Arts news

• Raeanne Rubenstein, Versatile Celebrity Photographer, Dies at 74

  05-12-2019 23:28 via nytimes.com
  
  She had a knack for capturing her subjects, whether Andy Warhol in New York or Dolly Parton in Nashville, in ways that caught their essence.
  
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• San Francisco Opera Names a New Conductor. She’s Making History.

  05-12-2019 23:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Eun Sun Kim will be the first woman to hold the music director post at an American company of major size and stature.
  
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• Robert Krulwich Will Retire From ‘Radiolab’ in January

  05-12-2019 22:34 via nytimes.com
  
  Krulwich, known for taking on big ideas in his reporting, has co-hosted the nationally syndicated WNYC program since 2005.
  
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• ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ Review: A Brush With Passion

  05-12-2019 21:51 via nytimes.com
  
  In Céline Sciamma’s new film, Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant play an aristocrat and an artist falling in love in 18th-century France.
  
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• Is Maurizio Cattelan’s $120,000 Banana Sculpture a Cynical Sign of the Times or a Thrilling Artwork? Yes!

  05-12-2019 21:06 via artnews.com
  
  At the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on impeachment yesterday, the Republican’s expert witness, law professor Jonathan Turley, testified that everyone in America is “mad.” “My Republican friends are mad,” he said. “My Democratic friends are mad. My wife is mad. My kids are mad. Even my dog seems mad, and Luna is a goldendoodle and they don’t get mad.”
  And Professor Turley had presumably not even heard about Maurizio Cattelan’s new
  
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• Is Maurizio Cattelan’s $120,000 Banana a Cynical Sign of the Times or a Thrilling Artwork? Yes!

  05-12-2019 21:06 via artnews.com
  
  At the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on impeachment yesterday, the Republican’s expert witness, law professor Jonathan Turley, testified that everyone in American is “mad.” “My Republican friends are mad,” he said. “My Democratic friends are mad. My wife is mad. My kids are mad. Even my dog seems mad, and Luna is a goldendoodle and they don’t get mad.”
  And Professor Turley had presumably not even heard about Maurizio Cattelan’s ne
  
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• Nationwide Protests in France Force Museums to Close

  05-12-2019 20:38 via artnews.com
  
  On Thursday, a nationwide strike in France brought the country to a standstill. Public transportation was largely not running as 180,000 demonstrators flooded the country’s streets, and some 6,000 police officers were deployed to Paris amid anticipation that events would take the same violent turn as last year’s Yellow Vest protests, which left nearly 2,000 civilians wounded and the Arc de Triomphe vandalized.
  Because of the protests against resident president Emmanuel Macr
  
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• ‘The L Word: Generation Q’ Review: New Vision, Old Blind Spots

  05-12-2019 20:20 via nytimes.com
  
  Ten years after the original ended, the groundbreaking Showtime series returns with a cast that is more diverse if still a bit fantastical.
  
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• The Cage Cunningham Fellowship Puts a Spotlight on Light

  05-12-2019 20:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Jennifer Tipton, a lighting designer who works in dance, theater and opera, is this year’s recipient of the award from the Baryshnikov Arts Center.
  
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• Holiday Tunes That Soothe, Provoke and Share a Joke

  05-12-2019 20:00 via nytimes.com
  
  A new crop of albums has arrived that offer fresh (and not so fresh) takes on seasonal songs and sentiments.
  
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• Pinterest and The Knot Pledge to Stop Promoting Plantation Weddings

  05-12-2019 19:46 via nytimes.com
  
  Zola was also among five major websites that said they would cut back on promoting and romanticizing weddings at former slave plantations.
  
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• Review: An Eerie Shift Translates ‘Der Freischütz’ to Texas

  05-12-2019 19:04 via nytimes.com
  
  Heartbeat Opera’s production of Weber’s classic of 19th-century Romanticism delves into toxic masculinity.
  
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• (Re)making History: Two Recent Books Recast Southeast Asia’s Postcolonial Modernism

  05-12-2019 18:13 via artnews.com
  
  Just ten years ago, if you had asked whether Southeast Asia possessed its own modern art history, you would have encountered little critical consensus. After all, the area is enormous and highly diverse, comprising Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, various individual islands, and even parts of India. Yet today many Global South critics and scholars insist on the cultural specificity of artistic change in these countries, contending that
  
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• Dormeshia: ‘We’re Just Swinging’

  05-12-2019 18:04 via nytimes.com
  
  Watch the tap masters Dormeshia and Jason Samuels Smith perform part of the introduction of their show at the Joyce Theater.
  
