With interest in what is now the world’s most expensive artwork continuing as it goes on view in Abu Dhabi, a recently spotted reference in historical documents may change the story of how the painting came into the collection of King Charles I of England. It seems as if His Majesty may have confiscated Salvator Mundi from one of his subjects.
Archives for August 2018
Amazon Has Decided Not To Release Woody Allen’s Latest Film
“Woody Allen’s latest film, A Rainy Day in New York, has been left in limbo after Amazon Studios appeared to shelve it indefinitely. The production company, which was contractually obliged to distribute the film, said on Thursday: ‘No release date has ever been set.'”
Why The ‘Overtourism’ Devouring Europe Will Be Difficult To Fix
“Managing a tourist destination is something like managing a natural resource, like a mine or a fishery; a sustainable level of tourists brings widespread gains to the local economy, but too many ruin it for everyone. … That so many different forces” — especially technological developments — “play into overtourism highlights the difficulties of doing much about it.”
Minnesota Orchestra Looks Back On Its Tour Of South Africa: ‘One Of The Great Experiences In Our Professional Lives’
“The numbers begin to paint the picture: Over 5,000 people attended concerts in Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, Soweto and Johannesburg. Hundreds of students, ranging from elementary school to college age, joined performances, rehearsals and master classes with Minnesota Orchestra musicians. For many audience members, it was the first time with a live orchestra. For some it was the first time even hearing classical music. The reception ranged from amazement to rapturous applause.”
BBC Under Fire For Casting Able-Bodied Actor As ‘Elephant Man’
The BBC is being accused of ableism after casting Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton to play Joseph Merrick in its upcoming adaptation of The Elephant Man. Merrick — who had severe facial and body disfigurements thought to be a result of Proteus syndrome — died in 1890 at age 27. Though the Londoner has previously been portrayed by able-bodied actors like John Hurt and Bradley Cooper, Heaton’s casting has been [criticized by disability advocates and actors].”
Now You Can Study Leonardo Da Vinci’s Notebooks Online
“Scholars and digital experts at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London have posted online the contents of two notebooks by Leonardo da Vinci, enabling devotees of the Renaissance polymath to zoom in and examine his revolutionary ideas and concepts.”
Finalists For “New Nobel” Prize Announced
The 47 names put forward were opened up to a public vote, with an expert jury, chaired by editor and independent publisher Ann Pålsson, set to consider the final four authors before announcing a winner in October.
The Implications Of Accepting A Piano
You can’t just throw out a piano. You can’t just turn one down, either. We enter a glittery fugue state that blinds us to the likelihood that no one will play this piano unless forced to. Because in this vision, it’s not us playing; it’s our kids.
Toronto International Film Festival Has A Plan To Diversify The Critics Who Write About It
Using funding from a combination of corporate donors, industry donors and public donations, TIFF offered almost 100 of the critics hotel accommodations for four nights during the festival and a reimbursement of their flight costs to get to Toronto. TIFF is also encouraging press to sign up for the Time’s Up Critical database, which aims to create greater diversity among critics and entertainment reporters. The initiative stems from the Time’s Up movement.
Toronto’s Soulpepper Gets A New Executive Director
She is taking over an organization that recently experienced significant turmoil following allegations of sexual misconduct against founding artistic director Albert Schultz, and his departure from the organization in January along with executive director Leslie Lester. (Schultz recently settled with his four accusers out of court).
In Defense Of Romance Novels
Many romance novels actually function as more than “imaginative opposition,” providing a very real space for enjoyment and relaxation, which might be otherwise missing from readers’ lives. The best romances can do this without lulling readers into a false sense of complacency.
The Op-Ed-ization Of The Internet
Everything about the recent past, and the generalization of the op-ed form across the internet, suggests there is an inexhaustible fund of such figures, a reserve army of op-ed labor waiting in the wings. Twitter has helped turn the internet into an engine for producing op-eds, for turning writers into op-ed writers, and for turning readers into people on the hunt for an op-ed. The system will not be satisfied until it has made op-ed writers of us all.
In The Recent Indonesian Earthquakes, It’s The Traditional Bamboo Houses That Didn’t Fall Down
In the series of quakes that shook the island of Lombok earlier this month, the concrete homes that have become the modern standard “became death traps” – they fell to pieces because they had no flex to move with the earth when it shook. The few remaining old-style houses, with thatched bamboo walls and woven-reed roofs, are the ones that survived with little or no damage.
