A teenaged Rego fled Portugal for London at her parents' urging when dictator Salazar came to power. Her series of paintings about women suffering after illegal botched abortions is considered to have helped Portugal legalize the medical procedure in 2007. - Hyperallergic
"The tapestry of 400 reindeer skulls, the flesh and tissue boiled and scrubbed off and the bone polished to a shine, hangs like a huge flag in what the curator Randi Godø says is a statement about the museum’s intention to newly reflect all aspects" of Norway. - The Guardian (UK)
Merriman "plumbed dozens of French governmental archives for the information that invigorated his fast-paced books about anarchists, terrorists, leftists and ordinary people in France." - The New York Times
Fascinating, if you like to follow the kingpins at The Mouse: "Rice, a widely admired TV veteran, was dismissed over issues of 'cultural fit,' according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment." - Los Angeles Times
Ukraine's Ministry of Culture and Information Policy says that as of June 9, "389 cultural heritage sites have been destroyed or damaged since the invasion began." Is this accident or deliberate targeting? An international effort is underway to find out. - The Art Newspaper
Preprints are an issue. "It’s all too easy to make outsize claims that sidestep the process of peer review. No publication should carry a standalone abstract. ... even scientific papers that have passed through the intended safeguards of peer review can become vectors for confusion." - Nieman Lab
What timing: Artist "Peter Keegan was commissioned to mark the 10th anniversary of the Waterside Theatre, in Aylesbury, in 2020. Within weeks, all theatres in the UK closed due to the pandemic, but the artist continued to paint." And he painted the tentative return as well. - BBC
It's no substitute for school boards heartily not banning books or libraries being funded, but Boise's Rediscovered Books gave away copies of the banned books at a suburban coffee shop in the nearby town of Nampa. - NPR
In the comics, Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel)'s "infectious charm and steadfast strength slayed her nemeses in vivid color through the pages, her character unapologetically bucking the negative stereotypes impressed upon Muslim Americans." The TV show may do the same. - HuffPost
Great that some people - including some artists who have been able to eke out a living at qualifying nonprofits or colleges - can get theirs forgiven after 10 years. But what about freelancers and those who cobble together an existence in the service of art? - Hyperallergic
It sure feels like that sometimes. But "if nothing ever changes, then we are all locked inside the iron cage of the present tense. ... There’s no agency. No choice." - LitHub
"Success for me isn’t that we can sell out 92 percent of the house, it’s that we can sell out a run of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron. That’s success in an audience. Our audience is loyal. They come back. They are stimulated and entertained at the same time." - Van Magazine
It's a history of Caravaggio's wild escapades and violent temper, a tale of armed knights bursting in to a cardinal's palace, and then a lot of centuries of who knows what, before they ended up in Avignon. - History Today
Of course, it's also paying out millions (and there are the people who left the service over its podcasting contracts with right-wing figures). But the company believes they'll start making a profit from podcasts, and their associated ads, very soon. - The Hollywood Reporter
