Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

Royal Academy of Arts Stages a Landmark Exhibition of the Work of Vincent van Gogh (UK)

The Royal Academy of Arts will stage a landmark exhibition of the work of Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890). The focus of the exhibition will be the artist’s remarkable correspondence. Over 35 original letters, rarely exhibited to the public due to their fragility, will be on display in the main galleries of Burlington House, together with around 65 paintings and 30 drawings that express the principal themes to be found within the correspondence. Thus the exhibition will offer a unique opportunity to

Sex and Gore? That’s Ancient History

When the Victorians were feeling gloomy about their prospects they used to compare themselves to the ancient Romans. They read Gibbon, Plutarch and Tacitus and looked for parallels: a society burdened by empire, corrupted by wealth, deficient in manly virtue. Lately we have been doing much the same, only instead of consulting the Latin texts we turn to screen epics like “Gladiator,” the HBO series “Rome,” and the 2007 Zack Snyder film “300,” which, strictly speaking, was about Spartans, not Roma

The Air Force versus Hollywood

To refute early 1960s novels and Hollywood films like Fail-Safe and Dr. Strangelove which raised questions about U.S. control over nuclear weapons, the Air Force produced a documentary film--"SAC [Strategic Air Command] Command Post"--to demonstrate its responsiveness to presidential command and its tight control over nuclear weapons. During the crisis years of the early 1960s, when U.S.-Soviet relations were especially tense, novels and motion pictures raised questions a

Tate Britain Acquires Eight Unique Works by William Blake

Tate announced that eight hand-coloured etchings by William Blake (1757-1827) have been acquired for the nation. These beautiful works have been acquired for Tate Collection with the assistance of independent charity The Art Fund, Tate Members, Tate Patrons and the generosity of the public. These works were inherited by Blake’s widow Catherine, who later gave them to a gentleman called Frederick Tatham. Their ownership is then unknown, until they were purchased among a box of secon

Chile Opens Museum of Memory for Dirty War Victims

Chile inaugurated the Museum of Memory on Monday to make sure the tens of thousands of people who were imprisoned, killed or disappeared during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship are not forgotten. President Michelle Bachelet, who was herself detained and tortured during Chile's 1973-1990 military regime, said the museum sends a powerful signal of the country's "desire to never again suffer a tragedy like the one we are remembering here." "A tragedy t

BBC and British Museum create program ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’

The BBC and the British Museum have joined forces in an original and unprecedented public service partnership, focusing on world history. At its heart is a landmark series on BBC Radio 4, ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ which will broadcast from 18 January 2010. This series is a narrative global history told through the British Museum’s unparalleled world collection. The series will tap in to the unique power of objects to tell stories and make connections across the globe.

"Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam" Opens May 2010 in Houston

Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam, opening Sunday, May 16, 2010, is the first exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to be devoted to Sufism, a historic branch of Islam whose followers seek mystical union with God. Light of the Sufis travels to Houston from the Brooklyn Museum, where it was organized by the Hagop Kevorkian Curator of Islamic Art, Ladan Akbarnia and originally exhibited in the summer of 2009. The expanded Houston presentation, coordinated by Francesca Leoni,

Great Moments in Pop Music History: Long John Baldry, “Got My Mojo Workin”

The song, of course, is not Long John Baldry’s, but Muddy Waters’s. Or is it? After no small amount of time in court, “Got My Mojo Workin’” (or, alternatively, “I’ve Got My Mojo Working”) has been credited to a little-known fellow named Preston Foster, who wrote it in about 1956. Ann Cole recorded it the following year, and Muddy Waters followed, also in 1957, claiming the song with such blues-belting authority that it remained his for the rest of his life. But John William Baldry h

Painting Once Thought to be by Leonardo Up for Auction

Since the 1920s a debate over the attribution of “Portrait of a Woman Called ‘La Belle Ferronnière,’ ” has been the stuff of legal dramas and scientific analysis, aesthetic disputes and connoisseurship differences. Initially some scholars believed that the painting, which depicts a woman whose penetrating eyes cast a sideways, almost spooky glance at the viewer, was the work of Leonardo da Vinci. It was, they said, the second version of a painting of the same subject that is in the

Oliver Stone's 'Secret History' to put Hitler 'in context'

Director Oliver Stone's upcoming Showtime documentary miniseries "Secret History of America" promises to put mass murderers such as Stalin and Hitler "in context." "Stalin, Hitler, Mao, McCarthy -- these people have been vilified pretty thoroughly by history," Stone told reporters at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour in Pasadena. "Stalin has a complete other story," Stone said. "Not to paint him as

