obituary

  06-09-2024 13:23
  Master sculptor and stone carver who created grottoes, public memorials and ecclesiastial work in the UK and the USA 1983 poster for the Victoria and Albert Museum shows a letter cutter with corduroy trousers, braces and a shapeless hat standing at the base of an inscription cut into the terracotta wall announcing in flaming gilded capitals its opening as the Henry Cole Wing, now sadly obscured by the new entrance paving. The artist appearing in the photograph was Simon Verity, who has died aged
  
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• Monuments to motherhood, cinematic dreams and a ‘wild beast’ – the week in art

  06-09-2024 13:00
  
  Hannah Perry takes a spectacular approach, John Stezaker offers reality-bending works and classicist André Derain designs for theatre – all in your weekly dispatchHannah Perry: Manual LabourA spectacular multimedia approach goes with introspective themes as Perry explores motherhood, class and gender.• Baltic, Gateshead, until 16 March Continue reading...
  
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• Surréalisme review – monstrous, deviant, glorious fun as the movement hits 100

  06-09-2024 11:22
  
  Centre Pompidou, Paris
  From Ernst to Dalí, from Maar to De Chirico, this is a dazzling riot of creativity, celebrating the artistic potential of the unconscious – and shoesPoignancy is not a word we associate with surrealism, but you feel it when you walk down a corridor of blown-up photobooth pictures and enter the Pompidou’s blockbuster marking the movement’s 100th birthday. Everybody was so young when the first surrealist manifesto was published in October 1924: was i
  
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• Today’s AJ Highlights

  06-09-2024 01:27 via artsjournal.com
  Good morning. Here’s your daily AJ newsletter. It didn’t make our top five list, but I was particularly intrigued by the story of scientists tracking eye movements while participants were watching movies to figure out how people experience stories. Turns out there are big differences from one person to the next.What DeSantis Arts Funding cuts in Florida are Doing
  Governor Ron DeSantis’s arts funding cuts are hitting education hard, forcing over 600 organizations to slash progr
  
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• US Playwright Ken Ludwig Gives £1 Million To Preserve Shakespeare Family Home

  05-09-2024 21:07 via timeout.com
  
  The author of the farce Lend Me a Tenor and the book for the Gershwin musical Crazy for You donated in order to fund desperately-needed preservation work on Hall’s Croft, the home of Shakespeare’s daughter Susannah and a very rare example of intact Jacobean architecture. – Time Out UK
  
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• How The Salt Lake City Tribune Went Nonprofit, Reinvented Its Culture And Made It Work

  05-09-2024 20:44 via niemanlab.org
  
  We’ve seen news organizations open communication that gives journalists a better idea of what, exactly, needs to happen for their publication to survive and thrive — and where they fit in. – NiemanLab
  
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• The Inherent Tension In Children’s Books

  05-09-2024 20:32 via artsjournal.com
   Should we pander to the little rotters’ desires (BURRRP!) or should we give them impossibly pious characters Doing Good? The answer, of course, lies somewhere in between. – Literary Review
  
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• Giller Prize Drops Bank From Its Name Over Controversies

  05-09-2024 20:15 via thestar.com
  
  The rebranding follows months of controversy surrounding Scotiabank’s investment in the Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems and comes amid an ongoing campaign calling on arts organizations like the Giller Foundation to distance themselves from the financial institution. – Toronto Star
  
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• Venezuelan TV News Agency Is Using AI-Created Avatars

  05-09-2024 20:06 via hollywoodreporter.com
  
  Amid a harsh crackdown by the Maduro regime following an election he claims to have won but apparently lost badly, a news service called Connectas is airing its (genuine) reports using two AI-generated anchors in order to shield the actual journalists’ identities from police. – The Hollywood Reporter
  
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• Scientists Studied Eye Movements To See How Our Brains Process Stories

  05-09-2024 19:32 via medicalxpress.com
  “Traditionally, we’ve thought of eye movements as a simple response to what’s happening in front of us. But recent research shows that’s not the whole story. Eye movements are as unique as personality traits. Some people focus more on faces, while others are drawn to text or other elements.” – Medical Express
  
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• The State Of The New York Philharmonic Through Its Tax Return

  05-09-2024 19:14 via apnews.com
  
  The Philharmonic released its 2022 tax return Wednesday, covering its first season back at David Geffen Hall following a $550 million renovation. Ticket revenue rebounded to $29.76 million from $11.18 million in the prior fiscal year. – AP News
  
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