Tag Archives: Arts & Literature

Art Insider: Paul Gaughin’s ‘Camille Pissarro’ Tribute

Sotheby’s (October 17, 2024): Presented in partnership with Celine, Sotheby’s Paris is proud to feature the Impressionist masterpiece “Le jardin de Pissarro,

Quai du Pothuis à Pontoise,” painted by Paul Gauguin in 1881, as one of the highlight lots in the upcoming Modernités sale. This painting is emblematic of the early years of Gauguin’s artistic journey. During 1879-1881, Gauguin became a regular visitor of Camille Pissarro, whom he fondly referred to as his “dear Professor.” He often joined Pissarro in Pontoise, where Pissarro had settled. It was under Pissarro’s mentorship that Gauguin began his career as a painter and mastered essential techniques.

These years were crucial to Gauguin’s artistic development, and this painting, depicting Pissarro’s house and garden, serves as a heartfelt tribute from student to master. The presence of two self-portraits by Gauguin on the reverse side makes this piece truly unique. Painted very early in his career, this dual-sided work already demonstrates a striking modernity. Gauguin’s style, even at this early stage, was ahead of its time and hinted at the innovations he would bring to art in the years to come. This painting is a bold assertion of the artist’s emerging identity.

London Review Of Books – October 24, 2024 Preview

London Review of Books (LRB) – October 16 , 2024: The latest issue features Bee Wilson – Bad Samaritan; Sheila Fitzpatrick – Learning to Love the Dissidents and Adam Shatz – Israel’s Forever War…

To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement by Benjamin Nathans

By Michael Wood

At the Movies: ‘Megalopolis’

Believe Nothing until It Is Officially Denied: Claud Cockburn and the Invention of Guerrilla Journalism by Patrick Cockburn

After Nasrallah

Short Cuts: Reading J.D. Vance

Country Life Magazine – October 16, 2024 Preview

Country Life Magazine (October 15, 2024): The latest issue features

Murder on the palace floor

John Goodall charts the rise, fall and rise again of the Palace of Holyroodhouse in the Edinburgh landmark’s 900-year history

A nose for Nature

Harnessing the power of a dog’s snout can play a crucial role in protecting curlew, newts and red squirrels, discovers Alexa Phillips

England at its best

Kate Green celebrates the 70th birthday of Exmoor National Park, famed for a beguiling blend of wild beauty and farmed landscape

The hunger games

Find out what happens when the greenery bites back as Deborah Nicholls-Lee develops a taste for Britain’s carnivorous plants

Sarah Bardwell’s favourite painting

The managing director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra chooses a vibrant, glowing work   

The legacy

Conservation owes much to Dr Dick Potts, says Kate Green

This perfumed arcadia

The smooth flanks of the Downs are our oldest manmade habitat, suggests John Lewis-Stempel from a lofty perch on Caburn hill

Meet the tusk force

Paula Lester puts her stalking skills to the test as she sets out in pursuit of Chinese water deer on a Bedfordshire farm

Duck and cover

Harry Pearson hails the dandy, diving eider duck, safeguarded since the time of St Cuthbert

Once upon a time in the west

David Profumo relives the days when the fabled waters of Lewis were seemingly ‘paved with fish’

The good stuff

The advent of autumn calls for richer hues, advises Hetty Lintell

100 Interiors

Matthew Dennison recommends a pediment for a grand flourish

Where her tears fell, asters grew

Michaelmas daisies are among the shining stars of the autumn garden, declares John Hoyland

Natural beauty

Amelia Thorpe selects sculptures to adorn any outside space      

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson on parsnips

Foraging

John Wright goes rooting around for the subtle, subterranean flavour of Britain’s native truffles

Gone fishing

This piscatorial profession and pastime has kept artists hooked for centuries, finds Carla Passino

Not to be sneezed at

Snuff taking is nothing to get sniffy about, argues Harry Pearson

She’s got the key, she’s got the secret

James Clarke examines The Secret Garden’s enduring appeal a century after the author’s death

Moving with the times

Michael Billington is spoilt for choice with a run of first nights

Art Tour: Top 8 Exhibitions At ‘Art Basel Paris 2024’

Cultured Mind (October 12, 2024): Explore the top 8 exhibitions at Art Basel 2024 in Paris including Harold Ancart – “Maison Ancart”, Dana Schutz’s “The Sea and All Its Subjects” and Bracha Ettinger’s “Trust After the End of Trust”.

#ArtBaselParis2024

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine-October 21, 2024

A painted portrait of Alexei Navalny.

The New Yorker (October 14, 2024): The latest issue features Owen Smith’s “Alexei Navalny” – A portrait of the defiant Russian opposition leader.

How Alarmed Should We Be If Trump Wins Again?

How Alarmed Should We Be If Trump Wins Again?

Even many of the ex-President’s opponents haven’t grasped the scale of the man’s villainy. By Adam Gopnik

What the Polls Really Say About Black Men’s Support for Kamala Harris

After the 2016 election, progressives blamed white women for Hillary Clinton’s loss. This year, Black men have come under special scrutiny. By Jelani Cobb

Alexei Navalny’s Prison Diaries

The Russian opposition leader’s account of his last years and his admonition to his country and the world. By Alexei Navalny

The New York Times Book Review – October 13, 2024

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (October 12, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Heart of the Matter’

Truly Scary Books for Halloween and Beyond

These terrifying tales by the likes of Stephen King and Shirley Jackson are more than good reads: They’ll freak you out, too.

