Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ...
Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits
This page features links to reviews of movies, documentaries and exhibits with a historical theme. Listings are in reverse chronological order. Descriptions are taken directly from the linked publication. If you have articles you think should be listed on the Pop Culture page, please send them to the editor editor@historynewsnetwork.org.
SOURCE: NYT (10-8-09)
When Abraham Lincoln visited New York in February 1861, Walt Whitman noticed that an “ominous silence” greeted the president-elect as he arrived at the Astor House hotel. There was no overt hostility or shouted insult, Whitman wrote, but the “silence of the crowd was very significant,” compared with the “wild, tumultuous hurrahs” that typically greeted distinguished personages.
Harold Holzer, the chief historian for the compellingly informative exhibition “Lincoln and New York,” opening on Friday at the New-York Historical Society, explains in the equally incisive companion catalog that when Lincoln attended a performance of Verdi’s new opera “Un Ballo in Maschera” on that visit, he received a thundering ovation from the audience at the Academy of Music. But he left before the final scene in which the governor of Colonial Boston is assassinated by conspirators. That might have been because of fatigue, Mr. Holzer suggests, but The New-York Herald reported that the police...
Harold Holzer, the chief historian for the compellingly informative exhibition “Lincoln and New York,” opening on Friday at the New-York Historical Society, explains in the equally incisive companion catalog that when Lincoln attended a performance of Verdi’s new opera “Un Ballo in Maschera” on that visit, he received a thundering ovation from the audience at the Academy of Music. But he left before the final scene in which the governor of Colonial Boston is assassinated by conspirators. That might have been because of fatigue, Mr. Holzer suggests, but The New-York Herald reported that the police...
Sunday, October 11, 2009 - 18:31
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SOURCE: Salon (10-8-09)
Earlier this season on “Mad Men,” Roger Sterling decked his face in shoe polish and sang about “the darkies” to an amused crowd at a garden party. It was startling and uncomfortable in classic “Mad Men” fashion, an illustration of how far we’ve come since those less enlightened days of the early '60s.
Or maybe not.
This week, on the Australian variety show “Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday,” a group calling itself the Jackson Jive appeared in a “tribute to Michael Jackson.” Out strutted five men in Afro wigs and blackface, shimmying like jumping beans to “Can You Feel It?” Then came the punch line – another member of the entourage stormed the stage in a red sequined jacket, sunglasses and heavy white makeup. There was also a flash of a big-lipped cartoon character with the caption, “Where’s Kahahl?” a reference to the venerable Australian entertainer of Sri Lankan heritage.
While the rest of the world was left to ponder if the word “tribute” means something...
Or maybe not.
This week, on the Australian variety show “Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday,” a group calling itself the Jackson Jive appeared in a “tribute to Michael Jackson.” Out strutted five men in Afro wigs and blackface, shimmying like jumping beans to “Can You Feel It?” Then came the punch line – another member of the entourage stormed the stage in a red sequined jacket, sunglasses and heavy white makeup. There was also a flash of a big-lipped cartoon character with the caption, “Where’s Kahahl?” a reference to the venerable Australian entertainer of Sri Lankan heritage.
While the rest of the world was left to ponder if the word “tribute” means something...
Saturday, October 10, 2009 - 10:00
SOURCE: Special to HNN (10-9-09)
[Barbara Bornet Stumph is a retired teacher, author, and painter. The international web site she manages for people who wish to learn about Chinese Brush Painting is: ChineseBrushPainting@yahoogroups.com.]
“You may be a diamond,” says Master Esaka. “But you must polish your abilities all your life. Every day brings new studies and much to discover.”
I am taking notes from a Master Japanese swordsman.
Once in a while, I delve into art forms that are new to me. I happen to have a passion for Chinese painting. Today, I am attending the Japanese Samurai Exhibition on loan at the Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture. Three times the exhibit has called to me. Over one-hundred and twenty pieces of fragile pottery, suits of armor, statues, and paintings are on display.
In the past, I have viewed the armor of our European feudal soldiers in the Museum of Torture in...
“You may be a diamond,” says Master Esaka. “But you must polish your abilities all your life. Every day brings new studies and much to discover.”
I am taking notes from a Master Japanese swordsman.
Once in a while, I delve into art forms that are new to me. I happen to have a passion for Chinese painting. Today, I am attending the Japanese Samurai Exhibition on loan at the Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture. Three times the exhibit has called to me. Over one-hundred and twenty pieces of fragile pottery, suits of armor, statues, and paintings are on display.
