Monster Mash: Graffiti artists upset over Jennifer Lopez commercial

From the block, too: Street muralists TATS Cru. claim a recent Fiat commercial starring Jennifer Lopez uses their work without permission. (New York Daily News and Fox Latino News)

Popular: "The Book of Mormon" on Broadway has recouped its $11.4-million investment after just eight months. (Hollywood Reporter)

Decision: An appeals court in Tennessee has ruled that Nashville's Fisk University can sell part of its Stieglitz art collection to keep the school financially afloat. (News Channel 5)

Intimidation: The wife of artist Ai Weiwei said police treated her as a "criminal suspect" when they took her away for three hours of questioning earlier this week. (Reuters)

Church and state: The American Civil Liberties Union is questioning the legality of a student-created crucifix mural in a public high school in Virginia. (ABC 8 News)

Art and life: The National Endowment for the Arts is forming a task force of 13 federal agencies to foster more research on how the arts affect human development at all stages of life. (Yahoo)

Controversial: Architect Maya Lin's design for a Doris Duke memorial is creating a rift among citizens of Newport, R.I. (New York Times)

Of all places: A museum in Rio de Janeiro has canceled an exhibition of pictures by photographer Nan Goldin because it includes nudity. (Agence France-Presse)

Eco-friendlier: An architect in Colombia is leading a crusade to use bamboo as a replacement for wood, concrete and other materials in construction. (Los Angeles Times)

Ruling: A judge has approved the Philadephia Orchestra's request to turn over two of its pension plans to a federal agency. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Also in the L.A. Times: A look at the Broadway-bound revival of "Jesus Christ Superstar" that is coming to the La Jolla Playhouse and Mark Swed calls the late director Ken Russell a "great imaginer of music."

-- David Ng

Photo: A screen shot from the Fiat TV commercial starring Jennifer Lopez and featuring a mural by street artist TATS Cru.

Monster Mash: Getty's Aphrodite unveiled in Sicily; Smithsonian asks employees to accept buyouts

Mighty Aphrodite: The J. Paul Getty Museum's statue of Aphrodite was unveiled in its new home in Sicily on Tuesday. (Los Angeles Times)

Hard times: Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough has asked many of the institution's federal employees to consider a new offer of buyouts or early retirement. (Washington Post)

New criteria: The New York Board of Regents has approved new rules for deaccessioning artworks. (WNYC)

Star writers: An omnibus production of one-act plays by Woody Allen, Ethan Coen and Elaine May is heading to Broadway. (Playbill)

Coming soon: San Francisco is getting a new center for live jazz performance. (Chicago Tribune)

Cultivating younger audiences: New York's Lincoln Center Theater is starting a program to provide $30 seats to its performances for people ages 21 to 35. (New York Times)

Starchitect: An interview with renowned architect Norman Foster. (CNN)

Consolation prizes: Daniel Radcliffe, who was snubbed in the Tony Award nominations, was honored at Broadway.com's Audience Choice Awards. (Variety)

Delayed: Berlin's Staatsoper opera house will reopen a year later than originally planned. (Associated Press, via Sacramento Bee)

Popular: The fitness company Ballet Beautiful has experienced a surge in business after training Natalie Portman for the film "Black Swan." (CNN)

New leader: The AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas has named Mark J. Weinstein, former head of the Washington National Opera, as president and chief executive officer. (Associated Press, via Wall Street Journal)

In memoriam: The Vienna State Opera this week will mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler. (Agence France-Presse)

Also in the L.A. Times: Federal arts grants include $2.5 million for Southern California groups.

