Displaying items by tag: production

Jeff Koons is ramping up operations at his high-tech stone workshop in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, where his sculptures are carved almost entirely by machines. This suggests that the artist may be developing new bodies of work in the medium. Since opening Antiquity Stone in 2012, Koons has more than tripled its production capacity; it now has 12 computer-operated stone-cutting machines, two robots and around 30 employees. The facility, which exists solely to fabricate Koons’s work, now bills itself as “the most advanced stone fabrication operation in the world”, according to a job advertisement it posted in January, seeking a supervisor for its Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines.

New studies released today by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and based on surveys carried out in 2012 claim that arts attendance in the US has continued to drop over the past two decades, but both struggle to incorporate digital activities into their findings. The studies, “A Decade of Arts Engagement: Findings From the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, 2002–2012” and “When Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivations Affecting Arts Attendance,” break down arts attendance, participation, and production figures demographically and attempt to account for the reasons certain groups do and don’t attend cultural events.

This past Sunday, Montreal's Place des Arts and the stage troupe Finzi Pasca unveiled a mural by Salvador Dali that has remained out of public view for sixty years. Measuring 29 ½ feet by 40 feet, the backdrop was painted for the 1944 ballet production “Le Tristan Fou (Mad Tristan),” a take on “Tristan und Isolde,” while the Surrealist artist was in exile in New York. The backdrop made an appearance in London in 1949 and then fell out of sight until an anonymous European foundation re-discovered it three years ago.

The rare piece was restored but rather than exhibit it in a museum of gallery, the foundation offered it to theater creator and circus master Daniele Finzi Pasca for use in an upcoming acrobatic stage production. Pasca decided to incorporate the painting into “La Vérità,” a story inspired by “Tristan und Isolde” as well as Dali’s exile, the 1940s cabaret scene, and the Dali’s wife and muse, Gala.

Members of the public can take a closer look at the Dali backdrop at Théâtre Maisonneuve in Place des Arts on Wednesday, November 7. La Vérità, featuring the Dali backdrop will premiere at the theater on January 17, 2013.