Labor Day jazz fests, starting with Chicago’s
The 40th annual Chicago Jazz Festival, four days free to all of unfettered, usually joyous music held in beautiful downtown Millennium Park, started last night, setting the tone for a weekend of exciting, civically-supported music here — and similar outpourings of jazz and blues, America’s vernacular musics, are offered throughout the U.S. this Labor Day weekend.
Louisville Courier-Journal “Recommits” To The Arts. Why?
From the paper’s editor: “Louisville’s arts scene also means big bucks. It’s estimated our A&E ‘industry’ has an economic ripple effect in the region of more than $450 million, providing jobs to thousands — from bartenders and waiters to parking garage operators, musicians and the performers themselves.” This after laying off the paper’s longtime arts writer last year.
How To Tell ‘Deepfake’ Videos From Genuine In The Blink Of An Eye
What’s a deepfake video? It uses the type of artificial intelligence system known as a “deep neural network” to study a large body of images of an individual and then synthesize new moving images based on the existing ones – in other words, to create video of that individual doing something she never actually did. Inevitably, deepfake videos of political candidates will appear, possibly as soon as this fall. How can we spot them? Prof. Siwei Lyu and two colleagues have worked out a way. (The headline above is not metaphorical.)
Who Should Next Run Washington DC’s National Gallery
With Earl Powell’s 26-year tenure coming to an end, the museum has the opportunity to revitalize its programs and modernize its operation, according to interviews with 22 current and former employees and industry experts. The selection of its next leader — expected to be made next month — could determine whether it continues to hew to the past or emerges at the forefront of a quickly evolving museum industry.
NY Times Critics Try To Make Peace With The Jukebox Musical
“Ben Brantley and Jesse Green, the Times‘s chief theater critics, joined the critic Elisabeth Vincentelli to answer the big questions: Why are the bad ones so bad? Why are the good ones better? And are there good ones? Scott Heller, the theater editor, played referee. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation, set to the music of Abba, the Go-Go’s, Donna Summer, Bob Dylan and more.”
Paul Taylor, Dead At 88
Mr. Taylor, whose highly diverse style was born in radical experimentalism in the 1950s, created poignant and exuberant works that entered the repertory of numerous dance companies. His own company, eloquent and athletic, has been one of the world’s superlative troupes.
How Jazz Was Subsumed Into The Nonprofit Arts-Industrial Complex (And Lost A Lot Of Its Mojo)
Dale Chapman, author of The Jazz Bubble: “Jazz is presently understood less as a commercially viable expressive form in its own right than as a symbol of something else: as an artistic practice that is seen as both ‘legitimate’ (in other words, as inoffensive to established institutions), and as contributing to multiculturalism, through its links to communities of color. Thus, jazz becomes the kind of genre that can give an imprimatur of both respectability and social inclusivity to a large redevelopment project, even while it may be of little interest to a prospective for-profit club owner.”
Engagement, Philanthropy, And A Regional Arts Boom
There are more rich people than ever, they’re spread out all across the country, and they’re giving back to hometown institutions at “big city” levels. Throw in continued support from loyal foundations, and that’s a recipe for what American Theatre called Cleveland’s “urban renaissance.”
Why We Need Artist Residencies In Places Like The Mall Of America And A San Francisco Garbage Dump
Amanda Petrusich: “In the past decade, a spate of unconventional residency programs have offered unused (or otherwise flexible) space to artists starved for time, solitude, or simply a room of their own, and as a result artists have taken up residence on moving Amtrak trains, a barrier island off the coast of Texas, the tower of a bridge that crosses a shipping canal, and an oceanographic research vessel. I can’t decide whether the grimness of some of these places … is simply funny or an apt and horrifying reflection of how America presently esteems its artists.”
As It Searches For A New Director, DC’s National Gallery Is A House Divided
“The search for the next director of the National Gallery of Art has revealed deep divisions within the federally funded institution, a palace of high art that is dogged by old-fashioned ideas about museum operations and staff claims of widespread mismanagement. … With [Rusty] Powell’s 26-year tenure coming to an end, the museum has the opportunity to revitalize its programs and modernize its operation, according to interviews with 22 current and former employees and industry experts.”
A.O. Scott On How 20 Years Of Tech Has And Hasn’t Changed Movie Reviewing
The biggest difference, says the co-chief critic of The New York Times, is the timing of writing and publishing reviews (with an obsession with spoilers as a consequence). What hasn’t changed? “I still go to screenings!”
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Final Book (And It Really Is The Last) Is Here
The Fall of Gondolin, though the last of Tolkien’s books to be published, was written early in his career, while he was recovering from the Battle of the Somme in 1917; it depicts an early stage in the history of Middle-earth, providing background for the tales that made Tolkien world-famous.