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Subject: NEWS: H-Museum News Digest (USA, UK)


Editor's note: The following articles are published in American and British newspapers and magazines. The H-MUSEUM NEWS DIGEST service is made available by the editorial staff of H-Museum <[log in to unmask]>.]

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H-MUSEUM NEWS DIGEST (USA, UK)
May 3 - May 8, 2005

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-- May 3
++ American newspapers
Academic Rift Is Healed, and Paleontology Gains
It took more than 70 years, but the former adversaries have finally made up. The rift began when Gilbert D. Harris, a distinguished Cornell geologist, picked up his collection of fossils and left in a huff, setting up a rival organization here to showcase his finds and work. He named it the Paleontological Research Institution and saw it achieve global prominence, partly by publishing journals on fossil discoveries (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/science/03foss.html

++ British newspapers
Treasures of Siena palazzo, now open to all
The rich and eccentric Count Guido Chigi Saracini seldom left his palazzo just off the Campo, Siena's central square (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/03/arts/web.0425siena.php

Diverse cultures (and sales) at Asian art event
If proof were needed that the art market and the broader economy do not function under the same rules, it was spectacularly provided during New York Asia Week, which began on March 28 and lingered on into April (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/03/arts/web.0423china.php

Art dealers to honour museum head
Art and antique dealers will honour Philippe de Montebello, director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, for his lifetime contribution to the arts (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4508825.stm


-- May 4
++ American newspapers
Jewish History on the Web
Drawing upon the collections of institutions that hold more than 100 million documents, books, works of art and photographs, the Center for Jewish History has set up a new Web site devoted to the experience of American Jews from 1654 to the present day (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/books/0504books-history.html

At MoMA, Dining With Picasso
Many New York restaurants boast great views, glorious architectural flourishes or other sparks and balms for the soul. But perhaps none claims as utterly distinctive and privileged a perch as the Modern, where only a wall of glass separates the dining room from the Museum of Modern Art's sculpture garden (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/dining/reviews/04rest.html

Death's Hints About the Past
Antiquities, the essayist Francis Bacon wrote, are "history defaced." And defacement is a process, not an event. What time and nature don't obliterate, people will. They break things, misremember dates, forget names, tell lies. This was true even of the ancient Chinese, to whom the past was more precious, more real than the present. They were antiquities junkies; the idea of defacement, erasure, made them crazy (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/arts/design/04cott.html

First Night of Spring Auctions Yields Just One Star: Picasso The spring auction season got off to a dreary start last night with Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and modern art, where a selection of overpriced paintings, drawings and sculptures failed to entice today's savvy buyers (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/arts/design/04auction.html

Commerce Joins Art to Train Yale Architects
The tension was palpable on Friday as Jennifer Newsom pinned her drawings to the wall and set out her architectural models under the formidable gaze of a row of accomplished architects. Gesturing toward the curvilinear complex that she had designed for a school and fashion museum in Milan, she likened its podlike classrooms and studios to "bubble gum pulling apart." (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/arts/design/04arch.html

++ British newspapers
Gaelic section for heritage site
Conservation group Scottish Natural Heritage has launched a Gaelic section of its website (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4512521.stm


-- May 5
++ American newspapers
The Making of a Vegetarian: A Dinosaur Is Caught in the Act Paleontologists in Utah announced yesterday that they had discovered a new species of dinosaurs in an intermediate stage between carnivore and herbivore, on the way to becoming a committed vegetarian. They could only speculate on the reasons for the change, but noted that it occurred in a time of global warming and the arrival of flowering plants in profusion, a tempting new food source (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/science/05dino.html

Art Market Bounces Back in 2nd Night of Spring Sales
In just 24 hours, the art market came back to life. At Christie's sale of Impressionist and modern art last night, the right formula - conservative estimates and fresh property - attracted enthusiastic international buyers longing to shop (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/arts/design/05christies.html

Daniel Libeskind brings his star power -- and his teammates -- to a new museum Architect Daniel Libeskind started his day in San Francisco telling a radio talk-show audience about his proposed Contemporary Jewish Museum -- a design where an enormous blue cube seems to burst from a 1907 power station near Yerba Buena Gardens (San Francisco Chronicle) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/05/05/DDG0ACJC0C1.DTL

