The Arts Fuse Newsletter, June 12
Onward, SPRING APPEAL! An Ingmar Bergman Bio, "Yellow Face" at the Lyric Stage, Hana Miletić and the Power of Folds, the Beat poetry of James Lee Burke’s “Clete,” and the Provincetown Film Festival
From The Editor's Desk:
The Spring Appeal continues. We need around $1000 or so to make our challenge match of $2500. Last week, I asserted that the Arts Fuse takes on an essential but increasingly endangered role in the world of professional journalism: the magazine issues invitations, via critical commentary, to think seriously and honestly about artistic accomplishment and failure. I focused on the ways reasoned dialogue and judgment help sustain the health of art and artists. Now, I want to point out why critical evaluation of the arts is important from a social perspective. At its best, reviewing plays a vital role in the community: it is one of the means — through public discourse — of discovering and communicating how and what one values in the arts. And to do so freely, with an editorial independence that is rapidly disappearing.
A newfangled enemy of critical thinking has arisen: the growing power of ranking algorithms and recommendation engines, which are not only transforming the ways we think about the arts, but their place in our lives. The robotic ease of today’s high tech tipster (“if you liked this … you will like that”) was designed to become addictive. Your culture is created for you: there’s no muss, no thought, no research. The aim of the process is to turn users into passive consumers, not active participants forming their own artistic tastes through trial and error. It is clear that automatism leads to cultural homogenization as well as financial centralization: the algorithms have been programmed to push the product of those who have pumped the most advertising money into streaming services and search engines. It is payola on a global scale.
For some, a solution to this cultural hollowing lies in the creation of more and better curation sites. But these often turn out to be variations on the ‘influencer’ biz — they are criticism free zones. Reducing arts coverage to non-stop positivity brings the issue of access to the fore — and that raises questions about what is picked to be covered and why, decisions that in the future will be dictated by algorithms rather than human beings. What is needed is clear — the nurturing of experienced, creative, and fearless critics who will articulate their criteria — and invite conversation. Thus the need to support The Arts Fuse and other small but worthy publications, such as Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, and 4 Columns, that are struggling to survive in very stony ground.
To keep The Arts Fuse aflame, please donate here. Or click on one of the “keep the fuse lit!” icons below. Thanks so much for your support.
—Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Book Review: A Deep Dive into the Complex World of Ingmar Bergman
By Gerald Peary
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F14891429-10f7-4dab-bcb4-a3b27aeef7ad_600x500.jpeg)
Film historian Peter Cowie’s writing is always intelligent, if somewhat dry, and normally correct in its evaluations of Ingmar Bergman’s films.
Theater Review: “Yellow Face” — Playing With Reality
By Bill Marx
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc3d743bf-cbd3-42ee-bd1e-3d426745f605_599x500.jpeg)
This meta-theatrical, semi-autobiographical exercise works better than it should given the inevitable narcissistic pitfalls.
Visual Arts Review: “Hana Miletić: Soft Services” — The Power of Folds
By Helen Miller and Michael Strand
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc75c2be3-713d-4c99-bc3a-a1add9b46ed9_600x500.jpeg)
In her insightful commentaries and art, Hana Miletić demonstrates how labor and materiality reflect subtexts of power, ranging from the “soft” to the “hard.”
Theater Review: “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” — A Genially Absurdist Comedy
By David Greenham
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1a62f6b5-43f5-4810-a3cd-00843e96d989_600x400.jpeg)
Despite its undeniable fun, Christopher Durang’s play feels somewhat quaint a decade or so since it was written.
Book Review: “Clete” — A Whodunit in Masquerade
By Clea Simon
James Lee Burke’s “Clete” is Beat poetry, suffused with sadness and longing for all those sunsets now gone.
Film Review: “Lumberjack the Monster” — A Petrified Forest
By Steve Erickson
Director Takashi Miike’s latest is a killjoy of a film: it doesn’t want to have fun with its material, but it’s impossible to take it seriously.
Doc Talk: Movies on Loss and Recovery at the Provincetown International Film Festival
By Peter Keough
A trio of films in which certainty and security has been disrupted and people must make the best of what remains.
Help Keep The Arts Fuse Lit!
Precious few independent online arts publications make it to double digits. Please give us the resources the magazine needs to persevere at an essential cultural task.
Keep the Fuse lit and support our 70+ writers by making a donation.
The Arts Fuse also needs underwriting for the magazine to continue to grow.
And…tell your friends about the in-depth arts coverage you can’t get anywhere else.
Questions, comments, concerns?
Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marx
wmarx103@gmail.com