Art News from Around the World

Visual Arts Fri, 29 Sep 2023 14:05 A Surprise Candidate Beat Damien Hirst As Last Year’s Bestselling Artist At Auction “Aboudia, aka Abdoulaye Diarrassouba, 40, whose art is inspired by street culture in his hometown of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, heads the Hiscox Artist Top 100, … based on the number of artworks sold at auction.” The bestselling artist by cash value? You’ve heard of that one … – The GuardianSource: Visual Arts Fri, 29 Sep 2023 12:30 This Museum Employee Committed An Unusually Brazen Theft The unnamed, now-former collections management staffer at the Deutsches Museum in Munich took one painting right off the gallery wall, replaced it with a forgery and sold it at an auction house. He also stole three artworks from storage and sold two of them. Then he bought himself a Rolls-Royce. – CNNSource: Visual Arts Thu, 28 Sep 2023 21:02 China Has Been On A Museum-Building Spree. Now Some Of Them Are Closing In the 2010s, China built new museums with a frenzy. According to the China Museums Association, 1,563 new museums opened between 2009 and 2014. They face an increasingly chaotic censorship regime as well as the fallout from zero Covid policies, a global downturn and a collapsing property market. – The Art NewspaperSource: Visual Arts Thu, 28 Sep 2023 20:27 Unionized Workers At The Art Institute Of Chicago Win Their First Contract Unionized employees of the Art Institute of Chicago museum (AIC) and its affiliated school, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), have secured their first contract, which guarantees wage increases “across the board” over a four-year period. – ARTnewsSource: People Fri, 29 Sep 2023 22:01 Right Wing Trolls Are Attacking Taylor Swift. Good Luck With That “There’s nothing the right could do that could meaningfully affect Swift. She has an incredibly devoted fanbase, a sold-out tour that lasts until November 2024, which again, is going to make her a billionaire, and maybe even has a hot new boyfriend.” – SalonSource: Media Fri, 29 Sep 2023 21:29 The Writers’ Strike Settlement Was Good. But Not Good Enough Concerning AI Studios are already busy developing myriad uses for machine-learning tools that are both creative and administrative. Will they halt that development, knowing that their own copyrighted product is in jeopardy from machine-learning tools they don’t control and that Big Tech monopolies, all of which could eat the film and TV industry whole? – WiredSource: Media Fri, 29 Sep 2023 21:01 Writers’ Settlement Tries To Define Streaming Subscriber A “view” in this case means the total viewing time divided by its running time, a metric that can be applied fairly easily across streaming services. Importantly, those success bonuses will rely not only on the “view,” but on subscribers as well. And that’s where things get tricky. – The Hollywood ReporterSource: Ideas Fri, 29 Sep 2023 20:32 Does Academic Pursuit Need a Goal, A “Completed-By” Date? If we want the university to remain a viable space for knowledge production, then scholars across disciplines must be able to identify the goal of their work – in part to advance the Enlightenment project of ‘useful knowledge’ and in part to defend themselves from public and political mischaracterisation. – AeonSource: Dance Fri, 29 Sep 2023 20:01 UK’s Northern Ballet Drops Its Orchestra To Cut Costs The Musicians’ Union (MU) said it is “deeply concerned” about “this cultural vandalism” as there will be less work for orchestral musicians. – Yorkshire PostSource: Theatre Fri, 29 Sep 2023 19:29 Are Theatre Ticket Prices Just Too High? Nearly all artistic and managing directors polled saw their company’s price increases as marginal. But for many Americans, an increase of a few dollars per ticket can be significant, especially when piled on top of every other rising cost for goods and services. – American TheatreSource: Words Fri, 29 Sep 2023 18:59 This Promising African Novelist’s Career Evaporated When He Was Accused Of Plagiarism. But Is That What It Was? Yambo Ouologuem insisted he had done nothing wrong in writing his 1968 novel Le Devoir de violence (Bound to Violence). But he refused to explain why and stalked away from Paris back home to Mali to stew in his fury. Were his borrowings actually a literary technique? – The New York TimesSource: Issues Fri, 29 Sep 2023 18:30 Just When Did Art Come To Be Called “Content?” Really? Content? “It’s just a rude word for creative people. I know there are students in the audience: You don’t want to hear your stories described as ‘content’ or your acting or your producing described as ‘content.’ That’s just like coffee grounds in the sink or something.” – The New York TimesSource: Theatre Fri, 29 Sep 2023 18:05 The Men Who Saved Half Of Shakespeare’s Plays From Complete Loss Not only did Henry Condye and John Heminges assemble and publish the First Folio, they almost certainly helped lead the rescue of Shakespeare’s plays (many of which had not yet been published) from the 1613 fire that destroyed the Globe Theatre. – Literary HubSource: Theatre Fri, 29 Sep 2023 17:25 A Changing Of The Guard On Broadway? While the six Broadway houses controlled by these four companies may be dwarfed by the Shubert Organization, the Nederlander Organization and the recently merged ATG-Jujamcyn bloc, their presence on Broadway is somewhat outsized in a way that many don’t realise. – The StageSource: Theatre Fri, 29 Sep 2023 17:04 King Lear Is A Strenuous Role, But Not Such A Difficult One Laurence Olivier said, “Frankly, Lear is an easy part … He’s like all of us really: he’s just a stupid old fart.” Tom Courtenay relayed that “I had a much jollier time with it than playing Hamlet.” Michael Billington surveys the approaches various actors have taken. – The GuardianSource: Dance Fri, 29 Sep 2023 16:29 NYCity Ballet Cancels Performances After Orchestra Members Insist On Wearing Contract Shirts The musicians’ contract with the ballet has expired. Sticking points include management’s failure to agree to a wage adjustment that would compensate for the musicians working without pay for 15 months, taking a 15% pay cut in 2021, and currently working for 9% below their 2019 compensation. – Broadway WorldSource: People Fri, 29 Sep 2023 16:06 How To Memorialize Dawn Powell When We Can’t Find Her Grave? “She now inspires the kind of devotion that might include pilgrimages to her gravesite — had her body not wound up in an unmarked grave in New York City’s potter’s field, on Hart Island off the coast of the Bronx.” Should there be a monument there, or elsewhere in New York? – The New York […]Source: Dance Fri, 29 Sep 2023 15:32 Having Just Lost Its Artistic Director, Cincinnati Ballet Loses Its Executive Director Scott Altman, president and CEO of Cincinnati Ballet, announced Thursday that he is leaving the company to take on those same positions with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. The news comes just six days after artistic director Jodie Gates stepped down from her position following just 14 months on the job. – Cincinnati EnquirerSource: Music Fri, 29 Sep 2023 15:03 Was Christian Thielemann A Wise Choice To Succeed Daniel Barenboim In Berlin? “Thielemann’s personal canon consists of a handful of German-speaking composers, mostly from the mid-19th to the early-20th centuries, all of whose music benefited massively from the invention of the volume knob. It’s not just that we can’t expect Saariaho from Thielemann; even non-German composers like Janáček and Debussy … seem a stretch.” – VanSource: Dance Fri, 29 Sep 2023 14:31 Life As A Dancer At The Moulin Rouge “There aren’t many jobs in which a cartwheel can make or break your dreams.” – The Independent (UK)Source: