Author: Matthew Westphal

The War Of The Beans: Chicago And Houston Papers Totally Diss Each Other’s Anish Kapoor Sculptures

As Kapoor’s Cloud Column is being installed in Houston (and drawing inevitable comparisons to Kapoor’s Cloud Gate in Chicago), the Chicago Tribune‘s Kim Janssen and the Houston Chronicle‘s Lisa Gray started throwing serious shade at each other’s public sculpture as the rest of the nation watched with amusement. (The Dallas Morning News chimed in with “Sorry Chicago, making fun of Houston’s ‘bean’ sculpture is our job.”)

‘I’m Struggling With The Biggest Element: My Age! I’m Fighting Time’ – Akram Khan Dances His Last Full-Length Solo

To accompany this photo journal, the dancer-choreographer writes about Xenos, about an Indian colonial soldier fighting for Britain in World War I. “In my work, I need a character I can relate to – but also a character who can relate to me. So we decided that this colonial soldier was a dancer who is thrown into the trenches somewhere in Europe. Most of the piece takes place in a trench, at least in an abstract sense.”

Tavis Smiley Sued PBS For Breach Of Contract; Now PBS Countersues Smiley – And Includes Detailed Sexual Harassment Charges

In December, PBS suspended Smiley’s nightly talk show in the wake of allegations that he had behaved improperly with female members of his staff; within weeks, Smiley, furiously denying the charges and alleging that PBS was “racially hostile” to him, filed suit against the network. “[Now, a] 32-page answer and countersuit, filed in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, alleges Smiley violated the network’s morals clause and seeks $1.9 million in returned salary plus unspecified damages.”

Metropolitan Opera Produces A Work For Infants

This may not be the first time someone has said that the Met’s audience is a bunch of babies, but it’ll be the first time that it’s literally true. “The company will present 10 free performances of BambinO, an opera for babies between 6 months old and 18 months old, from April 30 to May 5 in the opera house’s smaller auditorium, List Hall … The 40-minute opera – scored for two singers and two musicians – will be performed for a small audience of babies and caregivers.” (includes video)

Without Warning, Beloved Brancusi Sculpture In Paris Cemetery Is Boxed Up

“The Cimetière du Montparnasse is at risk of losing one of two of its most distinctive occupants. A famous Constantin Brancusi sculpture of a couple embracing, Le Baiser (The Kiss, 1909), has … been on view just inside the cemetery’s Rue Émile-Richard entrance since the very end of 1910 or early 1911. But, for at least six months now, the sculpture has been covered up and mysteriously concealed from public view.”

Marie-Agnès Gillot, Paris Opera Ballet’s Most Unlikely Étoile, Retires At 42

“Everything was against Marie-Agnes Gillot becoming a ballerina – never mind a great one. She was too tall, broad-shouldered and most of all, she had a double scoliosis, which sometimes gives her a hump when her back is swollen. … The last great French ballerina of her generation, she hid her problem from her teachers after leaving home at nine to go to ballet’s elite school in the French capital.”

Olly Wilson, Composer Who Brought West African Material Into Western Avant-Garde Music, Dead At 80

“Mr. Wilson, a longtime professor at the University of California, Berkeley, grew up listening to jazz and spirituals. He studied African music in Ghana under one of his two Guggenheim Fellowships, opened an electronic music studio at the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he had formerly taught, and wrote academic papers, including a major essay on the art of black music.”