++ British newspapers
Picasso and Beckmann win out in thin market
'Les Femmes d'Alger (J)" by Pablo Picasso and a self-portrait by Max Beckmann sold at Sotheby's for $18.6 million and $16.8 million, respectively. (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/04/features/nysales.php

Happy Birthday, Tate Modern
Five years after the doors of the former Bankside power station opened, the British art world is transformed (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,,1476763,00.html

Artists create a reminder of the city in ruins
Sixty years ago, after a ferocious Russian offensive, the centre of Berlin was in ruins. Now, the eerie landscape in the immediate aftermath of the second world war has been brought back to life in a vivid tableau (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1476816,00.html

Tycoon's £11m culture centre for Britain
Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons have given their backing to a multimillion-pound foundation for global cultural development with bases in London, New York and Paris (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1476774,00.html

Mary Rose rises again
Conservationists working on the wreck of the Mary Rose have revealed plans to house the ship in a £20m museum in Portsmouth (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1476780,00.html

-- May 6
++ American newspapers
Making an Entrance at Any Age
The New York art world isn't everyone's cup of tea, but few would deny that it is constantly aswirl. Its tea leaves rarely drift to the bottom for perusal and are further agitated by a constant influx of new ones, usually through the ritual of the first solo show (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/06/arts/design/06smit.html

Portraits of Life and Fantasy That Embody the Artists
Admiring his mother as a bulwark of spiritual strength, an architectural draftsman named Achilles G. Rizzoli depicted her as an immense and intricate Gothic cathedral, a thing of elaborate stonework, soaring spires, flying buttresses, windows with lacy tracery, saintly statues and other attributes (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/06/arts/design/06glue.html

Belgium Art Exhibit Fetes Contradictions
It's a huge exhibition of art celebrating Belgian verve, vision, and surrealist imagination through 175 years of independence (San Francisco Chronicle) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/05/06/entertainment/e075629D22.DTL

Fourth Suspect Ordered Held in Munch Theft
An Oslo court on Friday ordered a 38-year-old man jailed while police investigate his alleged involvement in the theft of Edvard Munch's masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna," news reports said (San Francisco Chronicle) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/05/06/international/i163006D29.DTL

National Gallery of Art Gets Modern Works
Six late 20th century works have gone into the National Gallery of Art, with the promise of a public show by August. One looks at first glance like a human face, more than eight feet wide (San Francisco Chronicle) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/05/06/entertainment/e150612D28.DTL

++ British newspapers
A Brancusi sells at record price
Christie's conducted the most successful art auction so far this year in any field, setting a record Wednesday night with the sale of a Brancusi. Within two hours, 52 Impressionist and Modern works of art sold for a huge $142.9 million (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/05/features/sculpt.php

Freedom Tower redesig
The architects behind the Freedom Tower - the replacement for the twin towers destroyed in the September 11 attacks - have been sent back to the drawing board yet again (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1477460,00.html

Shogun: The facts behind the fiction
A new exhibition at the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds explores the extraordinary career of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man who unified Japan and inspired a bestselling novel (The Independent) http://www.independent.co.uk

Reunion call for wartime miners
Men forced to work in mines during the World War II are being urged to come forward as part of an appeal led by the Big Pit National Mining Museum (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4518817.stm

-- May 7
++ American newspapers
Obituary: Robert Slutzky, 75, Painter and Architectural Theorist, Dies Robert Slutzky, a painter, writer and educator whose lifelong exploration of the connection between painting and architecture influenced a generation of postwar architects, died on Tuesday in Abington, Pa. He was 75 and lived in Elkins Park, Pa (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/07/arts/design/07slutzky.html

Unmasking the mummy
High-tech experts peek at a child who died 2,000 years ago
An Egyptian kid who apparently was born about the same time as Jesus posed for more than 20,000 pictures Friday at Stanford University Medical Center. It's all because doctors, anthropologists and techies hope to unravel the mystery of a mummy that has been at San Jose's Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium for decades (San Francisco Chronicle) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/05/07/BAG78CLN841.DTL

++ British newspapers
Meanwhile: A slave to fashion in New York
'Fashion is not art. It is a profession. It must be done with a lot of rigor," proclaimed Gabrielle Chanel, known to the world as Coco. Yet the new "Chanel" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art recklessly disregards that dictum, elevating to artistic status not only Coco's designs but also the less celebrated oeuvre of Karl Lagerfeld, the current master of the House of Chanel (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/06/opinion/edrosen.php

