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WebCommentary
Brief remarks published in the 'Comments' sections of weblogs and periodicals here and abroad. Dates refer to comments, and "(AJ)" refers to ArtsJournal, which hosts most of the weblogs. Suggestion: read the original piece first, then click on "comments" link if there is one, search for "Aristos," or scroll down to find your humble co-editor's name. -- L.T.2009
December 2009 - 16 new entries (August - November), marked
.
11/17: Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC: "Why Architecture Matters" (scroll down to end for my comment). Listen to interview with architecture critic Paul Goldberger. In my brief comment I cite "At His Father's Knee," my review of John Silber's Architecture of the Absurd: How "Genius" Disfigured a Practical Art in response to comment by a listener who hoped that Goldberger would mention Silber's book. He did not. In his book Why Architecture Matters, Goldberger makes such foolish statements as "Art is defined largely by intention, and so is architecture [6]," and "architecture is art and it is not art . . . art and not art, at once [8]." Silber would scoff at such gibberish, which Goldlberger repeats soon after the start of the interview.
11/8: Creative Destruction (AJ) [on music]: "Public Concert, Private Music." Comment by Louis Torres & Michelle Kamhi. On a moving account of pianist Andre Watts's large heart and modesty. (See more at "An Enormous Heart" in Notes & Comments, Aristos, December 2009.)
10/29: Culture Monster (Los Angeles Times): "Dance Review: Pilobolus at Ahmanson Theatre." Yet another critic dubs performances by the Pilobolus company "dance." It fact, it's pure entertainment. What else to call "acrobatic feats . . . contortionist extremes . . . clown-show antics . . . aerial assaults . . . [and] inventive commingling. . . ." Certainly not dance. Click on "Comments" at end of review for my very brief remarks. (See also What Art Is--enter book title at Google Books, click on title, then "Overview" at left sidebar (a more useful page), then search for "Pilobolus" [p. 235].)
10/19: Wall Street Journal: "The Mystery of Music: What About It Has Such Power Over Human Beings?" Click on "Comments." See my reply to first comment (by Alice Felt), then click on the number 2 above and to the right of her remarks.
10/18: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "On Shark-Jumping and Shark-Dumping: Has Conceptual Art Jumped the Shark Tank?"
10/14: Seeing Things: Tobi Tobias on Dance, et al. (AJ): Decreation Indeed. Tobias says that William Forsythe's dance, Decreation is "empty" and "inexplicable." I agree with her, but go one step further.
10/13: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "A Change in Culture: Why Mario Resca Could Be Good For Italy." Resca is charged with transforming Italy's cultural treasures and plans to appoint expert advisors in "classic/modern art" and "contemporary art." My advice to him is that he needs a third advisor to counter the advice he'll receive from the second one.
10/6: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "New Old Masters: Young British Artists--No, Not Them--Look Back." While I have reservations about the exhibition under consideration here, my brief comment refers to a link in the very last sentence of this post. That link leads to a sobering previous post by Real Clear Arts critic Judith Dobrzynski regarding the unfortunate fact that art students just "won't go to art museums," preferring to view works exclusively online.
10/6: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "Discovering Robert Bergman, An Art World Cinderfella Story." I refer the reader to an article by weblogger Judith Dobrzynski on Bergman, a photographer, in the Wall Street Journal. In the comments section of the WSJ article, for which Dobrzynski provides a link I discuss on whether photography is art or not (see "Newest Comments"). A responder wrote that he could care less. Oh, well.
9/30: Wall Street Journal: "Major Miniaturist Makes Art That Comes With Its Own Microscope: For Willard Wigan and a Handful of Nanotechnologists, Small Is Very Big." A rare two-word comment by me to see if anyone would respond. Someone did, writing in rebuttal: "Everyone is allowed their own opinion. They are not required to have yours." How true, but. . . .
9/24: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "A New Theory About Pollock's Mural: He Hid His Signature." Comment is not on Henry Adams's inconsequential new book on Jackson Pollock (the subject at hand), but on Judith Dobrzynski's surprising implicit agreement with the prurient-prone scholar's unsubstantiated thesis that the painter Thomas Eakins had molested his niece and caused her gruesome suicide at age twenty-four. Dobrzynski intended no such thing, as she makes clear in a response to my comment.
Adams, who is chairman of the Department of Art History and Art at Case Western University in Cleveland, taught a course in entitled "Acts of Genius: The Arts of Humankind: The Renaissance to the Present" last spring. Among the works of "genius" featured was a "dismembered shark," presumably Damien Hirst's [more] [video] now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
9/2: Culture Monster (Los Angeles Times): "Ed Ruscha, Robert Redford, among 2009 Americans for the Arts Honorees." Ruscha, a pioneering "Pop artist" is but the latest avant-gardist to be given the lobbying group's "Artistic Excellence Award."
8/27: Wall Street Journal: "Getting an Earful at the Museum." On museum audio and multimedia guides--I advise against them, especially the first time a museum visitor sees an exhibition.
8/13: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "A Brilliant No-Brainer Idea at U-Penn Focuses on Art (How Refreshing!) My critique of a plan to have incoming freshman at the University of Pennsylvania study Thomas Eakins's great painting The Gross Clinic then be prepared to discuss it at the start of the academic year. A good idea--the image of Dr. Gross is one of the most compelling in American art--but not the way Penn intends to carry it out. (The painting is currently not on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as it is undergoing restoration.)
8/12: Cityscapes (Chicago Tribune): "The Saga of the Burnham Pavilions: Fragile Public Art Takes a Hit in an Interactive World." The question is asked: "Can the public love public art to death?" Yes, if it's not really art. No, if it is. I cite an example to illustrate my point.
