The Hand of a Master Architect

From left, Raj Ahuja, John Burgee and Philip Johnson in 1987

Photo: Rich Addicks/The Atlanta Journal Constitution

A huge and previously unknown trove of archival material from Philip Johnson’s architectural practice — including his hand-drawn sketches for towers that helped define postmodern architecture — is to be put up for sale by one of Johnson’s former partners, who has had them in storage for years.

The cache contains more than 25,000 design sketches, working drawings, renderings and photographs from the second half of Johnson’s architectural career, covering more than 120 projects from 1968 to 1992. While there are collections of his early work at the Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum and the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, documentation from this later period, in which he became known for his tall buildings, is much rarer.

Mr. Ahuja, the archive’s owner, was a former design partner of Johnson’s. An Indian-born architect, he joined the firm as a young man in 1971 and ran its Iranian office before becoming a partner with Johnson and John Burgee in 1984. During his tenure Mr. Ahuja developed a strong affinity for Johnson, who left the partnership for a consulting role in 1986 and left the practice entirely five years later.

Read the whole story at The New York Times, by Robin Pogrebin

Sketching a Future for Brooklyn Museum

THOUGH it resides in a prime example of traditional museum architecture — a Beaux-Arts building designed in 1893 by McKim, Mead & White — there is little stale or stodgy about the Brooklyn Museum.

For more than a century the museum has been one of the country’s most important cultural institutions, and for more than a decade it has also courted controversy.

In 1999 the museum created a maelstrom by exhibiting a painting that depicted the Virgin Mary decorated with elephant dung, prompting the mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to threaten to cut city financing. In 2002 it hosted an exhibition featuring props, models, costumes and characters from the “Star Wars” films that struck some reviewers as particularly lowbrow. And five years ago it added an unapologetically brash, modern glass entrance to the Old World exterior of its building.

Apart from the discussion over its mission and future, the museum, which operates on a $28 million budget, has had many successes in recent years, from educating school children, to mounting critically acclaimed shows and introducing countless visitors to paintings by Gilbert Stuart, landscapes by Bierstadt, the mummy of Demetrios and other works in its permanent collection.

Many of the experts who agreed to assess the museum’s efforts were effusive in their support for the institution, whose innovations they embraced. Others suggested changes in its approach.


Read the whole story at The New York Times, by Robin Pogrebin
Photo: Todd Heisler/The New York Times

After the Internet, There’s Always Art

TIM NYE, the bon vivant, Park Avenue heir and Chelsea gallery owner, has a theory about art openings. “You’ve got to do something that makes them say ‘Wow.’ ”

By that standard, the festivities for Swell, a three-gallery exhibition on surfing-inspired art that opened last month, lived up to expectations.

Mr. Nye is not your usual scion of a New York real estate fortune, going about town, quietly sprinkling money around art fairs and museum boards. He has always tended to make big professional statements. In the 1990s, he earned millions of his own, as a high-flying dot-com entrepreneur, when the Web was in its unprofitable infancy.

Looking back, Mr. Nye said that he spread himself too thin — a lesson he is now trying to apply to his gallery. Until recently, for example, he curated each show as a one-off, reflecting his enthusiasm of the day, rather than cultivating a stable of artists.

Read the whole story at The New York Times, by Alex Williams

Photo: Joshua Bright for The New York Times

Oscar-nominated, Robert F. Boyle Dies at 100

Robert F. Boyle, a four-time Oscar-nominated production designer best known for his work on Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" and "The Birds" and Norman Jewison's "Fiddler on the Roof," has died. He was 100.

Boyle died of natural causes Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a two-day stay, said family spokeswoman Nicole Bamber.

Among his other major motion picture credits as a production designer are “The Birds,” “Winter Kills,” “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas,” “Private Benjamin,” “Portnoy’s Complaint,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “In Cold Blood,” “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying,” “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” “The Shootist” and the original “Cape Fear.”

Robert Boyle was born October 10, 1909, in Los Angeles and was a graduate of the School of Architecture of the University of Southern California (1933). He began his art direction career that year at Paramount Studios moving from there to Universal Studios. In 1941 Hitchcock chose him to be the art director on his “Saboteur” film. He served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for nine years and was a two-term president of the Art Directors Guild.

He is survived by his daughters, Emily Boyle-Biddle and Susan Licon; and three grandchildren.

Source: www.hollywoodnews.com, www.kansascity.com

Mitch Miller, music innovator and host of Sing Along With Mitch,' dies at 99

Miller died Saturday after a short illness at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said his daughter, Margaret Miller Reuther. He made a career switch from playing to producing in the late 1940s by becoming A&R (artists and repertoire) director at Mercury Records, a small label that he turned into a major force in the industry.

Miller strongly disagreed with Sinatra's accusations then - and continued to do so decades later.

"When I came to Columbia, he was already at the nadir of his career," Miller told the Chicago Tribune in 1987. "He had lost his television show, he had lost his movie contract, he was chasing after Ava (Gardner), he was behind in his income taxes. In short, his records would not sell, his voice was gone."


Read the whole story at Kansas City.

Elaine Stritch in "A Little Night Music."

When it opened in December, there were raves for the three leads -- Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angela Lansbury and Alexander Hanson -- but much criticism, including mine, of director Trevor Nunn's minimalist approach, which included visually drab sets, monochromatic costumes and dim lighting design.

Well, the production elements remain the same, but the two lead replacements, Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch, have enlivened the proceedings immeasurably. What before was an undeniably moving experience has now become even richer, filled with a humor that too often was lacking in its first incarnation. Peters and Stritch are beloved Broadway icons, and their performances here illustrate the
reasons why.

Based on Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is set in a weekend country house in turn of the century Sweden, bringing together surprising liaisons, long simmering passions and a taste of love's endless possibilities. Hailed as witty and wildly romantic, the story centers on the elegant actress Desirée Armfeldt and the spider's web of sensuality, intrigue and desire that surrounds her.

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC - featuring a score by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler - originally opened in 1973 at Broadway's Shubert Theatre and ran for 601 performances. Produced and directed by Harold Prince, the production garnered six Tony Awards® including Best Musical and Best Original Score. The Sondheim score features one of the composer's best-known songs, "Send in the Clowns," as well as
"Every Day a Little Death," "The Miller's Son" and "A Weekend in the
Country."

Photo: Joan Marcus via Bloomberg
Source: www.broadwayworld.com, www.reuters.com, www.bloomberg.com

'American Idol'

The revolving door on the "American Idol" judges' table may be starting to spin out of control. On the heels of Thursday's shocking news that Ellen DeGeneres would be leaving "Idol" after just one year on the panel, TMZ reported later in the day that two-season veteran Kara DioGuardi had been fired from the show.




Reps for Lopez and Tyler could not be reached for comment. Fox is widely expected to announce the makeup of the new "Idol" judges' panel on Monday at the Television Critics Association event.

Lopez and Tyler are just the latest names to surface in connection with the vacancies on the "Idol" panel in the wake of the departure of original lead judge Simon Cowell at the end of season nine and DeGeneres' unexpected bailout. Among the other musicians reportedly in the mix are Justin Timberlake and Elton John (whose reps both denied they were considering the move), Harry Connick Jr., Chris Isaak and, most unlikely, loquacious grunge godmother Courtney Love.

Source: www.mtv.com