Where All the World’s an Atmospheric Stage KAREN ROSENBERG New York Times 7/5/2009
Donald Oenslager, the great American set designer and a professor at the Yale School of Drama, wrote that “a sketch for a scene is as short-lived as the life of the theater it supports.”
Mr. Oenslager, who died in 1975, was being a bit disingenuous, as he was a major collector of such sketches. In 1982 his widow gave some 1,600 drawings, prints and books on set design to the Morgan Library & Museum. About 50 of these drawings, including two by Mr. Oenslager, are on view there in “Creating the Modern Stage: Designs for Theater and Opera.” They present a concise summary of 20th-century stagecraft, one that appeals equally to Museum of Modern Art mavens and seasoned theatergoers.
-Tanya
Categories: School of Drama · Theater
The great-grandson of collector Ivan Morozov, from whom Van Gogh’s ‘Night Cafe’ was stolen by the Bolshevik government after the 1917 revolution, has filed suit against Yale claiming rightful ownership.
So whose is it? That turns on the legitimacy of the Bolshevik government and its acts: a matter for international lawyers. Though, I might add, if the world’s museums were to disgorge all the works that have in the past been stolen by armies or expropriated by revolutionary regimes there are going to be an awful lot of gaps. The National Gallery in London and the Hermitage both have works looted by Napoleonic troops; the Louvre and Prado are full of works from the collection of Charles I, sold off by Cromwell’s government. And so on, and on.
Yale Fight for Van Gogh’s ‘Night Cafe’ May Open More Battles Martin Gayford Bloomberg 6/30/09
-Chris
Categories: Art · Art News · History of Art · Painting
Royal Holloway, University of London
Disdained, derided and dismissed by Modernist art critics from Roger Fry to Clement Greenberg, Victorian painting staged a comeback in the Postmodern era.
Though often sappy and moralistic, at its best late-19th-century British painting still delivers a rich mix of visual imagination, narrative intrigue and social commentary. An excellent exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art proves the point. Drawn from a collection created in the early 1880s for students at Royal Holloway College, then just for women, “Paintings From the Reign of Victoria: The Royal Holloway Collection, London” offers pictures that can make you wish painting today were as tuned in to the real world.
Social Commentary on Canvas: Dickensian Take on the Real World Ken Johnson NYT 6/18/09
“Paintings From the Reign of Victoria: The Royal Holloway Collection, London” continues through July 26 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven
-Chris
Categories: Art · Exhibits · History of Art · Victorian Art · Yale Galleries & Museums · Yale events
Buildings to be demolished, clockwise from top left: Daniel Cady Eaton house, Hammond hall, Seeley Mudd Library, 88 Prospect Street.
“I find it very shocking that the total demolition of a giant site like this is still thought of as the way to proceed,” says Anstress Farwell ‘78MA, president of the New Haven Urban Design League.
More seriously, she questions the wisdom of emulating the neo-Gothic architecture of Yale’s central campus. Calling it “a fantasy environment about what Yale has been in the past,” Farwell says, “I don’t think that if the university succeeds in this plan, the debate will ever go away: why did Yale do something retardataire at a moment when architecture is looking to be innovative?”
Preservationists object to plan for new colleges Carol Bass Yale Alumni Magazine 7/7/09
-Chris
Categories: Architecture · Architecture News · Historic Preservation · Land Use · New Haven · Urban planning · Yale News
The Closing: Robert A.M. Stern Candace Taylor – May 29, 2009 The Real Deal
How do you feel about the term “starchitect”?
That architects have been given some kind of star status is nice. On the other hand, I don’t think architects should be celebrated like movie stars. We’re much more interesting than movie stars and much more important, and what we do is much more enduring. If you don’t like the movie you’re watching, you can turn it off or walk out of the theater or fall asleep. I do all of those things. But if it’s a building and it’s across the street from your window and it’s an abomination, what are you going to do about it? Not much.