In the past, I have viewed the armor of our European feudal soldiers in the Museum of Torture in...
Friday, October 9, 2009 - 21:39
SOURCE: Yahoo News (10-7-09)
It's early 1949, China's in the endgame of its civil war and Mao Zedong's communist forces are poised to take Beijing. Just south of the Yangtze, in Nanjing, Mao's archfoe, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, holds court as the leader of the Republic of China and its Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government. But Mao believes that winning Beijing first will deal a mortal blow to the morale of the KMT. En route to what will be the future People's Republic's capital, he and his top lieutenants pause in a town that has been deserted by shopkeepers and merchants fleeing the revolution of the proletariat. As Mao laments being unable to buy even his favorite smokes, he soberly says to his comrades-in-arms, "We need the capitalists back."
It seems improbable that Mao would actually have expressed such a revolutionary sentiment at such a heady time. His was a movement driven by the cause of the exploited worker and peasant. Yet the scene appears in The Founding of a Republic, a...
It seems improbable that Mao would actually have expressed such a revolutionary sentiment at such a heady time. His was a movement driven by the cause of the exploited worker and peasant. Yet the scene appears in The Founding of a Republic, a...
Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 01:53
SOURCE: The Root (10-5-09)
[Todd Boyd is the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture and Professor of Critical Studies in the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. His blog is “Notorious Ph.D.”]
When word spread recently that the venerable magazines Ebony and Jet were up for sale, a palpable sense of depression could be felt throughout some segments of black America.
This sense of depression would generally reside among those born before 1960, or at least those whose sympathies lie with the pre-‘60 crowd. For a certain generation of African Americans, Ebony and Jet were as integral to blackness as Murray’s “Superior Hair Dressing Pomade,” a “Deuce and a Quarter” and funeral home hand-fans featuring the holy triumvirate of MLK, JFK and RFK. And now, once again, like Motown and BET before it, a black media empire is being put on the auction block. Considering that Ebony and Jet were in existence before Motown and well...
When word spread recently that the venerable magazines Ebony and Jet were up for sale, a palpable sense of depression could be felt throughout some segments of black America.
This sense of depression would generally reside among those born before 1960, or at least those whose sympathies lie with the pre-‘60 crowd. For a certain generation of African Americans, Ebony and Jet were as integral to blackness as Murray’s “Superior Hair Dressing Pomade,” a “Deuce and a Quarter” and funeral home hand-fans featuring the holy triumvirate of MLK, JFK and RFK. And now, once again, like Motown and BET before it, a black media empire is being put on the auction block. Considering that Ebony and Jet were in existence before Motown and well...
Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 01:06
SOURCE: WSJ (10-7-09)
LONDON -- A tale of political intrigue set during the reign of King Henry VIII won the prestigious Man Booker prize for fiction Tuesday.
Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" scooped the £50,000 ($79,565) prize. Ms. Mantel's novel charts the upheaval caused by the king's desire to marry Anne Boleyn, as seen through the eyes of royal adviser Thomas Cromwell.
The winning novel beat stiff competition from a shortlist that included previous Booker winners A.S. Byatt and J.M. Coetzee.
Ms. Mantel told a London audience that if winning the Booker Prize was like being in a train crash, "at this moment I am happily flying through the air."
The chairman of the Booker prize judges, James Naughtie, said the decision to give "Wolf Hall" the award was "based on the sheer bigness of the book. The boldness of its narrative, its scene setting ... The extraordinary way that Hilary Mantel has created what one of the judges has said...
Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" scooped the £50,000 ($79,565) prize. Ms. Mantel's novel charts the upheaval caused by the king's desire to marry Anne Boleyn, as seen through the eyes of royal adviser Thomas Cromwell.
The winning novel beat stiff competition from a shortlist that included previous Booker winners A.S. Byatt and J.M. Coetzee.
Ms. Mantel told a London audience that if winning the Booker Prize was like being in a train crash, "at this moment I am happily flying through the air."
The chairman of the Booker prize judges, James Naughtie, said the decision to give "Wolf Hall" the award was "based on the sheer bigness of the book. The boldness of its narrative, its scene setting ... The extraordinary way that Hilary Mantel has created what one of the judges has said...
Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 00:52
SOURCE: NYT (10-6-09)
The Obamas’ taste in art is as broad as abstract canvases by Josef Albers, American Indian scenes by George Catlin and paintings by little-known figures like Alma Thomas, the African-American Expressionist painter. Works by those artists were among some 45 pieces that the first couple borrowed from several Washington museums to decorate their private White House residence and the West and East Wings, the White House press office announced on Tuesday.
