“A portrait of Rubens’ young daughter Clara Serena, recently deaccessioned by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is going on display at the Rubenshuis in Antwerp. In 2013, it was auctioned as by a ‘follower of Rubens’, with an estimate of $20,000-$30,000. … Ben van Beneden, the director of the Rubenshuis, has accepted the former Met painting – now cleaned – as authentic.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
What Shakespeare Knew About Robert Durst’s Confession-Or-Non-Confession
Adam Gopnik: “Many people have pointed out the eerie resemblance of Durst’s words to a Shakespearean soliloquy. Actually, only one kind of soliloquy – the villain’s kind – takes this form. Durst’s words are not at all Hamlet-like, as some have said. They recall, instead, the soliloquies of Iago, in Othello, and of Edmund, in King Lear – the moments when an evil man speaks out loud of his own capacity for evil, and then assures us that there’s nothing really shocking there.”
Last Week One Of Paris’s Top Orchestras Played To An Empty Hall
When Radio France – in the middle of strikes, layoffs, financial troubles and general chaos – abruptly cancelled the Friday evening concert of the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio-France, they didn’t consult the musicians or conductor Myung-Whun Chung first. In protest, the furious orchestra went right over to the new Philharmonie de Paris (conveniently available that evening) and played its program to banks of empty seats – making headlines in the process. (in French)
Living Life Without The Brain’s Memory Center
“Her life is an endless series of jump cuts. In our age of pinging distractions, people often express a desire to ‘be present,’ but Johnson belies such sentimentality. She is marooned in the present.” A profile of an artist whose hippocampus was completely destroyed in 2007 by a viral infection – and what neuroscientists are learning about the brain from the things she can and cannot now do.
Whatever Happened To Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, It Doesn’t Mean Dance Is In Danger
“But even with no conclusive sign that Cedar Lake’s issue is one of funding, the dance community is positioned to jump on the ‘arts is dying’ bandwagon immediately. … Why do we chalk this up to just another financial failure? Perhaps because as a dance venture, we are used to being on a respirator, scraping by season to season.”
A Loss For Words: Can The Native Languages Of The Americas Be Saved – Or Even Resurrected?
Judith Thurman looks at the people – in Chile, Manhattan, the New York-Ontario borderlands, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Ohio – who are trying.
Why Frank Gehry’s Fondation Louis Vuitton Building Is a Masterpiece (And Why Photographs Can’t Communicate Its Genius)
Justin Davidson: “With its white body encased in a cloud of pearl-grey glass, it borrows the muted palette of the 16th Arrondissement, but its cornucopia of forms expresses an alien exuberance. … If you’re going to make an architectural argument for excess, this is the way to do it.”
At Stanford, Musical Theater About The Birth Of Modern Computing
“In December 1968, the computer scientist Douglas Engelbart … brought together for the first time a mouse, word processing, multimedia communication and networking to demonstrate interactive computing before an audience of a thousand leading computer scientists. His presentation would become known as the Demo.” Ben Neill and Mikel Rouse have now made the Demo into a stage work .
Video From Last Production Of Two Opera Singers On Downed Germanwings Flight
“Two opera singers were among the victims of the Germanwings crash on Tuesday: the contralto Maria Radner and the baritone Oleg Bryjak. Both had been performing in Siegfried, the third opera in Wagner’s Ring cycle, at the Liceu opera house in Barcelona, Ms. Radner as the earth goddess Erda and Mr. Bryjak as the scheming dwarf Alberich.”
How Important Is Color? Watch What Happens When Colorblind People Experience It
“A recent video by Valspar Paint highlights just how awe-inspiring color really is. In it, they give color blindness-correcting glasses made by EnChroma to color blind people and allow them, for the first time ever, to experience color.”