A&FrRTAINMENT
Page 12 Monday, September 27,1999
Event marks Lied’s 10th anniversary
By Patrick Kelly
Staffwriter
Strands of gold lights hung from the trees,
and brightly colored kaleidoscopic shapes were
projected onto the Lied Center’s walls.
Jazz and blues music filled the air while the
crowd mingled, sampling an array of food.
Children decorated the streets with intricate
chalk drawings, and couples both young and old
walked hand-in-hand in the warm, fall night.
Friday night, people of all ages celebrated the
Lied Center for Performing Arts’ 10th anniver
sary with an outdoor celebration in the Lied
Plaza.
The celebration featured a variety of bands
and dancers, and the massive crowd that gathered
eventually spilled over from the Lied Plaza into
the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery’s Sculpture
Garden.
The carnival-like atmosphere exemplified
how, over the past 10 years, the Lied has married
high art with plain fun. The Lied has built a repu
tation for offering an eclectic mix of perfor
mances to attract a diverse audience.
The broad appeal of the Lied’s programming
has been a key to its success, said Charles Bethea,
the Lied’s executive director.
“I think that we’re seeing a broader spectrum
of audiences, and I attribute that to two things.
One is that as the reputation of the Lied Center
continues to grow more and more, people want to
take advantage of what we bring here.
“Secondly, we’re broadening our program
out every year to include things that will have
greater interest to more audiences,” Bethea said.
Aside from giving adults an opportunity for
an evening out, the Lied has also been a resource
for children to learn about the arts.
Tim and Sally Kettler of Lincoln brought
fcfc
I think what they are
bringing here is
wonderful
Jennifer Parker
senior arts and humanities major
their children with them to the Friday night cele
bration. The Kettlers have enjoyed performances
by blues legends such as B.B. King and Buddy
Guy, while their children enjoyed the family-ori
ented production of “Beethoven Lives Upstairs.”
Of course, being on the City Campus, the
Lied also attracts University of Nebraska
Lincoln students, and each has his or her own
preference.
“I think what they are bringing here is won
derful,” said Jennifer Parker, a senior arts and
humanities major at UNL. “I’m a big theater per
son, so I would have to say more musicals, but
I’m not the only person who goes.”
In fact, students were just a small sample of
the throng that gathered on Friday night.
Some came to enjoy the carnivalesque
atmosphere, while others came for the night’s
feature performance by BeauSoleil.
Michael Doucet’s traditional Cajun band,
BeauSoleil, brought the sounds of the Bayou to
the Midwest for the evening.
As the sounds of accordion, fiddle and banjo
drifted out over the crowd, couples flocked to the
open area in front of the stage. For the rest of the
show, couples two-stepped, rhumbaed and even
danced a line dance or two.
With a relentless tempo and energy,
BeauSoleil’s performance celebrated the passing
of 10 Lied seasons - and the coming of 10 more.
Weather Gle^vboski/DN^
FOUR-YEAR-OLD ZACH Duden and 6-year-old Sarah Venal chase after a bubble at the Lied
Center’s 10th anniversary celebration Friday night. The celebration included an assortment of
bands, dancers and activities.
Artist keeps traditions alive
■ Shi Hu paints traditional
Chinese art using lines and
Chinese calligraphy.
JoshKrauter
Senior staff writer
In China, Shi Hu is one of the most
prominent painters of the 20* century.
But in hie Western world, Hu is not
exactly a household name.
Kam-Ching Leung, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln professor of physics
and astronomy, is providing Hu with a
little more exposure.
Leung loaned his private collection
of several Hu paintings to the Lentz
Center for Asian Culture, located
upstairs in Morrill Hall on UNUs cam
pus. The paintings will be displayed
until Dec. 21.
Hu’s art is an important part of
Chinese culture for a number of rea
sons. Hu fuses traditional Chinese
techniques with modem styles, varies
and diversifies his work and writes elo
quently about how Chinese art should
progress, Leung said.
“He influenced upcoming genera
tions,” Leung said. “His theories on
«,contemporary Chinese painting are
quite original and quite new. He shook
up the contemporary art scene quite a
* bit.”
Hu criticized his fellow artists for
ignoring Chinese tradition, such as cal
ligraphy, and imitating Western artists.
Even though Hu incorporated Western
influences, such as Picasso, into his
work, he always kept the Chinese tradi
tions alive, Leung said.
