One thing I'm looking forward to in the next few weeks is going to the theatre—not usually my thing, but this time it's for a theatre piece about art. The play is called (what else?) "Art" and it is a 1995 piece by award-winning playwright Yasmina Reza.
Here's the description from Canstage, which is mounting the play from March 15 to April 10:
The play revolves around the purchase of a very expensive, white-on-white painting which pushes the boundaries of art and ignites a passionate debate among three friends. Gruff battleaxe Marc, highly-strung appeaser Yvan and burgeoning art aficionado Serge come to a head over artistic merit, modernism and the value of friendship, testing the men's relationship and ultimately offering reconciliation.
The play won Reza a Moliere Award in 1995, but it wasn't without controversy, as Independent critic David Benedict noted:
Not everyone has hollered [the play's] praises in so unequivocal a fashion. The Guardian asserted that Reza's anti-art arguments pandered to popular prejudice. "The real test is whether the play encourages audiences to embrace modern art or reject it." Perhaps Michael Billington was unnerved, as I was, by the braying first night crowd. Finney's implacable response to the canvas - "It's shit" - was met with delight by an audience giving vent to their closet philistinism. The play's discussions are funny and fascinating but there were times when I began to sense what it was like being at Nuremburg, as Courtenay's attempts to justify "art" were met with belly laughs.
Sounds interesting!
Image of playwright Yasmina Reza with a poster from a previous production of the play from Persian Mirror
Monday, March 8, 2010
Looking Forward to: Art, the Play, at Canstage Theatre
Friday, March 5, 2010
What's in the new Federal Budget for the Arts?
The federal budget was the focus of Canadian news addicts yesterday. What's in it for the arts? There's a few different takes.
From CARFAC,
Visual artists are encouraged to see that the 2010 federal budget will maintain support for the Canada Council for the Arts but are concerned about cuts to the Department of Canadian Heritage. Given the ability of the cultural sector to attract talent and investment at a low cost, the cultural industries should be an important part of the federal government’s plan to foster innovation and economic growth going forward.
From the Canadian Museums Association,
The budget does not contain any significant new developments for the museum sector. The good news is there are no cuts to support programs for museums. However, we are clearly headed into an era of significant cuts in government spending. The CMA attended budget lockup and has digested the 450-page document.
...
"Virtually no one got what they wanted from this budget. It contains very little new spending for any sector, and is one of the leanest budgets on record," says John McAvity, executive director of the CMA. "The CMA will continue pushing for additional funding for our sector."
From the CBC,
Over the past 18 months, Heritage Minister James Moore has made a series of announcements of stable funding to the Canada Council for the Arts, Canada Arts Training, magazines and other cultural funding streams.
It also boosted spending on cultural spaces, such as museums and concert halls, to $30 million annually in 2010 and 2011.
It was "wise" to maintain funding for the Canada Council and these other funding streams, said Shannon Litzenberger, a member of the Canadian Arts Coalition.
She also welcomed $25 million committed in 2010-11 for creation of the Canada Prizes for the Arts and Creativity. The prize, conceived by the late David Pecaut, is a new performing arts prize designed to foster excellence.
But Litzenberger said there was nothing substantive in the budget to boost the economic activity that comes from the cultural sector
"One of the things that is really coming to the fore is that there is a growing consensus that arts investment is a very cost-effective catalyst for high economic return and so we assume the government was looking for cost-effective measures to help the economy recover," Litzenberger said.
She said the government could have helped competitiveness by creating a new fund for touring by cultural groups and activities, which would replace a fund cut in August 2008.
The government could have gone a long way toward creating new jobs if it had invested more in the film and television production sector, said Stephen Waddell, executive director of the actors' union ACTRA.
From the Globe,
Others, though pleased to see no cuts, were less charitable.
“We're of course disappointed there's nothing new. But it is very clear that we are facing an avalanche of cuts to come and nobody is going to escape it,” said John McAvity, executive director of the Canadian Museums Association.
From the Toronto Star,
There are only passing references to cultural and heritage institutions in the budget. The government announced $540 million of arts, culture and heritage funding last year, spread over two years.
I'm still trying to figure it all out myself. To my mind, it's the kind of budget designed to expressly not generate enough disgruntlement for public outcry. Still surprised to see the Canada Prizes in there, though. The money could be better spent elsewhere, like at the National Portrait Gallery.
Image from Lifehack
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Out Today: Q&A with Denyse Thomasos in the National Post
In December, well-known abstract painter Denyse Thomasos opened her first New York solo show in 10 years at Lennon, Weinberg. Now, a Toronto solo is also featuring her work at Olga Korper Gallery. Today, the National Post published my interview with the Trinidad-born, Mississauga-raised, New York–based artist. Here's an excerpt:
Q Where did this show of paintings come from?
A I've always worked with structures that have been used to confine people of colour. Slave boats, prisons and burial sites are three structures I've expanded on for a long time.
My last show was based on superjails, including a superjail I'd visited in Maryland. To me, the paintings were a way to bring the invisibility of these prisons, which are often in rural areas, into urban settings for people to see.
My intention with this show was to continue on prisons, but they kind of turned into bird machines or winged objects. There's freedom to them, but if you look closely, they're still made of small prison forms and containers.
Q What was it like visiting a superjail?
A A lot of the cage forms in my work are based on what I saw there. The courtyard was a heavily wired box on all sides. The prisoners are mandated to go to school, and the classroom is a phone booth-sized cage that four or five people are tied to.
