Between the dark and daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day’s occupations,
That is known as the ‘Art Surfer’s Hour’
QUOTE: People don’t like change and the record business doesn’t like change and the movie business doesn’t like change and the TV business doesn’t like change and the art world doesn’t like change, but that’s their problem. - Alden Scott Crow
miniQUIZ: What does the noun ‘incunabulum’ mean?
Answer later in this column.
ART: Jamie Wyeth and father Andrew Wyeth have, this year, donated a sizeable chunk of their work along with Andrew’s father’s work - N.C. Wyeth - to the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. (4,500 drawings, sketches, and paintings) The collection will be housed in a remodeled 19th century Methodist Church. It opens in June and will help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the museum. Not far from Rockland, Andrew painted "Christina’s World." Musea loves all three artists but favors the illustrator N.C. as the best for his dramatic illustrations. We salute the donation and the museum...
Across the sea at the Louvre, the "Mona Lisa" is getting her own room. The Japanese Co. Nippon Television will contribute $4.1 million to finance the move and restructuring of the exhibit space. One large gallery will be split in two - the "Mona Lisa" on one side and the other full of Venetian Renaissance works...and speaking of the Louvre, be on the lookout for Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot’s work "The Sevres Road." It was stolen May 3...A scientist who studies vision and the brain says he’s made a curious discovery about portrait painting. He says that artists almost always place one eye of the subject at the horizontal center of the painting - halfway between the left and right sides of the picture frame. You’d think the line would run through the nose, but many examples seem to prove him right, from "Mona Lisa" to portraits by Titian, Rembrandt, Picasso, even Washington on the dollar bill. Fascinating idea and theory!
TV: I’ve been thinking about TV sitcom’s laugh tracks and it dawned on me that maybe those shows aren’t supposed to make me laugh, maybe they’re supposed to make the machines laugh. And on that level, they’re VERY successful! - Art S. Revolutionary
CITY PLANNING: (Art on the largest scale of all) NYC Mayor Giuliani has cracked down on the city’s 2,000 street vendors - not just food vendors: hot dogs, bagels and such, but painters and booksellers. He says it will reduce sidewalk congestion. The vendors are fighting back. The mayor wants to restrict where they can operate but Museathinks he’s wrong. It’s this kind of street business that not only attracts pedestrians and supports interaction in a neighborhood, but is also reduces crime; ‘eyes on the street’ as city planning guru Jane Jacobs says. The mayor’s a dope and he’s our ‘Chump of the Month’
In USA Today, Dallas was voted as the 6th best Farmer’s Market in the country. We’re glad to hear that but it sure could expand to better if you ask us. It’s only just begun. The traffic congestion is a mess, there’s still not enough pedestrian room and there needs to be a greater variety of goods.
England: high speed bullet trains are now going into service that will carry passengers from Heathrow Airport to Central London in 15 minutes. It usually takes an hour by any other transportation. And the trains run every 15 minutes. We salute and advocate a bullet train to connect downtown Dallas and Ft. Worth and run thru D/FW Airport in between. Let’s do it in Texas!
VERY LITERARY: If you want to know why this country is as it is you might want to look at these three books that were so highly influential in educating Americans: 1. New England Primer (colonial times, 2. Noah Webster’s Spelling Book (first half of the 19th century), and 3. (William) McGuffey Readers (second half of the 19th century). These McGuffey readers were so popular that 60 million copies were sold at their peak between 1870-90 and all told, equal 122 million. There was a primer, speller, and 4 or 5 readers to teach reading and import moral lessons. (The American School by Joel Spring)... Answer to the miniQUIZ: ‘incunabulum’ is a book printed before 1501 and if you’ve got one in the attic, you may be wealthy!
DR. SEUSS: The Dr. Seuss National Memorial, with help from his widow, the State of Massachusetts, and the site city of Springfield, his birthplace, are planning the Dr. Seuss Memorial, a free park with 6 larger-than-life statues of The Cat in the Hat, Yertle the Turtle, the Lorax, and more, all located on, what else, but Mulberry Street. We salute them all as our Camp Champs of the month. ...And speaking of museums, a number of Brit museums were fearing that they would have to start charging entrance fees: Tate, National Gallery, British Museum, National Portrait Gallery. But the Gov. came through with the dough to keep them free for you and me. That was close!
WHAT THEY SAID MADE ME THINK DEPT: Artist quotes: "Like milk, every fashion has an expiration date. Some sooner than others." - Gianni Versace (from the zine Salve #9)..."When you're competent and you live in an age where there's a lot of incompetence, it makes you appear extraordinary. That's my theory." - Billy Joel..."Environmental history tells me to save not only great pieces of architecture but evidence of the ways ordinary people have used the natural environment - traditional field patterns, barns, fishing gear. But what I most want to preserve is the legacy of evolution on this planet: the life forms and ecosystems that we humans did not make and which, once lost, can never be replaced. That's a history that far transcends in time and complexity what our species has been doing over the past few hundred or thousand years." - Donald Worster, environmental historian..."It's insane that I have power." - Mike Horowitz, Director of Acquisitions, The Sundance Channel, age 23.
MUSIC: Hank Williams' guitar, a Southerner Jumbo Gibson made in the early '50s was auctioned by Christie's on Feb. 4 and brought $112,000...In the 60s the BBC regularly taped its radio shows including live sessions of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, etc. and just about anyone who was anyone. Well some bean counter got the idea that if they erased the tapes and reused them they would save about $9 per tape. Luckily for us, many BBC producers had the sense to squirrel away many of these tapes. They are now being released as the BBC Sessions. In an ironical note, the BBC claims to have all rights to the tapes though the producers were the ones who saved them from destruction. Lawyers say they deserve nothing. ...Musea's best name for a new band - 'The Plastic Bagheads'...And is it just me or have you noticed that all of the radio stations seem to be playing slower and slower music. It's as if they're trying to sedate their audience. This goes even for the so called rock stations. I wonder why?
MOVIES: With summer blockbusters averaging $60 million on the MARKETING, not the making, but MARKETING of each movie Godzilla is the monster of them all with $120 million (no misprint). Doesn't it seem like you could market anything and make money? Musea says we can make back $100 million on home movies of a Church Easter egg hunt with $60 million marketing budget. Here's how: IMAGINE posters, plastic cups, and the sides of buses that claim: THE EASTER EGG HUNT (THIS TIME THE RABBIT DIED!) "Egg-citing" says Gene Shalit..."The yokes are terrific!" - Siskel & Ebert...You too will scramble to your seat to see Sally getting laid in the grass and Harry smoking it! Humpty Dumpty fell down laughing! And talk about action! Arnold Schwartzen-egger! And the Yoker is WIIILLLLDDD! "I laughed, I cried - I ran the omlette!" says Musea
Start an art revolution!
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