Friday's Art Notes

_A member of staff at "The Victoria and Albert Museum":http://www.vam.ac.uk/ admires "a giant painted theatrical front cloth designed by Pablo Picasso":http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iKt_27kFOnvPiCWbckkqkXlzuKMw and displayed on August 5, 2010 in London. The cloth appeared in the Ballets Russes performance of 'Le Train Bleu' in 1924 and is being hung at the V & A as part of their Autumn exhibition 'Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-1929', which opens September 25 and runs until January 9, 2011. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/ Getty Images_ * A holocaust documentary about an unfinished Nazi propaganda film will keep its R-rating despite an appeal to the Classification and Rating Administration, via the "New York Times":http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/despite-appeal-holocaust-documentary-will-retain-r-rating/. * A film about the life of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia will not be allowed to use any of his music, via "Variety":http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118022604.html?categoryid=1237&cs=1. * President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle will act as honorary chairs for a Washington theater company when it reopens after renovations this fall, via "Playbill":http://www.playbill.com/news/article/141826-President-Obama-and-First-Lady-Are-Honorary-Chairs-of-Arena-Stage-Gala-at-New-DC-Home. * NPR "visits":http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128724062 the "Museum of Bad Art":http://www.museumofbadart.org/. * The band Arcade Fire releases a "synchronized artwork" (an .mp4 movie file) that is meant to play simultaneously with their new album, "The Suburbs," a strategy for trying to revive fans' interest in album art and discouraging illegal downloads by offering an aesthetic bonus, via "ARTINFO":http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35390/why-buy-the-new-arcade-fire-album-how-about-synchronized-artwork/ . Also, Arcade Fire and film director Terry Gilliam teamed up this week to shoot a concert documentary in New York, via "The New York Times":http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/terry-gilliam-takes-total-control-of-arcade-fire/.