Category Archives: Arts & Literature

Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review – November 12, 2023

Leave a comment
Image

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (November 12, 2023): This week’s issue features ‘Fear of Flying’ turns 50 – With its feminist take on sexual pleasure, Erica Jong’s novel caused a sensation in 1973; The 2023 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books, and more…

‘Fear of Flying’ Is 50. What Happened to Its Dream of Freedom Through Sex?

This color photo is a close-up of a woman’s face near a window. She is wearing a cream-colored blouse and pearls, and her face, partly concealed by her thick blond shoulder-length hair, is turning toward the camera.

With its feminist take on sexual pleasure, Erica Jong’s novel caused a sensation in 1973. But the revolution Jong promoted never came to pass.

By Jane Kamensky

Fifty years ago last month, Erica Jong published a debut novel that went on to sell more than 20 million copies. “Fear of Flying,” a book so sexually frank that you may have found it hidden in your mother’s underwear drawer, broke new ground in the explicitness of writing by and for women. Jong’s heroine, Isadora Wing, was a live wire. She was also a dead end, certainly for Jong, and maybe for feminism, too.

6 New Paperbacks to Read This Week

Recommended reading from the Book Review, including titles by John Edgar Wideman, Yasunari Kawabata, Allegra Goodman and more.

Arts & Literature, Books, Culture, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Arts & Culture: The New Criterion — Dec 2023

Leave a comment
Image
The New Criterion – December 2023 issue:

Art  a special section

Absinthe minded  by Barnaby Conrad III
The three faces of Lafayette  by Michele H. Bogart
Matisse & Derain: a study in contrasts  by James Panero
Rodin & Michelangelo: a speculation  by Eric Gibson
A German restoration drama  by Michael J. Lewis
Notes on “Le Serf”  by William Tucker
Thirties at the Met  by Karen Wilkin

New poems  by Kieron Winn & Richard Tillinghast

Arts & Literature, Essays, Journals, Previews

The Arts: Brick Literary Journal – Autumn 2023

Leave a comment
Image

BRICK LITERARY JOURNAL (AUTUMN 2023)

  • Leanne Betasamosake Simpson goes to the breathing lands
  • Paul Holdengräber and Merve Emre visit Mrs. Dalloway
  • Douglas Kearney rescues the earth from the world
  • Jessica Moore on the smarginatura of motherhood
  • Jan Zwicky approaches Wittgenstein’s silence
  • Tina Campt defines Black gravity
Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Preview: London Review Of Books – Nov 16, 2023

Leave a comment
Image

London Review of Books (LRB) – November 16, 2023: The latest issue feature The Inside Story of the NHS Infected Blood Scandal; Elizabeth Taylor’s Magic; The UK government has become increasingly hostile to Freedom of Information requests on arms, and more…

Bad Blood – ‘We’ve messed up, boys’

‘In the UK between 1970 and 1991, about 1250 people with bleeding disorders were infected with HIV (and many of them with Hepatitis C, too); by the time the Infected Blood Inquiry began, about three-quarters had died, the majority of them from HIV-related causes.

By Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite

The Poison Line: A True Story of Death, Deception and Infected Blood 
by Cara McGoogan.

Death in the Blood: The Inside Story of the NHS Infected Blood Scandal 
by Caroline Wheeler.

Elizabeth Taylor’s Magic

‘Nearly eighty years after she first starred in a film, Taylor is famous for two things: her intense screen beauty and her many marriages (eight of them, two to Richard Burton). But at least as central to her life were her close and enduring friendships with men.’

By Bee Wilson

Art, Arts & Literature, Literature, Museums, Reviews, Tours, Videos

Literature: Shakespeare’s First Folio At 400 Years

Leave a comment

Royal Collection Trust (November 8, 2023) – Today, November 8, 2023, marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Around 235 copies of the First Folio survive today, including a copy in the Royal Library.

Watch our film to learn more about it. The First Folio is the first printed collection of William Shakespeare’s plays. It was produced in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death, and contains 36 of Shakespeare’s works. Without this book we may not have had texts of 18 of Shakespeare’s plays, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night and The Tempest.

Find out more about the First, Second and Third Folios in the Royal Library and which kings owed them. Find out what Charles I wrote in the Second Folio shortly before his execution…

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Nov 10, 2023

Leave a comment
Image

Times Literary Supplement (November 10, 2023): The new issue features The day everything changed – The war in Israel and Gaza; Russia at war; Animal liberation revisited; Publisher to the world; Maison Gainsbourg in Paris; and more…

Art, Arts & Literature, Interviews, Photography, Profiles, Videos

Japan Views: Artist Mariko Mori – ‘Gods & The Future’

Video Leave a comment

Louisiana Channel (November 7, 2023) – Japanese artist Mariko Mori shares a look into her studio and home as well as her own artistic practice. Mariko Mori was born in Tokyo, Japan, but has lived for several years in both New York and London. Her mother was an art historian, and the young Mori was introduced to art through her.

