Michael Kimmelman, Robert Storr,Peter Schjeldahl and Mark Stevens & Elizabeth Murray discuss artists of the moment in 2002.
Videos
SALMAN RUSHDIE, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, at Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, Ca., May, 2007, 77 min.
Writer Salman Rushdie speaks with Richard Wolinsky as part of Montalvo Arts Center’s Censorship and Dissent series, 2007.
WHAT IS AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS?, The School of Life, 5 min.
Another great video from the folks at The School Of Life, who have a knack for reducing monumental questions and fields of study to 5 minute video explanations.
In this video, the characteristics and underpinnings of what some schools of philosophy refer to as an “Existential Crisis” are discussed. This clip is as enjoyable as it is relevant, recommended!
CORNELIUS CARDEW :: TREATISE, performed by the Cardew Trio, maskfest, 1.12.2010
Treatise is a musical composition by British composer Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981). Treatise is a graphic musical score comprising 193 pages of lines, symbols, and various geometric or abstract shapes that eschew conventional musical notation. Implicit in the title is a reference to the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, which was of particular inspiration to Cardew in composing the work. The score neither contains nor is accompanied by any explicit instruction to the performers in how to perform the work. Cardew worked on the composition from 1963 to 1967. Continue reading CORNELIUS CARDEW :: TREATISE, performed by the Cardew Trio, maskfest, 1.12.2010
CONOR OBERST :: TACHYCARDIA, from the new album, Ruminations
REVIEW
Ruminations is a record like none other in Conor Oberst’s catalog, stunning for how utterly alone he sounds.
Conor Oberst’s music has never sounded lonely. Yes, he’s done catatonically despondent, inconsolable, dejected, maniacal—it’s a lot to handle, and yet he’s always been surrounded by friends both local and legendary who believe in his vision, underscoring his status as one of the 21st century’s most mercurial and charismatic songwriters. Arriving almost a month after a comprehensive Bright Eyes boxed set that feels like a headstone for the band, Ruminations is a record like none other in Oberst’s catalog—stunning for how utterly alone he sounds. This is obvious in a technical sense, as there are no goddamn timpani rolls, no boys to keep strummin’ those guitars, just Oberst on harmonica, acoustic and piano with ten songs written during an Omaha winter and recorded in 48 hours. Plenty of folk artists make records like that. But there’s also a loneliness in Ruminations that’s far rare and disturbing—the loneliness one feels after taking stock and wondering if they have a friend left in the world.
Continue reading CONOR OBERST :: TACHYCARDIA, from the new album, Ruminations
Arvo Pärt :: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, BBC Orchestra, Edward Gardner, conductor, 2010
Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten is a short canon in A minor, written in 1977 by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, for string orchestra and bell. The work is an early example of Pärt’s tintinnabuli style, which he based on his reactions to early chant music. Its appeal is often ascribed to its relative simplicity; a single melodic motif dominates and it both begins and ends with scored silence. However, as the critic Ivan Hewett observes, while it “may be simple in concept…the concept produces a tangle of lines which is hard for the ear to unravel. And even where the music really is simple in its audible features, the expressive import of those features is anything but.” A typical performance lasts about six and a half minutes. Continue reading Arvo Pärt :: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, BBC Orchestra, Edward Gardner, conductor, 2010
GERHARD RICHTER :: OCTOBER 18,1977 The Baader-Meinhof (RAF) Cycle
Gerhard Richters 15-painting cycle, October 18, 1977 is arguably one of the most important works of art of the second half of the 20th century. Now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the collection of black and white oil paintings drew from ubiquitous photographs of the Baader-Meinhof era. Angering the German public when it first appeared in the late 1980s, it has become recognized as Richter’s masterwork.
Continue reading GERHARD RICHTER :: OCTOBER 18,1977 The Baader-Meinhof (RAF) Cycle
A TRIBE CALLED QUEST :: WE THE PEOPLE
From November 2016 album We Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service , the sixth studio album from A Tribe Called Quest. The album features guest appearances from André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Jack White, Elton John, Kanye West, Anderson Paak, Talib Kweli, and the group’s most frequent collaborators Consequence and Busta Rhymes. The album features contributions from member Phife Dawg, who died several months prior to the album’s release.
THE COOL SCHOOL, THE STORY OF THE FERUS GALLERY, DOCUMENTARY, 85 MIN.
THE COOL SCHOOL is the story of the Ferus Gallery, which nurtured Los Angeles’s first significant post-war artists between 1957 and 1966.”
I remember the word ‘Ferus’ outside had this kind of magic to it. Ferus had a much sparer approach to showing art. If you want to put a tiny painting on a single big wall, you’re welcome to it. And the artist is the boss.”
—Ed Ruscha, Ferus Gallery artist
The Ferus gang, 1962. L-R, Ed Kienholz, Allen Lynch, Ed Moses, Billy Al Bengston, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John Altoon
In late 1956, medical-school dropout Walter Hopps met artist Ed Kienholz for lunch at a hot dog stand on La Cienega Boulevard. The two drafted a contract on a hot dog wrapper that stated simply, “We will be partners in art for five years.” And with that, the Ferus Gallery was born. Continue reading THE COOL SCHOOL, THE STORY OF THE FERUS GALLERY, DOCUMENTARY, 85 MIN.
Marcel Duchamp, 1968 BBC interview
BBC’s Joan Bakewell interviewed Marcel Duchamp in June 1968, just months before his death. Bakewell asks the artist about his life and relationship to retinal art and Dada, as well as his thoughts on more contemporary works by Happenings artists such as Allan Kaprow. Duchamp speaks about individualism in face of the group think that occurs in self-defined movements such as Dada.
The Incubator 