Something for the Antique Roadshow

FEAST YOUR eyes on two remarkable photographs by Edward Steichen, taken about a century ago, which have only recently come to light. Relics of the earliest days of colour photography, they are lushly tinted portraits of a raven-haired woman, thought to be Charlotte Spaulding, a friend and student. They are at once inviting and forbidding, staged yet intimate. In their gauzy splendour, one can’t help but think of Gustav Klimt’s jewel-like portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer (one of which sold for a king’s ransom last summer). After decades in the cupboard of Spaulding’s daughter (which helped preserve these rare, colour autochromes), they will be on view this autumn at the George Eastman House in Rochester, a top photography museum.

Adorable America

AT A time when American patriotism seems to be suffering some blows–a bumbling president, a questionable war–the art market is seeing a rise in the value of a more wistful, more romantic view of the country. Norman Rockwell, a painter whose work is often sneered at as greeting-card illustrations, has become a top seller. As the New York Sun reports:

There’s a sea change going on in the market for American painting. The field has traditionally been dominated by austere portraits of Founding Fathers, impressionist style landscapes, and expansive seascapes. Now, pictures by Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyeth, once sniffed at as mere illustrators, may spike the American paintings sales, which take place tomorrow at Bonhams and Doyle New York, at Sotheby’s Wednesday, and at Christie’s Thursday.

A decade ago, works by Rockwell and Mr. Wyeth barely fetched $1 million. However, “now there is an understanding that their availability is diminishing,” the head of American paintings at Christie’s, Eric Wilding, said. That dwindling supply means higher prices.

Sotheby’s is betting that Rockwell’s original cover painting for the September 15, 1945, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, “Home on Leave (Sailor in Hammock),” will sell for between $2 million and $3 million.  

Rockwell’s work, full of apple-cheeked children and smiling postmen, has often seemed nostalgic for an America that never was.  (Few are surprised that Steven Spielberg is a fan.) Though Rockwell may have been more complicated than many assume, there is something grimly fitting about the rising stock of pictures of smiling soldiers, just as newspapers fill up with ever more photos of bloodied ones.

Above the Fold

A round-up of the latest news in the arts world.

“Shrek the Third” grossed $122.9 million during its opening weekend at theatres across America, making it the largest opening for an animated movie ever, and the third-largest film debut ever.

Last night at the Drama Desk Awards, often considered a precursor to the Tony Awards, “The Coast of Utopia”, a trilogy of plays about 19th-century Russia, won seven awards, including best drama, while “Spring Awakening”, a rock musical based on a 19th century German play, won four, including one for outstanding musical.

Michael Moore’s newest work “Sicko”, a film about health care in America, made waves at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend (and not just over Mr Moore’s trip to Cuba). The film has so far received surprisingly positive reviews.

Britney Spears eat your heart out. Scantily clad pop singers and controversial music videos in the Middle East are becoming increasingly popular and perhaps even more provocative.

Saturday night in Brooklyn

WE TALKED a couple of weeks back about the efforts of music critics to evoke new music in words. Here is another brave struggle, by Nate Chinen in today’s New York Times, to do justice to a performance by Keiji Haino, of Japan, at the “No Fun Fest” of extreme experimental music, in Brooklyn:

A longtime hero of the Japanese noise-rock scene, he … began his set with a passage involving a mandolinlike stringed instrument and a vocal torrent, backing his own brackish growls with a plangent, wobbly twang.

Eventually he switched to guitar, unleashing a wave of barbed static. Through the haze there was occasionally a beam of something almost normative—pure amplifier feedback, or a drone processed through a ring modulator—but the general effect was a relentless hissing sludge.

I guess you had to be there.

Above the Fold

A round-up of some of the latest news in the arts world.

A new show at the Bruce Museum in Connecticut entitled “Fakes and Forgeries: The Art of Deception” displays forgeries of works by Andy Worhol, Giacometti and Matissee.

The Cannes Film Festival continues, with Jerry Seinfeld floating around as a giant bee to promote his newest film Bee Movie, set to open in the fall. Also, Universal Pictures has struck a deal to finance and sell a package of five movies to be made through a new partnership between Mexican filmmakers Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, whose recent works include “Children of Men,” “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Babel”, respectively.