“Lines are important in Chinese
painting in terms of Chinese calligra
phy. He was conscious about drawing
lines and what kind of stroke to use.”
One example of Hu’s mix of the tra
ditional and the modem is the painting
“Five Happiness.” “Five Happiness to
you” is a traditional Chinese greeting.
In the painting, Hu portrays the
large Chinese character for the greeting
but distorts the character so one side of
it looks like a person greeting some
one, and the other side looks like a
house.
The house has four windows, and
the character is painted on each win
dow in a different way. Hu painted his
name in calligraphy on the side.
Barbara Banks, director and cura
tor of the Lentz Center, said Hu’s paint
ings were important because the callig
raphy was painted, not written, and the
paintings show Hu’s gradual transfor
mation from a naturalistic painter into
an abstract one. She added that Hu’s
paintings were very complex.
“There are lots of specific allusions
that you would have to be involved in
the whole study of him to understand,”
she said.
Banks said the exhibition was a rare
opportunity for the Lentz Center to
show a current artist.
“Generally, we have traditional
shows in various Asian cultures,” she
said. “It’s good for us to do contempo
rary artists from time to time.”
Leung first became aware of Hu in
the 1980s. Leung had begun collecting
Gallery Preview
The facts
What: Shi Hu Painting
Where: Lentz Center for Asian Culture
When: Now through Dec. 21
The Skinny: Exhibit acknowledges
prominent Chinese painter.
Chinese ceramics, which sparked his
interest in art. He began making fre
quent trips to China, and he met sever
al artists, including Hu, while he was
there.
Leung said Hu was as skilled in his
40s as many Chinese artists were in
their 70s.
“In the old days, a painter had to
have three things: He had to be a good
painter, a good calligrapher and a good
poet,” Leung said. “This kind of tradi
tion is difficult. To be good at all three
is almost impossible now. He’s good at
all three.”
Leung said he invited Hu to UNL,
and he wanted to come, but visa prob
lems kept him in China. Leung origi
nally invited Hu to Lincoln in 1989,
when Hu was living in Singapore. Hu
had to return to China to get his visa,
but the Tiananmen Square events, in
which protesting students were mur
dered by the government, kept Hu
away. He still hasn’t got his visa, Leung
said.
“When he said he wasn’t able to
make it, I was more than a little unhap
py,” Leung said. “But some artists, they
don’t behave the way you and I do.”
Suspense, creativity
lacking in ‘Jeopardy’
By Emily Pyeatt
Staff writer
Since we’ve already been exposed
to a more than adequate trailer, as well
as the earlier films “Double
Jeopardy” knocks off, it isn’t difficult
to figure out Ashley Judd’s jeopardy.
Australian director Bruce
Beresford (“Driving Miss Daisy” and
“Breaker Morant”) recognizes the
film’s similarities to other suspense
films but stresses the use of a female
lead in “Double Jeopardy.”
Judd’s role as Libby Parsons pro
vides a female’s perspective on “The
Fugitive.” Basically, Libby is convict
ed for the murder of her husband and
escapes to search for her son and the
truth.
Tommy Lee Jones plays Travis
Lehman, Libby’s parole officer and
the same adversarial role he played in
“The Fugitive.” Initially, he serves as
Libby’s opposition, but he is soon
swayed to support her. But we already
knew that, didn’t we?
Among the wealthy and the well
dressed characters, Libby and her
husband, Nick (Bruce Greenwood),
are established in the opening scenes.
Immediately, audiences identify with
Rim Review
Dm facts
Title: ‘Double Jeopardy”
Stars: Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones
Director: Bruce Beresford
Rating: R (adult situations, language, violence)
Grade: C
Five Words: A female plays “The Fugitive”
a loving mother and her cigar-smok
ing, cocky, art-aficionado husband.
Special attention is given to Nick’s
collection of Wassily Kandinsky art at
a party. Audiences are provided a not
too-subtle foreshadowing look intcF
the art work that will eventually lead
to Nick’s downfall.
After the party, Nick plans a sail
ing trip with Libby. Aboard ship, a pri
mary link between sex and violence is
provided- a link used over and over in
films. Following some pretty dirty
sex, Libby wakes up alone and soaked
in blood. Hand-held, point-of-view
shots frantically follow Libby on
deck, where she finds a knife.
The coast guard arrives, and soon
it is clear Libby has been framed and
convicted of Nick’s murder.
Please see JEOPARDY on 13
