-----Original Message-----
From: H-Museum (Marra) [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2003 1:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: NEWS: Weekly News Digest (USA, UK)
[Editor's note: The following articles are published in American and British
newspapers and magazines. The WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST service is made
available by the editorial staff of H-Museum <[log in to unmask]>.]
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WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST (USA, UK)
December 22 - December 28, 2003
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-- December 22
++ American newspapers / magazines
Cooper-Hewitt Museum Tries Redesigning Itself
This spring a splinter group of board members at the Cooper-Hewitt, National
Design Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, most relatively new to the
job, were so alarmed by employee departures, a faltering exhibition schedule
and budget woes that they convened an independent committee to review the
museum's mission and leadership
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/22/arts/design/22XCOOP.html
A quantum leap
The brave, new 'nano' world is explored in a multidisciplinary exhibit at
LACMA
(Los Angeles Times)
http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-johnson22dec22,0,59537
46.story?coll=cl-art
++ British newspapers / magazines
Museum closes but masterpieces remain on display
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which is visited by over 250,000 people from
the UK every year, will be shut for five years, but a mini-museum showing
400 of the gallery's greatest hits opened on Saturday
(The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1111519,00.html
White sculptor's 'un-African' statue of Martin Luther King divides the South
It was natural that the people of Rocky Mount would wish to honour the
memory of Dr Martin Luther King
(The Independent)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=475387
-- December 23
++ American newspapers / magazines
Art World Startled as Painter Switches Dealers
The rising young painter John Currin, the subject of a widely acclaimed
midcareer survey now at the Whitney Museum of American Art, has startled the
art world by leaving the gallery that nurtured him for one of the most
powerful and ambitious on the international art scene, a director at his new
gallery said
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/23/arts/design/23DEAL.html
++ British newspapers / magazines
Art show confirms pulling-power of celebrity
The exhibition was disembowelled by the critics, but an average of 2,693
people a day paid to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's collection of Pre-Raphaelite
paintings at the Royal Academy, making it one of the decade's most succesful
exhibitions
(The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1112021,00.html
Turner death mask feared stolen
The Royal Academy of Arts has said a cast of JMW Turner's death mask, one of
its most important treasures, may have been stolen
(BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3343383.stm
-- December 24
++ American newspapers / magazines
Fred Wilson: Reading between the color lines
His mock museum displays tell stories and raise questions about race,
history and art
(Los Angeles Times)
http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-knight24dec24,0,180769
1.story?coll=cl-art
Obituary: Iconoclastic painter, member of Beat Generation, dies
Wally Hedrick, an iconoclastic artist and leading member of San Francisco's
Beat Generation, died of congestive heart failure at his home in Sonoma
County on Dec. 17. He was 75
(San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/12/24/obit
uary2123EST0139.DTL
++ British newspapers / magazines
Artistic merit of Martin Luther King statue splits town as surely as racial
divide
Homage to black civil rights leader upsets US town still unable to live his
dream
(The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1112651,00.html
New name for city museum
A museum in Derby is changing its name from the beginning of 2004.
The Museum of Industry and History is being renamed the Silk Museum to
integrate it better with the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site
(BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/3347007.stm
-- December 25
++ American newspapers / magazines
A Sad Song for Pianos as Museum May Close
Most people look at a piano and see a musical instrument. Kalman Detrich,
however, regards the piano as nothing less than a crucial link between
nature and civilization, not to mention the linchpin in America's ascension
to industrial supremacy over Europe.
For 40 years he repaired pianos, and for 20 years he has exhibited them in
the Museum of the American Piano, the eccentric little Manhattan attraction
he created. On Wednesday, unless a benefactor miraculously appears to pay
his rent, he will close his museum and send his collection to foster homes
while he figures out how to pursue his passion
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/25/arts/design/25PIAN.html
-- December 26
++ American newspapers / magazines
Spiritual Power, No Matter How Humble
The Metropolitan Museum's 18th-century Neapolitan Nativity has been a
holiday staple since 1964. It always draws a crowd, and for good reason.
