Monday, July 25, 2011

To Reach Simple Life of Summer Camp, Lining Up for Private Jets

from:  Mike Brenner  "another reason to extend the Bush tax cuts... the kids may have to stop flying private planes to their $10,000 summer camps." 


www.nytimes.com
Even as the economy limps along, more of the nation’s wealthier families are cutting out the car ride and chartering planes to fly to summer camps.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Does the initial news reaction to the Oslo events clarifies the real meaning of "terrorism"?

Our deepest sympathies for the victims of the mass murders in Norway. Glenn Greenwald goes deep in exposing the the mainstream media's lazy and damaging instinct to blame Muslims and Al Qaeda, even when the suspect is custody is a blonde, Christian, far right Norwegian. Ignoring right wing terrorism in Europe and the U.S. is dangerous. Does anyone remember Oklahoma City?
Terrorism: The omnipotence of Al Qaeda and meaninglessness of "Terrorism"
www.salon.com
The news reaction to the Oslo events clarifies the real meaning of "terrorism"

Urge Members of Congress to Support the NEA

Last week, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee passed the Interior Appropriations bill, which proposes to fund the National Endowment for the Arts at $135 million for FY 2012. If enacted, this $20 million cut would be the deepest to the NEA in 16 years. This legislation now heads to the House floor, possibly to increase the cut even further or eliminate the NEA altogether. Send your message today!
Federal: Urge Members of Congress to Support the NEA
capwiz.com

The Americans for the Arts Action Center provides you all the one-click tools, tips and information you need to voice your support for more culture in our communities, more arts education in our schools, and more arts in our daily lives.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

contemporary Chinese art lecture TONIGHT!

Shi Xinning - Conemplating Duchamp (2006)
 
Tonight: Join Melissa Chiu from the Asia Society for a special lecture on contemporary Chinese art. Lubar Auditorium, 6:15 p.m., free with Museum admission, and air conditioned!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

more on Milwaukee's Summer of China from Thirdcoast Digest

Milwaukee Art Museum's Grinning Chinese Warriors | ThirdCoast Digest
thirdcoastdigest.com
Yue Minjun's large-scale work is witty, visceral and political.

Art, politics, China and Ai Weiwei : A panel discussion at MAM | ThirdCoast Digest
thirdcoastdigest.com
As the Milwaukee Art Museum runs a major show of Chinese art, a daring artist collides with a totalitarian state.

A vast China show at the Milwaukee Art Museum | ThirdCoast Digest
thirdcoastdigest.com
A once-in-a-lifetime convergence of Chinese art from the Forbidden City and beyond.

more on Qatar as the world’s biggest contemporary art buyer - from Art Kuwait

From:  Art Kuwait

World’s Biggest Contemporary Art Buyer? Qatar!

Shocker of the Day: Qatar World’s Biggest Contemporary Art Buyer
hyperallergic.com


You may know Qatar as the home of Al Jazeera but this small kingdom in the Persian Gulf is a major contemporary art buyer, according to Art Newspaper.

see also:  more on Qatar as the world’s biggest contemporary art buyer - from Art Kuwait

two very smart, very perceptive, but opposing views on the new China

Wang Qingsong, Requesting Buddha No. 1, 1999.

Counterpoint - Debunking Myths About China ... - New York Times
18 Jul 2011 – Hypotheses that do not stand up to facts and yet still dominate people's consciousness are harmful.



China will NEVER be the next global Superpower
China: The Next Superpower? By. Lior Paritzky. – July 20, 2011 ... A general feeling around the world that China will be the next global superpower is ...

Before they collide in nearly a million years, two newfound stars may offer insight into supernovae and Einstein's gravity.



When two such massive objects are whirling around each other, they stir up the space-time fabric, creating ripples like those made by a stone thrown into a pond. As these ripples, called gravitational waves, are produced, the star pair loses some of its energy, causing their orbits to slowly shrink.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Artist Wangechi Mutu: 'My lab is the female body'



Artist Wangechi Mutu: 'My lab is the female body'
edition.cnn.com

Merging magazine cutouts, painted objects and even motorbike parts, Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu creates layered images of fantastical figures, transforming the female form into something both powerful and primal.

more "dissidents" heading to Germany...

