Monster Mash: Jean Nouvel's MoMA tower approved; NEA funding boost; Michael Jackson museum?

-- Reaching for the sky: A new tower, pictured, for the Museum of Modern Art designed by Jean Nouvel has received approval from New York's City Council. (Associated Press)

-- Budget bill: Congressional negotiators have approved a spending bill that would set the 2010 budgets for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities at $167.5 million each. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

-- If you build it...: Michael Jackson's father and the mayor of Gary, Ind., want to build a museum honoring the late pop star in his hometown. (CNN)

-- Protest: An advocacy group for blind and deaf actors disapproves of the casting of Abigail Breslin in the upcoming Broadway revival of "The Miracle Worker." (New York Times)

-- Large-scale effort: Canada is launching a nationwide cultural campaign designed to increase awareness of the arts. (The Globe and Mail)

-- Mysterious smile: A giant reproduction of the "Mona Lisa" goes on display in a shopping center in Wales. (BBC News)

-- Salvageable: Architect Ole Scheeren said that the part of Beijing's CCTV building that was damaged in a fire earlier this year can be repaired and doesn't need to be torn down. (Associated Press)

-- And in the L.A. Times: Photographer Roy DeCarava passed away in New York at age 89. (Los Angeles Times)

-- David Ng

Photo: A rendering of architect Jean Nouvel's tower for MoMA. Credit: Atelier Jean Nouvel / Associated Press

Comments

[Donald Frazell]

Roy DeCarava was perhaps the greatest photographer of man of the post war era. Not only had he developed a highly passionate style, but captured on film the greatest musicians of the twentieth century. Not personal or self expressive, as he is not present at all, but as a filter of life that he felt around him. As all true creative artists do. A rarity now, practically an extinct approach to ones craft.

I have an autographed copy of the " the sound i saw". My late father-in-law Emil knew him, and grew up in these confines of Harlem, and then the west indian community of Gun Hill road. A far more important work of art than Robert Franks or even the Family of Man, which sampled life of average humans going about there lives. This brought you into the breeding ground of great artists, of humans struggling against their fate, and growing selflessly into the most creative, focused, and passionate period since the birth of modernisn.

There are no names in the book. DeCarava's is barely deciperable on the cover, and only the briefest of introductions on the liner flaps. It is not about individuals, but humanity, and defines us like no other work. These other works presented life, viewed it as a passerby, and intrigued that sense of voyeurism. Relishing in The Americans glorification of the mundane. Of the lives of the viewers, not what makes us human. This work does, as all DeCaravas were passionate reflections of life.

You will not know who is shown, there are no names attached to thes people to divert from the passion they had. Ellington, Miles, Coltrane, and the birth of the huge explosion of creativity of jazz in the 40s and 50s, and leading to the 60s fulfilling of its promise. All were involved, all were equals, all cared and our worked towards our greatest godly characteristicss.

And all are equals in his work, part of a community, fulfiiling our roles within it. As artists must do as much as the baker, the milkman, the maid. None stand out, none are raised up, none are gloified, but all are respected, because they have earned it. Another rare quality these days.

These were unknowns to the culture at large of the time, as much as the families and thieves, the saints and sinners who populated books like Malcom X, a time when the very virtues and vices of man were exposed, sacrificed for, committed to. There was no individual glorification, no marketing, no party scene or vain self expressions, but presentation of truth. Which DeCarava also achieves in his works, as did his true predecessors, Steichen, Strand, Evans, Lange, Bresson and Kertesz.

We are at the end of this cycle, of decay, of self absorbed games and diverting entertainments, who have lost this goal and path to truth, who need to refind and define who WE are. This is one such revelation. It is a sad day, but he left the best of himself, as it is not about himself at all. But Us.

RIP

[NouvelRiche]

I believe the illustration represents the version Nouvel originally proposed (1250 ft.) -- but not the tower that was approved (1025 feet).