ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

THE ARTS

Less-Seen Barnes Works Will Tour

The Barnes Foundation has won a court order allowing it to have seldom-seen paintings, many in storage for up to 50 years, displayed at other museums. The tour, the first since a mid-1990s traveling show of better-known Barnes paintings that drew record crowds worldwide, will be limited to works kept in storage and hung in the cash-strapped educational foundation’s administrative offices. Most of the paintings, by artists including Gustave Courbet, Chaim Soutine, Charles Demuth and Giorgio de Chirico, have not been seen publicly since the 1951 death of the foundation’s creator, millionaire Albert C. Barnes. The foundation--located in a Philadelphia suburb--sought a legal OK to display the paintings outside its own gallery because Barnes had decreed that his collection could not leave the gallery after his death. That and other decrees in the will have been gradually loosened by the courts. “These pieces are an incredible collection of what is essentially lost art,” the foundation’s executive director said Wednesday. The foundation estimates that it will make $500,000 from touring the works by 2003. The foundation netted $17 million from the 1990s tour, which was also made possible by a court order.

ENTERTAINMENT

Madonna Takes Roadshow to HBO

Madonna will take her first concert tour in eight years to cable’s HBO, airing Aug. 26 at 9 p.m. “Madonna Live: The Drowned World Tour” will be taped in the singer’s hometown of Detroit at the 17,000-seat Palace of Auburn Hills. It will be her third HBO concert special (the last one was in 1993).

2 Turntables & KCRW Microphone

Grammy-winning artist Beck will do a taped guest appearance as a deejay on KCRW-FM (89.9) on Saturday. The noon-2 p.m. program, hosted by Chris Douridas, will feature an hour of Beck as deejay, followed by a second hour in which he will perform several acoustic songs. KCRW was the first station to play Beck’s 1993 breakthrough song, “Loser.”

Cuban Salsa Singer Seeks Asylum

Cuban salsa singer Manolin, who defected during an airport layover in Atlanta last week, was released from federal immigration custody Tuesday and hours later was reunited with his wife and daughter in Miami, where they have lived for two years. “I’m very happy to be here,” said the singer, whose real name is Manuel Gonzalez. “[The immigration authorities] respected me and treated me well.” Gonzalez, 36, had asked for asylum while en route to Miami, where he was to perform. Gonzalez’s attorney plans to apply for political asylum for the singer within 30 days. According to the Cuban American National Foundation, which has been aiding Gonzalez, Cuban authorities recently have banned Manolin’s public performances and stopped playing his music on state-run radio because of the singer’s expressed desire to build bridges between Cuba and its exiles. Gonzalez has attempted to defect at least once before, but changed his mind.