It is a big, wide selection of mostly modern and contemporary paintings and sculptures that also includes works by Mark Rothko, a lead relief titled “0 Through 9” by Jasper Johns, bronze sculptures by Degas and still-life canvases by Giorgio Morandi.
In the weeks before the inauguration, Michael Smith, the Obamas’ decorator, paid a visit to Harry Cooper, curator of modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery in Washington. Mr. Smith was not there to see the latest exhibition, but rather to talk about what...
It is a big, wide selection of mostly modern and contemporary paintings and sculptures that also includes works by Mark Rothko, a lead relief titled “0 Through 9” by Jasper Johns, bronze sculptures by Degas and still-life canvases by Giorgio Morandi.
In the weeks before the inauguration, Michael Smith, the Obamas’ decorator, paid a visit to Harry Cooper, curator of modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery in Washington. Mr. Smith was not there to see the latest exhibition, but rather to talk about what...
Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 00:29
SOURCE: Artdaily.org (10-7-09)
From 9 October 2009 to 3 January 2010 the Van Gogh Museum’s Rietveld building will be devoted to the letters of Vincent van Gogh. In the exhibition Van Gogh's letters: The artist speaks, some 120 original letters will be exhibited alongside the works that Van Gogh was writing about. The important documents are seldom or never on show to the public due to their extreme fragility and sensitivity to light. The combination of more than 340 works, from the rich collection of the Van Gogh Museum, including paintings, drawings, letters and letter sketches offers a multifaceted and penetrating view of Van Gogh as letter writer and as artist. Especially for this exhibition the Van Gogh Museum has been granted the exclusive loan of three special letters from Vincent van Gogh to the artist Emile Bernard (1868 -1941) from the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. The exhibition is being staged by the Van Gogh Museum to mark the launch of the new international edition of the complete...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 10:57
SOURCE: Yahoo News (10-6-09)
BALTIMORE – For Edgar Allan Poe, 2009 has been a better year than 1849. After dozens of events in several cities to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth, he's about to get the grand funeral that a writer of his stature should have received when he died.
One hundred sixty years ago, the beleaguered, impoverished Poe was found, delirious and in distress outside a Baltimore tavern. He was never coherent enough to explain what had befallen him since leaving Richmond, Va., a week earlier. He spent four days in a hospital before he died at age 40.
Poe's cousin, Neilson Poe, never announced his death publicly. Fewer than 10 people attended the hasty funeral for one of the 19th century's greatest writers. And the injustices piled on. Poe's tombstone was destroyed before it could be installed, when a train derailed and crashed into a stonecutter's yard. Rufus Griswold, a Poe enemy, published a libelous obituary that damaged Poe's reputation for decades.
...
One hundred sixty years ago, the beleaguered, impoverished Poe was found, delirious and in distress outside a Baltimore tavern. He was never coherent enough to explain what had befallen him since leaving Richmond, Va., a week earlier. He spent four days in a hospital before he died at age 40.
Poe's cousin, Neilson Poe, never announced his death publicly. Fewer than 10 people attended the hasty funeral for one of the 19th century's greatest writers. And the injustices piled on. Poe's tombstone was destroyed before it could be installed, when a train derailed and crashed into a stonecutter's yard. Rufus Griswold, a Poe enemy, published a libelous obituary that damaged Poe's reputation for decades.
...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 00:33
SOURCE: NYT (10-5-09)
Is Archie Andrews a bigamist?
That perennially teenage redhead from Riverdale made headlines around the world when word leaked, back in May, that he would propose to his longtime love interest, Veronica Lodge, in issue No. 600 of the comic that bears his name. But that issue, published in August, was only Part 1 of a six-part story. Although Archie did marry Veronica, things will take a turn in November, when Archie proposes to the lady in waiting, Betty Cooper. That’s just the latest twist in the romantic triangle that has thrust this nearly 70-year-old character, and his parent company, into the media spotlight.
Archie, who first appeared in December 1941, has followed the course of other comic-book characters: spinoff titles, a radio program, a newspaper strip and a Saturday morning cartoon series. But as comic books became graphic novels, Archie was talked about less and less. In 2007 the publishers of Archie Comic Publications introduced what they called a...
