Never before have there been so many private collectors making extensive acquisitions of contemporary art. Are they the real key figures of a global art business?...
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Harvard Magazine | Outlook India | The Guardian | Al Hayat | ADN cultura | L'Espresso | Al Ahram Weekly | Die Weltwoche | Gazeta Wyborcza | Le Nouvel Observateur | Przekroj | The Times Literary Supplement | Le point | The New York Times
Harvard Magazine 01.10.2007 (USA)
In his Gorgon Gray lecture which was given last year and has now been published, the eminent literary academic Stephen Greenblatt gives an instructive insight into his own writing practice. He talks about beginning an essay in a such a way that the reader wants to read on, about "the calculation that underlies the appearance of effortlessness" and reference to current affairs: "I do not at all think that everything one writes should have an immediate bearing on the present. On the contrary, one of the crucial achievements in a liberal education is the understanding of worlds far removed from our own. ... I am not suggesting that you keep the television news on constantly when you are writing your papers. I am suggesting only that you should try to write well - and that means bringing to the table all of your alertness, your fears, and your desires. And every once in a while - say, every third paper - tell yourself that you will take a risk.
Outlook India 01.10.2007
The writer Arundhati Roy sticks her ever-sharp nose into the scandal surrounding the former constitutional judge YK. Sabharwal. He is being accused of having being involved during his tenure in a ruling that devastated the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Indians and lined the pockets of his sons. But the real scandal is that the newspaper which reported on the case has now been charged with Contempt of Court. "So now we're saddled with a whole new school of thought on Contempt of Court: Fevered interpretations of imagined insults against unnamed judges. Phew! We're in La-la Land. (...) If either the government or the courts do not order a credible investigation into the scandal, then a group of senior lawyers and former judges will hold a public tribunal and examine the evidence that is placed before them. It's all happening. The lid is off, and about time too."
The Guardian 24.09.2007 (UK)
The Royal Academy in London has staged a major retrospective of the painter George Baselitz. The curator Norman Rosenthal celebrates Baselitz as one of the greatest painters of our time. " As I look back over the many years I have known Baselitz and his art, I think there is a striking comparison to be made with Picasso. In their early years, both artists painted works that came from an inner necessity, the intensity of which frightened each of them. Both borrow from others, ruthlessly adopting ideas for their own purposes. Picasso used, among others, Raphael, Ingres, Delacroix and Cézanne. As well as taking from Cranach, Pontormo, Goltzius, Munch, Kirchner and indeed Picasso himself, Baselitz, too, has found affinities in the rough, anti-traditional, anarchic painting of the young Cezanne. .(..) Baselitz' career, like Picasso's, has been marked by intense periods of activity, usually culminating in a 'heroic' masterpiece or group of masterpieces, followed by a startling and surprising renewal."
Al Hayat 23.09.2007 (Lebanon)
American ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad has warned that the crises in the Middle East could escalate into a global conflict. For Wahid Abd al-Majid this is a very real threat. "What connects all the crises (in the region) today, is the conflict about the identity of the Middle East and its future – and with this, also its place and role in the world. It is a conflict between those who want the Middle East to be part of the ruling forces in the world and those who are striving to prevent this. The struggles related to this conflict ranges from the two 'interior' crises in Lebanon and Palestine to the Iraqi 'Holocaust' and the Iranian nuclear programme which has assumed a central role in the conflict." On an international level we ultimately face a confrontation between the USA, Iran in a marriage of convenience with Russia, and al-Qaeda. "Should this happen, we would have a completely new constellation. It would be a global war between three sides, and it is difficult to imagine any two of them joining sides or cooperating with one another."
ADN cultura 22.09.2007 (Argentina)
Crisis and reflection. Argentina has recently witnessed a minor boom in reportage or 'la cronica' (examples here and here). One of its practitioners, author Martin Caparros analyses the phenomenon. "An initial definition: Reportage is something our daily papers offer increasingly rarely. If you are neither rich nor famous nor rich and famous, you will be lucky to get into the papers as a catastrophe victim. A good reportage however succeeds by interesting readers in issues they would otherwise not be interested in. Moreover, unlike newspaper prose which acts as if there was no author behind it, as if it was informing neutrally on 'the truth', literary reportage is based on a first person narrator who shoulders responsibility. I saw, I experienced, I had thoughts about this."
Further articles: Alicia de Arteaga introduces BerlinBuenosAiresArtXchange07 which is the follow-up of a large-scale German Argentinian art show which first took place in Berlin in 2004 under the title of notango.