Evan Gershkovich, U.S. Journalist Imprisoned in Russia, Will Publish a Memoir

The memoir, which will cover his time in prison and Russia’s move toward autocracy, will be published by Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Han Kang Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

The South Korean author, best known for “The Vegetarian,” is the first writer from her country to receive the prestigious award.

Classical: Soprano Nola Richardson Sings Mozart

Voices of Music (October 12, 2024): Mozart’s motet Exsultate Jubilate, performed on original instruments by the award winning Early Music ensemble Voices of Music. Nola Richardson, soprano. The complete is work presented here for the first time in 8K video on period instruments.

Video timeline: 0:00 I. Exsultate Jubilate 5:00 II. Recit: Fulget amica dies 6:04 III. Aria: Tu Virginum Corona 13:11 IV. Alleluia 16:05 Credits

Reconstruction of the recitative: directors Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler reconstructed the recitativo accompagnato string parts from Mozart’s continuo part, and this receives its world premiere here. Months after completing the Divertimento in D Major,

Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart left for their third tour of Italy, with a first stop in Milan. There they met the soprano castrato, composer, and harpsichordist Venanzio Rauzzini, who was cast as one of the leads in Wolfgang Mozart’s new opera Lucio Silla opposite the prima donna Anna Lucia de Amicis.

Art: ‘Vincent van Gogh – Life and Light in Provence’

The National Gallery (October 11, 2024): Journey to the south of France and witness the landscapes that so inspired Vincent van Gogh and the painting techniques that have made him famous today. Travel through Arles and Saint-Rémy – from the banks of the Rhône to the hospital where he stayed.

See for yourself the locations that made their way onto Van Gogh’s canvases. ‘Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers’ is a once-in-a-century exhibition that brings together paintings from across the globe, some rarely seen in public. Track Vincent’s work through 1888 and 1889, the two most artistically fruitful years in his life.

Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers 14 September 2024 – 19 January 2025

#NationalGallery #ArtHistory #VanGogh #VincentVanGogh

Country Life Magazine – October 9, 2024 Preview

Country Life Magazine (October 8, 2024): The latest issue features

Daffy goes digital

Annie Tempest’s inimitable characters totter gently into the modern age with a new website

Mud, mud, glorious mud

Dogs, birds, pigs and humans alike follow hippopotami down the hollow. Deborah Nicholls-Lee dons her wellies and joins them

A sense of time and place

Ben Pentreath unravels what makes an interior English, that indefinable, yet instantly recog-nisable and beguiling aesthetic

Made in the Marches

The border of England and Wales is proving inspiring for artisanal craftsmen, finds Arabella Youens

Mixing old and new

Country Life’s Interiors Editor Giles Kime opens the doors to his revived 17th-century cottage

New looks for a new season

From bamboo bookshelves to lamps and pots, Amelia Thorpe chooses accessories to covet

Turi King’s favourite painting

The scientist and historian picks a powerful royal portrait   

Growing pains

Minette Batters takes her seat in the House of Lords

The right place to build

The historic streetscapes of our towns and cities reveal lessons we still need to learn about how to build, believes Ptolemy Dean

The legacy

Kate Green salutes Dorothy Brooke and the global equine charity that bears her name

Antlered majesty

Manmade, yet wild, deer parks prove we can create Arcadia, asserts John Lewis-Stempel

Timber of the gods

Jack Watkins admires the huge, ancient and once-exotic cedars that punctuate our landscapes

The good stuff

Hetty Lintell tallies her trinkets

Interiors

An imaginative kitchen extension and tea-tinged fabrics

Building on great bone structure

The good bones that anchor the gardens of Foscote Manor, Buckinghamshire, please the eye of George Plumptre

Foraging

John Wright raises a dram of home-made vodka to the crab apple      

Operation mincemeat

Always comforting, cottage pie satisfies Tom Parker Bowles

Salt of the earth

Pick up a handful or several of salted peanuts when you’re next in the pub, urges Rob Crossan

I have news for ewe

The humble sheep changed the course of British art history, reveals Bendor Grosvenor

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine-October 14, 2024

A busy city street seen through an overpass in Jackson Heights Queens.

The New Yorker (October 7, 2024): The latest issue features Victoria Tentler-Krylov’s “New Heights” – Sunlight flickering on the hustle and bustle of the streets.

Trump’s Dangerous Immigration Obsession

The daily stream of racism and mendacity has had a numbing effect. But the question of what Trump might actually do is a prospect that voters cannot afford to ignore. By Jonathan Blitzer

Silicon Valley, the New Lobbying Monster

From crypto to A.I., the tech sector is pouring millions into super PACS that intimidate politicians into supporting its agenda. By Charles Duhigg

Sleep Essential for Health

Donald Trump is lying next to you in the bed, wearing snug cotton pajamas printed to look like his signature blue suit. You want to tell him a few things you think he ought to know, but his fake snoring drowns you out. By Ian Frazier