8/10: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "Does It Have to Be Experimental to Be Art?" On playwright Theresa Rebeck's Aristos Award-winning essay "Can Craft and Creativity Live on the Same Stage?"
8/6: "My Dinner with Merce and Its Connection to Cultural Policy." Comment on the avant-garde "choreographer" Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) and his long-time collaborator, avant-garde "composer" John Cage (1912-1992), by Michelle Kamhi.)
7/30: Washington Post: "NSO [National Symphony Orchestra] to Try Beethoven's Tweet Suite: Maestro Taps Twitter For a Mobile 'Pastoral.'" (For comment on the equivalent in music of the intrusive audio guides in art museums, click on "View All" just below image of musical score--after "0 Comments" becomes "19 Comments." Be patient. See also 7/23 item below.)
7/23: Baltimore Sun: "National Symphony to Introduce Real-Time Twittered Program Notes." (As if reading printed program notes before or during a concert were not bad enough. See the critic's response to my comment, as well as a reader's comment [three below mine], and 7/30 item above.)
7/17: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "Does the NEH [National Endowment for the Humanities] Know that Philosophers Exist? They Don't Think So." (On the $25,000 "Enduring Questions" grants awarded by the NEH, and the suggestion that "what is art?" be one of the EQs.)
7/14: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "(Untitled) The Satire: It Targets Contemporary Art and Music." (On "a movie that's bound to infuriate the contemporary art and contemporary music worlds, make them howl with knowing laughter, or both.")
7/12: Daily Telegraph (London): "We Have Had Enough of Con Artists" (On Antony Gormley's One & Other scam at Trafalgar Square in London: live webstream, through 10/14/09.)
7/9: Los Angeles Times Op-Ed: "What Makes the Arts 'Essential'? Let Me Draw You a Picture." (For Part 2 of comments, scroll down to end of this cached version of the article. Part 1, which cited my article "The Child As Poet: A Dangerous and Insidious Myth," is lost somewhere in cyberspace.)
6/25: Another Bouncing Ball (AJ): "Odd Man Out--Andrew Wyeth: Remembrance at [the Seattle Art Museum]." (Wyeth disparaged.)
6/22: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "Seattle Artist Buster Simpson Wins Public Art Award." (On a maker of "contemporary" and "environmental" art.)
6/10: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "Women Artists in Museums: Take a Clue from . . . [National Gallery of Art] Show." (An interesting discussion rightly critical of "women artist" shows.)
6/5: Out and About (New York Sun): "What Kind of Art Do the Obamas Want at the White House?" (Date of comments is two weeks after the original post appeared: a long story! Click on link to comments title, "Real Art," below post. See also 5/24 below.)
6/5: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "Are Gardens Art? Many Are, of Course."
5/24: Wall Street Journal: "Changing the Art on the White House Walls." (Don't miss video interview with the two writers. Click on "Comments" under the headline, then "Sort by: Newest," and see third comment. See also 6/5 Out and About entry above.)
5/18: Boston Globe: "What Fate for the Carriage House that Mrs. Jack [Isabella Steward Gardner] Built?" (On plans by Gardner Museum trustees that would defile Mrs. Gardner's legacy. Sort comments by "Latest First," then search for "Aristos" to read comment. Postscript: "Gardner Museum Tears Down Structure at Heart of Dispute."
5/4: New Statesman (London): "Screen Test." (On video games as art and whether, generally speaking, the question "Is it art" is still asked.)
5/1: Out and About (New York Sun): "Young Poets Show a Love and Gift for Language at Poem in Your Pocket Day." (At end of post, click on comments link, "Are Children Natural Poets?" under "Reader comments on this weblog entry.")
4/30: Real Clear Arts (AJ): "Will the New York Sun Rise Again?" (Comment--second after post--regarding letters by me published in the Sun during its all too brief run between 2002 and 2008.)
4/30 (I): Another Bouncing Ball (AJ): [Part I] "Gala Bent--May the Force Be With You." (On an alleged artist whose drawings "appear to be waiting for you to leave, in order to disappear.")
4/30 (II): Another Bouncing Ball: [Part II] "Aristos: Delighted to Disappoint You, Mr. Torres" (Read [Part I], above, first. See two comments below post.]
4/29: Life's a Pitch (AJ): "Naked Emperors." (The Colbert Report satirizes Steve Reich's Pulitzer prize in music. Begin by viewing just 1'30" of the first of two videos.)
4/24: The Artful Manager (AJ): "Opening Wounds to Heal Them" (On public art and technology. Read article then view video. See also, just above, two comments that comment on my comments.)
3/30: Another Bouncing Ball (AJ): "How the Legal System, the Press and His Nerve Failed Dale Chihuly." (About the pioneer maker of "glass art.")
3/29: New York Times, (Sunday) Arts & Leisure section: "A Wounded Museum Feels a Jolt of Progress." (See fifth paragraph of article, which begins "For Anne Hawley. . . ." Comments on that paragraph are entitled "Gardner Museum: Defining Progress."
3/26: Los Angeles Times: "Sol LeWitt's Final Public Wall-Drawing." (On the minimalist's minimalist. Don't miss video. See comment below mine as well.)
3/19: diacritical (AJ): "Is the NEA Bad for the Arts?"
2/25: New York Times: "House Bill Would Increase Funding for Arts and Humanities. (On the NEA and NEH budgets.)
2/20: New York Times: "Armani Donates $1 Million to Schools." (On arts education.)
2/10: Chicago Tribune: Theater Loop: "In Economic Stimulus Package, Arts Deserve Place in Line."
2/10: Los Angeles Times: "Five Reasons Congress Hates the Arts."