L'Espresso 20.09.2007 (Italy)
A document has surfaced in the archives of Yad Vashem, in which in the run-up to the Eichmann trials, writer Primo Levi listed his activities during the war, from resistance to his time in Auschwitz. L'Espresso prints it as an exclusive. "When I discovered on February 18 that the German SS had arrived in the area, everyone warned me, and the next day they advised us to disappear within 24 hours. No one attempted to flee. They loaded us into cattle wagons bearing the name "Auschwitz" on the side, a name which meant nothing to us at the time. ... The journey lasted three and a half days" In the document, Levi lists for the first time the names of those who fought with him and against him, as the literary academic Marco Belpoliti observes in the accompanying commentary.
Al Ahram Weekly 20.09.2007 (Egypt)
Salah Eissa sees a basic flaw in the Islamist dream of the return to a golden past, because this golden past thrived on being open to the new: "The fact is that the fundamentalist project has an Achilles heel. It posits a dream of reviving the glory of the Islamic empire but ignores the fact that what enabled that empire to flourish was its openness to other cultures and civilisations. This applies to Muslim jurists and theologians, as long as the doors to dialogue and the exercise of reason in light of the changes and challenges of contemporary reality remained open, furnishing a constant source of inspiration and renovation. Conversely, the decline of Islamic civilisation began when the door leading to the application of reason and independent thought was slammed shut."
Further articles: Galal Nassar sees US policy in the Arab World as a glaring case of neo-orientalism. Salonaz Sami presents the television series "Qadeyat Ra'i A'am" (A case of public opinion), which tackles the taboo issues of sexual harassment and rape.
Die Weltwoche 20.09.2007 (Switzerland)
Some scientists hold that in 2040 summers at the North Pole will be ice free. In an interview, Danish author Björn Lomborg ("The Skeptical Environmentalist") doesn't pale at the thought: "That could be a problem, but it will also mean a boom. It will be a problem for polar bears and many other animals. But at the same time biodiversity will be enriched. There will be more butterflies, more birds. Sure, we're going to see fewer bears. But it will be a boon for Greenland. All of a sudden people there will be able to produce their own food, and new, shorter shipping routes will be opened up. I too would have preferred an Arctic with a lot of ice, as we knew it. But to say the melting will mean a catastrophe for the area is simply wrong."
Gazeta Wyborcza 22.09.2007 (Poland)
The 32nd Polish Film Festival in Gdynia has come to an end, and Tadeusz Sobolewski looks back in relief: "Polish cinema has a new face. The tone is changing - the climate is warming. Polish films are adopting features we'd always admired in Czech cinema: warmth, ironic humour, a distant yet positive look at reality and a local touch." Even if political and social topics still come up, the new motto is: an end to sadness!
Le Nouvel Observateur 20.09.2007 (France)
With the recent publication of a short story "Josephine et moi" - Gallimard) and an anthology of his poems, Hans Magnus Enzensberger provides information on Germany, Nazism, terrorism and his intellectual development. Those familiar with his writings published in Kursbuch review around 1968 will be surprised by his political positions today: "In 1968 I was considered an enfant terrible of the left. That's comical, because I was ten years older than the extreme left-wing militants of all the micro-organisations. This movement shook up people's morals and brought the question of authority - which is compulsory in Germany - into the centre of the debate. My role in this movement was what ethnologists call one of 'participatory observation.' I was an observer. I met most of the later German left-wing terrorists. They tried to get me to join them. As a Marxist, I appealed to their sense of reason: 'Your analysis is crazy. It's simply wrong, there is no revolutionary situation. Read your history.' But they were caught up in a vicious circle."
Przekroj 20.09.2007 (Poland)
Andrzej Wajda's new film "Katyn" hit the screens in Poland amid much hype on the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland of 17 September, 1939. Malgorzata Sadowska is ambivalent: "It's not a fantastic film, neither particularly original nor innovative. But it is useful. Wajda shows the circumstances surrounding the murders in Katyn skilfully and clearly, without getting bogged down in detail. And he points to the consequences, which still continue so many years after the end of the war." Nevertheless, Sadowska is in no doubt: "Thanks among other things to its final sequence showing the shootings, the movie will have a place in Polish film history."
The Times Literary Supplement 19.09.2007 (UK)
Historian Niall Ferguson has read "Fateful Choices," the newest book by his colleague Ian Kershaw, and doesn't mince his words in his review. Kershaw presents ten decisions of world-historical importance between 1940 and 1941, yet he fails to present any possible alternatives, Ferguson writes: "If one wanted to show a class of undergraduates how historians conventionally deal with the problem of causation, these ten essays would be hard to improve on. In each one, Kershaw starts with a summary of the decision itself and its implications. Then, just as E. H. Carr recommended in 'What Is History?' (1961), he goes back some years to uncover the chain of events that led to this decision. Alternatives are considered only in order to demonstrate that they were not really alternatives at all, and were bound to be discarded. Kershaw's scholarship is impeccable. And yet the philosophical underpinning to his essays is positively antique."
