All the week's essential arts news, including art and the stock market, the new Menil Drawing Center, and 30 years of minimalist music.
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[Arts & Culture]
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Arts & Culture
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Los Angeles culture has been hopping this week. Iâm Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, with this weekâs essential culture news:
ART & THE CRASH
Itâs been 10 years since the biggest Dow Jones drop in history. The Times looks at the long-lasting effects of the recession on L.A. culture. âItâs been a period of great institutional abundance, growing cultural confidence, and a staggering cost of living, especially for the artists who make it all happen,â writes Scott Timberg. âThe long-term effects of the crash are not entirely clear because some are sorting themselves out.â [Los Angeles Times](
Artist Carmen Argote graduated in 2007 into a challenging economic environment. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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In related stories:
â [Charles McNulty]( looks at how theaters became more attuned to working class stories, such as Lynn Nottageâs âSweat,â but âthe reliance on salacious box office bait has only intensified.â
â [Mark Swed]( notes that the cityâs classical music institutions have weathered the storm, and in fact, the Los Angeles Philharmonic stands as a shining example of what happens when you invest.
â In visual arts, [Christopher Knight]( zeroes in on the market. âThe Great Recession,â he notes, âhad a significant role to play in cementing the idea that contemporary art could be an asset class, like stocks, bonds, equities or money markets.â
"Portrait of Edmond de Belamy," an artwork created by algorithm that sold for $432,500 at Christie's. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images)
A NEW MUSEUM
Christopher Knight traveled to Houston for the unveiling of the Menil Drawing Institute, designed by Los Angeles architects Johnston Marklee & Assoc., and featuring a debut exhibition of works by Jasper Johns. It is the first facility built expressly for the exhibition, study and conservation of modern and contemporary drawings, and it is, he writes, âa sophisticated stunner.â [Los Angeles Times](
Houston's Menil Drawing Institute by Johnston Marklee. (Richard Barnes / Menil Collection)
Plus, Knight has a look at a âgrim but captivatingâ installation by Danial Nord at the Torrance Art Museum, consisting of a series of translucent humanoid figures permanently tethered to digital devices. [Los Angeles Times](
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WOMAN OF MANY FACES
âI donât see the point in doing something if youâre not risking falling on your face.â Thatâs what actress Cate Blanchett tells The Timesâ Deborah Vankin of collaborating with Julian Rosefeldt on âManifesto,â currently on view at Hauser & Wirth. It features the actress as 13 different characters â all of whom recite artist manifestoes. [Los Angeles Times](
Artist Julian Rosefeldt pauses with actress Cate Blanchett at Hauser & Wirth. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
MASTER OF DANCE
An installation titled âMC9,â by video artist Charles Atlas captures the achievements of Merce Cunningham, the man Mark Swed describes as âthe greatest dancer and choreographer of the second half of the 20th century.â The piece is on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Swed found it âriveting.â He writes: âI could only think that this is what it must have been like to be inside Cunninghamâs head.â [Los Angeles Times](
"MCâ¹," by Charles Atlas, which captures the work of Merce Cunningham. (Gene Pittman/Walker Art Center)
Because Swed is a maniac, he spent last weekend concert hopping: catching the Pacific Symphony in Orange County, a premiere of a new work by Oliver Knussen by the LA Phil in L.A. and a Sunday gig by Kaleidescope, the conductor-less orchestra that this season is focused on playing new compositions by women. [Los Angeles Times](
He also reports on a concert including a new work by composer Steve Reich at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Los Angeles debut of pianist Margaret Leng Tan at REDCAT, playing George Crumbâs âMetamorphoses (Book 1).â [Los Angeles Times](
30 YEARS OF MINIMALISM
Because weâre on the subject of Steve Reich: the composer sat down for a Q&A with Richard Ginell to remember some of the earliest performances of his groundbreaking minimalist work. âThe musicians were totally out of touch with my idiom,â he recalls of the 1984 premiere in Germany of âThe Desert Music.â âThere was no way to correct it.â [Los Angeles Times](