That perennially teenage redhead from Riverdale made headlines around the world when word leaked, back in May, that he would propose to his longtime love interest, Veronica Lodge, in issue No. 600 of the comic that bears his name. But that issue, published in August, was only Part 1 of a six-part story. Although Archie did marry Veronica, things will take a turn in November, when Archie proposes to the lady in waiting, Betty Cooper. That’s just the latest twist in the romantic triangle that has thrust this nearly 70-year-old character, and his parent company, into the media spotlight.
Archie, who first appeared in December 1941, has followed the course of other comic-book characters: spinoff titles, a radio program, a newspaper strip and a Saturday morning cartoon series. But as comic books became graphic novels, Archie was talked about less and less. In 2007 the publishers of Archie Comic Publications introduced what they called a...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 00:25
SOURCE: Edmonton Sun (10-7-09)
Disney historian J.B. Kaufman is over-the-moon about the restoration of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for its Blu-ray debut today.
"It just look spectacular," Kaufman tells Sun Media about the dust-and-dirt removal as well as the brightening of the Technicolor picture to conform with the original intentions of Walt Disney's artists.
"As an historian and loving these films," Kaufman says from Wichita, Kan., "one of my pet peeves is not being able to see them in a form that does justice to them -- and I think we're finally getting into a form that does."
Kaufman is referring not only to Snow White -- the subject of his next Disney book, due in 2010 or 2011 -- but all the early Disney animation features.
"These were some of the most beautifully crafted films ever made," he says...
"It just look spectacular," Kaufman tells Sun Media about the dust-and-dirt removal as well as the brightening of the Technicolor picture to conform with the original intentions of Walt Disney's artists.
"As an historian and loving these films," Kaufman says from Wichita, Kan., "one of my pet peeves is not being able to see them in a form that does justice to them -- and I think we're finally getting into a form that does."
Kaufman is referring not only to Snow White -- the subject of his next Disney book, due in 2010 or 2011 -- but all the early Disney animation features.
"These were some of the most beautifully crafted films ever made," he says...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 00:24
SOURCE: Artdaily.org (10-6-09)
Rare and stunning images of the first cars taken to Tibet in 1907, one for the Panchen Lama, and secret images of Meiji Japan from 1898 will be sold in Bonhams Travel & Photography – India and Beyond Sale on October 6 in New Bond Street.
An album, (lot 355) likely to have belonged an army mechanic responsible for the first motorcars to cross the Himalayas into Tibet, during 1907-1908 is estimated to sell for £600-800.
In 1907 two motorcars were carried over the Himalayas into Tibet. One was an 8hp Clement brought as a gift for the Panchen Lama, the second highest ranking Lama after the Dalai Lama, (pictured in this album with the Chinese Amban at the wheel), who presided over Tashilhunpo monastery near Shigatse. The other was a Peugeot which belonged to Captain O'Connor (later to become Sir Frederick O'Connor), who was posted to Gyantse as the British Trade Agent under the Anglo-Tibet Convention. He is pictured in this album driving his Peugeot on the...
An album, (lot 355) likely to have belonged an army mechanic responsible for the first motorcars to cross the Himalayas into Tibet, during 1907-1908 is estimated to sell for £600-800.
In 1907 two motorcars were carried over the Himalayas into Tibet. One was an 8hp Clement brought as a gift for the Panchen Lama, the second highest ranking Lama after the Dalai Lama, (pictured in this album with the Chinese Amban at the wheel), who presided over Tashilhunpo monastery near Shigatse. The other was a Peugeot which belonged to Captain O'Connor (later to become Sir Frederick O'Connor), who was posted to Gyantse as the British Trade Agent under the Anglo-Tibet Convention. He is pictured in this album driving his Peugeot on the...
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - 14:01
SOURCE: Artdaily.org (10-6-09)
A famous 3,300-year-old bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti has been moved to its new permanent home at Berlin's restored Neues Museum.
The city's museum authority says in a statement that officials moved Nefertiti "with the greatest care" on Sunday from the adjacent Altes Museum, her temporary home in recent years.
The plaster-and-limestone bust will go on view to the public October 17 when the Neues Museum reopens. The building has been restored painstakingly after lying unused since World War II, when bomb damage ruined much of it.
Nefertiti first went on show at the Neues Museum — one of five buildings that makes up Berlin's neoclassical Museum Island complex — before the war...
The city's museum authority says in a statement that officials moved Nefertiti "with the greatest care" on Sunday from the adjacent Altes Museum, her temporary home in recent years.
The plaster-and-limestone bust will go on view to the public October 17 when the Neues Museum reopens. The building has been restored painstakingly after lying unused since World War II, when bomb damage ruined much of it.
