Max Weber

Installations by four contemporary artists who work in representational style have just opened at the County Museum of Art and will remain on view through Feb. 16. The exhibition, organized by Howard N. Fox, the museum's curator of contemporary art, is part of the "Gallery 6" program and is titled "Setting the Stage." The works by Randy Hayes of Seattle, Tom Leeson of Los Angeles, Edward Knippers of Arlington, Va.

The Universal Hunger for Liberty Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable Michael Novak Basic Books: 282 pp., $26 * MORAL philosopher Michael Novak takes up questions of concern to many contemporary Western thinkers: Are the civilizations that arose from Judaism and Christianity inevitably in conflict with those that arose from Islam, or are reconciliation and cooperation possible?

At Richard Telles Fine Art, new works by Pae White, Richard Hawkins and Ginny Bishton look good, if completely disparate. Bishton continues to be one of the younger L.A. artists to watch. Her tightly compressed drawings and constellations of tiny photographs are (to use an embarrassing but still useful word) intense. Her piece here is more overtly luscious: a massive collage of photographs of crumpled items of brightly colored and patterned clothing.

A former director of counseling at UCLA has been indicted for allegedly stealing an original 19th century oil painting from the university and selling it to a New York art gallery, authorities said Wednesday. Jane Crawford is accused of stealing "Frost Flowers, Ipswich 1889" by American painter Arthur Wesley Dow, Assistant U. S. Atty. Ranee Katzenstein said. Crawford, 50, of Van Nuys, was indicted late Tuesday in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles on five counts of fraud.

A Santa Barbara art collector has promised to donate paintings, sculptures and carvings worth $5.5 million to the Conejo Valley Art Museum--but only if the museum can move to a new location, which could cost millions of dollars. Now located in a cramped storefront in the Janss Mall, the Conejo Valley Art Museum operates as a gallery, displaying new exhibits every few months.

After three years of study in Paris, Arthur Wesley Dow came home to Ipswich, Mass., in 1889 and quickly grew tired of the conservatism of Boston art circles. His restlessness led him to a systematic study of world art cultures that culminated, in 1891, with his discovery of Japanese woodblock prints.

This latest book by George Steiner is a series of reflections on "the charged personal encounter between master and disciple." Originally delivered as the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard two years ago, the book is at once provocative and sobering. Acknowledging that the very terms "master" and "disciple" will seem to most Americans in "our present age of irreverence" more or less preposterous or laughable, Steiner defends them by examining what is at stake in the pedagogic encounter.

A recent obsession in the drawing rooms and salons of Europe is the fact that a plurality of Americans (22%) cited "moral values" as their main reason for going to the polls. To civilized Europeans, the culture wars -- God, gays and guns -- are the most risible bit of American politics. Ever since 1945, European elites have preferred their politics to be technocratic -- mainly managing capitalism for the common good, rather than tackling private issues of faith and morality.

The future didn't look too bright for Blues Traveler at the end of the last decade. Singer and harmonicat John Popper was suffering through severe health problems, and bassist Bobby Sheehan died in 1999. Now Popper and company are back with "Bridge," their first album since 1997, and a new bassist, Tad Kinchla, brother of guitarist Chad Kinchla. * Blues Traveler, with Pete Yorn, John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, L.A. 7 p.m.

America's ability to relate wisely and well to Islamic societies will be constantly tested this new century. We won't get far if we think of all of Islam as synonymous with the Taliban, the extremist regime in Afghanistan. Three recent developments in Muslim societies provide extraordinary examples of new opportunities to reach out to the future.