Arts news

• Curator of Controversial ‘Gay Zapata’ Painting Decries ‘Dangerous Precedent for Freedom of Expression’

  18-12-2019 23:38 via artnews.com
  
  A few weeks ago, the art curator Luis Vargas Santiago married his husband in a ceremony attended by friends and family; now, the 36-year-old is dodging homophobic slurs and death threats from protesters who last week stormed the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City to remove a nude portrait of Emiliano Zapata from an ongoing exhibition focused on the revolutionary’s imprint on Mexican culture.
  “It’s been emotionally exhausting,” Santiago told ARTnews in an interview. &l
  
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• Ruth Anderson, Pioneering Electronic Composer, Dies at 91

  18-12-2019 23:19 via nytimes.com
  
  The electronic music studio Ms. Anderson founded at the City University of New York in 1968 was among the very few anywhere established by a woman.
  
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• Overlooked No More: Earl Tucker, a Dancer Known as ‘Snakehips’

  18-12-2019 23:13 via nytimes.com
  
  Tucker was a name attraction in Harlem nightclubs in the 1920s, and his moves were echoed by Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.
  
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• Rina Lazo, Muralist Who Worked With Diego Rivera, Dies at 96

  18-12-2019 22:42 via nytimes.com
  
  She got her start in the 1940s as one of Rivera’s assistants. She went on to become a celebrated artist in both Mexico and her native Guatemala.
  
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• Mary Mattingly Is Named Brooklyn Public Library’s Artist in Residence

  18-12-2019 22:11 via nytimes.com
  
  In 2020, the ecologically oriented artist will continue her exploration of communally held resources and spaces.
  
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• The Restless Energy of Richard Tuttle’s Work

  18-12-2019 21:31 via artnews.com
  
  Richard Tuttle’s work is grounded not in a single aesthetic, but in a straightforward attitude concerning materiality. He allows metal wire, rope, corrugated cardboard, and unstretched canvas to do what they want to do—hang, fray, kink, and bend—and finds in these tendencies compelling lines and shadows that become part of the work. His career has spanned five decades now, and it’s tempting to consider him historicized. But Tuttle’s story continues to evolve, as see
  
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• Review: A ‘Nutcracker’ Taps and Swings

  18-12-2019 20:33 via nytimes.com
  
  Michelle Dorrance’s version, to the Ellington-Strayhorn jazz take on Tchaikovsky, has a joyful, friendly vibe if not much originality.
  
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• After Raising $25.5 million, London’s National Gallery Acquires Sought-After Orazio Gentileschi Painting

  18-12-2019 20:11 via artnews.com
  
  Since 1995, the National Gallery in London has been trying to acquire the Italian Baroque painter Orazio Gentileschi’s work The Finding of Moses (ca. early 1630s). At long last, after a fundraising campaign and more than 20 years of trying, the museum has finally bought the artwork.
  On Wednesday morning, the museum announced that it had successfully raised the £19.5 million (around $25.5 million) needed to buy the painting. “I congratulate the National Gallery and eve
  
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• After Raising $25.5 M., London’s National Gallery Acquires Sought-After Orazio Gentileschi Painting

  18-12-2019 20:11 via artnews.com
  
  Since 1995, the National Gallery in London has been trying to acquire the Italian Baroque painter Orazio Gentileschi’s work The Finding of Moses (ca. early 1630s). At long last, after a fundraising campaign and more than 20 years of trying, the museum has finally bought the artwork.
  On Wednesday morning, the museum announced that it had successfully raised the £19.5 million (around $25.5 million) needed to buy the painting. “I congratulate the National Gallery and eve
  
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• Fear and Fumbling: Brexit, Trump and the Nationalist Surge

  18-12-2019 20:10 via nytimes.com
  
  Fintan O’Toole’s “The Politics of Pain” and Rich Lowry’s “The Case for Nationalism” take very different views of the forces fueling Brexit and Donald Trump’s presidency.
  