All these people are considered the worst of the worst. They'll never get out. The best they can do is get to a better prison.
What was very moving was when we were up in the surveillance tower and http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifthe guides said "OK, a new batch of prisoners is coming in." We were expecting these horrendous creatures to come out ...and they were just kids. They were young, black kids.
It was a madhouse, the closest thing I've ever seen to an insane asylum. It really kind of breaks your heart. Just one visit left me deeply depressed for a week. But that's why these things are left invisible. We can't deal with the reality of what we're doing.
Image of Thomasos' Maiden Flight 2010 from Olga Korper Gallery
Disappointing Decisions: Francoise Sullivan @ the AGO
The AGO has some interesting projects going on right now (like the Wangechi Mutu show, for which I did an associated National Post interview last week) but their Francoise Sullivan exhibition is a disappointment. As I explain in today's NOW,
Montreal artist Françoise Sullivan has had an influential career, producing important work in dance, sculpture, photography and painting since the 1940s.
Unfortunately, you wouldn’t know that from viewing Inner Force, billed by the AGO as “an exhibition celebrating the career of pioneering Canadian artist Françoise Sullivan.” This disappointingly small outing contains only five abstract paintings (all post-2000) and documentation of just one 1948 outdoor experimental dance piece.
Granted, the paintings are massive, and it’d be a challenge to squeeze any more work into the smallish room. But it’s clear that space itself is only part of the problem. None of the similarly sized rooms on the fourth floor (which feature Christian Marclay and Michael Snow) are billed as individual “exhibitions.” And there’s good reason for that – they’re simply not equal to the task, particularly for artists whose work is large or career long and varied.
You can read more at http://www.nowtoronto.com/art/story.cfm?content=173871.
Documentation image of Sullivan's 1948 dance piece Danse dans la Neige from NOW Toronto
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
On Being Un-With-It: Or, A Post in Which I Finally Come to Understand what the "Love the Artist" AE Billboards are Shilling
Using the image of the artist to shill stuffs is nothing new. However, I must admit I have been amused over the past number of months as American Eagle has mounted large billboards emblazoned "Love the Artist" (like this one in Yonge-Dundas Square.) But I hadn't until this point been sufficiently motivated to find out what more the ads "mean". Surprise! "The Artist" in this case is "The Artist Jean," which AE defines as "Sexy Skinny Flare Leg. Low Rise." (There's also an "Artist Crop.") In a related vein, there is also a pretty bad commercial you can watch on Youtube, which emphasizes the messy-haired-yet-perfect-skinned aspect of being a visual creative.
Could the next jeans instalment please be "The Critic"? ie. "Elastic Waistband, Ink Blots, Comfy Yet Concise"? A girl can dream.
Image from LA-Story
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
A Few Good Shows: Dundas/Ossington/Queen
My gallery travels this weekend took me to a number of strong shows in the Dundas West/Ossington/Queen St area. I must admit I missed a lot of shows in the area too. Still, I just wanted to give these a shout-out--the area is certainly worth a stroll in the next few weeks for:
Katie Bethune Leamen at MKG127 - love the huge iridescent sytrofoam sculpture titled "Really It’s A Lot Bigger, A Lot Heavier, And A Lot Darker". Very smart. Also interesting OMD ephemera angle in paintings reproducing different copies of a single album cover (seen above)
Hadley & Maxwell at Jessica Bradley - typically eclectic work, but great to see their furniture cross-sections in particular. Also like the wallpaper swaths blocking the window, making the storefront look very very different. Nice.
Nicole De Brabandere at Alison Smith - I posted about this last month, wondering what it would be like. De Brabandere makes strange, weird little objects that you can spend a long time looking at. Like.
Michael Caines & Goody-B Wiseman at Katharine Mulherin - While it's kind of a downer to see the old Katharine Mulherin gallery transformed into an antiques-type shop, however fun, there is still one Mulherin space going and the drawings by Michael Caines, which reimagine bible passages in pop style, are really worth seeing. Goody-B Wiseman's bronzes are less impressive, but kinda cute and surprisingly raw for the format.
Image of Katie Bethune Leamen show at MKG127 from the gallery's website
Monday, March 1, 2010
Upcoming: Sandals-riffic talk at the Artist Project, March 7
Last year around this time I visited to the Artist Project, an newish art fair in Toronto. There wasn't a lot that impressed me on that outing, though I did list a few highlights here on the blog. Overall, I found the offerings were quite uneven.
This weekend, as the project recurs, I'm again not sure what to expect. This fair is a bit of a strange bird for organizer MMPI—it seems like they're trying to find some hybrid between its home-designy-and-wide-appeal-oriented One of a Kind Show and its cognoscenti-laden and fine-arty Armory Show (which actually runs on the same weekend in New York).
Nonetheless, I will be going to see the show, and even talk at it a little bit about different ways of valuing art—personal, emotional, social, and financial, among other takes. My "Art Chat" will take place from 1 to 2pm on Sunday, March 7, at the fair, which is in the Queen Elizabeth Building at Exhibition Place. The talk is free with fair admission, which is $12 at the door, $10 if you buy online, including free readmission all weekend. For more details visit www.theartistprojecttoronto.com.
Image of a work by one of my Artist Project/One of a Kind Show faves, Wendy Walgate, from www.walgate.com
