Arts news

• Los Angeles City Councilors’ Leaked Racist Audio Turns Oaxaquena Bands Into Stars

  16-10-2022 22:30 via latimes.com
  Las Cafeteras, a band, composed a love song to Oaxaca in response. One band member: “It’s now our responsibility, I think, as people of color, specifically Mexicans, Chicanos and Latinos to really take this as an opportunity to do better — to be better.” – Los Angeles Times
  
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• Russian Troops Murder Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko, Who Refused To Perform For Them

  16-10-2022 22:00 via artsjournal.com
  “Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko declined to take part in a concert ‘intended by the occupiers to demonstrate the so-called ‘improvement of peaceful life’ in Kherson,'” according to Kiev’s culture ministry. – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• Who’s To Blame When Algorithms Promote Self-Harm?

  16-10-2022 21:30 via wired.com
  Literally, who is responsible – legally? “A growing body of research suggests that social media platforms play a role in depression, body image issues, and other mental health challenges among users,” especially young female users. – Wired
  
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• The Queen Of The Recap Podcasts

  16-10-2022 21:00 via nytimes.com
  Mallory Rubin watches each House of Dragons episode three times before her two podcasts. “It would be hard to engineer a commentator better equipped for this moment, when growth-obsessed streaming services and movie studios have coaxed audiences toward the outer limits of franchise entertainment.” – The New York Times
  
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• How Robbie Coltrane Made Hagrid The Heart Of Harry Potter

  16-10-2022 20:30 via theatlantic.com
  “Coltrane, across a decade of movies, imbued in him a depth and warmth that made him feel not just instantly memorable, but real. In doing so, he subtly pushed against the scripts’ inclinations to turn the character into mere comic relief or an adorable buffoon.” – The Atlantic
  
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• Anti-Fascist, Absurdist Artist Kurt Schwitters’ Studio To Be Sold, Probably To Developers

  16-10-2022 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Those attempting to preserve the space in the Lake District are having to sell due to England’s budget cuts. Schwitters’ “use of found objects and rubbish to create collages and surprising imagery laid the foundations for both pop art and today’s thriving conceptual art scene” – The Observer (UK)
  
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• The Trolls That Came For Amber Heard Are Coming For Angelina Jolie Now

  16-10-2022 19:30 via vice.com
  “The Depp-Heard trial, which ended with an overwhelming win for Depp, helped create a ‘playbook’ for online hate against women that can now be used against women like Jolie as well as women who aren’t famous.” – Vice
  
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• The Guardian view on Damien Hirst’s NFTs: posing a burning question | Editorial

  16-10-2022 19:25
  The artist is not alone in looking to cash in on content-free art. Only time will separate the stunts from the lasting innovationsQuestions about the nature and value of art are not new: a century has passed since Marcel Duchamp turned a urinal upside down, signed it R Mutt and presented it as Fountain to the Society of Independent Artists, in response to its promise that it would accept any work of art so long as the artist paid the application fee.New times need new questions, and one was flam
  
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• Dune subreddit group bans AI-generated art for being ‘low effort’

  16-10-2022 19:19
  Moderators of community devoted to sci-fi films and novels made decision after being flooded with automatically generated contentIn the world of Frank Herbert’s Dune, the “Butlerian Jihad” led to the destruction of “thinking machines” across the known universe, and the birth of a civilisation that focused on enhancing human intellect.In the online community on the subreddit of r/Dune, the birth of AI art has led to a similar, albeit smaller, war on technology. Conti
  
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• Eighty-Year-Old Debut Author Says The Publishing Industry Needs More Angry, Sexy Old Ladies

  16-10-2022 19:00 via slate.com
  Jane Campbell, author of the book Cat Brushing and experienced psychotherapist: “What I wanted to say, from quite an angry point of view, was, yes, old women are totally functioning human beings.” – Slate
  
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• Ken Stradling obituary

  16-10-2022 18:45
  My friend Ken Stradling, who has died aged 100, played a unique part in the history of British postwar design in Bristol and the south-west. His personal vision, business acumen and winning personality transformed a prewar shop run for craftspeople into the Bristol Guild – a small department store selling well-designed domestic products from kitchenware and toys to furniture and original crafts. Ken was managing director of the Guild from 1965 to 2006.Born in Totterdown, south Bristol, Ken
  
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• Abstract Art’s Origins Were In Sweden

  16-10-2022 18:30 via theguardian.com
  Artist Hilma af Klint’s first abstract painting came years before Kandinsky’s. But “she saw her art as a spiritual message to mankind. She had much bigger ambitions.” And because she didn’t become famous, almost all of her work is concentrated in one foundation in Stockholm – The Observer (UK)
  
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• Storied Ballerina Lauren Anderson Gets Her Story Told In Houston

  16-10-2022 18:00 via nytimes.com
  “When Lauren Anderson was promoted to principal dancer at Houston Ballet in 1990, she made history as one of the first Black women to be a principal at a major American ballet company.” Now, the dancer sees her own story on stage. – The New York Times
  
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• Want To Honor Angela Lansbury?

