Newsletter: Essential Arts & Culture: Deciphering Civil War telegrams, summer of Shakespeare, a conductor’s fiery performance
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From Civil War telegrams to a historic Los Angeles house to the shaky place of art in Brazil, there has been terrific culture writing going on. I’m Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, and here are the week’s top stories:
The Huntington Library has launched a crowdsourcing project in which volunteers will transcribe or decipher nearly 16,000 Civil War telegrams from Abraham Lincoln, his Cabinet and Army officers.
For more than a century, nearly 16,000 Civil War telegrams have sat locked in a trunk that once belonged to a confidant of President Abraham Lincoln. “They ticked out news of typhoid, scurvy and fear,” writes The Times’ Jeffrey Fleishman. “They spoke of long marches and vast battles. They hummed with frailty and humor, fretting over drunken soldiers and praising the unwavering president of a fraying republic.” Now the Huntington, which holds the trove, is looking for “citizen archivists” to help transcribe and decode them. Los Angeles Times
How the U.S. underestimated an important conductor
Times classical music critic Mark Swed is in Switzerland, where he took in a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony directed by Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly — and it was smoking. The conductor, who had been perennially overlooked for leadership posts when he worked in the U.S., recently took over La Scala in Milan. The show he just gave in Lucerne, writes Swed, represented an “extraordinary arrival for a conductor who has struggled through much of his career to be taken seriously as a substantial musician.” Los Angeles Times
Plus: On the centenary of Yehudi Menuhin, Swed pens an appreciation of the famed violinist: “Listen to Menuhin’s recordings, the heavenly early ones, the sour but unmistakably soulful later ones, and you can hear … what a better world might sound like.” Los Angeles Times
And because we’re on the subject of classical music: Reviewer Richard S. Ginell says the Los Angeles Philharmonic hasn’t been slacking just because it’s August. A recent concert directed by Nicholas McGegan featured a high-powered Handel evening. Los Angeles Times
In a Brazil that has been roiled by corruption scandals and power grabs, culture writer Silas Martí examines the events that are leaving the nation’s artists unmoored. “What happens to art institutions caught between an imploding public sector on one hand, and on the other a collecting class whose richest members may be heading to jail?” he writes. There are no easy answers. A stunning, essential piece of journalism. Even Magazine
Endangered: A key house by a Case Study architect
Some of L.A.’s most groundbreaking architecture is residential. It is also some of its most endangered. Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne looks at the International Style House that J.R. Davidson designed for the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Thomas Mann. The home is for sale and is being marketed as a teardown. Writes Hawthorne: “The uncertainty surrounding the house is a reminder of how unusually fragile the cultural patrimony of Los Angeles remains.” Los Angeles Times
In related news: The German press is going bananas over the pending sale. LAist
Plus: I hope the buyers of the home read an essential new Tumblr account that picks apart the inherent badness of so much McMansion design. Worst of McMansions
One of Europe’s most famous and most visited museums, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, has a new German director, Eric Schmidt. A former curator at the Getty Museum, he is looking to shake up the institution and make it easier to navigate by opening up new public areas for visitors — including the storied Vasari Corridor, which runs the length of the Ponte Vecchio, the famed 1345 bridge. New York Times
How art catalogs flourish in a digital world
Digital may have taken a bite out of book publishing, but it hasn’t done so in the world of art catalogs, which thrive on elegant layouts, innovative typographic treatments and fold-out pages featuring sumptuous photographs. There have been some worthwhile online experiments, but ultimately print still reigns supreme in this niche publishing area. Bonus: This story features some very alluring photos of books. Los Angeles Times
The L.A. County Museum of Art has a wild new installation by French conceptual artist Loris Gréaud that consists of a single immersive work: one chair, in a large theater, where a viewer takes in an abstracted film. But Times art critic Christopher Knight isn’t all that impressed: “Sculpt,” he writes, “is pretentious and uninvolving.” The good news is that, unlike a movie theater, the museum offers all kinds of other experiences to make up for the price of admission. Los Angeles Times
Shakespeare in the summer when it’s sizzlin’
“Summer Shakespeare,” writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty. “These words can strike fear in the heart of a reluctant theatergoer.” He takes a look at how the Bard’s work is faring in a pair of new productions, which transplant two of the playwright’s comedies to American settings. Los Angeles Times
In other news
—It’s all in the ankles: Imbalances in Michelangelo’s sculpture of David could be compromising the statue. New York Times Magazine
—New York’s Metropolitan Opera has balanced its budget for a second year in a row but is seeing audiences decline. Wall Street Journal
—A controversial passage from Marina Abramovic’s upcoming memoir about Australian aboriginal people has landed the artist in hot water. Guardian
— How the messy breakup of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and its College of Art & Design still haunts Washington, D.C. Washington Post
—Director Kathryn Bigelow and Light and Space artist Robert Irwin will be the guests of honor at the next LACMA gala. Los Angeles Times
—A group of classical musicians has recorded a benefit album for refugees on-site in a the Calais refugee camp in France. New York Times
—Get ready to selfie! The Broad has announced a survey of the work of Yayoi Kusama, whose “Infinity Mirrored Room” has become a must-see (and must-Instagram) at the museum. Los Angeles Times
—Five-year-old Big Macs as sculpture. Los Angeles Times
—An arts collective project in El Monte has resulted in the creation of a digital archive of its murals. L.A. Taco
An exhibition at the Landing in West Adams titled “3 Women” brings together works by an intergenerational group of artists exploring the tenets of feminist art in ways that “might make your ovaries ache,” writes Times reviewer Sharon Mizota, but “in a good way.” The show features paintings, textiles and installations by Lenore Tawney, Tanya Aguiñiga and Loie Hollowell. On view through Sept. 17. 5118 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, thelandinggallery.com.
And last but not least …
A super summer jam, courtesy of Sister Nancy. Just right. The New Yorker
Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.
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