“Protesters stormed the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City on Tuesday over a painting showing revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata striking an unconventional pose. They shouted ‘burn it, burn it’, arguing that the painting, which shows Zapata in high heels and a pink hat, naked on an aroused horse, is offensive. … The work by Fabián Cháirez, called La Revolución (The Revolution), is part of an exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of Zapata’s death.” – BBC
Author: Matthew Westphal
Merriam-Webster’s 2019 Word Of The Year: ‘They’
“The US dictionary … said that look-ups for ‘they’ increased by 313% in 2019 compared with the previous year, as the public investigated the word’s shifting use [as a singular pronoun for gender non-binary individuals] and its increasing prominence in the news.” – The Guardian
May Stevens, Protest Artist Known For ‘Big Daddy Series, Dead At 95
“Stevens was known for her monumental paintings that dealt with social and political issues, as well as her activism, teaching, and writing. The artist used personal experiences and her responses to racism and oppression to inform her works, which span painting, collage, drawing, and prints.” – ARTnews
Life As A ‘Petit Rat’: Two Teen Students At The Paris Opera Ballet School
“Pointe spoke with these two young dancers” — Hortense Millet-Maurin and Vincent Vivet, both 15 — “to see what it’s like studying inside the world’s oldest ballet academy.” – Pointe Magazine
Local Library In China Burns Books, Enraging Many
“Reports and photos of two women burning a pile of books outside the Zhenyuan county library in Gansu province emerged at the weekend. According to Chinese media, an article on the county’s website detailed a ‘removal and destruction’ cleanup at the end of October, focusing on illegal, religious, and biased books. … [The reports have] prompted a wave of criticism from commentators and internet users who were reminded of the Qin dynasty, when books were burned and scholars burned alive as a way to control the populace and prevent criticism of the regime.” – The Guardian
Film About Gay Romance In Georgia Pulled From Tbilisi Film Festival After Violent Protests
“Ana Subeliani arrived at the film premiere for And Then We Danced by foot, but left in an ambulance, blood running down her face. … Before screenings in November, far-right protesters and members of the Georgian Orthodox Church, some holding religious icons aloft, tried to stop moviegoers entering theaters” screening the film, which depicts a romance between two male members of the country’s national dance troupe. – The New York Times
In The Footsteps Of Peter Handke In Bosnia, Seeing What He Did, And Didn’t, See
Controversy has raged over the awarding of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature to the Austrian writer, acknowledged as an accomplished author but accused by many observers of denying or defending Serbian war crimes in Bosnia in the 1990s. So John Erik Riley decided to reread the Handke essays at the heart of the dispute and visit Sarajevo, Goražde, Višegrad, and the site of the massacre at Srebrenica. – Literary Hub
A Real-Time Election Night Play, Ready For This Week’s UK Vote
The Vote, originally staged at London’s Donmar Warehouse in 2015, will return in an updated form this Thursday. The 90-minute play depicts the final 90 minutes of voting at a polling place in a swing district. – The Observer (UK)
William Luce, Playwright Of ‘Belle Of Amherst’ And ‘Barrymore’, Dead At 88
“Over a 40-year career, Luce … worked with the likes of Zoe Caldwell, George C. Scott and Claire Bloom as he wrote about the private lives of Charlotte Brontë, Lillian Hellman, Isak Dinesen, Zelda Fitzgerald and others. The Belle of Amherst, his portrait of the reclusive Massachusetts poet Emily Dickinson, won [Julie] Harris the fifth of her six Tony Awards … Barrymore, about the gifted and self-destructive actor John Barrymore, earned [Christopher] Plummer his second Tony and was filmed for television.” – The Hollywood Reporter
St. Petersburg Museums Struggle With Surge Of Chinese Tourists
Visits by Chinese citizens to Russia have been growing by 20% a year, and that rate will likely increase in 2020, when electronic visas become available. The extra crowds have caused particular problems at the Hermitage and, especially, at the Catherine Palace in nearby Tsarskoe Selo, where there are wait times of up to four hours as Chinese groups flock to see the famous Amber Room. – The Art Newspaper