Nefertiti first went on show at the Neues Museum — one of five buildings that makes up Berlin's neoclassical Museum Island complex — before the war...
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - 13:59
SOURCE: The Chronicle of Higher Education (10-5-09)
Last year the University of California at Santa Cruz struck a deal to house and archive 30 years' worth of memorabilia collected by the Grateful Dead. Last month the university proudly announced that the Institute of Museum and Library Services had given it a $615,000 federal grant to digitize that collection.
It's been said that every avalanche begins with a snowflake, and in this case the first one fell at precisely 2:38 p.m. on October 1, when the fiscally conservative Club for Growth posted a note about the grant under the headline "Your Tax Dollars at Work." Maybe it stops there, or maybe it develops into flurries.
Today the Web site FutureOfCapitalism.com gives a hat tip to Club for Growth and notes that the university's press release says the archive contains, among other things, "materials related to ... the Grateful Dead's highly unusual and successful musical business ventures."
"If the Grateful Dead were such...
It's been said that every avalanche begins with a snowflake, and in this case the first one fell at precisely 2:38 p.m. on October 1, when the fiscally conservative Club for Growth posted a note about the grant under the headline "Your Tax Dollars at Work." Maybe it stops there, or maybe it develops into flurries.
Today the Web site FutureOfCapitalism.com gives a hat tip to Club for Growth and notes that the university's press release says the archive contains, among other things, "materials related to ... the Grateful Dead's highly unusual and successful musical business ventures."
"If the Grateful Dead were such...
Monday, October 5, 2009 - 23:46
SOURCE: guardian.co.uk (10-5-09)
The heroism and controversy of the 1936 Olympics is to be retold in a dramatisation made in time for the London Olympics.
TalkbackThames, the producers of The Bill, have teamed with a German production company to tell the story of the 1936 Olympics in a docufiction drama that will screen before the Olympics in 2012.
Titled The Olympics, the two-part drama will tell the story of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and US black athlete Jesse Owens' triumph at the Games.
"We will tell our stories around these figures," said Lorraine Heggessey, chief executive of TalkbackThames, speaking at MIPCOM in Cannes.
The docu-drama will be co-produced by TalkbackThames and UFA Fernsehproduktion. Today the two companies announced that they would partner in a drama production unit.
Adolf Hitler will be a character in the miniseries. He famously refused to shake hands with black US athlete Owens, who won four gold medals at the games....
TalkbackThames, the producers of The Bill, have teamed with a German production company to tell the story of the 1936 Olympics in a docufiction drama that will screen before the Olympics in 2012.
Titled The Olympics, the two-part drama will tell the story of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and US black athlete Jesse Owens' triumph at the Games.
"We will tell our stories around these figures," said Lorraine Heggessey, chief executive of TalkbackThames, speaking at MIPCOM in Cannes.
The docu-drama will be co-produced by TalkbackThames and UFA Fernsehproduktion. Today the two companies announced that they would partner in a drama production unit.
Adolf Hitler will be a character in the miniseries. He famously refused to shake hands with black US athlete Owens, who won four gold medals at the games....
Monday, October 5, 2009 - 23:08
SOURCE: CNN (10-5-09)
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The Los Angeles Times' headquarters aptly sits where the U.S. Army corralled camels during the Civil War, when Southern California was a desert with no natural resources.
Los Angeles' development from an arid wasteland to a world metropolis and cultural capital is closely linked to the newspaper's rise under the ownership of one family.
"It would still be a desert," documentary filmmaker Peter Jones said, if Gen. Harrison Gray Otis didn't arrive in the 1880s to take over the bankrupt Los Angeles Times and his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, wasn't there to follow him.
Jones' documentary is a saga of four generations of the region's most powerful family shaping Los Angeles as they pursued their own civil agendas -- and accumulated wealth. "Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times" premieres Monday on PBS.
Historian David Halberstam said in the documentary that the Chandlers dominated...
Los Angeles' development from an arid wasteland to a world metropolis and cultural capital is closely linked to the newspaper's rise under the ownership of one family.
"It would still be a desert," documentary filmmaker Peter Jones said, if Gen. Harrison Gray Otis didn't arrive in the 1880s to take over the bankrupt Los Angeles Times and his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, wasn't there to follow him.
Jones' documentary is a saga of four generations of the region's most powerful family shaping Los Angeles as they pursued their own civil agendas -- and accumulated wealth. "Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times" premieres Monday on PBS.
Historian David Halberstam said in the documentary that the Chandlers dominated...