“Shrek the Third” opens tonight in theatres across America, and has received mixed reviews from critics, who neverthelesss admit that the movie is still funny, and still appeals to both adults and children.

Above the Fold

A round-up of the latest news in the arts world.

Another record-setting auction of contemporary art took place at Christie’s auction house last night, where sales totaled $384.6 million, setting records for 26 different artists, including Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. Mr Warhol’s “Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)” sold for $71.7 million.

New York Magazine speculates that The New York Times was wrong when they said a bearded man bought the Rothko painting that sold for $72.8 million at Sotheby’s the other night, reporting instead that it was more likely bought over the phone by a Russian.

Ozzy Osborne, rock legend, is set to release his first album in six years on May 22nd. For a look at some of his favorite rock albums, click here.

The online-retail site Amazon.com has announced that it will begin selling MP3’s through an online digital music store that could become a competitor to Apple’s dominant iTunes Music Store.

In good “Company”

Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” has a way of making its audience squirm. This is particularly true for anyone catching the musical on Broadway, where its honest take on married, middle-class New Yorkers often hits a bit too close to home. Still, buy yourself a ticket (and then make an appointment with your therapist): over three decades after its debut, this show feels as fresh as ever.

At its centre is a surprise birthday party for Robert, played by the wonderfully boyish Raul Esparza. A 35-year-old bachelor in a sea of married couples, he is the odd-man out, often observing the awkward imperfections of his friends’ marriages, and defending himself against efforts to get him hitched. A wary, beloved bystander, he is both alone and never alone. His friends fondly hound him–“Bo-bby”, they cry, they demand–to commit to one of his many girlfriends, yet they envy his independence. (Homosexual fans of the play have long-claimed Robert as a possibly-not heterosexual proxy for their own social place, but he is not in fact a gay character.)

Above the Fold

A round-up of the latest news in the arts world.

The American Ballet Theatre opened its spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House with a star-studded gala and a sampling of the season to come, including excerpts from “Romeo and Juliet”, “Sleeping Beauty” , “Othello” and “Swan Lake”.

Sotheby’s auction of contemporary art last night reached record total sales of $254.87 million for the 65 pieces being sold. Amongst the highest-selling paintings, Mark Rothko’s “White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)” sold for a whopping $72.84 million. However, Jackson Pollock’s “Number 16, 1949,” only sold for 17.5 million, missing the museum’s $18-25 million estimate.

The 60th Cannes Film Festival has begun and will run until the end of May. “My BlueBerry Nights”, a love story directed by Wong Kar Wai and staring Norah Jones and Jude Law, will open the festival tonight.

Ralph Lauren just opened his first store in Russia, the country of his family’s origin, and the inspiration for a number of his collections.

Survival of the…

THANKS GOES to Carter for bringing out attention to the Darwin Correspondence Project.  This is a new online database with the complete, searchable texts of around 5,000 letters written by and to Charles Darwin up to 1865 (including surviving letters from the Beagle voyage).

Darwin was an eager correspondent, exchanging letters with nearly 2,000 people. Even a swift glance at these readable missives yields ample evidence of his keen mind and enthusiastic curiosity.

Above the Fold

A round-up of the latest news in the arts world.

Nominees for this years Tony awards were announced today. “Spring Awakening“, a rock musical based on a 19th century German play about sexually anguished teenagers, received 11 nominations. Meanwhile, “Grey Gardens“, a drama about two eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy, and “The Coast of Utopia” a trilogy about the lives of Russian intellectuals in the 19th century, both picked up 10 nominations. Complete coverage of the nominees can be found here. The awards will be held on June 10th at Radio City Music Hall.

NBC has announced its not particularly exciting new line-up, which includes a couple new dramas and the return of Jerry Seinfeld in 3-minute long “minisodes”.

Paul McCartney’s new solo album “Memory Almost Full” will be released digitally, along with the rest of his solo works. The word is still out though, if Beatles albums will soon follow.