sunday night links

A few more links to provide some reading for Sunday evening or to ease your Monday morning:

- The Atlantic looks at Birth of the Cool, currently on view at the Addison Gallery of American Art.  No, of course I haven't been to see it yet.  On a related note, Regina Hackett has an informative post about a documentary on midcentury modern art in LA, what it gets right and what it leaves out.

- A press release worth heeding: Big RED & Shiny Declares It Unethical To Quote Yourself In Press Release That You Wrote.  Well done.

- Richard Lacayo has a post and an article on the current state of play regarding the myriad cultural property disputes museums face today.  The article quotes Philippe de Montebello deploying heavy irony to question the extent to which source nations will take the principle of repatriating artworks: "And at what point is Turkey going to return the Alexander Sarcophagus to Lebanon?"  The question is not as far fetched as it may seem.  The fact of successful claims on what has become largely uncontested ground will not--and has not--resulted in the issue going away, it only means further claims, from other parties and at times with less legitimate cause, will emerge (and have done so.)  Combine this with the growth in online collection databases, where an increasing number of museums place an ever-growing amount of collection information online, making easily accessible little-known holdings and the scope for potential claims grows even wider.  It's harder now not to think that a major instance of repatriation--say the return of the Elgin marbles, discussed in the article--that went significantly beyond existing norms wouldn't blow the lid off the fundamental question of international collections of antiquities as such.  How many objects could museums claim to rightfully own if the British Museum did not stand by its right to works held in Britain for centuries, whatever their importance of the circumstances of their arrival?

- An excellent new blog, soon for the sidebar links: Fugitive Ink.  Just the sort of thing I like to read, and highly recommended.  The anonymous author, it seems, anticipated my desire to see a discussion of why it was important to keep the painting of General Wolfe in the UK, but I think I like this post, on crime and walking at night, even better, not least for its beautifully evocative depictions of London after dark.  They're almost, if I may use a much-abused word, phenomenological.

- Simpleposie has a whole bunch of film-related art questions up right now, including from a week or so ago, "Which character in what movie is surrounded by the best art?"  I don't really have an answer, as I watch very few films, but am reminded of two examples.  First, at the conclusion of the tempestuous party scene in All About Eve that supplies about 75% of the film's best lines and moments, as Bette Davis's Margo Channing is led off to bed, drunk and still feebly raging, the camera closes in on a reproduction of the portrait of Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse by Reynolds.  Then there's Laura, which doesn't feature any real art in particular that I'm aware of, but has loads of faux-Impressionist and other 19th century art in various scenes, as well as a painting of the title character as a focus point in the first part of the film.  Good movie, too.

- It's from the previous issue, but I just saw that Bookforum has an discussion regarding Edmund Wilson, two volumes of whose criticism has been published by the Library of America, between Morris Dickstein and Lewis Dabney, Wilson's biographer.  They discuss problems with Axel's Castle, and may be entirely right in their assessment.  Still, it's always seemed to me--especially the chapter on Joyce, which displays a remarkably complete grasp of immensely challenging writing virtually contemporary with the work's publication--as impressive a feat of reading as I've ever seen.  And now's as good a time as any to mention that Wilson's daughter, Helen Miranda Wilson, is a painter, and a good one, to my eyes.

Hm.  You know, a few of these could have been developed into actual stand-alone posts of their own instead of grouped into another lame links post.  Maybe some other time.

Comments

[san francisco modern]

the Birth of Cool exhibit was a great recommendation - thank you. Its now actually (or should I say 'finally') in our area (San Francisco Bay) with the exhibit being held at the Oakland Museum of California.