-- David Ng

Photo: The Getty Museum's Aphrodite sculpture is unveiled in the town of Aidone in Sicily. Credit: Ralph Frammolino

Monster Mash: L.A.'s planned Plaza de Cultura y Artes hits a snag; playwright Romulus Linney dies

Complications: Officials have halted some excavation on the site of the planned La Plaza de Cultura y Artes in downtown L.A., following complaints about the removal of skeletal remains that have been unearthed there. (Los Angeles Times)

Veteran dramatist: Playwright Romulus Linney, whose work was produced mostly off-Broadway, has died at age 80. (Associated Press)

For sale: The Cleveland Museum of Art will offer more than two dozen European old master paintings in the largest sell-off from its collection in more than a half-century. (Cleveland Plain-Dealer)

Looking likely: The jukebox musical "Baby It's You!" -- which ran at the Pasadena Playhouse in 2009 -- is said to be aiming for a Broadway run this spring. (Playbill)

Negotiations: Detroit Symphony Orchestra management has submitted a new contract proposal to a federal mediator, setting the stage for the resumption of face-to-face talks with musicians who have been on strike for 15 weeks. (Detroit Free Press)

Labor laws: A proposed New York state regulation would slash the number of hours for child performers. (New York Daily News)

Comeback: A violinist whose hand was crushed during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti has returned to performing. (NPR)

Rumor has it: Brad Pitt is said to have dined with playwright David Mamet recently in Santa Monica to discuss a project in which Pitt would be behind the camera as director. (X17Online)

Immortalized: Hershey's has created a sculpture of football star Emmitt Smith. (ESPN)

Passing: Stage and screen actress Susannah York has died at age 72. (Los Angeles Times)

Also in the L.A. Times: Music critic Mark Swed reviews opera star Rene Pape in his Los Angeles recital debut and Gustavo Dudamel conducting Mahler's Ninth Symphony with the L.A. Philharmonic.

-- David Ng

Photo: An archaeologist works on human remains found at a construction site for the planned La Plaza de Cultura y Artes in downtown L.A. Credit: Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press

 

Magna Carta coming to LACMA for a fortnight during BritWeek

Four years ahead of its 800th anniversary, the Magna Carta is coming to Los Angeles.

From April 26 to May 11, this aged piece of parchment will reside in the European galleries of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in conjunction with the annual BritWeek celebration of the cultural connections between Great Britain and L.A. 

When it comes to Magna Cartas, one needs to look at the fine print, so to speak -- and we're not talking about the page full of Latin that delineates limits on royal power that King John agreed to at Runnymede on June 15, 1215.

There are Magna Cartas from 1215, 1217, 1225 and 1297; in all, 17 copies are known to exist. Each edition reflected changes in the political equation in England, leading to revisions. The one coming to LACMA is a 1217 Magna Carta that belongs to the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

For more on the twists and travels of the Magna Carta, click here to read the Calendar story.

There’s a bit of irony in the Magna Carta as an attraction at a Los Angeles art museum.

Monster Mash: Obama celebrates Kennedy Center Honors; 'Spider-Man' actress injured

Executive presence: President Obama presided over the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday, which recognized Broadway composer Jerry Herman, dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones, Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney and country singer Merle Haggard. (Los Angeles Times)

Accident: Actress Natalie Mendoza is recovering from a concussion she sustained last week when equipment fell on her head during a performance of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" on Broadway. (Wall Street Journal)

Sense of humor: Steve Martin has penned an editorial about the 92nd Street Y's decision to offer an audience refund after a recent talk featuring the actor-comedian. (New York Times)

Smelly: A replica of the Venus de Milo statue made from panda dung has been purchased for approximately $45,000 by an art collector. (Agence France-Presse)

Speaking out: The Assn. of Art Museum Directors has issued a rebuke to the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington for censoring a work of art included in the exhibition "Hide/Seek." (Los Angeles Times)

Controversial moves: A look into the Philadelphia History Museum's decision to sell off more than 2,000 items in the last few years. (New York Times)

Money problems: The Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky has filed for bankruptcy. (Lexington Herald-Leader)

Favorable odds: Glasgow-born Susan Philipsz is considered by bookies to be the favorite to win this year's Turner Prize. (BBC News)

Also in the L.A. Times: Art critic Christopher Knight on the Smithsonian Institution's failure to stand up to what he says are anti-gay bullies; Knight on the Getty's new exhibit, "Imagining the Past in France"; theater critic Charles McNulty on the Wooster Group's "Vieux Carré" at REDCAT; the Los Angeles Ballet turns 5 years old.

