Author: Matthew Westphal

Oldest Surviving Manuscript From Americas, Long Questioned, Is Declared Genuine

“The Grolier Codex, an ancient document that is among the rarest books in the world, has been regarded with skepticism since it was reportedly unearthed by looters from a cave in Chiapas, Mexico, in the 1960s. But a new study yields a startling conclusion: The codex is both genuine and likely the most ancient of all surviving manuscripts from ancient America.”

Watching Pete Wells At Work – The New York Times Restaurant Critic Doesn’t *Always* Have His Knives Out

“Wells is an unassuming man who has become used to causing a stir, and this can be disorienting: it’s odd to hear him wonder, not unreasonably, if restaurants ever think of bugging his table. But a restaurant can’t openly acknowledge him. … Experienced for the first time, this covert cosseting feels slightly melancholy, like an episode of Cold War fiction involving futile charades and a likely defenestration.”

Dance Writers Need To Rethink How They Write About Tap (Says Tap Artist)

Brenda Bufalino: “When writers cover other forms of dance they speak about the particulars that make up a satisfying performance. They are equipped to reference past works and compare specific dances from a choreographer’s repertory. In contrast, tap dance to date has been written about as if it were a folk dance. Many critics have created a hierarchy of authenticity that keeps tap dancers competing on the street corner. Wouldn’t it be helpful to share with the public the subtleties and techniques of tap dance?”

Remember ‘Japan’s Beethoven’, Who Was Really Neither Deaf Nor A Composer? His Ghostwriter Is Making His Name On His Own

“On Feb. 6, 2014, Takashi Niigaki faced a crowd of reporters … in Tokyo and took a deep and apologetic bow. He had just revealed that he was ghostwriter for Mamoru Samuragochi, who was celebrated as ‘Japan’s Beethoven’ before being exposed as a fraud. In Hiroshima on Aug. 15 of this year, Niigaki found himself again bowing before a crowd, but this time it was on a stage in acceptance of a warm shower of applause.”

UK’s National Gallery Sued Over Matisse Portrait By Heirs Of The Woman In It

“Portrait of Greta Moll (1908) depicts a fellow-artist and a pupil of Matisse. Moll’s heirs – Oliver Williams, Margarete Green, and Iris Filmer – say that Moll, who owned the painting, turned it over in 1945 to a student of her husband, Gertrud Djamarani, fearing it would be lost or destroyed during the Allied occupation of Germany. … Instead of preserving the painting, says the complaint, Djamarani sold it in Switzerland for her own gain.”

Is This Plaster Of The ‘Little Dancer’ Really By Degas? One Expert Says Yes

“In a twist to a longstanding debate that for years has riveted a corner of the art world, one of the leading experts on Degas has decided that a long-disputed plaster of that artist’s Little Dancer, which shows the ballerina in a slightly different pose, is indeed an earlier model of his famous 1881 sculpture Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans.”

Redeveloping Chicago’s South Side With Art

“It roots itself in unlikely places like a once-dilapidated bank that hadn’t been active in more than 30 years, a recently shuttered currency exchange office, a retired beer warehouse, and a housing complex that had been shuttered after the city couldn’t find a way to stymie the violence that had permeated the site. This constellation of projects is the brainchild of Theaster Gates.”