A compact album presentation of Hockney’s newest explorations in portraiture
Artbook D.A.P.:
This concise volume illustrates around 40 acrylic on canvas works painted by David Hockney (born 1937) at his Normandy studio—depicting his friends and visitors, as well as the artist himself. David Hockney: Normandy Portraits showcases a series of some previously unseen portraits, across 48 pages, uninterrupted by text, to allow readers to engage directly with the artworks.
These new works highlight the ongoing importance of portraiture within the artist’s practice and demonstrate his sentiment that “drawings and paintings … are a lot better than photographs to give you a sense of the person.”
Hockney returned to painting after an intensive period spent depicting the Normandy landscape using an iPad. The portraits were painted quickly and directly onto the canvas without underdrawing. As Hockney has said, “to do a portrait slowly is a bit of a contradiction.”
The Economist Magazine (December 14, 2023): The latest issue features ‘The media and the message’ – Journalism and the 2024 presidential election; ‘Can you have a healthy democracy without a common set of facts?; Iran’s regime is weaker than it looks, and therefore more pliable, and more…
America’s presidential election is a test of that proposition
Journalists should not spend much of their time writing about journalism. The world is more interesting than the inky habits of the people who report on it. But this week we are making an exception, because the discovery and dissemination of information matters a lot to politics. Don’t take our word for it: “A popular government,” wrote James Madison in 1822, “without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.” Were Thomas Jefferson offered a choice between a government without newspapers and newspapers without a government, he said that he would choose the press (though that is probably going a bit far).
America should deter it from escalating the Gaza war, but also engage with it
Twelve months ago Iran was reeling from protests sparked by the death in custody of a young woman who had been arrested for showing too much hair. Its theocratic regime was increasingly isolated, as Arab states forged closer ties with its enemy, Israel. The economy was a mess, adding to popular anger at Iran’s ageing supreme leader and inept president. The Islamic Republic had not seemed so vulnerable in decades.
The New York Times Books (December 14, 2023): Best Art Books of 2023 – The art critics of The Times select their favorites, from Botticelli to Vermeer, Lucy Lippard’s memoir, and Wade Guyton’s intelligent rereading of Manet.
His strawberry-blond Venus on a wind-propelled scallop shell still pulls Florence’s tourists from the gelateria to the Uffizi — but a rarer Botticelli feast is currently on offer in San Francisco, where the Legion of Honor is presenting the first exhibition ever of this Renaissance master’s fragile drawings (through Feb. 11). In this authoritative catalog, Rinaldi makes several new attributions, including two exquisite head studies of a man gazing upward and a woman with modestly lowered eyes. For a Florentine in the later 15th century, the core of painting was disegno (“design,” but also “drawing”), and Botticelli put drawing first. Delicate highlights of white and yellow show the light on tensed muscles or bowed heads. Effortless squiggles cohere into Simonetta Vespucci’s curled hair or John the Baptist’s camel cloak. His line feels spring-loaded; his saints and angels seem ready for the dance floor; his paintings’ grace and vigor started with a pen.
Like Vermeer, the Mexican portraitist Abraham Ángel, who died at age 19 in 1924, left little behind. His 20 extant works (on view in Dallas through next January) reproduce beautifully in a slim but convincing catalog that doesn’t overstate the case. Ángel’s preferred substrate was cardboard, and the bumpy nap of it really shows in these pages. So do the Fauve-like colors he used to outline his sitters. (Instead of black he preferred blues and browns, as Alice Neel would.) Playfully primitive, these knowing likenesses (among them Ángel’s tutor and lover, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano) combined Mexico’s burgeoning populist aesthetic with a private romanticism that seems nonetheless to have sought clarity on the promise of his country’s Revolution.
This major looker of an exhibition catalog loosens up the warp and weft of conventional views of modern art — all those tight-knotted hierarchical categories (high versus low, art versus craft) on which our institutions and markets still rest — and demonstrates the universe of formal and conceptual brilliance that has always traveled on a parallel track. The sheer variety of work produced by more than 50 artists chosen by the book’s editor, Lynne Cooke, will knock your socks off. (Just wait till you see what’s happening in the field of basketry alone.) So will the visual imaginations of individual geniuses we already know like Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Gego, Lenore Tawney and Sheila Hicks, and the others we’re introduced to here.
MICHELIN Guide (December 13, 2023) – Situated near the Austrian and Italian borders, Milka boasts a superb location overlooking a crystal-clear lake surrounded by mountains in Slovenia.
The restaurant offers a fine gastronomic synthesis of its region and neighbours, all skillfully interpreted and prepared by chef David Žefran, who makes full use of local ingredients. The cuisine served at Milka is revolutionary: David Žefran has had a major influence here, creating tempting dishes in a delightful “boutique experience hotel” which occupies a restored building transformed into a charming and welcoming space where everything has been carefully designed down to the tiniest detail.
Guests eat well (very well!) at Milka, where seasonal produce is of the utmost importance and where much of the focus is on vegetables and freshwater fish. One of the restaurant’s key philosophies states that “engaging responsibly with society and the environment is much more than simply choosing our suppliers carefully – this philosophy underpins every aspect of our gastronomic experience”.
