Halloween music, death dances and artists on fire

Louise Bourgeois’ Spider in Pappajohn Sculpture Park

At its haughtiest levels, the art world believes it is more evolved than everybody else. It is married to the concept of the avant-garde, always pushing boundaries and defying convention. It is a cult beholden to no outside influences. It occupies the cool kids’ table and rarely grants a seat to outsiders, until its funding is jeopardized. Money, it turns out, is its life blood just like it is to the unwashed masses.  

Last month the uber elitist board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York experienced an existential crisis. Their annual Met Gala, the ultimate celebrity roll call that this year raised $42 million in one night, was forced to retreat from its plan to make John Galliano its latest Jean Genet revival.

Genet was a 20th century career thief and prostitute who was resurrected by the art world to praise the “beauty of evil,” particularly the evil of insurrectionists in Palestine and the black ghettos of California. Galliano was a designer for elite brands Givenchy, Dior and Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. He was fired by them all after being convicted in France for anti-Semitic and racist tirades and for praising the evil works of Hitler, all on video. 

Longtime Met Gala Chair and Vogue icon Anna Wintour (Merle Streep played her in “The Devil Wears Prada”) announced that Galliano would not be the subject of this year’s Costume Institute exhibit, which was supposed to be his resurrection moment. It turned out that wealthy New Yorkers have had enough Anti Semitism for this decade. Like all things Vogue, Wintour polished the turd. “John’s decision to ask the museum to postpone the exhibition devoted to his work is very courageous and a measure of the man he is.” That did not appease the outrage. Wintour was rumored to be in trouble holding on to her reputation and job, by Inside Edition. 

In Des Moines, the arts scene is neither canceling or postponing plans. Des Moines Art Center’s annual gala in September went off without insults or apologies. The museum expands its long exploration of Caribbean artists in October with a painting show, “Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way,” which expands the Caribbean to include Central American Latinx artists. Also, the intriguing print show “Artists on Fire” continues through Jan. 10. 

Des Moines Symphony’s Oct. 31 through Nov. 1 show celebrates Halloween with John Williams’ “Devil’s Dance,” Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain,” Liszt’s virtuosic “Totentanz” and Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique.” Liszt Prize winner Derek Wang will play piano on “Totentanz.”

At Moberg Gallery, David Dahlquist’s new works opens Oct. 2 and plays into November. Olson Larsen’s Gallery Night show will be “Human Experience,” with six Midwestern artists whose works express different facets of being human. While some of the artists use their own body as a stand-in for broader metaphors, you’ll see others tap into the tradition of art historical tableau paintings contrasted with nostalgic plus contemporary scenes of everyday life. Iowans Brittany Brooke Crow, Tim Olson and Mitchell Squire are joined by Minnesotan Ruth Shively, Michigan’s Rachael Van Dyke and Nebraska’s Watie White.

Civic Music Association’s 101st season begins Oct. 2 with a collaboration by Boston Brass and Turtle Island blending classical, jazz and crossover styles reimagining of “Romeo and Juliet.” Then they move from Kabalevsky and Prokofiev to Elvis Costello’s “Juliet Letters” and Bernstein’s “West Side Story.”

Des Moines Ballet takes stage at Hoyt Sherman theater Oct. 23-24 featuring a world premiere inspired by Edgar Allan Poe — “Ghost Ballads,” choreography by Adriana Pierce, more famously the founder of Queer the Ballet. The show continues with excerpts from “Giselle,” the peasant girl betrayed by a noble fraud who returns as a ghostly spirit tricking her lover to dance to his death. A “Thriller” improvisation concludes those shows. ♦

Jim Duncan is a food and art writer who has been covering the central Iowa scene for more than five decades.