Arts news

• In An Attempt To Beat AI, Matthew McConaughey Trademarks His Phrase

  18-01-2026 22:00 via npr.org
  “McConaughey has had eight trademark applications approved over the past few months, and the actor said in an email ..r that he wants to, quote, ‘create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world.’” – NPR
  
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• Rhoda Levine, Pathbreaking Opera Director, Has Died At 93

  18-01-2026 21:30 via nytimes.com
  Perhaps her “most significant contributions to the repertoire were the premieres [of] … Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, an anti-Hitler allegory composed in the Theresienstadt concentration camp before Mr. Ullmann was murdered at Auschwitz, and Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.” – The New York Times
  
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• In The US, We Write Essays, And Often Think, Backwards

  18-01-2026 21:00 via theatlantic.com
  We think we already know what we want to find, and that enables LLMs to “hElP” with predictable, middling, brain-anesthetizing results. “But a chief delight of being human is witnessing the world’s capacity to surprise.” – The Atlantic
  
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• The Washington National Opera, Which Had A Donor Renewal After Leaving The Kennedy Center, Finds A Temporary Home

  18-01-2026 20:30 via nytimes.com
  The opera, which “received an influx of donations, from more than 500 donors, after its announcement last Friday that it would seek a new home … will host two operas this spring season at George Washington University, where the organization got its start nearly 70 years ago.” – The New York Times
  
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• Spanish Singer Julio Iglesias Denies Charges That He Sexually Abused Two Women In His Employ

  18-01-2026 20:00 via theguardian.com
  The two former employees “allege they had been sexually assaulted and subjected ‘to inappropriate touching, insults and humiliation … in an atmosphere of control and constant harassment.’” – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• Disney Started A Thread About Movie Quotes But Deleted It With Celerity

  18-01-2026 19:30 via archive.ph
  “People immediately replied with lines from Star Wars, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and even Mary Poppins. The throughline between all the quotes: they were pretty pointedly anti-fascist.” Luckily, people screenshot the entire thing. – The Verge (Archive Today)
  
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• One Art Student Hung An AI-Generated Show As His Own, And Then Another Art Student Ate Some Of It

  18-01-2026 19:00 via artnews.com
  The student who ate some of the show was then arrested and charged. One Bluesky post about the event said, “Look for the helpers.” – Art News
  
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• Our Attention Is Being ‘Fracked’ By Big Tech

  18-01-2026 18:30 via theguardian.com
  But there are ways to resist. – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• The Physics Of Plur1bus

  18-01-2026 18:00 via wired.com
  For real: How does “The Joining” work? Science has thoughts. – Wired
  
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• Buildings Of The Past Are Underused Tools For Dealing With Climate Change

  18-01-2026 17:30 via bbc.com
  During Britain’s “little Ice Age,” builders used common-sense tricks that could still keep houses warmer – or cooler – today. – BBC
  
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• Beatriz González obituary

  18-01-2026 17:03 via theguardian.com
  Colombian artist whose haunting work dealt with questions of power and conflict for six decadesIn the middle of Bogotá’s Central Cemetery stands the columbarium, built in 1943 to house the bodies of poor and unidentified people. Abandoned and neglected, in 2009 the decaying mausoleum was transformed by the Colombian artist Beatriz González, who has died aged 93. On each of the 8,957 tombstones, she had silkscreened one of eight silhouetted motifs, each featuring two figures h
  
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• Trump Bought At Least One Million Dollars In Netflix And Warner Bros Bonds Following Their Deal Announcement

  18-01-2026 17:00 via variety.com
  “Trump, speaking last month with reporters on the red carpet of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C., said Netflix’s deal to acquire Warner Bros. studios and streaming business will require a review, and said, ‘I’ll be involved in that decision.”’ – Variety
  
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• Nazis Stole Fragments Of The Bayeux Tapestry

  18-01-2026 16:30 via bbc.com
  A textile specialist “is assumed to have stolen the fragments, each only a few centimetres long, when he was sent to Bayeux as part of a research team to study Germany’s ‘ancestral heritage’ – a racist and antisemitic project run by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi SS.” – BBC
  
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• Both The Pompidou And The Grand Palais Appear To Be In Financial Difficulties

  18-01-2026 16:00 via artnews.com
  “The Centre Pompidou gave up one of its two spaces at the Grand Palais due to what the Paris museum described as ‘financial constraints faced by both institutions,’ according to Le Monde.” – Art News
  
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• Sundance Picks Former Universal Chair As New CEO

  18-01-2026 15:30 via hollywoodreporter.com
  “Linde will begin his tenure on Feb. 17, after Sundance’s final film festival in Park City and before it heads to its new home in Boulder, Colorado.” – The Hollywood Reporter
  
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• ‘Radical and joyous’: Beryl Cook show aims to prove she was a serious artist

  18-01-2026 15:02 via theguardian.com
  Major retrospective in Plymouth, her adopted city, presents her as a skilful chronicler of social transformationIn her lifetime, Beryl Cook’s colourful, vibrant paintings tended to be dismissed by most critics as mere kitsch or whimsy.A major retrospective of Cook’s work opening in her adopted city of Plymouth next weekend makes the case that she was a serious, significant artist who skilfully chronicled a tumultuous period of social transformation. Continue reading...
  
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• After The Big One In An Art City In Japan, Trying To Preserve An Ancient Craft

  18-01-2026 15:00 via nytimes.com
  The massive earthquake on New Year’s Day 2024 washed away the homes and studios of “hundreds of Wajima artisans in this Holy Land of Lacquerware at the tip of the Noto Peninsula, about two hours north of Kanazawa.” – The New York Times
  
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• Time Didn’t Used To Be Linear

  18-01-2026 14:30 via aeon.co
  Seriously: We decided it was in the 18th century. “In 1765, the scientist-philosopher Joseph Priestley, best known for co-discovering oxygen, invented what was arguably the world’s first modern timeline.” – Aeon
  
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• Artists Killed By Iran In Crackdown On Protests As The Repression, And Internet Blackout, Continues

  18-01-2026 13:30 via artnews.com
  Though the number is undoubtedly higher, “among the thousands of civilians confirmed dead are sculptor Mehdi Salahshour, filmmaker Javad Ganji, fashion designer and student Rubina Aminian, and hip-hop artist Soroush Soleimani.” – Art News
  
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• Former Nickelodeon Child Star Kianna Underwood Killed In Hit And Run In Brooklyn

  18-01-2026 13:00 via latimes.com
  Underwood was “a cast member of the former Nickelodeon children’s sketch comedy series All That,” and she had other credits to her name as well. She was 33. – Los Angeles Times
  
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