“Encounters with West’s art are often occasions for laughter, though it is a laugh tinged with horror and disbelief. He could deflate the pomposity of the city square or the elegance of a park with his giant pink phalluses and lime-green sausages. Sitting on dignified plinths, his skewed and lumpy sculptures, often garishly painted, had a kind of idiot elegance.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
$30M Worth Of Indian Antiquities Seized In Manhattan
“A crooked Manhattan art dealer had a $30 million treasure trove of stolen antiquities that would make Indiana Jones jealous – including ancient carvings and statues swiped from temples in India and other countries, authorities charged yesterday.”
Irek Mukhamedov, Back Onstage At 52
“I did dance two years ago – I’ve never said to myself, ‘I’ve stopped dancing.’ … [But] you know, mind and heart are saying, ‘I’m better than everybody else’. But body sometimes is saying, ‘Easy, easy, easy boy!”
BAFTA To Award Separate Prizes For TV Comedy And Drama Writing
“BAFTA is to introduce separate prizes for comedy and drama writers at its annual craft awards, following pressure from the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. Up until now, BAFTA has only awarded a best writer award at its television craft awards ceremony, meaning drama writers have been pitted against comedy creators.”
Actress Susanne Lothar Dead At 51
The much-admired German star, who “appeared in [Michael] Haneke films such as The White Ribbon and Funny Games as well as alongside Kate Winslet in The Reader, specialised in playing vulnerable, damaged women who found hidden reserves of strength. The Austrian director Haneke frequently looked to her to embody characters pushed to the limit.”
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs 2.0: How The Show Has Changed Post-Scandal
“‘Why believe me? I’m a noted fabulist,’ says Mike Daisey, his honeyed voice all but dripping with sarcasm, eyes glinting with challenge. The audience at the Woolly Mammoth Theater … chuckles in sympathy.”
Ben Jonson Is Better Than Shakespeare! (Says This Scholar)
Andrew Hadfield: “Until the end of the 17th century, Jonson was generally regarded as the greatest dramatist in English, but since then he has not received his due. A heavy man, he did not wear his learning lightly, and suffered as a result, being seen as a pedantic, over-stuffed author. But he is a delight to see on stage or to read. He is clever, lucid, rude and very funny – much funnier than Shakespeare, in fact.”
LA MoCA Pulls Out Of Joint Show Planned By Ex-Chief Curator
“The Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles, has pulled out of a Richard Hamilton retrospective, after the abrupt departure of its long-standing chief curator, Paul Schimmel at the end of June. Schimmel is the co-curator of the Hamilton exhibition,” which is also planned for London’s Tate Modern, the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Australian Ballet Heads Into The Outback
The young dancers of the national company’s touring troupe, mostly in their late teens and finishing their studies at The Australian Ballet School, spend six weeks each winter giving performances in the old theatres of Australia’s far-flung small towns.
When The Olympics Gave Out Medals For Art
“For the first four decades of competition, the Olympics awarded official medals for painting, sculpture, architecture, literature and music, alongside those for the athletic competitions. From 1912 to 1952, juries awarded a total of 151 medals to original works in the fine arts inspired by athletic endeavors.”