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• ‘Soft Power’: When Political Art Walks a Very Fine Line

  18-12-2019 20:00 via nytimes.com
  
  An exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art shows the limits of “soft power” at a time when museums are being transformed by hard activism.
  
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• The Oscars Will Soon Face a Best-Actor Bloodbath

  18-12-2019 19:55 via nytimes.com
  
  Only five men will be nominated, but with at least a dozen solid contenders, including big names like Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, who will make the final cut?
  
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• 100 Years Ago American Women Got the Vote. Art Museums Are Using the Anniversary to Chart a New Path Forward

  18-12-2019 19:51 via artnews.com
  
  Almost no one now living remembers the time before the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women over the age of 21 the right to vote on August 26, 1920. With its centennial approaching next year—in what is shaping up to be an election year for the ages—U.S. art institutions are organizing exhibitions and programs that not only mark that momentous event but also address its failure to protect women of color in vast parts of the nation and spotlight enduring inequities in the pr
  
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• Is Tinsel Canceled?

  18-12-2019 19:46 via nytimes.com
  
  You want festive holiday décor. And you don’t want to damage the planet. Here’s how to compromise.
  
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• Kumail Nanjiani and the Twilight of the Schlubs

  18-12-2019 19:30 via nytimes.com
  
  With Kumail Nanjiani’s glow-up, another former sitcom actor has muscled up.
  
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• 200 Years of Experience, and Still Learning Onstage

  18-12-2019 19:21 via nytimes.com
  
  Lois Smith, Estelle Parsons and Vinie Burrows on age, agility, perseverance and steering clear of “self-pitying old” roles.
  
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• Memelord as Critic: Brad Troemel Takes the Red Pill (And So Can You)

  18-12-2019 19:15 via artnews.com
  
  Judging from the memes he makes, Brad Troemel doesn’t think much of critics. In one post, a wire-haired woman, rendered in a loose digital sketch and labeled “Art History PhD Formalist Critic,” wonders if there might be an opening for a curator at the Wing, posh feminist co-working space. In another, a robotic arm is shown copy-and-pasting a press release into a word doc labeled “critical review.” And yet Troemel is a critic—a thorough and acerbic analyst of a
  
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• ‘Life Sucks,’ Theater Doesn’t: Your Picks for the Year’s Best

  18-12-2019 19:04 via nytimes.com
  
  Without duplicating our critics, there was plenty to champion, from “The Inheritance” on Broadway to “Romeo and Juliet” in sign language in Seattle.
  
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• Review: ‘The Sorceress’ Casts a Charming Spell in Yiddish

  18-12-2019 19:01 via nytimes.com
  
  Now playing at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the 19th-century operetta is a fairy tale confection you can feel right down to your kishkes.
  
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• Review: ‘Messiah’ at the Philharmonic, Then a Flood

  18-12-2019 18:30 via nytimes.com
  
  The orchestra’s performances, featuring the poised Handel and Haydn Society Chorus, are part of a jam-packed week for this classic holiday oratorio.
  
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• A ‘Great Wealth Transfer’ Is Coming. What Will It Mean for Art?

  18-12-2019 18:18 via nytimes.com
  
  More than $15 trillion in assets is expected to be passed to younger generations in the next decade, including a lot of art. But will they want it?
  
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• On an Old West Set, Trying to Create Hollywood’s Future

  18-12-2019 18:14 via nytimes.com
  
  Rideback Ranch is an attempt by one of the entertainment industry’s leading producers to find a new way to develop ideas for movies and TV shows.
  
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• Museums Throw Open the Storage Rooms, Letting In the Public

  18-12-2019 18:01 via nytimes.com
  
  Only a small fraction of collections are usually on view. But one Dutch museum wants to make everything available, and others are watching to see what they can learn.
  
