August 20, 2003

Arts Briefing

IGHLIGHTS

ENGLAND: ART'S POWER A horrified British burglar who mistook a work of art for a pickled human head not only summoned the police to the home he intended to rob but also renounced his life of crime, Reuters reported yesterday. The "head," afloat in a jar of formaldehyde, was actually some bacon wrapped around a wire frame by Richard Morrison, a conceptual artist who lives near Liverpool. Mr. Morrison, who was not at home at the time, returned to discover that his house had been broken into by both the unidentified burglar and by the police, who battered down his door. Discussing the jarred bacon, Mr. Morrison told The Times of London: "It's obviously a very macabre piece of work, and I suppose at a glance it looks like a head, but I never expected it to get this reaction." He added that he had been told by the police that the experience had prompted the burglar to reform. "He had a crisis of confidence and confessed his crimes to his mother," the artist said.

MUSIC IN MOROCCO The pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, left, and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra of Arab and Israeli musicians are to give their first performance in an Arab country on Sunday in Rabat, Morocco, Agence France-Presse reported. The 80-member ensemble will play Beethoven's Third Symphony and Mozart's Concerto for Three Pianos. Expressing hope that the event would contribute to peace in the Middle East, Mr. Barenboim said, "Morocco has always been one of the most active Arab countries in the process of peace among Palestinians and Israelis."

SOUTH AFRICA: RESISTING RAP Lawyers for 22 white extremists faced with high treason and murder charges in South Africa complain that the men are being subjected to "psychological torture" because they are compelled to listen all day to loud music aimed at a young black audience, the BBC reported yesterday. "Some of my clients have suffered breakdowns, which affect their ability to stand trial," one lawyer, Paul Kruger, told the Pretoria High Court. BBC said the music in question, from station Metro FM, includes rap, rhythm-and-blues and South African kwaito. The matter was adjourned.

NEW ORLEANS: NEW MUSEUM A new museum opens its doors in New Orleans on Saturday. It's the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans, devoted to the appreciation, study and understanding of the visual art born of the region's heritage. Situated in the Warehouse District of New Orleans, the Ogden Museum will open in two phases, beginning with the 47,000-square-foot Stephen Goldring Hall, housing 20th- and 21st-century paintings and sculpture in galleries where photography, the creations of self-taught artists, and contemporary glass, craft and design will also be displayed. Two more elements of the museum, the historic Patrick F. Taylor Library, for 18th- and 19th-century art, and the newly constructed Clementine Hunter Wing, are to open in fall 2004, bringing the total space to 67,000 square feet. The inaugural exhibition of the museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is "The Story of the South: Art and Culture 1890-2003." Continuing through mid-May 2004, this show of some 500 works traces the history of the region from its agrarian roots through World War I, the Depression, the Jazz Age and the Civil Rights era into the 21st century.

WORDS, MUSIC AND MORE Nine musicians, three writers and two theater artists brew the three evenings of performances that are Non Sequitur 2003, the annual summer festival of the Composers Collaborative Inc. Presented in conjunction with the Bowery Poetry Club in the club at 308 Bowery, at the foot of First Street, at 8 tonight, tomorrow and Friday, this event is intended to develop new audiences for new music. Featured are the composer and spoken word teams of Jed Distler (the artistic director, above) and Carol Mirakove, Akemi Naito and Edwin Torres, and Kala Pierson and Emanuel Xavier, as well the acoustic house band, Nurse Kaya String Quartet, which is actually a sextet.

FILM: ANNIVERSARY The date was Sept. 10, 1988. The film was "Singin' in the Rain." The tale told by this romantic musical was a story of the history of film, focused on the transition from silents to talkies. The site of the screening was the American Museum of the Moving Image, which opened its doors that day in Astoria, Queens. Dedicated to motion pictures and television, the museum will celebrate its 15th anniversary next month with free events and activities. The first, from Sept. 3 to 7, will also celebrate the 150th anniversary of Central Park with a series of films in which the park plays a significant role. Screened at sunset in the Rumsey Playfield, midpark at 70th Street, the films will be "Annie Hall, "The Producers," "The Fisher King," "Ghostbusters" and "Hair." On Sept. 13 the museum will offer free admission and screenings of "Seven Days in May," "Dr. Strangelove," and, once more, `Singin' in the Rain," among other attractions.

FOOTNOTES

Concerts postponed because of the blackout in New York last week are being rescheduled. The sold-out Aug. 14 performance by Bob Dylan and his band will take place at 8 tonight at the Hammerstein Ballroom, at 311 West 34th Street. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All tickets for Aug. 14 will be honored. . . . The sold-out Indigo Girls concert in the Central Park SummerStage series has been rescheduled for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 1 at Rumsey Playfield. Ticketholders with stubs from the 40-minute set performed last week will be admitted, as will fans holding untorn tickets. Refunds are available at point of purchase.