Le point 20.09.2007 (France)
"Stop Hortefeux!" demands Bernard-Henri Levy in his notebook column, criticising the measures introduced by immigration minister Brice Hortefeux - including DNA tests of immigrants to verify family relationships. "The second, perhaps even worse act by Hortefeux was his summoning a 'dozen' prefects whose 'numbers weren't high enough,' which means: who couldn't attest to having expelled a sufficient number of immigrants to allow total expulsions to reach 25,000 per year... Everything about this story is unbearable. The very idea of a number, a number where there shouldn't be one. The fact that people are being treated like slabs of meat, like goods. This language of statistics and technology in a political sector."
The New York Times 23.09.2007 (USA)
In The New York Times Magazine, John Wray portrays in great detail Austrian film director Michael Haneke, who has just finished shooting his first film in the US, an American remake of his "Funny Games." Asked about his relationship to violence, Haneke point to problems he had with "Pulp Fiction": "The problem, as I see it, is with its comedy — there's a danger there, because the humor makes the violence consumable. Humor of that kind is all right, even useful, as long as the viewer is made to think about why he's laughing. But that’s something 'Pulp Fiction' fails to do."
RSS
The New York Times investigates the new hunger for reality. In Salon, Andrzej Stasiuk sees only individual realities. In the Gazeta Wyborcza, the ethnologist Tomasz Rakowski describes the reality of the Polish poor mines. Sometimes you can turn reality on its head, El Pais reads in the Financial Times. Le Monde diplomatique gives the low-down on the ACTA talks. And the New Yorker dreams of less polish and a bit more grit.
In Magyar Narancs Agnes Heller demands more civil courage of the Hungarians. Mohammed Ali Atassi explains in Qantara, why conservatives in Egypt see women as candy: either wrapped or covered in flies. Oliver Roy outlines in Resetdoc, why's there not so much as a hair's breadth between the Christian right and the secular left. In Magazin, the philosopher Ludwig Haslar tells the Swiss that if they want mediocrity today, they cannot expect the superman tomorrow. Jonathan Safran Foer tells Prospect why he neither wants a chicken in his bed nor on his plate. The NYT embarks on a human-flesh search and finds a kitten killer.
The New Yorker tells the story of how corrupt podiatrists almost brought down the US health system. In Polityka, the Kapuscinski biographer Artur Domoslawski explains how he thinks the legendary reporter should be read. In Tygodnik, Zygmunt Bauman calls for more understanding for Kapuscinski. Magyar Narancs celebrates the ban on Holocaust denial in Hungary. In Le Point, Jorge Semprun asks whether Claude Lanzmann is the only person who's allowed to talk about the Holocaust. Wired describes how Google learned how to tell the difference between a hot dog and a poached pooch.
In Eurozine, the Transylvanian-Hungarian-Armenian writer Kinga Kali tells the story of a "virgjinesha". Prospect celebrates the next art superstar, Argentinian painter Guillermo Kuitca. The Gazeta Wyborcza explains how young people use the web. The New Yorker sends out a message to the depressed: stay away from psychiatric literature. Outlook Indian learns to play Carnatic music online. The London Review swims with the salmon sages.
The Atlantic finds out why the Chinese are not enemy number one in cyberspace. Elet es Irodalom asks why no one in Hungary is interested in former informers. In New Statesman, Tariq Ramadan can't tell us what a moderate Muslim is. The Guardian hearkens to the ticking bomb in Emily Dickinson's bosom and links it to the shards of crockery on the floor. And if it can't smoke, El Pais Semanal wants everything painted black.
In Prospect, Tim Berners-Lee invites the world to play with the British government's data. England, not Nigeria belongs on the terrorist list, literary Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka informs The Daily Beast. In Rue 89, Beppe Grillo explains why Sarkozy is more dangerous than Berlusconi. In Tygodnik Powszechny, Stefan Chwin mourns for the Polish idealist. Polityka reveals where a Pole turns to when he's not allowed to marry. Olga Tokarczuk walks her Polish tangle around Amsterdam for Salon. And the Guardian thinks about Armenian women rubbing their soft breasts on a stone.
