Wednesday's Art Notes

_-- A member of the Viradouro Samba School, which this year pays tribute to Mexico, works on a float dedicated to artist Frida Kahlo in Rio de Janeiro. Rio's samba schools are making floats and costumes for Carnival, which this year runs Feb. 12-17. (Photo by Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty Images.)_ * The White House hosted "a celebration of music from the civil rights movement":http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123512342 on Tuesday night. Performers included Smokey Robinson, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the Blind Boys of Alabama. The performance had to be scheduled a night earlier than planned because of a major snowstorm that hit Washington, D.C. The concert was the fifth in a series that celebrates American music. Other genres have included "jazz":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/06/jazzy-start-for-the-white-house-music-series.html, "country":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/07/alison-krauss-brad-paisley-play-the-white-house.html and "Latin music":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec09/fiesta_10-15.html. * Speaking of that snowstorm, "the roof of a Smithsonian warehouse in Maryland collapsed overnight":http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/weather/bal-smithsonian-collapse0210,0,3070209.story, but no items were damaged. The Washington Post "has a roundup of how the storms were affecting area museums and galleries.":http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/08/AR2010020803575.html. * British comedic actor Ian Carmichael, who famously (to PBS audiences) played Lord Peter Wimsey in a BBC adaptation of novels by Dorothy Sayers, "died last week at his home in England at the age of 89":http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/arts/television/10carmichael.html. He is also remembered for his film work from the 1950s and for his portrayal of British aristocratic oaf Bertie Wooster. Here's a clip of Carmichael as Wimsey: * Revered art house film distributor New Yorker Films got a reel break when "it announced it had found a new owner":http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/indie-distributor-new-yorker-films-gets-a-second-reel/. The company, which owns Jean Luc Godard's "Breathless," as well as titles from directors like Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini, had said last year it would be closing shop. * Venerable French actress Isabelle Huppert "can't depend on the kindness of strangers for good reviews for her performance":http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/02/avant-garde-streetcar-starring-isabelle-huppert-gets-panned-in-paris.html in an avant-garde version of "A Streetcar Named Desire." Huppert, who starred in Michael Haneke's film "The Piano Teacher" and is a leading dramatic figure in France, plays Blanche DuBois. The re-interpretation of the play features techno music and video projections. * Art scavenger hunts seem to be a trend in Chicago these days. The Tribune tells the story of a painter "who drops both art works and clues":http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-live-0210-art-hunt-20100209,0,1725808,full.story via Twitter and text message for interested collectors. And last month, the Art Institute "stashed 500 red cubes all over the city":http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-talk-art-institute-red-cubes-0201-20100131,0,657463.story to promote an upcoming exhibit called "500 Ways of Looking at Modern." When someone found a cube, they were supposed to report its location. But at the end of January only 320 had turned up, with the rest possibly ending up in private collections.