The photo provided by German public radio Deutsche Welle on Monday, July 18, 2011 shows Iranian actress and blogger Pegah Ahagarani speaking during an event of Deutsche Welle on June 3, 2009 in Bonn, Germany. Deutsche Welle said that the dissident Iranian actress was arrested as she prepared to leave for Germany to write a blog for the station about the women's football World Cup. Deutsche Welle said Monday it has learned from people close to Pegah Ahangarani that the actress has been arrested and is being detained in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Photograph: AP Photo/Deutsche Welle, Per Henriksen, HOIran arrests dissident actor and blogger

Pegah Ahangarani is arrested as she prepares to leave for Germany to write a blog for a radio station.
 

Monday, July 18, 2011

Egypt's "the real Indiana Jones" Fired!

 
CAIRO -- Egypt's antiquities minister, whose trademark Indiana Jones hat made him one the country's best known figures around the world, was fired Sunday after months of pressure from critics who attacked his credibility and accused him of having been too close to the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

seems like Berlin is the place to be (at least for China's dissident writers and artists)

 
Ai Weiwei Hoping to Teach in Berlin; Liao Yiwu “Ecstatic” to Be There (Updated) | China Digital Time
chinadigitaltimes.net

Ai Weiwei has accepted a position as visiting lecturer at the Berlin University of Arts. The conditions of his release, however, forbid travel outside Beijing for a one-year period, and it is therefore unclear whether or when he will be able to start....

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Ai Weiwei's sister gives details of his confinement

 
www.washingtonpost.com
 
Dissident artist who was released last month after 81 days in a Beijing jail on tax evasion charges, spent his days of confinement in a tiny room with only a bed for furniture, and two police officers who closely monitored his every gesture.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Ai Weiwei accepts visiting lecturer position at Berlin's University of the Arts.

Ai Weiwei Accepts Job Offer At Berlin's University Of The Arts
www.huffingtonpost.com


BERLIN — A German university says recently released Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has accepted an offer to join the Berlin institution as a visiting lecturer. Berlin's University of Arts said Wednesday it was unclear when Ai will be able to start in his new position due to his legal troubles in China.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Ai Weiwei, Freed Chinese Artist, Said to Be Back at Work

"met Ai Weiwei. he has lost weight, not lost courage." Gao Brothers
 
 
A Swiss gallery owner who represents Ai Weiwei that the artist is creating art again though he cannot meet with journalists to discuss it because of the conditions of his release.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

China and Taiwan Reunite Painting

The bulk of the artworks in the National Palace Museum, Taipei are from 2,972 crates of shipped artifacts that once made up the imperial collections of the Forbidden City, Beijing

China and Taiwan Reunite Painting - NYTimes.com

By ANDREW JACOBS (NYT)
The reunification of an ancient painting at a museum in Taiwan has become a metaphor for the possibility of reconciliation between the two countries.

Link to the website (which was very difficult to find) on the exhibit: Landscape Reunited

Panel Discussion: Ai Weiwei: The Collision of Art and Politics

Tomorrow 6:15pm
www.mam.org

Join Melissa Chiu from the Asia Society, New York, Kathryn Kanjo from the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Barrett L. McCormick from Marquette University, and Brady Roberts from the Milwaukee Art Museum as they discuss issues surrounding art and politics, including the recent situation with contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
Lubar Auditorium

Free with Museum admission

Closing The Hedge Fund Manager Tax Loophole Would Raise $4 Billion Annually From The 25 Richest Managers

This is a no-brainer. The top 25 hedge fund managers earned a total of $22 billion a year and are taxed at a lower rate—costing the government $4 billion—because the money is treated as capital gains, not income.

Closing The Hedge Fund Manager Tax Loophole Would Raise $4 Billion ...

Think Progress
In fact, according to calculation by RJ Eskow, closing this loophole would raise more than $4 billion per year just from the 25 richest hedge fund managers: ...


During the negotiations regarding raising the nation’s debt ceiling, congressional Republicans have gone to the mat to defend all manner of unwarranted tax breaks, including those for oil companies and corporate jet owners. Despite the drain on the Treasury caused by these tax breaks — and the negligible benefit they provide — Republicans have threatened to allow the nation to default on its obligations rather than abandon them...

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

NYTimes review of Milwaukee-based Tyson Reeder's exhibit

New York Times art critic Karen Rosenberg reviewed a new exhibition of work by SAIC faculty member and "Milwaukee-based art-world multitasker" Tyson Reeder.
TYSON REEDER
For his first New York solo show in five years, Tyson Reeder focuses on paintings of heads and landscapes at Daniel Reich.