  16-10-2022 17:30 via vulture.com
  Here’s where to stream not Murder, She Wrote, but some of her (other) greatest work. – Vulture
  
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• The Responsibilities Of Depicting Black Trauma Onscreen In 2022

  16-10-2022 17:00 via time.com
  “The question shouldn’t be whether a movie should capture Black pain. The problem in film arises when the camera only asks for an audience to witness.” – Time
  
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• In Iceland, Elves Are Real

  16-10-2022 16:30 via therumpus.net
  That’s important for the planet: “There was this sense of wonder in everything, this sense of awe, not just beauty as some sort of painting you put on your wall, but as a feeling inside of you.” – The Rumpus
  
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• Time To Embrace The Joys Of Being A Fan

  16-10-2022 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Fangirls aren’t frivolous – or, even if they are, it’s in the service of creativity. “A handful of books, documentaries, films and memoirs are celebrating the fizzy, dizzying heights of female obsession and what it offers teen girls and women.” – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• This Video Game Makes Its Players Feel Bad

  16-10-2022 15:30 via wired.com
  And that’s good: “The human body is both beautiful and fragile, and inflicting so much carnage on it is deeply unsettling.” – Wired
  
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• After Nearly Three Weeks, The Philadelphia Museum Of Art Workers’ Strike Is Over

  16-10-2022 15:00 via hyperallergic.com
  Tentatively, that is – the workers in the union still must vote to ratify the new contract. “Management compromised on all five of the demands that prompted the strike,” and workers vote today (Sunday). – Hyperallergic
  
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• Why Bad Catholics Make Great Literature

  16-10-2022 14:30 via themillions.com
  “Smells, bells, blood, guts, spectacle, and of course, bodies, bodies, bodies. Catholicism is a deeply theatrical religion based in provocative stories.” – The Millions
  
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• Cecilia Vicuña: Brain Forest Quipu; Richard Mosse: Broken Spectre review – the world worn down

  16-10-2022 14:00
  Tate Modern; 180 The Strand, London
  The cavernous Turbine Hall has become an intimate memorial as Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña mourns the destruction of the Amazon rainforest – a theme also addressed via stunning aerial footage by Irish photographer Richard MosseTwo vast fabric hangings trail their hems along the floor at opposite ends of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Each is created from cascading lengths of fragile cotton and gauze, unspun wool, knotted rope, tattered net and
  
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• An other-worldly art project: the artists furnishing a Martian house

  16-10-2022 13:52
  Bristol project aims to give glimpse of what life in colony on Mars may be like using recycled materialsThere is a “Martian guitar” manufactured out of recycled pieces of wood and metal with an amp fashioned from a coffee pot. A surprisingly comfortable chair, plus rug and curtains, have been created out of the sort of parachute material a Mars landing craft may have used. The bedding in the sleeping pods has been decorated with dyes from plants, while a “mist shower” has
  
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• Robbie Coltrane, Who Played Harry Potter’s Hagrid, Has Died At 72

  16-10-2022 13:30 via variety.com
  In a 20th reunion special, Coltrane – who knew he was dying – said, “You could be watching [Harry Potter] in 50-years time, easy. I’ll not be here, sadly, but Hagrid will, yes.” – Variety
  
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• Climate Activists Throw Tomato Soup On Van Gogh’s Sunflowers

  16-10-2022 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Or rather, on the glass protecting it. “‘What is worth more, art or life?’ said one of the activists. … ‘Is it worth more than food? More than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting or the protection of our planet and people?'” – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• Hilma af Klint: Swedish mystic hailed as the true pioneer of abstract art

  16-10-2022 12:00
  Almost 80 years after her death, a biography will be published this month, Tate Modern plans a 2023 exhibition, and she is the subject of a film, as she is finally recognised as a visionary artistFew people have heard of Hilma af Klint, let alone seen the hundreds of paintings and drawings that the 20th-century Swedish artist created. The art establishment ignored her and she barely sold a single work.Now, almost 80 years after her death, she is the outsider who has found recognition as a vision
  
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• Art pioneer Kurt Schwitters’ Lake District retreat to be sold for development

  16-10-2022 11:00
  Followers of the German modernist give up hopes of preserving his working studio, the Merz Barn after funding cutRevellers in bizarre fancy dress gathered beside Windermere on Saturday night to honour the legacy of the artist Kurt Schwitters and his absurdist Merz movement. Tango and Charleston lessons in Ambleside were followed by the first Dada/Merz ball. But behind the swinging dance music of the inter-war years, a sadder note rang out across the lake shore.For the memory of Schwitters, the a
  
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• The big picture: Inge Morath captures the joy of Spanish dance

  16-10-2022 08:00
  A Sevillan dancer’s skirt whirls in this image from the Austrian photographer, who sought moments of lightness after the horrors of warInge Morath’s love affair with Spain began as apprentice and assistant to Henri Cartier-Bresson, on assignment to Madrid in 1953. She returned two years later as a photographer with the Magnum agency and, having befriended a Spanish duke, Gonzalo Figueroa, travelled the country with him in a pair of Cadillacs, one for them, and another filled with a l
  
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• Royal Society of Arts accused of ‘spite’ by staff member who spoke out on unions

  16-10-2022 08:00
  Staff member who spoke to the Observer about drive to get workers to join IWGB union claims she was ‘punished’ by arts charityThe Royal Society of Arts has been accused of punishing staff who spoke out about their campaign to unionise the 270-year-old charity.The Observer reported last week that almost half the charity’s workforce below senior manager level had joined the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), with a petition indicating most staff backed unionisatio
  
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