“At 84, the man considered by many to be the world’s greatest living painter—and its priciest, too, at least at auction, where his record stands at $46.4 million for 1986’s Abstraktes Bild, just behind Jeff Koons’s $58.4 million sculpture Balloon Dog (Orange)—is still vigorously creating work. But before he created these paintings, he had barely put brush to canvas in four years.”
Tag: 06.14.16
Herman Melville Was In Love With Nathaniel Hawthorne – Five Pieces Of Evidence
“Melville fell in love with the dashingly handsome older author the first time they met, and his forbidden passion drove him to create the symbol of impossible longing that now represents American literature to the rest of the world: the white whale. Moby-Dick has never before been considered a work of romantic longing, but here are five reasons to believe that Melville’s masterpiece is a profound statement of love denied.”
Did Mrs. Eakins Paint Over A Work By Mr. Eakins?
“The Bibliophile is a painting by Susan Macdowell Eakins, wife of the celebrated Philadelphia painter Thomas Eakins. An accomplished painter, Susan had studied with Thomas at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. … Now a graduate student in the Winterthur/University of Delaware program in art conservation has detected, beneath the surface, a separate painting.”
Baltimore Symphony Musicians Get Raise And One-Year Contract Extension
“The quietly negotiated deal gives the musicians a raise, while also providing continuity and calm while the orchestra continues to search for a new president and CEO. Paul Meecham, who has been in the post for a decade, leaves shortly to become president and CEO of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera.”
Could This Explain Why Some People Are So Much More Sensitive?
“Could sensory processing help explain the personalities of people we might otherwise just think of as ‘sensitive’? Might people with Sensory Processing Disorder even be at the extreme end of a spectrum of sensitivity that developed as an evolutionary advantage?”
Spelling In English Is A Ridiculous Mess, And We Need To Reform It
“Etymologist and poet Anatoly Liberman, author of Word Origins and How We Know Them, says English is one of the most difficult languages to spell. But we can change that.” (podcast)
The Hollywood Blockbusters That Are Making Their Millions In China And Not The U.S.
Warcraft: The Beginning made only $24.4 million on its opening in the States – but more than six times that in China, “a record-breaking five-day total of $156m, the highest ever debut for a foreign release.” And that’s just one example.
‘Swan Lake’ And Those Damned 32 Fouettés
“The 32 fouettés aren’t the hardest assignment in ballet, but they’re the most exposed example of virtuoso technique. If something goes wrong, the audience will see. I remember one ballerina falling flat on her backside around turn No. 14 and several who stopped (or switched to another step) after about 20. There used to be great ballerinas who avoided them: Anna Pavlova, Alexandra Danilova, Alicia Markova, Maya Plisetskaya did alternative steps.”
The Liverpool Shipyard Worker Who Became A Great Wagner Tenor: Alberto Remedios Dead At 81
“He made his name in Reginald Goodall’s highly acclaimed Ring Cycle with English National Opera in the late 1960s and went on to work with many of the leading singers of the day, including Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti and Montserrat Caballé. It was a remarkable journey, comparable in many ways with Jon Vickers’s transformation from Canadian lumberjack to acclaimed Heldentenor.”
Is This Relic From A Shipwreck A 2,100-Year-Old Computer?
“Item 15087 wasn’t much to look at, particularly compared to other wonders uncovered from the shipwreck at Antikythera, Greece, in 1901. … Who could have guessed that a shoebox-size mangled bronze machine, its inscriptions barely legible, its gears calcified and corroded, would be the discovery that could captivate scientists for more than a century?” (includes video)