The 1990s really did last into today: “Must See TV veterans have helped shape some of the most groundbreaking shows of the Peak TV era, including Homeland, The Handmaid’s Tale, Atlanta, The Americans, Orphan Black, Fargo and The Shield. And five executives from the Must See TV era, are currently running network TV entertainment operations. – Los Angeles Times
Author: ArtsJournal2
Ben Heller, Powerhouse Collector Of Abstract Art, Has Died At 93
Heller blurred the line between collector and dealer – and caused an international incident because of it. “Heller’s sale of Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles to the National Gallery of Australia, then under construction in Canberra, the nation’s capital, was announced in September 1973. The news caused an uproar in the New York art world; in Australia it nearly brought down the Labor government of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who had to sign off on the $2 million sale.” – The New York Times
The Artist Who Painted Michelle Obama’s Portrait Is So In-Demand Now That She Has Assistants, And A Manager
Amy Sherald: “With a successful career, you have to hire some assistants to help, otherwise I can imagine that you would have to snort a lot of cocaine and drink a lot of coffee to just, like, get through life.” – The Cut
The Laryngectomy Survivors In The Choir
They’re learning to sing without a voice box, and they literally do have a choir. – BBC
Finnegan’s Wake Turns 80, And People Are Still Mad At It
But there’s a pretty strong reason to read – or attempt to read, or annotate – difficult works. “So is it an indecipherable ruse or a harbinger of hypertext? Could it even be … therapeutic?” – LitHub
If You Call A Series Of Movies About Fierce Women ‘Playing The Bitch,’ Does That Subvert Anything?
Well, British Film Institute, you wanted to “start a conversation,” and you sure have. – BBC
Harper Lee Started A True Crime Book, But Never Finished It – Why?
What a heartbreak her life was after To Kill a Mockingbird, and her attempted true-crime book turned out similarly: “Despite amassing more than enough Maxwelliana for a book, she could not get traction in the prose. That’s a common enough problem, of course; nothing writes itself, and no matter how many pages a reporting trip yields, the one that matters most always starts out blank. Everyone told Lee that the story she had found was destined to be a brilliant book. But no one could tell her how to write it.” – The Guardian (UK)
Latinx People Are A Deeply Reliable Movie Audience, But Where Are The Latinx Movie Stars?
There’s some massive underrepresentation, and certainly underfunding. For the new El Chicano, for instance, the filmmaker says, “It took a bunch of Canadian hockey fans to get behind an all-Latino movie set in East L.A.” He also “remembers one studio note in particular: ‘If you could figure out a Caucasian influence, that will help its prospects.'” – The Hollywood Reporter
The Faces (And Words) Of This Year’s Tony Nominees
Vulture somehow found time to photograph and interview a lot of people on the list: “The nominees spoke about their shows, their collaborators, their group texts, and their reactions to being nominated, before heading off to their Wednesday matinees.” – Vulture
This Sacred Greek Island Hasn’t Had New Art For 5,000 Years, But That’s About To Change
The Delos experiment: “In the absence of human contact – only guards and archaeologists have inhabited Delos in more recent times – the remains of a sanctuary and entire city have survived like nowhere else in Greece. It is in this unspoilt idyll that Greek authorities have undertaken an experiment as exciting as it is ambitious. At its centre is Sir Antony Gormley. The British sculptor has created 29 iron ‘bodyforms,’ several cast from his own body, that are to be the first artworks to be installed here since the outpost was inhabited more than 5,000 years ago.” – The Observer (UK)