-Tanya
Categories: Architecture · Yale News
The Artist Who Inhaled His Sculpture William Weir – June 23, 2009 – “It’s Alive” Courant.com
Willard Wigan’s micro-sculptures…[are] carved out of grains of sand, sugar and rice that he makes under a microscope and paints with a hair from a house fly.
-Tanya
Categories: Art · Sculpture
Paintings from the Reign of Victoria: The Royal Holloway Collection, London
7 MAY — 26 JULY, 2009
Yale Center for British Art
Yale CBA exhibit and festival choir share common home and heritage Judy Birke New Haven Register June 21, 2009
First and foremost, it is a rare opportunity to see a great number of works from a remarkable and thoughtfully considered collection, all under one roof. The tremendous size of many of the works, the extensive range of subject matter, the sheer visual appeal of the paintings and the incredible frames that surround them, as well as the opportunity to consider not only the aesthetics but the ethos of a period, and not the least, the opportunity to contemplate the selection process of a man of good taste, all contribute to what can best be described as that “wow” factor.
-Tanya
Categories: Art · Yale Galleries & Museums
Yale Acquires Important Edward Hopper Drawings 6/16/09 Antiques and the Arts
The Yale University Art Gallery has purchased important preparatory drawings by American artist Edward Hopper for two of his celebrated paintings, “Rooms by the Sea,” 1951, and “Western Motel,” 1957, both in the gallery’s collection. The drawings related to “Rooms by the Sea” are rendered on two sides of a single sheet of paper, while the sheet related to “Western Motel” contains a single sketch. Each of the drawings provides rare insight into the evolution of the related painting.
-Tanya
Categories: Art · Yale Galleries & Museums
Student Builds Tiny House With Big Sustainability May 26, 2009 Fox News Dan Duquette
Think your apartment is small? Don’t try to tell that to Elizabeth Turnbull.
While studying for her master’s in urban ecology and environmental design, the 24-year-old graduate student at Yale University is living in a truly tiny house.
It measures just 8 1/2 feet wide by 18 1/2 feet long, for a cozy total of 144 square feet.
The goal? Limiting her impact on the environment.
-Tanya
Categories: Architecture · Sustainability · Yale News
Playwright’s elusive dream: Conquering his hometown of Miami
BY CHRISTINE DOLEN, Miami Herald 6/12/2009
Though it has only been two years since he earned his master’s degree in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama, McCraney has had his work produced in New York, Washington D.C., Seattle, New Orleans, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, London, Barcelona and Dublin.
But not, so far, in Miami.
Yet here’s the remarkable thing: Though McCraney has been artistically ignored in his hometown, he has a dream that by the time he turns 30 on Oct. 17, 2010, he will be back in Miami starting a theater company.
-Tanya
Categories: School of Drama · Theater
Categories: Art · Yale News
Art historian selected for newly created deanship Divya Subrahmanyam 6/11/2009 Yale Daily News
Yale College Dean Mary Miller announced Thursday the appointment of Susan Cahan, the associate dean for academic affairs of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the newly created position of associate dean for the arts in Yale College.
-Tanya
Categories: Art · Yale News
The International Festival of Arts and Ideas starts this Saturday!
List of all events for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas
International Festival of Arts & Ideas Kicks Off This Weekend By FRANK RIZZO Hartford Courant 6/11/2009
Mary Lou Aleskie believes that in a year in which economies throughout the world are traumatically shaken, making international connections is more vital than ever.
As executive director of New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which begins its 14th year Saturday, Aleskie has created more collaborations than ever for the programming, especially at a time when her budget hasn’t grown, corporate sponsorships are down and the dollar is devalued.
We Need Arts & Ideas More Than Ever: There’s no downturn in the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the festival that helps us cope with reality Christopher Arnott New Haven Advocate 6/9/2009
The festival’s program director, Cathy Edwards, describes this year’s festival vibe as “something really uplifting about working together, the community coming together at a difficult time.” She sees the community theme as a chance to explore “the relationship of global to local,” and also “an opportunity for families to do things together.”
-Tanya
Categories: Art · New Haven · New Haven Events
