This past spring, Bassim al-Shaker spent two weeks in the hospital after an attack by three Mahdi Army members outraged by his life drawing sketches. “In June, he was in Italy, his oil paintings gracing the Iraq Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale. In July, he arrived here in the American West, one of six foreign artists plucked from their countries to share their knowledge and create.”
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Will The U.S.’s Tallest Statue Be Erected In A Suburb Of Tulsa?
Shan Gray, “a 57-year-old sculptor of Osage tribal heritage, is on a quixotic quest to erect a 217-foot-high bronze rendering of a Native American warrior with an eagle perched on his arm.”
What Urban Planners Can Learn From A Couple Million Hindu Pilgrims
This year’s Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India was more than just a religious festival. It was the world’s biggest-ever pop-up city, with a population ranging (depending on the day) from 3 million or so to more than 20 million. And it was far cleaner, better organized, and more functional than India’s permanent cities.
Bloomberg Picks Today’s Hottest Opera Directors
No, not the mayor himself. But his news agency names a group ranging from the established (Robert Carsen, David McVicar) to the up-and-coming (Katharina Thoma) to the edgy (Dmitri Tcherniakov, La Fura dels Baus) to the accidental (Fiona Shaw).
A Ballet For Plastic Bags
“What do you get when you combine Debussy’s music with a troupe of plastic bags? The answer is one of the Edinburgh fringe’s most charming family shows – Non Nova’s L’après-midi d’un Foehn, being performed at the Summerhall venue. Performer Jean-Louis Ouvrard takes us through his day as a choreographer working with some unlikely forces.”
Actress Karen Black, 74
“With compelling, close-set eyes that gave her a distinctive appearance, Black built a film resume that included prostitutes, murderers, waitresses, transsexuals and thieves. She imbued the portrayals of her often vulnerable, working-class characters with pathos and occasional humor.”
The Bible Of Color Theory Is Now An App
“On the 50th anniversary of Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color, Yale University Press has released the work as an interactive teaching tool along the lines of what the Bauhaus master originally intended.”
I Lied – I Didn’t Burn Any Paintings, Mother Of Accused Art Thief Now Says
“Olga Dogaru, the Romanian woman who told investigators that she had incinerated seven works of art by Matisse, Picasso and other modern masters in an effort to protect her son, denied in court on Monday that she had burned the works.”
Japan’s Communist Party Introduces Cartoon Mascots
“Japan’s newest Communists are a motley bunch. There is Ikuko Kosodate, a mother of 10 with fierce-looking eyebrows and a baby strapped to her back. … There is Master Poken, a strict disciplinarian. And then there is Yoko, a ‘mysterious’ 25-year-old job hopper who ‘always wears sunglasses and a trench coat, and is rumored to hide a whip inside her coat’.”
Peter Grimes Performed On The Very Beach Where It Is Set
“So in the year of Britten’s centenary, the centrepiece of the Aldeburgh festival is its first ever production of Grimes, directed by Tim Albery on a set designed by Leslie Travers of dilapidated fishing boats and timbers built right at the water’s edge on the town’s shingle beach. The North Sea provides the backdrop to the performance.”