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• ‘Porgy and Bess,’ a Hit for the Met Opera, Gets an Encore

  05-12-2019 18:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Adding three performances, the company is extending an opera’s run for the first time in its modern history.
  
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• ‘The Disappearance of My Mother’ Review: Son’s View of a Model Parent

  05-12-2019 17:57 via nytimes.com
  
  Benedetta Barzini, couture star and cultural critic, reluctantly faces her son’s camera in a tender and harsh documentary.
  
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• Stephen Cleobury, Longtime Leader of Fabled Choir, Dies at 70

  05-12-2019 17:39 via nytimes.com
  
  He led the King’s College Choir of England for 37 years, including during its famous Christmas Eve performances.
  
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• After Sudden Exit of Previous Leader, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Names New Director

  05-12-2019 17:07 via artnews.com
  
  After its previous director, Bill Arning, left the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston suddenly in 2018, the Texas institution has a new leader. Hesse McGraw, a partner at the Kansas City–based design firm el dorado, inc., will take the helm of the museum in mid-January. “Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is a pioneering institution with a remarkable, radical legacy at the leading edge of contemporary art and ideas,” McGraw said in a statement. “I am thrilled to join CAMH at
  
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• Vittorio Grigolo, Star Tenor, Fired for ‘Inappropriate’ Behavior

  05-12-2019 16:44 via nytimes.com
  
  The Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera in London dismissed the singer for an incident during the Royal’s tour of Japan in September.
  
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• Howard Cruse Dies at 75; His Cartoons Explored Gay Life

  05-12-2019 16:29 via nytimes.com
  
  He described his experiences as a gay man in a comic strip and an acclaimed semi-autobiographical graphic novel, influencing many other cartoonists.
  
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• The Stories Behind American Heroes, Made Accessible to Kids

  05-12-2019 16:19 via nytimes.com
  
  Picture book biographies of Thurgood Marshall, Katherine Johnson, Jimmy Carter and more introduce people who just kept going, until they changed the world.
  
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• Tekashi69 Is Praised by Prosecutors, Who Urge a Lenient Sentence

  05-12-2019 15:44 via nytimes.com
  
  His cooperation with the government led hip-hop fans and other rappers to call him a snitch and a fraud.
  
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• ‘The Aeronauts’ Review: High Anxiety

  05-12-2019 15:02 via nytimes.com
  
  Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne reach for the skies in this charming Victorian ballooning adventure.
  
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• Tekashi69 Is Praised by Prosecutors, Who Urge a Lenient Sentence for Him

  05-12-2019 14:48 via nytimes.com
  
  His cooperation with the government led hip-hop fans and other rappers to call him a snitch and a fraud.
  
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• Miami Basel Begins, Strikes Shutter French Museums, and More: Morning Links from December 5, 2019

  05-12-2019 14:45 via artnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.
  Art Basel Miami Beach
  Art Basel Miami Beach opened yesterday to VIPs and invited guests. Judd Tully has the report on the day’s brisk sales, including a $2.4 million David Hammons and a $1.7 million Helen Frankenthaler.ARTnews
  And here are photos from around the fair, including a stunning collaboration by Raúl de Nieves and Cajsa von Zeipel
  
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• ‘When Lambs Become Lions’ Review: An Ivory Poacher’s Perspective

  05-12-2019 13:00 via nytimes.com
  
  The documentarian Jon Kasbe spent years among elephant hunters in Kenya, and his movie is an intense 74-minute distillation of his efforts.
  
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• ‘The Wolf Hour’ Review: Panic in the City

  05-12-2019 13:00 via nytimes.com
  
  In this psychological drama, Naomi Watts plays an agoraphobic writer slowly unraveling in a blistering New York City apartment.
  
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• ‘Little Joe’ Review: This Flower Can Dispense Joy, but It Has Demands

  05-12-2019 13:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Jessica Hausner’s new sci-fi film about a flower engineered to release a potent antidepressant evokes “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
  
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• ‘In Fabric’ Review: The Dress Is Possessed. But It Was on Sale.

  05-12-2019 13:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Peter Strickland’s fourth feature is a horror story about, yes, a garment, but it’s his most engrossing work yet.
  
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• ‘Daniel Isn’t Real’ Review: Even an Imaginary Friend Can Hurt You

  05-12-2019 13:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Young Luke was happy to find a friend in Daniel. Luke’s mother couldn’t see Daniel, but accepted him nonetheless, until he went too far.
  
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• ‘A Million Little Pieces’ Review: Cracking Up

  05-12-2019 13:00 via nytimes.com
  
  A committed lead performance and some eloquent visuals aren’t enough to save this hackneyed tale of a rehab-resisting addict.
  
