Author: Matthew Westphal

That Caravaggio Found In The Attic Is Being Handled With Unusual Honesty

There has been plenty of disagreement about whether the painting of Judith beheading Holofernes that turned up in Toulouse in 2016 is an original Caravaggio or a copy. But the people selling it are doing the right things: allowing every scholar that wants examine it access, being generous with shows to the public, and leaving the sale to the auctioneer that found it rather than passing it to Sotheby’s or Christie’s. If only this sort of behavior weren’t so rare. – Apollo

Peabody Essex Museum Names New Director

“After a five-month search, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem has hired Brian Kennedy as its new director and CEO. Kennedy, now 57 years old, was born in Dublin and has worked for museums on three continents, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College and the National Gallery of Ireland. He currently heads the Toledo Museum of Art, where he’s been since 2010.” – WBUR (Boston)

Teaching Students To Distinguish Real News, Fake News, And Bias (And What Happens When You Learn You Have To Interrogate **Everything**)

At the Ross School, a very pricey K-12 institution in the Hamptons, faculty have worked hard to create what CJR calls “the best media literacy program money can buy.” Alexandria Neason looks at how that program has been put together, how it’s been adapted to changes in media technology and current events, what elements are taught more widely around the U.S., and the feelings that developing media savvy brings forth in the kids themselves. – Columbia Journalism Review

Tony Kushner And Heidi Schreck Talk About ‘What The Constitution Means To Me’

TK: “I’ve always been a little skeptical of the notion that there’s something sort of shamanistic or medicinal or restorative about theater in a kind of mysterious way, but I really felt that [the play] was that. And every time I went back, I left feeling more hope about the survival of our democracy.” New York magazine theater critic Sara Holdren does a Q&A with the two playwrights about Schreck’s hit, which Kushner has seen three times (so far). – New York Magazine

The Stevens Spielberg And Soderbergh Are The Twin Poles Of The Movie Theater-Versus-Netflix Struggle — Or Are They?

Soderbergh has made a feature for Netflix and released his work in all sorts of ways; he says “I really don’t care how people see my movies, as long as they see them.” Spielberg is trying to ban Netflix from the Oscars and says that “movie theaters need to be around forever.” Critic Ann Hornaday writes that the root of Spielberg’s anxieties is something that Soderbergh understands. – The Washington Post

Ukraine Has A Censorship Problem, But It’s Not Caused By The Government

“Paramilitary groups, the most active of which is called C14, have existed as a form of ‘art critics’ since 2009, when they first burnt down the Gudimov Centre for its presentation of a book with a provocative name: 120 Pages of Sodome. Since then, they have intended to impact Ukraine’s cultural life, censoring the topics of gender, sexuality, and politics in art.” – Hyperallergic