With hundreds of realistically painted terra-cotta figures dressed in
hand-stitched costumes and placed in a minutely detailed Italian village,
it's a deluxe, high-end, Franco Zeffirelli production of a familiar, humble
story
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/arts/design/26COTT.html
Collaborating on the Future at the Modern
Joachim Pissarro's response to the prospect of becoming a top curator at the
Museum of Modern Art? "I asked for a double whiskey," he said
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/arts/design/26CURA.html
In the Days When Artists Were Taught How to Draw
First you did eyes, ears and noses, then feet, hands, arms and legs. Then
heads: of children, adults and horses. Et voilà! You then arrived at the
human figure.
That was the progression of lessons in "The Art of Drawing," a 19th-century
manual published in Paris from 1868 to 1871 by a little-known lithographer
and painter, Charles Bargue (1826/27-1883), in collaboration with the
overripe academic realist Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904)
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/arts/design/26DAHE.html
America's Own Home-Grown Corn-Fed Impressionism
Though always popular, American Impressionism, a movement that flourished
between the mid-1880's and World War I, doesn't get much serious respect.
"The Golden Age of American Impressionism," an exhibition at the Heckscher
Museum of Art on Long Island, isn't likely to change conventional opinion.
The show's 50-plus works, including a few good paintings and many ranging
from mediocre to just plain bad, affirms that American Impressionism was but
a pale reflection of the real - i.e., the French - thing. Yet it is not
without historical and psychological interest
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/arts/design/26JOHN.html
Without artists, the art falls flat
LACMA's 'nano,' about micro-scale technology, is educational outreach run
amok
(Los Angeles Times)
http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-pagel26dec26,0,4739522
.story?coll=cl-art
CIA gadget-museum showcase robot fish, pigeon camera, tiger dropping
microphone
The CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology is celebrating its 40th
anniversary by revealing a few dozen its secrets for a new museum inside its
headquarters near Washington. Accessible only to CIA employees and guests,
it is the "finest spy museum you'll never see," said Keith Melton, a leading
intelligence historian
(San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/12/26/nati
onal1357EST0539.DTL
-- December 27
++ American newspapers / magazines
Ireland's conceptual art in Oakland stays loyal to 'The Way Things Are'
David Ireland keeps his art close to daily life
(San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/12/27
/DDGDD3U5B71.DTL
Rising artist moves to big-league dealer
The rising painter John Currin, the subject of a widely acclaimed survey now
at the Whitney Museum of American Art, has startled the art world by leaving
the gallery that nurtured him for one of the most powerful and ambitious on
the international art scene, a director at his new gallery said.
(International Herald Tribune)
http://www.iht.com/articles/122833.html
++ British newspapers / magazines
Thieves steal priceless art 'for status, not profit'
Priceless art work hanging in historic homes across Britain could be easy
prey for a band of trophy art thieves, a leading security expert has warned
as police continue their hunt for a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece stolen
from a Scottish castle
(The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1112781,00.html
Cézanne's vision turns ugly
Uproar as painter's timeless landscape is threatened by new housing estate
(The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1112857,00.html
Museum drops entry fee
Manchester's struggling museum of the modern city has dropped its entry fee
in a bid to attract more visitors
(BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3351441.stm
-- December 28
++ American newspapers / magazines
The Art and Artists of the Year
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/28/arts/design/28SMIT.html
The Buildings (and Plans) of the Year
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/28/arts/design/28MUSC.html
Banner Year for Lost Opportunities
The biggest disappointment of the year has been the failure of the Lower
Manhattan Development Corporation to protect the ground zero planning
process from political interference
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/28/arts/design/28HERB.html
The Lows: Rushed Memorials and Show Bloat
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/28/arts/design/28GRAN.html
A Painter's Embrace of Impressionism
The late Gregory and Anna Smith of Old Lyme had a modest art collection. But
it included many fine paintings and drawings by the American Impressionist
J. Alden Weir. Ms. Smith, it turns out, was his granddaughter
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/28/nyregion/28ctart.html
Thoroughly Modern Mies
Farnsworth Rescue Affirms Design Movement's Enduring Appeal
(Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32434-2003Dec26.html
Eye on the Frick
Anne Litle Poulet draws attention as the first woman to serve as director of
the famed New York collection
(Los Angeles Times)
http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-ca-muchnic28dec28,2,29092
01.story?coll=cl-art
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