History of "Berlin" on BBC TV

Late last year, the New York Times travel blog, In Transit, posted information about tours of the German capital. Since 1997, the Berlin Underworlds Association has been offering regular tours into some of the most important underground structures in the city. Berlin is a city most of us think we know well. Rest assured, however, guided tours of WWII bunkers, around remnants of “Germania” and inside escape tunnels under the Berlin Wall offer an unusual perspective on its politic

75 Bits of Elvisiana in Honor of Elvis Presley’s 75th Birthday

Had Elvis Presley lived to today, he would be celebrating his 75th birthday. In honor of that event, here are 75 Elvis-related moments, including 10 video clips below. 10 Great Elvis Songs “All Shook Up” “Burning Love” “Heartbreak Hotel” “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” “Jailhouse Rock” “Return to Sender” “Suspicious Minds” “Teddy Bear”

UK National Portrait Gallery Commissions New Painting of Prince William and Prince Harry

A new painted double portrait of Prince William and Prince Harry, by Nicky Philipps, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in London goes on public display there for the first time today (Wednesday 6 January 2010). Painted from life, the portrait shows the Princes wearing the dress uniform of the Household Cavalry (Blues and Royals), exactly as worn for The Queen's Birthday Parade in 2008. The sittings for the portrait were arranged around the Princes' Army careers and offi

Tolstoy Recalled Fondly in Chechen Museum

A museum devoted to Leo Tolstoy reopened recently in the village in Chechnya where he spent his formative years as a writer in the 1850s, and where he warned of the pitfalls of Russia’s quest to tame this restive region in the northern Caucasus. The museum, in the former Cossack settlement of Starogladovskaya, which served as a military base during czarist campaigns, survived the two more recent wars — begun in 1994 and 1999 — that were fought in this Russian republic and that have

Small Museum Captures a Rare Chagall

The London Jewish Museum of Art is a scrappy young institution, created in 2001 and camped in rented space in St. John’s Wood, off the beaten track of London’s art world... So when David Glasser, one of the museum’s chairmen, was perusing a Paris auction catalog a few months ago, he found it hard to believe what he saw: a previously unknown 1945 gouache by Marc Chagall. It was one of a small group of images Chagall made in direct response to the Holocaust, after he and his wife had

Warren Beatty 'has slept with 12,775 women' biography claims

Warren Beatty, the Hollywood actor and legendary lothario, has slept with more than 12,000 women, according to a new authorised biography. Beatty has enjoyed high profile romances with Madonna, Jane Fonda, Isabelle Adjani, Diane Keaton, Joan Collins, Julie Christie and his current wife Annette Bening - but writer Peter Biskind has claimed that the 72 year old secretly seduced thousands of women during his heyday. In Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America, Mr Biskind es

Movie Review: "Precious"

Is Precious keeping it real or just keeping it sordid? Audiences are clearly moved by it, but moved to do what? To feel and think what? Many viewers have hailed the recent release as Oscar-worthy because it's "raw" and "powerful." As Peter Travers of Rolling Stone writes, "Once Precious gets its hooks into you, no way is it letting go." Whether the Hollywood elite reacting to exclusive private screenings or Facebook users turning their status updates in

Orwell's Birthplace Will Be Restored

George Orwell has long been admired by readers the world over, and now, after many years of neglect, his hometown plans to recognize him too. The colonial home where Orwell, the author of “Animal Farm” and “1984,” was born in Motihari, a small town in the eastern Indian state of Bihar near the border with Nepal, will be restored. After several previous attempts by an Indian heritage foundation and Orwell supporters to preserve the house failed, the provincial government has now pled

In Remembrance: Vivid Personalities of a Decade

If their deaths came in the first decade of the 21st century, their lives helped define the 20th. They led nations, produced masterpieces, pushed the boundaries of science and entertained. And they did so in that seemingly distant time when the years began with 19. In life we called them famous, renowned, celebrated; their deaths we call notable, because their names register. They people our collective memory. Some — those who destroy rather than build — we would like to forget. But

America in Black and White: The Americans Revisited (Exhibit/NYC)

The exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans, now on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, tells the story of the making of one of the most important photography books of the twentieth century and one of the most consequential works produced by a modern Swiss artist. Robert Frank, born in 1924 in Zürich to a Jewish family, moved to New York City in 1947. As so many post-war visitors and émigrés from Europe had discovered, New York was a fascinating place, but it was not