Composer Steve Reich in New York City in May 2005. (Jeffrey Herman)
IN THE GALLERIES
A new exhibition of work by Alexander Calder at Hauser & Wirth brings together 30 black sculptures from a nearly four-decade period in his life â works that are âjagged, organic, dramatic and playful,â writes contributor Matt Stromberg. [Los Angeles Times](
Alexander Calder, "3 Segments," 1973. (Calder Foundation / Art Resource)
Plus, Raúl de Nievesâ show at Freedman Fitzpatrick features âimpish figuresâ that are âbombastically bedazzled,â looking like âcartoon characters in some mysterious psychodrama,â writes Times contributing reviewer Sharon Mizota. [Los Angeles Times](
ORIGINAL WORKS
Charles McNulty reviews Qui Nguyenâs âVietgoneâ in a new production by East West Players. He reports that he remains âstruckâ by âthe originality of the playwriting.â And while the staging is uneven, actor Paul Yen is âstupendousâ in the role of a bad boy father. [Los Angeles Times](
Sylvia Kwan, left, and Paul Yen in East West Players' "Vietgone." (Michael Lamont)
Plus, McNulty has a look at Eliza Clarkâs âirritating and ultimately chilling new comedy âQuackâ at the Kirk Douglas Theatre â which takes on the wellness industry. [Los Angeles Times](
A PIVOTAL FIGURE
MarÃa Irene Fornés, the Cuban-born playwright who was pivotal to the off-off-Broadway movement, died this week at age 88. Charles McNulty describes the nine-time Obie winner as âarguably the most influential American dramatist whose work hasnât become a staple of the mainstream repertoire.â [Los Angeles Times](
ON STAGE
Tom Stoppardâs âRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,â which imagines the musings of a pair of Shakespeareâs minor characters, is a difficult play to stage. But, as The Timesâ Daryl H. Miller notes, A Noise Within is giving it a go âand succeeding marvelously.â [Los Angeles Times](
Rafael Goldstein, left, and Kasey Mahaffy in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." (Craig Schwartz)
Miller also has a look at a play inspired by a man whose family once owned much of Hollywood, âSeñor Plummerâs Final Fiesta,â by [Rogue Artists Ensemble]( while Margaret Gray reviews âWinter Solsticeâ at [City Garage]( which is (quite appropriately) a case study of ineffectual reactions to fascism.
Plus, Christina Campodonico has a look at new works by Jacob Jonas The Company, the dance company-in-residence at the [Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts](.
READY FOR THE WEEKEND:
Matt Cooper lines up the [weekendâs best picks]( including a Day of the Dead party and a Morrissey concert with Joan Jett as opener. Heâs also got the week ahead in [classical music]( [theater]( [art]( and [dance]( the latter of which includes a dance performance by Contra-Tiempo that is all about joy.
Plus, I round up my own visual arts picks in [Datebook]( which includes a show of Renaissance types getting butt nekkid. Sounds like date night to me.
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IN OTHER NEWSâ¦
â How the seller of a Nazi-looted painting by Degas has continuously eluded the family to whom it originally belonged. [New York Times](
â Arts organizations are reconsidering their ties to Saudi Arabiaâs Abdulaziz Center for World Culture. [Hyperallergic](
â Thomas Campbell, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will take over as director at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). [San Francisco Chronicle](
â Campbell is trading places with Max Hollein, who recently left FAMSF to direct the Met. As reporter Lee Rosenbaum notes, itâs a curious choice. [CultureGrrl](
â âWe are doing something here that is an example of how things can work.â Gustavo Dudamel at mid-career. [New York Times](
â An installation on the L.A. River can only be seen in virtual reality. [Los Angeles Times](
â William Poundstone has a âfield guideâ to Ragnar Kjartanssonâs âThe Visitorsâ at the Broad. [Los Angeles County Museum on Fire](
â âRather than look at these women, you adduce what itâs like to be them.â A great read on Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot by Peter Schjeldahl. [New Yorker](
â How the Boston Ballet is supporting women choreographers. [Boston Globe](
â Downtown L.A.âs California Plaza is getting a needed makeover: the impractical âwatercourtâ is out, a new lawn is in. [Los Angeles Downtown News](
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST…
A great story about a trove of lost master tapes that contained Ecuadorâs musical history. [BBC Outlook](
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