O/T Today's 'art' stories
AGC Queen
By Peter Dobrin/INQUIRER MUSIC CRITIC
It's a cover-up at the Opera Company of Philadelphia.
Responding to criticism from its board and subscribers over the poster for a
forthcoming production of Strauss' Salome, the troupe stapled four (not seven)
red chiffon veils over the biblical temptress's nipples and crotch in the
poster put up recently outside the Academy of Music.
In addition, the company will not put the specially commissioned illustration
on the cover of its program booklet or in bus-shelter advertisements.
The offending picture, by Polish-born artist Rafal Olbinski, went out last year
on 700,000 brochures. It shows two figures layered on top of each other - a
vertical Salome intersecting with a horizontal dismembered head of John the
Baptist. His eye lands at a certain spot in her crotch, creating an anatomical
double-entendre that has made some opera company board members feel
uncomfortable.
"It went a little too far," said Richard A. Doran, who sits on the opera board.
"Engaging" is what another board member, James B. Straw, called the
illustration. "But in retrospect," he said, "we probably should have had the
work recast before we went public with it."
Robert B. Driver, the Opera Company's general director, defended the image. He
said it "captured the opera in the best possible way. I think it's the most
fabulous piece I've ever seen."
Olbinski said he was not aware of the fact that his poster at Broad and Locust
Streets had been altered. But he said he was not bothered by the Opera
Company's solution.
"I consider it with humor - it's a joke, right?" he said yesterday by phone
from his office in New York.
Olbinski, 55, who has worked widely for opera companies and whose illustrations
have appeared in the New Yorker, Playboy and the Atlantic Monthly, said the
poster was his most successful ever.
"I don't remember getting so many awards for any of my artwork."
The poster has been published in several industry publications, winning awards
from Communication Arts and Critique magazines, and a gold medal from the
Society of Illustrators.
"I was expecting maybe it would be controversial for square-headed people, but
I wasn't expecting such a positive reaction, that it would get such awards and
recognition. It's probably not the end of the awards. I'm expecting I'll get
more work out of it."
Olbinski said he showed several ideas to opera company officials, and was
surprised when they agreed that the one with the images of Salome and John the
Baptist intersecting worked best.
"It's an allusion to voyeurism," said the artist. "Usually when we are watching
these kinds of erotic dances, that's what we are looking at, right? It's a
cross-section between dance, sex, perversity, you name it. The whole idea was
to take this emotionally complex story and make it as simple as possible in
this poster."
"I wasn't offended by it, but I was surprised," said Alex Kitroeff, a
subscriber for four years. "It seemed far too avant-garde for what the opera
company here represents."
Driver, who is directing the production of Salome, says anyone offended by the
poster might think twice about seeing the show.
Richard Strauss' Salome has a history of scandalizing audiences. Based on Oscar
Wilde's poem, the one-act opera tells the story of the depraved Salome,
stepdaughter of King Herod, and her love-object, John the Baptist. He rebuffs
her every advance. When Herod asks Salome to dance for him, she refuses - at
least until Herod promises to grant her any wish. Salome performs the "Dance of
the Seven Veils," essentially a strip-tease. When done, she reveals her
payment: the head of John the Baptist.
After being performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1907, the work was banned
there until 1934. A performance in Philadelphia in 1909 met with protests by
religious groups. Mayor John E. Reyburn was asked to stop the production, but
refused.
Driver would not say how this production, which opens for six performances
starting April 26, handles the "Dance of the Seven Veils."
"As I said, when the music is provocative, we will be provocative. I think
that's kind of like revealing the end of a movie."
Jack R. Bershad, an Opera Company board member, said he thought the poster was
fine in its original form.
"I think it's a pretty good work myself," he said. "I wouldn't hang it in my
living room, but I would hang it at the opera house."
* * *
http://www.stlnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/ByDocID/E3A560A5AE56A8FB862568B8
008299B1?OpenDocument
By Valerie K. Schremp
Of the Post-Dispatch
A longtime art teacher at Mary Institute-Country Day School in Ladue is charged
with stealing $30,000 worth of artwork from the school.
Alan Handler, 53, has taught upper grades at the private school at 101 North
Warson Road since 1970. Ladue police began investigating him just after March
17, the day before the school's spring break was to begin. That's when
administrators noticed a bronze sculpture by local artist Ernest Trova missing
from the library.
The following Sunday, security officers monitoring surveillance tape noticed
Handler going into his classroom storage closet, where they found the missing
40-inch-tall sculpture. School officials called Ladue police, who visited
Handler at his apartment in the 1200 block of Wild Chase Lane in Chesterfield.
Police said they found 11 more paintings and prints that had been taken from
the school over the past 10 years.
Handler was charged Wednesday with one count of felony stealing over $750.
The school fired Handler, and faculty members were told about the incident
Monday, the first day back from spring break. Administrators also told upper
school students and sent home a note to parents and St. Louis alumni.
School administrators are working with police to figure out just how the
sculptures were taken and when. The school keeps archives for its pieces of
artwork, which it displays in a school art gallery and in areas around the
school.
Send email to: PUSSS...@aol.com