-- David Ng

Photo: President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday. Credit: Gary Fabiano / Getty Images

New York museum returns to good graces after ban for selling art to pay bills

After nearly two years of museum-world ostracism because it sold two prized 19th century American landscape paintings for about $15 million to relieve a financial crisis, Manhattan’s venerable National Academy Museum & School is being accepted back into the good graces of North America’s leading professional association for art museums.

The Assn. of Art Museum Directors announced Monday that the sanctions it imposed Dec. 5, 2008, have been suspended, “in recognition of the steps the Academy has taken toward better governance, financial planning and management.”

Art loans and collaboration between 180 AAMD member museums and the National Academy can resume, although the National Academy remains on five years of probation in which the museum directors’ association will review progress annually toward “continued institutional advancement.”  The National Academy’s galleries are currently closed for renovation and due to reopen in September 2011.

When Lee Rosenbaum broke the story of the sale on her CultureGrrl arts blog, the academy’s director, Carmine Branagan, told her that “we had a choice of selling or becoming part of the dustbin of history.”

As yet unanswered is when or whether the two sold paintings, Frederic Edwin Church’s “Scene on the Magdalene” (1854) (pictured) and Sanford Robinson Gifford’s “Mount Mansfield, Vermont” (1859) might re-emerge from a private owner’s wall and again become available to scholars and the viewing public.

Keeping art for the public's enjoyment and study is the reason for having  tax-exempt art museums in the first place, and failing to do that in the case of the Church and Gifford paintings is what brought down sanctions on the National Academy.  Saying it was “breaching one of the most basic and important … principles by treating its collection as a financial asset rather than the cornerstone of research, exhibition and public programming,” the AAMD called on the 180 art museum directors who make up its membership to suspend loans of art to the National Academy Museum and refuse to collaborate with it on exhibitions and other projects.

The AAMD’s voluntary guidelines say it’s OK for museums to sell works from their collections – “deaccessioning,” in art world lingo – but only if the money raised goes toward buying other works of art that directors and curators think would be a better fit.

Monster Mash: Israeli orchestra to play at Bayreuth; dispute over Calder mobile in Chicago

Breaking a taboo: The Israel Chamber Orchestra is set to play at Germany's Bayreuth Festival of Wagnerian music. (Agence France-Presse)

Tug of war: The current owners of the Willis Tower in Chicago are in a legal battle with the former owners over "The Universe," a motorized mobile by Alexander Calder. (Chicago Tribune)

Controversial decision: The New York State Board of Regents receives criticism after easing a ban on art sales by museums. (New York Times)

Nunsense: The musical "Sister Act" will open on Broadway April 20 at the Broadway Theatre. (Theatermania)

Striking back: The two men who claim to have lost precious artwork in an unsolved Pebble Beach burglary a year ago say their reputations have been hurt by the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. (Monterey County Herald)

Horrific: New York's MCC Theater is looking to revive  "Carrie," the musical based on the Stephen King novel that flopped on Broadway in 1988. (New York Times)

Staying put: Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch have extended their runs in the Broadway revival of "A Little Night Music." (Playbill)

Passing: Soprano Dolores Wilson, who performed numerous times at the Metropolitan Opera before launching a Broadway career, has died at 82. (New York Times)

And in the L.A. Times: art critic Christopher Knight on the new galleries at the Crocker Art Museum; Christie's is selling art from the Robert Shapazian estate; conductor Gustavo Dudamel and his wife are expecting a baby boy.

-- David Ng

Photo: "The Universe" by Alexander Calder. Credit: Scott Strazzante / Chicago Tribune

Rhode Island design college's turmoil echoes 2008 upheaval at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design

A Boston Globe article about recent turbulence at the Rhode Island School of Design brings to mind similarities between that school's controversies and conflict a year earlier at its Southern California peer, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, which led to the departure of Art Center's president, Richard Koshalek.