“It seems to me that a lot of our conceptual ideas are already carried out in the past. And we’re at a point to inherit those ideas to the future.”

“When I was nine years old, I was looking through her collection of postcards of all the Western art,” Mori remembers: “Somehow I found Jackson Pollock’s no. 13 painting. And I was so thrilled. I didn’t know what abstract painting was, but I really felt freedom.” Today, Mariko Mori works in various mediums, from photography and sculpture to installation and architecture. Her studio – and home – was the first architectural project she did. The house is located at Okinawa, a tropical island south of Japan.

Inspired by the surrounding nature Mori wanted “the house to be an extension of that. A part of nature.” The untraditional shape of the house is eye-catching: “Originally, I was thinking of just building an architecture building, but it became more like a sculpture or form,” she says and continues: “The shape tried to accommodate the wind coming from the north.” This explains why the building is smaller in one part and bigger in another.

Mariko Mori is a Japanese multidisciplinary artist. She is known for her photographs and videos of her hybridized future self, often presented in various guises and featuring traditional Japanese motifs. Her work often explores themes of technology, spirituality and transcendence.

Arts & Literature, Culture, Homes, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Previews: Country Life Magazine – Nov 8, 2023

Leave a comment
Image

Country Life Magazine – November 8, 2023: The latest issue features The King’s milestone celebration, Amie Elizabeth White reveals 75 fascinating things you may not know about Charles III; Exclusive access to St James’s Palace in London; the British passion for country-house portraits; the astonishing hidden gardens of bohemian Tangier in Morocco and more….

We can be rural heroes

Julie Harding meets a model, a comedian, a farmer, a hedge-layer and a former retail boss, all united in their praise for The King’s Royal Countryside Fund

A nursery palace

Simon Thurley chronicles the remarkable story of the modern home of the Court, as Country Life is afforded exclusive access to St James’s Palace in London

Elegy in a country churchyard

War memorials on British soil are a poignant means of ‘bringing home’ those who fell in foreign fields, reveals Andrew Green

A right royal ruff

The regal King Charles spaniel once won favour with the nobility — and owners are still falling for this loving and loyal breed, as Katy Birchall discovers

Martha Lytton Cobbold’s favourite painting

The Historic Houses president chooses a captivating work that proved to be an inspiration for her love of art and structure

Native breeds

Sheep are an instrinsic feature of the Welsh landscape — Kate Green introduces the breeds that populate the principality

Home is where the art is

Michael Prodger investigates the British passion for country-house portraits, a craze that started back in the 16th century and shows little sign of abating

Interiors

Arabella Youens marvels at the transformation of an Edwardian sitting room, as Giles Kime revels in the luxury of a daybed

Tangerine dreams

Kirsty Fergusson explores the astonishing hidden gardens of bohemian Tangier in Morocco

It’s only natural

Turning woodland finds into art is a labour of love for Jane Bevan, discovers Natasha Goodfellow

Still standing after all these years

A 188-year-old avenue of beech trees forms a guard of honour for Fiona Reynolds in Dorset

Turbot-charged

Nothing less than perfection will do for Tom Parker Bowles as he savours the most regal of fish

A bundle of energy

Could hydrogen-powered cars be the future? Jane Wheatley motors to Wales to investigate

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell seeks a bit of fluff from some feathery confections

Dare to be square

Mary Miers meets the talented craftspeople reinventing the ancient art of mosaic making

And much more

Art, Art Galleries, Arts & Literature, Collections, Reviews, Videos

Art Collection Tours: ‘Living The Avant-Garde’

Video Leave a comment

Phillips Art Auction House (November 6, 2023) – In this four-part series, Jean-Paul Engelen — Phillips’ President, Americas and Worldwide Co-Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art — and Miety Heiden — Deputy Chairwoman and Head of Private Sales — explore what makes ‘Living the Avant-Garde: The Triton Collection Foundation’ so unique.

Living the Avant-Garde: The Triton Collection Foundation New York

On View in New York through 14 November

Entwurf zu Komposition IV

Wassily Kandinsky – Entwurf zu Komposition IV

Adventure, Arts & Literature, Photography, Profiles, Travel, Videos

National Geographic: One Week With Photographer Taylor Pendleton In Peru

Video Leave a comment

graincheck Films (November 2023) – Photographer and director Taylor Pendleton traveled to Peru for one week to shoot photos for National Geographic. This video chronicles her experiences and impressions.