A collector says he lent the New York Academy of Art a painting worth $1 million on the condition that the school return it to him when he asked for it back. But the school failed to return it and he’s filed suit. – New York Post
Author: Douglas McLennan
CAPITOL PLAN
A $265 million plan to expand the US Capitol building in Washington is taking shape. The large 588,000 square-foot addition will be underground. “The Capitol Visitor Center, containing auditoriums, a museum-size exhibition hall and space for future congressional use as well as the usual visitor facilities, will be the biggest and most significant addition to the Capitol in nearly a century and a half.” – Washington Post
PT BARNUM OF ART
In the first half of the 20th Century Chick Austin brought a showman’s touch to American art. “Not only did Austin promote artists like Picasso, Balthus, Mondrian and Dali when they were virtually unknown in the United States, but he also amassed an important collection of masterworks (especially Baroque painting, Dutch still lifes and Poussin) on view at the Atheneum to this day. Alfred Barr, the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, told Austin: ‘You did things sooner and more brilliantly than any one’.” – New York Observer
HITCHCOCK AND ART
A new show in Montreal ponders Alfred Hitchcock’s ties to the other arts. “The general idea is that Hitchcock has a great culture in literature but also in art, and sometimes he transposes to cinema some of the solutions that have been found by surrealist and symbolist artists.” – CBC
LAMENTING A BRILLIANT PARTNERSHIP
Arthur Sullivan was made famous and very rich by his collaboration with William Gilbert. And the musical plays they wrote are still performed 100 years after Sullivan’s death (the anniversary of which is this week). So why did he die believing he had wasted his life and cursing his partner? – The Times (UK)
ART OF EDITING
“Robert Gottlieb’s near-legendary status in the publishing world owes much to sheer anomaly. Running Simon & Schuster, and then Knopf, he had just two interests: the books he edited and the books he balanced (”What people forget about Bob,’ says Charles McGrath, editor of The New York Times Book Review and Gottlieb’s deputy at the New Yorker, ‘he was a terrific businessman’). – Boston Globe
DREAM A LITTLE DREAM
It’s singer Charlotte Church versus her ex-manager in court, as the manager sues to get a percentage of all her earnings through 2002. – BBC
LAMENTING A BRILLIANT PARTNERSHIP
Arthur Sullivan was made famous and very rich by his collaboration with William Gilbert. And the musical plays they wrote are still performed 100 years after Sullivan’s death (the anniversary of which is this week). So why did he die believing he had wasted his life and cursing his partner? – The Times (UK)
TRASHING SUSAN SONTAG
Was the selection of Susan Sontag’s “In America” as the winner of this year’s National Book Award a mistake? Daniel Halpern thinks so. ” ‘In America’ is such a bad book that it seems possible that even its nomination – to say nothing of its victory – is the result of some sort of conspiracy, or at least of a mistake resulting from the particularly baffling handwriting of someone at the National Book Foundation.” – The New Republic
ART OF EDITING
“Robert Gottlieb’s near-legendary status in the publishing world owes much to sheer anomaly. Running Simon & Schuster, and then Knopf, he had just two interests: the books he edited and the books he balanced (”What people forget about Bob,’ says Charles McGrath, editor of The New York Times Book Review and Gottlieb’s deputy at the New Yorker, ‘he was a terrific businessman’). – Boston Globe