The Globalist Podcast (December 14, 2023) – We discuss Ukraine’s EU membership bid as Hungary vows to stand firm against its accession.
Plus: the latest on Vladimir Putin’s annual call-in, questions over Emmanuel Macron’s political future and Serbia’s messy election campaign. And: an interview with Bob van den Oord on the future of luxury travel and hospitality.
The concept, important for determining the legality of an act of war, is about weighing civilian harm against military objectives, not about achieving a balanced number of casualties.
Held Hostage in Gaza, a Thai Worker’s Prayers for Freedom Come True
A Thai farmworker clung to hope during her nearly 50 days of captivity in Gaza by befriending a young Israeli girl and dreaming of reuniting with her boyfriend, who had also been abducted.
Tesla Recalls Autopilot Software in 2 Million Vehicles
Federal regulators pressed the automaker to make updates to ensure drivers are paying attention while using Autopilot, a system that can steer, accelerate and brake on its own.
Foreign Affairs (December 13, 2023): The new January/February 2024 issue features ‘The Self-Doubting Superpower’ – America shouldn’t give up on the World It Made; The Middle East Remade; Why Israel Slept; Hamas’s Advantage, and more….
Most Americans think their country is in decline. In 2018, when the Pew Research Center asked Americans how they felt their country would perform in 2050, 54 percent of respondents agreed that the U.S. economy would be weaker. An even larger number, 60 percent, agreed that the United States would be less important in the world. This should not be surprising; the political atmosphere has been pervaded for some time by a sense that the country is headed in the wrong direction. According to a long-running Gallup poll, the share of Americans who are “satisfied” with the way things are going has not crossed 50 percent in 20 years. It currently stands at 20 percent.
In a barbaric surprise attack launched by Hamas on October 7, more Jews were slaughtered than on any day since the Holocaust. Thousands of elite Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated small communities and cities in southern Israel, where they proceeded to commit sadistic, repulsive crimes against humanity, filming their vile deeds and boasting about them to friends and family back home.
Nature Magazine – December 13, 2023:The latest issue cover features the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN), which presented nine papers that map the entire mouse brain in unprecedented detail.
The extravagantly feathered Seychelles paradise flycatcher lacks genetic diversity, which might hamper its resilience to climate change and other threats.
Country Life Magazine – December 13, 2023: The latest ‘Double Christmas’ issue features How the Bible’s nativity story has influenced artists; the beauty of the gardens of Rockcliffe in Gloucestershire; In literature at least, the fox will come out on top in almost every brush with confrontation, and more….
Away in a manger
Love, pain, power and hope are all embodied in the Nativity. Michael Prodger examines how the Bible story influenced our greatest artists
The Bishop of Winchester’s favourite painting
The Right Revd Philip Mounstephen chooses an arresting Caravaggio
On the night watch
As darkness falls, the wild things emerge from the shadows. John Lewis-Stempel embraces the night
Prodigy or eccentric?
John Goodall explores Bristol Cathedral, a building of international importance
When Christmas was cancelled
Always winter, never festive: Cromwell’s directive cast a pall, laments Ian Morton
Made with love
Cast your eyes down next time you’re in church to admire the hassock you kneel upon, urges the Revd Colin Heber-Percy
’Tis the season to be busy
There’s no rest for the farmer, the baker or the cheesemonger at this time of year. Ben Lerwill champions the people who make Christmas happen
So, this is Christmas
Queen Victoria would feel quite at home in any of our houses this season, believes John Mueller
It came upon a midnight clear
Come one, come all, says Kate Green, as the villagers gather once more at the big house
The Editor’s Christmas quiz
Pit your wits. The only prize is glory
Luxury
Christian Dior, David Gandy, dinky toys and Sir Chris Hoy’s favourite things
Cold comforts
Frost-dusted and fleece-wrapped, the beauty of the gardens of Rockcliffe in Gloucestershire enchant Tiffany Daneff
It’s a wonderful life
Carla Passino travels the world for Christmas traditions, from Swedish tomte to Japanese KFC
Christmas conundrums
Turkey or goose? Stocking or sack? Port or Sauternes? Giles Kime poses the big questions
Think outside the fox
Clever and agile, Vulpes vulpes is frequently on top in literature. Kate Green turns the pages
Back to black
The Périgord black truffle is worth the price for Tom Parker Bowles
The peel-good factor
The rich scents of citrus permeate Deborah Nicholls-Lee’s Christmas
Sugar, spice and all things nice
Carla Passino builds a gingerbread house
On top of the mirey, merey moor
John Lewis-Stempel tucks his chin into his scarf and sets off into the frozen wastes
The Globalist Podcast (December 13, 2023) – We examine Benjamin Netenyahu’s alleged scheme to bribe Hamas through Qatar.
Also, Tim Bale explains how, in the UK, Tory factions are pulling the strings on Rwanda; Liz Cheney’s message to the GOP; and film critic Karen Krizanovich reveals how Japan is breathing life into the US box office.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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