“A master printmaker whose self-effacing style and virtuosic command of traditional techniques coaxed the best out of European artists including Picasso, Braque and Matisse, and later helped younger American artists like Jim Dine and Jasper Johns express their visions on paper.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
How Badly Were Foundations Hurt By Bernie Madoff?
Nicholas Kristof has gathered a list of non-profits that had money invested with Madoff before his pyramid collapsed. “What is staggering is how many of these 147 foundations had all their assets invested with Mr. Madoff and may have been wiped out as a result.”
Real Poor People Hit The Silver Screen
Frozen River, Chop Shop, Ballast, and Wendy and Lucy form something of a critically-acclaimed wave of movies – “recession indies” – about poverty in America. “But will audiences respond? So far, the signs aren’t encouraging… When Americans do go to movies about the poor, they’re usually set a continent or two away.”
Kentucky Ballet Theatre Celebrates Ten Years
The company was born in the wake of the “arts-administration meltdown” and collapse of Lexington Ballet, and has kept on for a decade despite the turmoil around its birth and the usual constant money troubles. The board president says, “Something would fall out of the sky and we’d be able to pay our bills.”
Doing Things The Hard Way: The Artisans Of Old Japan
June Thomas visits the dedicated, meticulous and very, very serious men and women keeping alive traditional Japanese crafts, notably the indigo dying that creates the country’s signature blue-and-white textiles and the extraordinary workmanship that goes into making exquisite silk kimonos. (She also considers how odd it is to see women wearing them in daily life).
Why Don’t More Opera Heroines Die This Way?
The title character of Philippe Boesmans’s Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy, which had its world premiere at the Paris Opera last week, doesn’t expire of consumption or stabbing or poison or a broken heart. She chokes on a fishbone. What’s more, she doesn’t even sing. (The premiere, by the way, was a popular triumph.)
Smithsonian Chooses Six Finalists For African-American History Museum
Among the familiar names competing to design the new National Museum of African American History and Culture on the Mall: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, (Norman) Foster + Partners, Pei Cobb Freed, and Moshe Safdie. The two who aren’t (yet) widely famous: Freelon Adjaye Bond and Moody Nolan with Antoine Predock.
John Irving Remembers John Updike
“There were writers who simply couldn’t have made a living for themselves if the writing hadn’t worked out; that meant Vonnegut, and that meant me. But Updike always gave me the impression that he could have/would have been successful at anything. He was smart; not all writers are intellectuals. I’m not. He was, but he was good-humored about it; he never flaunted it.”
Che – The #1 Brand In Revolution
In Cuba, “a country largely devoid of public advertising and religious iconography, Guevara’s ubiquitous image appears to fill the role of both Jesus Christ and Ronald McDonald – a sainted martyr of unwavering purity who also happens to promote a meticulously standardized (if not particularly nutritious) political menu.”
Opera Orchestra of NY Cancels Remainder Of Season
“The company, which usually presents three or four concert performances each season at Carnegie Hall, scrapped plans to perform Wagner’s Rienzi on March 19 and Cherubini’s Medea on April 21. It also canceled a concert with Ferruccio Furlanetto on Feb. 27. Its only performance this season was Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Czar’s Bride on Oct. 15.”