Eighty-year-old painter Michael Gross won his country’s highest arts honor last week, the Israel Prize for Art, but kept his distance from the week’s celebrations and publicity. He is widely regarded as one of Israel’s most esteemed living artists – his work is held in the Guggenheim and MOMA, he’s shown at the Venice Biennale and Documenta – yet he’s always chosen to live as an “outsider,” as far as he can from the “theory and chatter” in Israel. “All the writers are little people who read other people’s theories, copy them and talk about them without understanding them. I am against all theories apart from one great one – an artist must be entirely free.” – Haaretz (Israel)