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• Gary Vaynerchuk Is a Rapper’s Best Friend

  18-12-2019 16:00 via nytimes.com
  
  The social-media sensei and advertising executive has found a side hustle playing both mentor and middleman between hip-hop artists and brands.
  
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• ‘Cats’: What to Know Before You See It

  18-12-2019 16:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Love it or hate it, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical is one of the most popular of all time. Before the new movie adaptation comes out, catch up on its four-decade history.
  
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• Our Lives in the Time of Extremely Fancy Axes

  18-12-2019 15:55 via nytimes.com
  
  What does the artisanal ax craze say about what we’re chopping?
  
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• Ghent Altarpiece Restoration Continues, Securing a Monet Blockbuster, and More: Morning Links from December 18, 2019

  18-12-2019 15:00 via artnews.com
  
  Preserve and Conserve
  A Swiss foundation has put $10 million toward the preservation of cultural objects, including historic structures in the Gaza Strip and Palmyra, Syria. [The Art Newspaper]
  A restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece at the Belgian city’s Museum of Fine Arts has revealed that the sacrificial lamb at its center has a humanized face. [The Art Newspaper]
  A monumental sculpture by Jorge Oteiza situated outside the Museu d’Art Contemporani di Barcelona has left the Spanish
  
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• The Show Must Go On, and On, and On

  18-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Forget the finale. After the curtain call now comes the megamix, the last dance, the group hymn — whatever it takes to turn an entertainment into an event.
  
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• The Many Ways of Seeing Agnès Varda

  18-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  As a new retrospective reveals, the French filmmaker has left us a rich legacy filled with her singular visions and interests.
  
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• How the Grinch Stole Our Hearts

  18-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  The 1966 television adaptation of the book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” spawned movies, musicals and merchandise. It has endured with fans.
  
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• But Does He Have a Picasso?

  18-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  A grandson of one of the brightest luminaries in 20th-century art does indeed have a piece by his famed ancestor on display.
  
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• After Rikers Island Closes, What Will Jail Look Like?

  18-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  With plans to shutter Rikers, the city will build four new jails, a chance to address penal reform and make jails safer. But leadership and design excellence are key.
  
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• 6 Long, Absorbing Books to Get You Through Your Vacation

  18-12-2019 11:00 via nytimes.com
  
  Do you need something to look forward to over the holidays? At 500-plus pages, these novels are worth the extra space in your luggage or megabytes on your device.
  
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• Late Night Enjoys Trump’s ‘Six-Page Shriek’ to Pelosi

  18-12-2019 09:18 via nytimes.com
  
  The president’s letter about impeachment was the moment “the lid blew off Mount St. Yellin’,” said Stephen Colbert.
  
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• ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Review: Revolution No. 9

  18-12-2019 09:01 via nytimes.com
  
  Resistance is futile. Rey, Finn and Poe are back; so is Kylo Ren. No spoilers here.
  
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• What’s on TV Wednesday: ‘The Masked Singer’ and ‘Wisting’

  18-12-2019 07:00 via nytimes.com
  
  “The Masked Singer” wraps up its second season on Fox. And a Norwegian noir series with Carrie-Anne Moss debuts on Sundance Now.
  
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• Larry Heinemann, Novelist of the Vietnam War, Dies at 75

  18-12-2019 00:53 via nytimes.com
  
  His “Paco’s Story” was the surprise winner of the National Book Award for fiction in 1987, beating books by Toni Morrison and Philip Roth.
  
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• Art Basel Hong Kong Offers Participating Dealers Flexibility as Protests Continue

  18-12-2019 00:00 via artnews.com
  
  With protests roiling Hong Kong, Art Basel has been working to keep dealers committed to participating in its annual fair there, which runs March 19 through 21, by providing various kinds of discounts and incentives. Yesterday, Art Basel sent an email to participating dealers, offering them some flexibility: by providing the option for them to reduce their booth size, and by lowering the withdrawal fee to 75 percent of the booth’s total cost, down from the 100 percent it would normally cha
  
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