On the 1940 morning when the invasion began, “one of [the] Nazi officers had the misfortune to pass an elderly gray-haired lady on the street, who responded by remarking on his rudeness and smacking his hat off his head with her cane. After he apologized and fled, she chuckled to herself: ‘Well, we’ll each have to fight this war as best we can; that’s the fourth hat I’ve knocked into the mud this morning.'”
Tag: 08.09.16
So, Is The Design At The Rio Olympics Any Good?
“The collapsed sailing ramp has been hauled out of the water, a Russian diplomat has heroically killed a carjacker (or maybe not), and 450,000 condoms await action in the leaky athletes village. Beset by construction problems and delays and with preparations decreed the ‘worst ever’ by the International Olympic Committee, how is the architecture and design of the XXXI Olympiad shaping up so far?”
52 Portraits: A Year Of Solo Dance Videos
The subjects of this Sadler’s Wells project, whose episodes are being posted online weekly through 2016, “range from the 29-year-old dance-maker Alexandrina Hemsley to the 91-year-old choreographer Robert Cohan, and from performance artist Hetain Patel to Royal Ballet principal Zenaida Yanowsky.”
Is The Seattle Art Fair Ready For The Major Leagues?
The brainchild of billionaire Microsoft tech giant, Seahawks owner and avid art collector Paul Allen, the 70,000-square foot, 84-gallery event brought 18,000 visitors to the Emerald City last weekend. A cursory rundown of SAF’s stats, which included an exhibitor list of heavy hitters like Pace and David Zwirner, presents like a fully formed Art Basel air-dropped on the West Coast via Jeff Bezos-commissioned drone, but it was the wave of companion fairs and satellite exhibits that elevated Allen’s main event from what could have been an impressive-yet-boring gathering to a unique addition to the contemporary art scene.
An Artist Residency In Creative Placemaking That Went Terribly Wrong
“The day after their termination, the artists sent out a joint statement claiming that they had been “run out of town” by MAA and that the Mill Hill Social Practice Residency was an “art-washing” scheme. This scathing essay set off a stink bomb that caused a flurry of national attention and made both MAA and the artists look unprofessional.”
America’s (One) Great Cubist
Robert Storr: “[Stuart] Davis was also the only first-class Cubist to emerge from North America. In my estimation he was the equal of the great Fernand Léger … I would even argue that, painting-by-painting, Davis was in some respects Léger’s superior.”
New Reality TV Show: Can You Beat This Music App?
“Beat Shazam has been picked up by Fox in the US where it will be produced by British executive Mark Brunett, and is basically a modern spin on Name That Tune, where contestants play against the music identification app to try and identify a song first. It has been a long and curious journey for Shazam but, unlike many of its peers, it is still going after 15 years, which is several lifetimes in digital music.”
Diversity In Books Isn’t Just About Writers, It’s Also About The Marketing
“If you go to most other independents, they will have a section of African-American books. But a whole bookstore filled with books on African-Americans? That’s something that people should see.”
The Largest Spray-Painted Artwork In The World? (In Rio)
“The work, entitled Etnias, covers more than 30,000 square feet of a formerly abandoned warehouse in Rio’s newly reinvigorated port district. Using a wild quiltwork of brightly colored geometric shapes, it portrays the faces of five indigenous men and women from five continents.”
Edinburgh Festivals Say They Need To Be More International Post-Brexit
“Veteran arts impresario Richard Demarco warned that the Brexit vote was the biggest threat to the Edinburgh Festival in its history and was a betrayal of its roots. Mr Barley admitted Brexit would mean a “seismic shift” in the UK’s cultural landscape but insisted this need not mean ‘doom and gloom’ for Edinburgh’s festivals, which are facing the prospect of public funding cuts in the next few years.”