At the Providence, R.I., college, which, like Art Center, is a top-tier destination for students of art and design, it was the campus’ museum director, rather than its president, who walked the plank. But in both cases, the combination of dwindling resources and ambitious building programs factored heavily into the parting of ways.

At Art Center, Koshalek’s bid to expand the campus with a new, $50-million building by Frank Gehry led to a backlash in mid-2008 from students and alumni who felt the president was putting the architectural cart before the academic horse. With tuition rising and a perceived slippage in studio equipment and facilities, protests at Art Center focused on whether the push to adorn the campus and heighten the school's profile was sapping money and energy from educational needs. Art Center’s board suspended the capital campaign, and Koshalek, now the director of the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, soon resigned.

In Rhode Island, the Globe’s Geoff Edgers reports, the $34-million Chace Center, a museum and classroom building by another Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Jose Rafael Moneo, became a reality in 2008. But the fallout was similar: “We have a new museum building on our campus that cost a hell of a lot of money, and that took the attention away from maintaining buildings and raising money for financial aid,” the president of RISD’s faculty association told the Globe.

Milan's big showing of a Da Vinci notebook recalls L.A.'s Leonardo that got away

In light of recent controversies, most folks who care about art know that it's a really big deal for a museum to even think of unloading a masterpiece. (Consider Brandeis University's attempt to sell off the collection of its Rose Art Museum to rescue the university from budgetary woes, brought on partly by some of its major donors’ fondness for investing with Bernie Madoff.)

The Hammer Museum might wish for the case of the long-gone Leicester Codex -- Leonardo da Vinci's handwritten, illustrated notebook that’s primarily about the properties of water -- to be water under the bridge. But once you auction off Da Vinci's handiwork for $28 million, as the Hammer did 15 years ago this month in the granddaddy of L.A. deaccessionings, well, people tend to remember.

Especially when there’s news that a library in Milan, Italy, is going to get six years of exhibitions out of episodically displaying all 1,119 pages of its much larger Da Vinci notebook, the Atlantic Codex.

Plans at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which opened in 1609, call for showing 44 or 45 pages at a time, for three months, then cycling in the next group of pages. That’s to save the light-sensitive work from potential damage from overexposure. The first set of pages went on display in September, divided between two venues – the library itself and the nearby Santa Maria delle Grazie convent, which also houses Leonardo’s “The Last Supper.”

Flora Laney Thornton, L.A.'s musical benefactor

You've heard of the USC Thornton School of Music...

... the woman who gave the school her name in 1999, along with her $25 million, is Flora Laney Thornton. Now 94 and living in Holmby Hills, she began her professional life in music. Growing up in Kansas and then Texas, she was a soloist in her church choir before moving to New York, where she lived at the Three Arts Club and landed a role in a Broadway show. She was performing in the ensemble of a musical called “White Horse Inn” when she married her husband, Charles “Tex” Thornton, in 1937.

Music took a back seat in her life for a time, while her husband started his own business that eventually acquired the huge electronics conglomerate Litton Industries.

“Women had different roles then, and we played them,” recalls Thornton. “My husband didn’t care much about music. We therefore didn’t go to many concerts. We rode horses.”

Still, she nursed her love for jazz and opera by listening to records. When her husband died in 1981, “life went on in a different way,” she says. She was already involved in several scholarship programs for music students when USC President Steven B. Sample approached her about donating to and naming the school. “I thought he was out of his head,” she says. “I always want to know what I’m doing, not just jump into things. But the more I thought about it, the more I saw it would be very helpful to a lot of people. It was the biggest thing I’d ever done in one fell swoop.”

For a full report on the school's 125th anniversary and its place in the cultural life of the city, read Sunday's Arts & Books section, or click here.

Photo: Flora Laney Thornton, the benfactoress. Credit: Steve Cohn