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• ‘A German Youth’ Review: Lights, Camera, Guerrilla Tactics?

  05-12-2019 13:00 via nytimes.com
  
  The documentary traces the origins of the Red Army Faction with a dizzying assemblage of archival footage.
  
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• Times Critics’ Top Books of 2019

  05-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  The Times’s staff critics give their choices of the best fiction and nonfiction works of the year.
  
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• Times Critics Discuss Their Year in Books, From New Talents to Old Favorites

  05-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  The Times’s staff critics talk with each other about the reading they did in 2019, on and off the job.
  
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• ‘The Man Without Qualities’ Acquires a New Volume

  05-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Combining material from Robert Musil’s great unfinished novel and from his archives, “Agathe, or the Forgotten Sister” focuses on the twinlike siblings at the book’s heart.
  
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• The Best Crime Novels of the Year

  05-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Marilyn Stasio’s 2019 top 10 list includes a gruesome Danish serial-killer thriller, a missing-persons caper and a murder mystery set in the video-gaming world.
  
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• Edelweiss, Edelweiss? Julie Andrews Loves Reading About 18th-Century Plant Hunters

  05-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  “I’m fascinated by stories of how the various plant specimens we take for granted today were originally discovered,” says the actor, whose latest book is “Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years.”
  
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• Best Performances of 2019

  05-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Even though 10 usually seems like the right number (it’s tidy, divisible, standard), some years it feels woefully insufficient. This is one of those years.
  
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• Best Jazz of 2019

  05-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Brilliance accommodates any form — and, as these albums show, sometimes lightning lands in a bottle.
  
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• Best Albums of 2019

  05-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Our critics chose the best albums of the year — a format that is in an increasingly fragile state in pop music.
  
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• For Entertaining Musicals, Look No Further Than … Paris

  05-12-2019 10:55 via nytimes.com
  
  The genre has long been seen as minor in the French capital, but a string of English-language productions is creating a pleasingly upbeat dynamic.
  
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• Late Night Can’t Get Enough of World Leaders Laughing at Trump

  05-12-2019 09:12 via nytimes.com
  
  President Trump’s leaving NATO early after the release of a video in which leaders mock him was like a child calling his mother to come get him from a sleepover, Trevor Noah said.
  
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• What’s on TV Thursday: ‘Gone Girl’ and a New Holiday Favorite

  05-12-2019 07:00 via nytimes.com
  
  David Fincher’s eerie drama is on FXM. And the third part of a Christmastime trilogy premieres on Netflix.
  
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• Palettes Are What Every Teen Wants for the Holidays

  05-12-2019 06:00 via nytimes.com
  
  How did eye shadow become the most sought-after item on high schoolers’ wish lists?
  
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• Tekashi69, Called a Snitch by Rappers, Is Praised by Prosecutors

  05-12-2019 05:50 via nytimes.com
  
  The government says he deserves leniency because of his “extraordinary” testimony against former associates.
  
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• Review: Facing Life’s Final Stretch in ‘Harry Townsend’s Last Stand’

  05-12-2019 03:45 via nytimes.com
  
  George Eastman’s Off Broadway play is lifted by its direction and performances, but often feels like a cornball sitcom.
  
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• Art Basel Miami Beach’s VIP Opening Sees Brisk Sales, as $2.4 M. David Hammons, $1.7 M. Helen Frankenthaler Find Buyers

  05-12-2019 03:12 via artnews.com
  
  It’s no secret that the global art market is alive and relatively well, especially in the air-conditioned bubble of the spacious Miami Beach Convention Center, where the V.I.P. vernissage of the 18th Art Basel Miami Beach fair took place Wednesday. As beautiful weather graced the city outside, 269 galleries offered primary and secondary market material.
  Early on, sales were brisk and even heaving at Blum & Poe, of Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo, with two fresh-to-market paintings by
  
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• ‘Midnight Family’ Review: The Night Stalkers of Mexico City

  05-12-2019 01:34 via nytimes.com
  
  In this outstanding documentary, a family of emergency medical workers struggles both to save lives and to make a living.
  
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• The Impeachment Show Fleshes Out Its Back Story

  05-12-2019 01:09 via nytimes.com
  
  The congressional saga returned to TV, shifting modes from foreign-intrigue thriller to constitutional documentary.
  
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• Billy Dee Williams Says Pronoun Use Did Not Mean ‘Gender-Fluid’

  05-12-2019 00:16 via nytimes.com
  
  In a recent interview with Esquire, the actor said he used “himself” and “herself,” widely taken to mean that he had embraced gender-fluid pronouns.
  
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