Matthew Westphal – Page 1728 – ArtsJournal Wayback

What Made Jon Vickers Great – And Terrifying

“The characters into whose mindsets Vickers wormed his way were mostly tragic figures: flawed leaders, social outcasts, sexual obsessives caught in the toils of Eros. The labour the roles involved was immense … Vickers could, indeed, open himself up to psychotic states.” (includes video of Vickers as Canio, Don Jose and Peter Grimes)

Henry Moore Sculpture Belongs To Local East London Council, Rules Court

“Tower Hamlets council has been declared the legal owner of the Henry Moore sculpture Draped Seated Woman – more popularly known as Old Flo – following a protracted legal dispute. … The Old Flo ownership battle was fought by Tower Hamlets against Bromley council, which claimed rights to the sculpture in 2012.”

It’s True: Le Corbusier Was An Anti-Semitic Fascist

“[He] was involved from the 1920s until the mid-1940s with a series of far-right fascist publications that were anti-Semitic, often racist, and always totalitarian and ultra-nationalist. … [ He] attended fascist rallies in the 1920s, privately supported the Nazis, and sought work between 1940 and 1942 in Marshall Pétain’s Vichy. (Albeit Le Corbusier, intriguingly, also sought employment in Soviet Russia, but was turned down.)”

The Brain’s Remarkable Sculpting Of Memories

“Some memories persist for a lifetime, even if sometimes only at the level of uncertain contours, says commentator Marcelo Gleiser. How does the brain do that?”

We Need Puppets To Keep Making Fun Of Us, Say French Politicians

When the owner of the television network Canal+ said that the satirical show Les Guignols de l’Info (roughly, “The News Puppets”) said that there was “a bit too much mockery” of politicians, and there were suggestions that the program would be canceled, it was the subjects of the mockery who leapt to the Guignols’ defense.

Giant Bust Of Nefertiti Taken Down After Relentless Mockery

Tweeted one wag, “I guess this is what she looked like four days after she died.”

Top Posts From AJBlogs 07.13.15

Jon Vickers, One of 20th Century’s Great Heroic Tenors, Dead At 88

“A Vickers performance in the opera house was a grand, sweeping, overriding affair. It was often a performance of extremes, something more readily comparable to what Marlon Brando or Zero Mostel might do than to what his operatic colleagues did.”

Cincinnati Piano Competition Fires AD Awadagin Pratt

“Awadagin Pratt has been relieved of his position of artistic director of the Cincinnati World Piano Competition. The leadership shakeup also includes three board members – including the chairman – who have resigned.”

Greek Museums Forced To Close As Funding Runs Out

“Major public cultural institutions in Greece are on the point of collapse, say leading Greek art professionals, as concerns mount that the country faces insolvency after 61% of the population rejected bailout proposals earlier this week made by international creditors.”