Modern study in contrasts
Sotheby's Tuesday evening sale included just one great painting with the signature of an Impressionist, and even that one did not really belong to full-grown Impressionism (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/06/features/melik7.php

Ofili and the inspiration in routine
In the end, it doesn't really matter what you paint," the British artist Chris Ofili concluded. "It's all just a routine to connect yourself finally with other people." (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/06/news/ofili.php

In Germany, questions on who deserves a memorial
Even now, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, Germany still has not settled exactly on how to remember the victims (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/06/news/victims.php

In Milan, a scandal in the shape of a 'curl'
To look at it, there doesn't seem to be anything shocking about the sculpture, which calls to mind a wisp of smoke (or an overly charmed snake) curling up to the sky (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/06/features/scandal.php

'After him, who?'
He was the first cubist and Picasso courted him like a lover. It's time Georges Braque was recognised in his own righ (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,,1478293,00.html

The final fortress
During the Second World War Alderney was at the westernmost edge of Hitler's defences - and the site of a prisoner of war labour camp. Sixty years after VE Day it is coming to terms with its past (The Independent) http://travel.independent.co.uk/uk/story.jsp?story=636144

Obituary: Hugh Malet
Historian of canals and waterways
(The Independent) http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/story.jsp?story=636277

Historic newspapers mark VE Day
Visitors to the Museum of London can find out how the newspapers reported the end of World War II (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4512725.stm


-- May 8
++ American newspapers
The Nazis and Coco
One of the finer pieces in "Chanel," the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrates how Chanel's ruthless instincts could result in outright moral corruption. The 1939 evening dress in ivory cotton organdy, with red, white and blue embroidery, was part of a "tricolor" collection celebrating French nationalism. But two years later, with the Nazis occupying Paris, Chanel cozied up to power, becoming the lover of Walter Schellenberg, an SS officer. She used the connection to keep her residence at the Ritz, home of ranking Nazi officials stationed in Paris (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/arts/design/08zeit.html?

Wake Up. Wash Face. Do Routine. Now Paint.
Chris Ofili'swatercolors at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the spring art season's rapturous sleeper, are of imaginary heads. There are 181 of them, all the same size, of men and women in bright African garb, deliriously colored and intricately detailed. Mr. Ofili is, obviously, the British artist (lately transplanted to Trinidad) whose "Holy Virgin Mary," with elephant dung, caused a ruckus a few years back when the "Sensation" show was at the Brooklyn Museum. He is also adept at rather lovely, clever and not at all inflammatory art, including these silhouettes and straight-on portraits, which are titled "Afro-Muses." (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/arts/design/08kimm.html

His shadowy City of Light
No one depicted Montmartre's lurid world like Toulouse-Lautrec. But a National Gallery show brings this tragic artist's influential peers back into the colorful picture (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-ca-lautrec8may08,1,1965305.story?coll=cl-art

A severely hip concert hall
Rem Koolhaas can be bold and exciting in his disregard for the norm. But in Portugal he may have gotten boxed in (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-ca-porto8may08,1,5394985.story?coll=cl-art

Graphic Logic at SFMOMA
Typically, the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art's architecture and design department shows architecture, industrial design or graphics. The upcoming exhibit, "2x4/Design Series 3," from May 13-Nov. 27, third in a series by curator Joe Rosa, covers all three (San Francisco Chronicle) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/05/08/CMGKMC6KF01.DTL

Obituary: Prominent Berkeley architect Vernon DeMars dead at 97 Prominent architect Vernon DeMars, who designed several UC Berkeley buildings, has died. DeMars helped establish the College of Environmental design at Berkeley and was one of the first Modernist architects to design housing projects for migrant workers in northern California (San Francisco Chronicle) http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/05/08/state/n182539D20.DTL

++ British newspapers
A memorial to incompetence
As it opens again, the Diana fountain is still bogged down in controversy (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/observer/story/0,,1478804,00.html

Obituary: Hilary Wayment
Historian of stained glass
(The Independent) http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/story.jsp?story=636827

Louise MacBain: The patroness
From Prince Andrew to Tessa Jowell, she has friends in the highest places. No wonder. She is pouring millions into the London art scene in a manner that befits the greatest philanthropists. But does this most elegant of blondes have substance as well as style? (The Independent) http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/story.jsp?story=636537

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