The cosmetics baron and philanthropist has promised the Metropolitan Museum of Art “his collection of 78 Cubist paintings, drawings and sculptures. The trove of signature works, which includes 33 Picassos, 17 Braques, 14 Légers and 14 works by Gris, is valued at more than $1 billion.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Body Language, Lost In Translation?
“What does science have to say about body language? Is there anything more in it than entertainment value? If so, which movements and gestures speak volumes and which are red herrings? And, knowing this, can we actually alter our own body language to manipulate how others perceive us?”
Runaway Ballet Star Sergei Polunin Resurfaces In Moscow
English National Ballet artistic director Tamara Rojo “has said missing Ukrainian dancer Sergei Polunin is ‘in Moscow and is OK’, following his sudden departure from a London show. Polunin left Midnight Express days before its UK premiere. Last year, he unexpectedly quit the Royal Ballet.”
Is Deaf Culture In Danger From Technological Progress?
Deaf actor Russell Harvard (Tribes, There Will Be Blood): “It might sound funny, but I’m afraid that in the future, the deaf community culture would be extinct because technology is taking over and there would be no more deaf people. In the future, genetic engineering, cochlear implants, the language will be forgotten – I was really terrified of that.”
At Least One US Visa Procedure For Artists Is Becoming Easier
“United States Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has announced that, effective April 30, 2013, artists and performers (as well as everyone else) entering the U.S. will no longer receive physical I-94 forms. The process will now be electronically automated!”
Margaret Thatcher’s Complicated Relationship With British Cinema
By slashing state funding and eliminating a postwar tax on box office receipts, she completely transformed the workings of the British film industry. Her government inspired an entire genre of oppositional films by the likes of Ken Loach, Mike Leigh and Peter Greenaway – yet her ministers also created Channel Four.
Nashville Symphony Faces Bankruptcy Or Foreclosure On Concert Hall
“Though the Nashville Symphony continues to negotiate with lenders on the $102 million in debt tied to construction of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the symphony could see its building put up for sale to the highest bidder on the courthouse steps.”
What Will Chile Gain From Digging Up Pablo Neruda?
“A statute of limitations, along with the likelihood that culpable figures are dead, make an authoritative verdict on Neruda’s death improbable. The exhumation is creepy. … The decision, which followed a request by Chilean Communists, seems motivated more than anything by a present-day desire to bury the past by, paradoxically, digging it up.”
Jesse Eisenberg And Vanessa Redgrave On Sharing A Stage
A coversation with the two stars, both appearing in Eisenberg’s play The Revisionist – a script he sat on until he could convince Redgrave to appear in it.
How The New York Review Of Books Became An Unlikely Publishing Success Story
A Q&A with founding editor Robert Silvers on the occasion of the magazine’s 50th anniversary.