Phil Kennicott: “This is a perfect film for the age of Donald Trump, a revenge fantasy perpetrated against elites, who are caricatured as venal, corrupt and beyond redemption. And despite a few attempts on the director’s part to distinguish authentic art from his parody of art as a vast con game, the film ends on a profoundly anti-art note.” – Washington Post
Actor Albert Finney, 82
Finney became the face of British cinema’s international explosion after being cast in the title role of Tom Jones, directed by The Entertainer’s Tony Richardson. Tom Jones, with its bawdy humour and rollicking atmosphere, was a sizeable hit in the US, and won four Oscars (including best picture); Finney received the first of his four best actor nominations, but lost to Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field. – The Guardian
Hollywood’s History Of Blackface
Most Americans today are so removed from the heyday of blackface, when an entertainer like Al Jolson could cement their iconic status with it, that, like the Confederate flag, it is embraced by some as a triumphant act of transgressive rebellion and/or willful ignorance, a thumb in the eye of the politically correct. – The Daily Beast
Is This Leonardo Da Vinci’s Only Surviving Sculpture?
A small terracotta statue, titled The Virgin with the Laughing Child and housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, has been attributed to various Italian Renaissance artists, most recently Antonio Rossellino. Now art historian Francesco Caglioti says that “there are a thousand details, which dispel any doubts regarding the attribution [to Leonardo].” — The Art Newspaper
The Opéra-Bastille, The House That Gets No Respect
When it opened (not quite finished) in Paris in 1989, this joke made the rounds: “What is the difference between the Bastille Opera and the Titanic? The Titanic had an orchestra.” It was over budget (of course), the acoustics didn’t work, it was put in an awkward location, and it was (and still is) considered the ugliest opera house in Europe. As the behemoth hits its 30th anniversary, Joshua Barone pays a visit — and, while he acknowledges its flaws, he points out some successes as well. — The New York Times
National Museum Of Scotland Completes Massive 15-Year, £80 Million Makeover
“Revamped galleries devoted to Ancient Egypt, East Asia and ceramics are the last of 29 spaces to open, bringing to an end an £80m masterplan to turn the outmoded main building into a 21st-century museum, united with the 1998 building next door. The 15-year process has carved out 50% more public space and revealed more than 6,500 objects that had spent decades languishing in storage.” — The Art Newspaper
Lagos, Nigeria Is Finally Arriving As Africa’s New Art Destination
“This enormous city — with no official census, population estimates range from 13 million to 21 million — is dynamic by disposition. … Lagosians — who are proud of their ‘hustle,’ a mix of effort, imagination, and brash optimism — will turn any challenge into enterprise. Commerce, music, fashion, have long thrived amid the chaos. And now, with its solid collector base and thickening web of galleries and alternative spaces, the art ‘ecosystem’ — the word everyone uses — is achieving critical mass.” — The New York Times