ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

PEOPLE

Margaret Keane, Whose Paintings Were Claimed To By Her Husband To Be His, Has Died At 94

"Her husband Walter Keane fraudulently took artistic credit, while she painted for 16 hours a day to satisfy demand for the work, originally presented publicly as a joint effort, and always signed simply 'Keane.'" - The Guardian (UK)

Edouard Louis, His Mother, And The “Archaeology Of The Destruction Of A Smile”

Not long ago, the 29-year-old French memoirist (The End of Eddy) found an old snapshot of his mother at age 20 with a bright, hopeful smile.  He always remembered her as tough and grim, and he decided to find out what happened to that smiling young woman. - The Guardian

Susie Steiner Helped Reinvent The Crime Novel Even As She Went Blind

The author, who died at 51, only had time to produce three books in her series, but her agent says, "I’ve lost track of ... the number of publishers, scouts and film companies who’ve used her name to describe a genre of writing they want." - The New York Times

James Caan: An Appreciation

For instance: "He was unforgettably perfect — carnal, wild, exciting. Caan may not be the actor you first think of in relation to The Godfather, with its astonishment of legends, but the film is impossible to imagine without his volatile, kinetic performance." - The New York Times

Harvey Dinnerstein, Who Sketched The Civil Rights Movement, Has Died At 94

When Dinnerstein was 27, "he traveled to Alabama with fellow artist Burton Silverman, a high school classmate, to chronicle the bus boycott in Montgomery." And they chronicled the living heck out of it, including prayer meetings and a trial of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Washington Post

Roy Moore Loses His Lawsuit Against Sacha Baron Cohen Over The “Pedophile Detector” In “Who Is America?”

Moore, the notorious judge and Senate candidate from Alabama, sued Cohen for $95 million, alleging he was deceived and defamed in the latter's 2018 mockumentary TV series.  A US Court of Appeals panel ruled that the series was obviously satire and held Moore to the release he signed. - The Guardian

Actor James Caan Dead At 82

"(He) memorably displayed his tough-guy screen presence as the trigger-happy Mafioso Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (among many other roles) but also proved, beyond his macho exterior, a versatile performer of wry expressiveness and unexpected vulnerability." - MSN (The Washington Post)

Clint Eastwood Wins $2 Million In Lawsuit Against Defendants Who Used His Name And Likeness To Promote CBD

"The verdict is the second in favor of the actor in a pair of suits against CBD manufacturers and marketers that fabricated news articles and manipulated search results to make it appear that the actor endorsed their products." - The Hollywood Reporter

Harold Rosenberg Was A Towering Critic. How Did He Disappear?

One of Rosenberg’s most celebrated essays skewered those whom he dubbed “The Herd of Independent Minds”: scholars and critics who roundly dumped on an ascendant popular culture, claiming it inspired a sameness of thought. - Dissent

Bass René Pape Gets Himself Into A Heap of Trouble With A Drunken Facebook Post About The Met Opera And Gay Pride

Last week, after the Met's chorus posted an item about the company's participation in NYC's Pride festivities, Pape added a borderline-incoherent comment saying he wouldn't be returning to the company. After pushback, including from the Berlin Staatsoper, he issued a public apology and an acknowledgment of his long-rumored alcoholism. - OperaWire

Remembering Flame-throwing Musicologist Richard Taruskin

Dr. Taruskin was said to have grown gentler in his later years and he befriended many young critics and scholars, the same sorts of people he used to deride in public attacks and private postcards. - Washington Post

Jim Oestreich Remembers Richard Taruskin

His keeper, not his editor, I used to call myself in affectionate jest — and with enormous pride and respect. - The New York Times

Peter Brook’s Death “Marks The End Of A Theatrical Era”

"His work, weaned on modernism, liberated by postmodernism and forever revisiting the classics, cared little about aesthetic ideology but was deeply rooted in history. Whatever comes after Brook, it (won't be as) linked to the breakthroughs that defined theater directing as an art form (in itself)." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Stage Director Peter Brook, 97

"He explored the interior world of the self and the nature of reality in dramas of every description – Shakespeare, opera, Asian epic and invented language – on stages and spaces all over the Earth. Literally the earth on many occasions." - The Guardian

Musicologist Richard Taruskin, 77

An emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and a specialist in Russian music, Mr. Taruskin was the author of a number of groundbreaking musicological studies, including the sweeping six-volume Oxford History of Western Music. - The New York Times

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');