“In an unusual collaboration with W magazine, Mr. Ai created a story line for a series of photos that were shot on location in New York by the photographer Max Vadukul as Mr. Ai looked on, art directing via Skype on a laptop computer.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Does The National Book Award Jury Deliberately Avoid Popular Novels?
Laura Miller: “Whatever policy each panel of judges embraces, over the years, the impression has arisen that already-successful titles are automatically sidelined in favor of books that the judges feel deserve an extra boost of attention.”
Philadelphia Orchestra Musicians Accept Major Concessions In New Contract
“The Philadelphia Orchestra Association Thursday secured the main prize in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case: a deeply concessionary labor deal from musicians” – a contract “calling for a 15-percent pay cut, reducing the size of the ensemble, and replacing the defined-benefit pension with a defined-contribution plan.”
Suzanne Farrell Ballet At 10
“When Suzanne Farrell arrived in Washington a decade ago to launch a ballet troupe at the Kennedy Center, it was as momentous for the arts as when basketball great Michael Jordan moved here to run the Wizards. The greatest ballerina this country has produced … was moving into a new sphere as a leader.”
Dresden Opens Military Museum With Pacifist Slant
“Some dislike its antiwar bent, others the lack of attention to the Holocaust. But the biggest controversy is over its design” – by Daniel Libeskind, unsurprisingly – “which features a giant shard of steel and glass bisecting the building.”
Daniel Barenboim Named La Scala’s Music Director
“World-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim will take up the post of musical director at Italy’s world renowned La Scala opera house from December until the end of 2016.”
Baudelaire – The First Modern Casualty Of Celebrity?
“The problem was this: Baudelaire wanted to shield his private life. So he made himself into a public entity. Yet, as he did, Baudelaire became the public persona he created. As he surrounded himself with layers of artificiality, the ‘real’ Baudelaire became hidden even from Baudelaire.”
Pedro Almodóvar On God And Transsexuals In His Films
“I think that in addition to it being something of a general dream that people have – the idea of seeing yourself as the opposite sex – there is the question of challenging God. If you are transsexual, then you are issuing a challenge to God, who created you in the wrong body.”
What I Learned From Watching Every Single Pedro Almodóvar Movie
June Thomas: “Experiencing the Almodóvar filmography is like stepping into one of those endlessly repeating M.C. Escher paintings. Some motifs recur so frequently that I feared for my sanity.”
Was Vincent Van Gogh Not Really A Suicide?
In their latest artist biography, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith “question the accepted story that Van Gogh went into the fields at Auvers-sur-Oise, France, on the evening of July 27, 1890, took out a revolver and shot himself in the chest.”