“The American artist Jeff Koons has been found guilty of plagiarising an iconic French clothing advertisement for one of his celebrated sculptures, Fait d’Hiver. Advertising creative director Franck Davidovici had sued Mr Koons, among the world’s most bankable living artists, for copyright infringement, saying he had produced what his lawyer called a ‘servile copy’ of a famous advertising campaign he ran in 1985 for French clothing brand Naf-Naf.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Schoolteacher Leaves $4.7 Million To Philadelphia Orchestra
A beloved music teacher to generations of children in suburban Abington, Jane Kesson also spent decades as a volunteer for the orchestra. So when she passed away last year, it was anticipated that she had included the Philadelphians in her will. But no one anticipated a gift this big.
Longtime Champion Of Latinx Plays Named Long Wharf Theatre’s Artistic Director
Jacob G. Padrón, a Yale Drama alum (as both student and administrator) who has produced more than 100 new plays and who founded the Sol Project to support and promote Latinx playwrights, succeeds Gordon Edelstein, who was fired early this year following accusations of bullying and sexual harassment.
Chris Dercon, Director Driven Out Of Volksbühne Theatre, Will Head Paris’s Grand Palais
The 60-year-old Belgian had had very successful tenures running London’s Tate Modern and Munich’s Haus der Kunst when he was recruited to lead the former East Berlin’s “People’s Stage”; as an outsider and non-theatre person, he faced stiff local resistance and resigned after about a year. Now he’s been named president of the Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais, which operates the Musée du Luxembourg as well as the Palais, Paris’s flagship art fair and exhibition venue.
Surprise Winner Of France’s Prix Goncourt: Nicolas Mathieu’s ‘Leurs Enfants Après Eux’
The novel, which will be published in the U.S. late next year under the title The Children Who Came After Them, is one of several widely successful recent works of fiction in France to deal with the lives of young people growing up in the country’s poor, de-industrialized towns.
Is Playing The Piano In A Public Train Station Un-British? Jolly Well Not!
The Twitterverse worked itself into a bit of a lather a couple of weekends ago, when Sunday Times columnist Sathnam Sanghera decried the people who sit down and play the pianos that have been left in train stations, writing “Can we please get back to good old British reserve in general?” In response, reporter Amy Walker went to St. Pancras Station in London and talked to some of the people who took a turn at the keyboards there that day.
Charlie Haden And Brad Mehldau Duo, At Long Last
Charlie Haden & Brad Mehldau, Long Ago and Far Away (Impulse!)
‘Zombie Movies Are The New Westerns’ — 50 Years Since The Living Dead Invaded Our Screens
“In these fifty years, let’s face it, we have been completely overrun. Zombies are everywhere. They are in our movies, tv shows, books, and comic books, plus, out here in the real world where the Center for Disease Control has a comprehensive Zombie preparedness and education plan and there are Zombie-walks, Zombie-conventions, and, anyway, didn’t you see them this Halloween?” Tim Sommers considers the nature of Zombies’ appeal.
Meet The Coolest Contemporary Chinese Choreographer You Haven’t Heard Of (Yet)
“Yabin Wang converts movement into liquid that spills across the stage. A celebrity in her home country of China, this choreographer, dancer and actress has helped to pioneer modern dance there by blending Chinese classical and contemporary dance. … This month, she is back stateside for the U.S. premiere of her Moon Opera, Nov. 3 in Pittsburgh.”
‘Make More Money. Do More Good.’ — Years Of Austerity Have Put UK Theatres In An Impossible Position
“The problem is that, at the same time as having to boost income [because of subsidy cuts], theatres have faced increased demands to justify their funding. Organisations have had to diversify their audiences, artists and their personnel, to prove their social utility and inclusivity with access schemes and outreach programmes … Taken together, however, the two things add up to one hell of a paradox, which risks pulling theatres apart at the seams. Being dependent on both earned income and public subsidy, theatres are having to pull in two directions at once. Make more money. Do more good.”