In Wired, Chris Anderson celebrates the next industrial revolution - taking place in garages near you. The Boston Globe serenades the camel - Nabati style. In El Pais Semenal, the sociologist Edgar Morin complains about European lethargy. Outlook India asks why the Australians hate the Indians. Odra and Tygodnik are still debating the impact of freedom on literature. In OpenDemocracy, Salome Zourabichvili mourns for the wilted petals of the rose revolution. In Prospect, Martin Amis divides the literary sheep from the goats, according to the pleasure principle. The NYT profiles a dyed-in-the-wool jihadist from Alabama.
Das Magazin reports on the dramatic increase in the number of pupils who have threatened to gun down their classmates. The Spectator warns City bankers about gun-wielding dominatrices in Switzerland. In Sinn und Form, Marc Fumaroli remembers the man whose name shall not be mentioned: Mario Praz. In the New Humanist, Laurie Taylor remembers the holy men who sexually abused him as a child. The Guardian asks why Theo von Doesburg slipped into avant garde oblivion. And in the NYRB, Garry Kasparov asks why computer chess programmers are so uninspired?
OpenDemocracy explains why a novel called "Paranoia" suddenly disappeared from Belarussian bookshops. Prospect fears that a ban on Islam4UK could undermine British democracy. The Gazeta Wyborcza explores Polish-Jewish relations. Le Monde diplomatique watches the carving up of Africa. In El Pais Semanal, maths whizz Marcus du Sautoy explains the sex appeal of suduko. And Gerhard Richter manages to surprise the Nation.
The New Yorker buries itself in the Arab novel. In Le Monde, Bernard-Henri Levy heaps scorn on the state-run caricature of a debate. Qantara points to the person responsible for all the misery in the Arab world: Daddy. In L'Espresso, Umberto Eco takes a pin to the overblown daily paper. The Nation has earmarked 30 billion dollars to save journalism. In Tygodnik Powszechny, the writer Wojciech Albinski explains what makes Poland exotic. And the Spectator waves a tear-stained old hanky as shabby chic fades into the past.
In Merkur, art historian Wolfgang Ullrich defines a new type of artist: the contractor. In Nepszabadsag, writer Peter Nadas considers the crisis in Hungary and how it might end. In NouvelObs, Francis Ford Coppola explains why DVDs should be free. Eurozine introduces Lithuanian literature. In the New York Review of Books, Wyatt Manson asks why Pleiade is omitting Celine's anti-Semitic trilogy from the collected works. In Express, Philippe Gavi reminds us that Mohammed was not a crazed killer. A Californian marvels in NZZ Folio, at the reincarnation of an Indian factory worker. And confronted with the recent proliferation of literary cuddling, the New York Times yearns for a bit of Philip Roth.
Wired tracks James Cameron's 32-year quest to out-Lucas Lucas. In Nouvel Obs, Alain Finkielkraut and Alain Badiou tear each other apart over immigration and national identity. Tygodnik Powszechny introduces the pioneering artist Miroslaw Balka. Andras Bozoki asks why Hungarians are undermining democracy. In The New Statesman, Leo McKinstry explains why the bombing of Coventry was an inspiration to the British Air Staff.
Vanity Fair goes in search of a superpartner. Elet es Irodalom reads a new collection of essays by Imre Keresz. Outlook India complains about journalistic corruption. The New Yorker reads a new Koestler biography. Nepszabadsag foresees the next French revolution. Rue89 wonders about the provenance of prawns. And in the New Republic, Moshe Halberthal celebrates the sublime humility of Amartya Sen.
In Wilson Quarterly, the economist Tyler Cowen sings an ode to multitasking. Prospect has seen the monsters of the left. The Boston Globe follows James C. Scott to the new Shangri-La in the mountains of Tibet. Weltwoche is up in arms about the criticism of Switzerland's anti-minaret vote. In the Novel Obs, Pierre Nora applies his mind to the bestseller. New Criterion knows why the Pop art bubble won't pop. NZZ Folio examines the chicken nugget. Al Ahram asks what political Islam wants. The Walrus mourns for the first victim of the C-58. In Resetdoc, Joseph Massad explains why Arab homosexuals are an invention of the West.
Slovenian poet Ales Debeljak argues for a fusion of cultures in Eurozine. Umberto Eco agrees in Le Monde. The Nation portrays the Salvadorian author Horacio Castellanos Moya, who himself explains in Babelia why 200 years after independence there's nothing to celebrate in a number of Latin American countries. Polityka lies Poland down on the couch. La vie des idees reads a book on Jews and the resistance in France. Americans read more than Europeans, writes historian Peter Baldwin in Merkur. And in The New York Review of Books Robert Darnton makes two bold proposals for a new Book Settlement.