“Starbucks has started selling art from a new coffee bar in Chelsea, amid some of the biggest galleries in New York. The Fortune 500 company opened a branch in the neighbourhood in late November with an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the young US artist Robert Otto Epstein, each of which was on sale for between $1,000 and $3,000.”
Tag: 02.01.16
Egyptian Police Arrest, Then Release, Country’s Most Popular Young Cartoonist
Islam Gawish, a 26-year-old satirist with 1.6 million Facebook followers, was arrested last Sunday, ostensibly for running a website without a license. Following a swell of online protest, authorities released him the next day with the statement that he was found not to have any links with terrorists.
That Stolen Picasso Seized In Turkey Last Week? It’s A Fake
“The Picasso Administration, charged with managing the artist’s estate, … said the canvas is a copy of a 1940 work by the great Spanish artist, Woman Dressing Her Hair – and the original is in the hands of New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).”
Ai Weiwei’s Latest Controversy: He Poses For Photo As Drowned Refugee Child
On the pro side: “powerful tribute”; “iconic image”.
On the con side: “egotistical victim porn”; “an opportunist move to hitchhike onto a current tragedy”.
How The Humanities Have Alienated The Rest Of The World
“Ideally, university administrators, business executives, foundation directors, policymakers and many others—both in the private sector and in state and federal government—can and should benefit from the knowledge and wisdom embedded in the humanities. Unfortunately, these people are increasingly alienated from studying them in our colleges and universities.”
Women Are Better At Running Theatres Than Men, Says Actress
Maxine Peake, who appears regularly at Manchester’s Royal Exchange (Sarah Frankcom, artistic director): “I just think actually women are probably better for running buildings, because they can multitask. And I think – without sounding terribly sexist, and I’m not saying across the board – they generally have a smaller ego.”
Suffering For Your Art: Ballet Stars Talk About Their Injuries
Eight principal dancers – including Daria Klimentová, Steven McRae, Cynthia Harvey, James Whiteside, and Vito Mazzeo – from some of the world’s top companies talk about coping with the damage their profession inflicts on their bodies.
The Alternate Reality Of This Year’s Sundance
“The festival threw down a gauntlet. It sent a message to an industry that, to the eyes of many, had failed to uphold with its work the values its members espoused with their politics (or, at least, their campaign donations).”
Aurèle Nicolet, One Of 20th Century’s Great Flute Players, Dead At 90
“A player of exceptional versatility with a distinctively rich sound, he was as renowned for exploring and championing new repertoire for his instrument as he was for his polished performances of the great works by the likes of Bach and Mozart.”
Hans Ulrich Obrist Talks About The Future Of Art
“The invention of the internet once promised to make knowledge open and accessible to anyone across the world, a perfect, radically open tool that encouraged the sharing of information and knowledge across societies and specialisms. Yet in opposition to the original nature of the web, the mechanisms behind the filter bubble are generating closed systems of knowledge. This is radically harmful to both individuals and societies.”