Monday, October 5, 2009 - 23:01
SOURCE: NYT (10-4-09)
“Return to the Hundred Acre Wood,” the first authorized sequel to the A. A. Milne classic Winnie-the-Pooh books in more than 80 years, is out on Monday, inviting the question, “Why now?,” as well as, “Why do it at all?”
“Some people said it shouldn’t be done, and there will still be some of that now, this feeling that this is a gleaming jewel in the world of children’s books and don’t mess around with it,” Michael Brown, chairman of the Pooh Properties Trust, said of creating the sequel. “This doesn’t damage the original stories at all, though, and allows us to continue the stories in a world of kindness, cheerfulness, laughter and fun.”
“Some people said it shouldn’t be done, and there will still be some of that now, this feeling that this is a gleaming jewel in the world of children’s books and don’t mess around with it,” Michael Brown, chairman of the Pooh Properties Trust, said of creating the sequel. “This doesn’t damage the original stories at all, though, and allows us to continue the stories in a world of kindness, cheerfulness, laughter and fun.”
Monday, October 5, 2009 - 22:23
SOURCE: NYT (9-30-09)
ASTONISHINGLY, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” the groundbreaking BBC comedy series, is 40 years old this year, almost as ancient as the Beatles. As Terry Jones, one of the six-member troupe who created and acted in the show, said recently: “Time just seems to get quicker. You look in the mirror in the morning and you think, ‘I’m already shaving again!’ ”
The principals are all in late middle age now, jowly and graying, and have in some ways become the very sorts of people they used to poke fun at. Michael Palin makes travel documentaries. Mr. Jones makes documentaries and writes scholarly books about the Middle Ages, the period the Pythons so memorably sent up in their film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Terry Gilliam, animator turned filmmaker, is still quixotically obsessed with making a movie about Don Quixote. Eric Idle, who’s mostly responsible for the long-running Broadway production of “Spamalot,” writes musical shows, many of them recycling Python material....
The principals are all in late middle age now, jowly and graying, and have in some ways become the very sorts of people they used to poke fun at. Michael Palin makes travel documentaries. Mr. Jones makes documentaries and writes scholarly books about the Middle Ages, the period the Pythons so memorably sent up in their film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Terry Gilliam, animator turned filmmaker, is still quixotically obsessed with making a movie about Don Quixote. Eric Idle, who’s mostly responsible for the long-running Broadway production of “Spamalot,” writes musical shows, many of them recycling Python material....
Sunday, October 4, 2009 - 21:54
SOURCE: NYT (10-4-09)
"I never relax," Pedro Friedeberg insists. "My art is my therapy, my medication." The first major retrospective of the work of the 73-year-old artist will open on Oct. 15 at the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture and furniture. Friedeberg’s iconic hand chairs, which he began making in 1962, have been objects of desire for boldface design-world names from Arnold Scaasi to Kelly Wearstler. The Surrealist writer and poet André Breton was also mesmerized by the chair, as were Yul Brynner, Roman Polanski and Jeanne Moreau.
Sunday, October 4, 2009 - 21:46
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (10-2-09)
Treasures including masterpieces by Rubens and Van Dyck are coming to London from one of the most spectacular private collections in the world – which the Princes of Liechtenstein managed to hold on to for centuries while wars tore Europe apart.
The works include Rubens' tender portrait of his five-year-old pink-cheeked daughter, Clara Serena, painted in 1616 and owned by the Liechtenstein family for almost 300 years. It is among scores of paintings by the Flemish master in the collection, the greatest private collection of his work in the world.
The Princes of Liechtenstein have been buying and commissioning art, antiques, and fabulous furniture since the 14th century, and unlike most of the continent's noble families, keeping it. In the second world war the family retreated – with the art – from palaces in Vienna and Czechoslovakia to their castle at Vaduz, the capital of their tiny principality.
Five years ago the family restored one of their...
The works include Rubens' tender portrait of his five-year-old pink-cheeked daughter, Clara Serena, painted in 1616 and owned by the Liechtenstein family for almost 300 years. It is among scores of paintings by the Flemish master in the collection, the greatest private collection of his work in the world.
The Princes of Liechtenstein have been buying and commissioning art, antiques, and fabulous furniture since the 14th century, and unlike most of the continent's noble families, keeping it. In the second world war the family retreated – with the art – from palaces in Vienna and Czechoslovakia to their castle at Vaduz, the capital of their tiny principality.
Five years ago the family restored one of their...
Saturday, October 3, 2009 - 09:57
