The gallerist Anne Pfeffer and her husband Herbert, stand accused of concealing hundreds of works stolen from the daughters of Jacqueline Picasso and the art dealer Aimé Maeght. - The Art Newspaper
Rivka Galchen looks into the development of acoustical engineering as a craft (which goes all the way back to Chichén Itzá and Hagia Sophia) and how Christopher Blair and Paul Scarbrough of the firm Akustiks approached the challenge of a venue that had seemed acoustically cursed. - The New Yorker
"Although ballrooms were once the territory of the elite and considered off-limits for common people, in the upheaval of the 19th century, new types of dance steps were born. ... Here's how some of the most famous moves got their start — and were passed on to modern dancers." - National Geographic
The UK-wide free event, which began in March and will run until November, features 10 projects highlighting science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics. But the government's "celebration of creativity" was soon dubbed the Festival of Brexit, and has since had its visitor numbers questioned. - BBC
In one game, the player is a Ukrainian tractor driver stealing Russian tanks; in another, she slaps Putin with a sunflower; in another, he shoots the free-floating heads of prominent Russians (plus Elon Musk). One game just has the player walk around Kharkiv talking with other survivors. - The Guardian
Once we start thinking of ethics as a social technology, systematicity and argument take on a different hue. It’s hard to be all that piecemeal or poetic when thinking about how to organize social institutions. We may live by our visions, but they can’t write our social policy. - Boston Review
"Rod McKuen sold millions of poetry books in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a regular on late-night TV. He released dozens of albums, wrote songs for Sinatra, and was nominated for two Oscars." (He was also an astounding liar.) How did he disappear from the culture so completely? - Slate
The emphasis has shifted to designing structures whose components can be disassembled and developing new, bio-based materials that can eventually be composted. “We should design man-made objects and products in such a way that we’re not destroying the resources.” - The New York Times
"Inis Nua Theatre Co., a Philadelphia-based company that draws its material from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, has named longtime Philly theater director Kathryn 'KC' MacMillan as artistic director. MacMillan doesn’t hesitate answering the obvious question about Inis Nua." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Pop art was just emerging and Bengston spoke its language well with his simple, aesthetically direct and repetitive motifs. His shiny, heavily lacquered surfaces also earned him associations with 'finish fetish.' But it was his flamboyant personality ... that came to define him." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
The high temperatures necessary for glassmaking require huge amounts of natural gas, whose price has soared by well over 1,000% since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. About four-fifths of Venice's glassmaking facilities have closed for the time being, with the remainder struggling. - Artnet
Cleese's as-yet-untitled show on GB News, shared with satirist Andrew Doyle, will presumably be part of his notorious ongoing campaign against "wokeness" and "cancel culture" and in favor of "free speech." ("The Ministry of Silly Wokes?" quips The Hollywood Reporter.) - BBC
The deal involves the collection of antiquities from the Cyclades islands assembled by philanthropist Leonard Stern: the objects will be legally in the possession of an art foundation overseen by the Greek culture ministry, with a rotating selection of items on 10-year loans to the Met. - The New York Times
Starting at a time when American journalism about the visual arts was strictly by critics, she treated it as a news beat, writing more than 3,000 articles for The New York Times — where she also helped lead a landmark gender discrimination lawsuit against the paper. - ARTnews
