Matthew Westphal – Page 1422 – ArtsJournal Wayback

How The Smithsonian’s Next Museum Is Going To Extend America’s ‘National Conversation On Race’

Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture: “We felt it was really important to take on things that might be deemed controversial or difficult. And the challenge for us was to find the right tension between those moments of pain and those moments of resiliency. … This is not the Holocaust Museum. This is not a community simply defined by victimization. But rather, it’s a community that has, in many ways, helped America live up to its stated ideals.”

Pakistan’s Leading Sufi Singer Shot Dead By Taliban

“One of Pakistan’s most famous and respected musicians, celebrated for devotional songs from [the] centuries-old mystic tradition [of qawwali], has been shot dead by Taliban gunmen in Karachi.”

Scholar Who Announced ‘Jesus’s Wife’ Papyrus Acknowledges It’s Probably Fake

Harvard professor Karen L. King, following an exposé by The Atlantic on the provenance of the papyrus fragment and the man who presented it to King, said, “It appears now that all the material Fritz gave to me concerning the provenance of the papyrus … were fabrications.”

There Was One Student Left In USC’s Art MFA Program, And She Just Dropped Out

“It’s been a year since the entire incoming MFA class at USC’s Roski School of Art decided to drop out en masse, leaving the program with only one student this year, HaeAhn Kwon. In an open letter to Provost Michael Quick, Kwon announced today that she too would be leaving the program, citing ‘the devastating trajectory this school has taken.'”

The Most Expensive Cubist Painting Ever Sold Just Went For $63.7 Million

“Picasso’s Femme Assise, painted in the summer of 1909 – when the artist traveled to the remote Spanish village of Horta de Ebro, which could only be reached by mule – sold for $63.7 million at Sotheby’s in London on Tuesday, making it the most expensive Cubist painting ever sold at auction.”

Carnegie Hall Gets $25 Million And Renames Its First Tier Of Boxes

“Carnegie Hall announced on Wednesday that it was renaming its first level of boxes the Blavatnik Family First Tier in recognition of a $25 million gift from Len Blavatnik, a trustee there since 2014, and his family foundation.”

Dishing The Dirt On Nureyev, MacMillan, And Ashton

“Sir Peter Wright, the leading producer-choreographer, … now aged 90 and still working, … is publishing a memoir that will reveal the extreme tensions and rivalries between some of the most brilliant but often highly strung artists.” For instance, he remembers Rudolf Nureyev being “unbearably rude” to Margot Fonteyn, who “would just shrug her shoulders.”

The Hot New Bolshoi Star Who Played Rudolf Nureyev On BBC

Artem Ovcharenko: “I was very keen, not just to play him correctly, but also to dance like him, but without making it a caricature. If you look at the way he was dancing in his younger days, people were already saying that he was a genius on stage – but technically bad. But I feared that if I simply emphasised that, it would be too obvious.”

Remember When You Could Call For The Correct Time? You Still Can, And People Do

“The U.S. Naval Observatory still offers a time-by-phone service. (Call 202-762-1401 today, and you’ll hear a pleasant ticking sound followed by the announcement of the exact time, delivered in an old-timey-broadcasting voice.) Not only does it still exist, but people still use it.” Adrienne LaFrance looks at why.

Author: Matthew Westphal