art, literature and film trends :: culture decanted

Art, literature, film and culture trends from the trivial to the significant. #art, #film, #music, #literature www.culturedecanted.com @culturedecanted

Books
Handmaid's Tale sequel leads 'exacting' 2019 Booker prize longlist
The Guardian - Alison Flood
Most readers will have to wait until September to find out what happens in Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, but the Booker judges have deemed The Testaments worthy of a place on the 2019
Marcel Duchamp: The radical artist who changed the course of art | The Mix
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Record Breaker! ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Passes ‘Avatar’ to Become Biggest Movie in History
Variety - Rebecca Rubin
After “Avatar’s” impressive 10 year reign as box office champion, “Avengers: Endgame” has officially dethroned James Cameron’s sci-fi epic to become …
Music (UK)
Burt Bacharach review – magic moments from master of lounge
The Guardian - Mark Beaumont
‘This is the poshest cabaret night in the world,” the warm-up pianist tells an Apollo audience largely seated at tables laden with fine wines, and tended to by scurrying waitresses. He’s not wrong. A orchestra
Movies
China Thrilled by Prospect of Chinese Casting for Shang-Chi, ‘Marvel’s First Chinese Hero’
Variety - Rebecca Davis
China’s internet is thrilled by news that Marvel appears to be insisting on casting an ethnic Chinese actor as Shang-Chi in the master of kung fu’s …
Sudan
Sudan’s protests inspire art, graffiti revolution
Quartz - Abdi Latif Dahir
Galal Yousif sat hunched in a quiet studio at the Kuona art center west of Nairobi, his fingers moving deftly over a new sketchbook. The work in progress comprised elongated human faces crowded in tight
Woody Allen
Woody Allen: 'I never think of retiring'
The Guardian - Andrew Pulver
Woody Allen has no plans to give up film-making despite the years of controversy that has dogged his directing career. “I never think of retiring. It’s not just something that has occurred to me,” Allen
Culture
Italian Artist Peeta Blends Graffiti and Abstract Forms Into Optical Illusion Murals | Colossal
thisiscolossal.com - Andrew LaSane
Italian artist Peeta (previously) combines elements of graffiti and abstract art to paint murals that appear to morph and dissolve architectural …
Caravaggio
Watch these already realistic Caravaggio paintings come to life
aleteia.org - J-P Mauro
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is back in headlines after a recently discovered masterpiece — believed to have been created by the father of …
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci, Animal Lover
artsy.net - Arielle Saiber
Detail of Leonardo da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine, 1489–90. Image via Wikimedia Commons.About six months ago, I stopped eating meat. I was teaching a …
Tate Modern
Electromagnetic man: Tate Modern attracts largest UK exhibition of Takis
theartnewspaper.com - Kabir Jhala
The electromagnetic fields around Tate Modern will be slightly skewed this week for the largest UK exhibition of the experimental Greek artist Takis. …
The Arts (Australia)
Birubi Art fined $2.3m for selling fake Aboriginal art made in Indonesia
The Guardian - Lorena Allam
A company that sold fake Aboriginal art has been fined $2.3m for “false and misleading conduct”, the largest penalty of its kind awarded by the federal court. Birubi Art breached consumer law by selling
Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama and Stephen Fry help drive audiobook boom
bbc.co.uk
Money spent on audiobooks in the UK almost doubled in 2018, helped by the likes of Michelle Obama, Mel B and Stephen Fry.
Caravaggio
Mysterious Caravaggio painting valued at $170m snapped up before auction
The Guardian - Agence France-Presse in Toulouse
A painting described as a lost Caravaggio masterpiece has been bought two days before it was due to go under the hammer in France. The painting, which was found under an old mattress in the attic of a
Culture
Two Novels That Make Mental Illness Legible
The Atlantic - Rosa Inocencio Smith
Juliet the Maniac and Rabbits for Food use split perspectives and fractured timelines to illustrate how some disorders can threaten a person’s sense of self. Editor's Note: If you are having thoughts suicide,
Damien Hirst: 'I was a monster. The idea now of meeting myself then is a nightmare'
The Telegraph - By Mick Brown
With his pickled cows and production line of spot paintings, Damien Hirst became the richest and most famous of the Young British Artists, but by his own admission, success was a ‘double-edged sword’.
Catch-22: has George Clooney broken the curse of the unfilmable novel?
The Guardian - Stuart Heritage
Fans of the unfilmable novel must be having a terrible time of it now. In the last three weeks alone, two of the most notorious examples have made their way to screen. Admittedly one – Amazon’s Good Omens
Adam Sandler's 'Murder Mystery' breaks Netflix viewing records
Engadget - Richard Lawler
While Netflix was famously reticent about releasing viewing statistics, over the last year or so the company has become more open about it. Its latest revelation confirms the theory that someone out there
Why has British art had such a fascination with fire? | The Spectator
The Spectator - Laura Gascoigne
‘Playing God is indeed playing with fire,’ observed Ronald Dworkin. ‘But that is what we mortals have done since Prometheus, the patron saint of dangerous discoveries.’ There’s no Prometheus in the RWA’s
The best comic novel ever written?
BBC Culture - By Thomas Graham
Tristram Shandy is a rambling, anarchic cult classic that was wildly experimental for its time. It also made its author a huge celebrity, writes Thomas Graham. “Of all the several ways of beginning a which
‘The most famous weapon in the history of art’: gun used to kill Vincent van Gogh to be auctioned
scmp.com - Agence France-Presse
The revolver with which Vincent van Gogh is believed to have shot himself is to go under the hammer on Wednesday at a Paris auction house.Billed as …
Sotheby's bought by French billionaire for $3.7bn
BBC News - Russell Hotten
Sotheby's is being bought by telecoms billionaire Patrick Drahi in a deal valuing the auction house at $3.7bn. The company, which has been on the New York stock market for 31 years, will return to private
On the Books We Choose and Those We Don’t
longreads.com - Krista Stevens
In this moving essay at LitHub, Steve Edwards reflects on how his reading life, specifically the books he chose and also the books he didn’t choose, …
Guardian Books desk: 'You can tell a lot about a country by how it treats its libraries'
The Guardian - Sian Cain
Authors are the canary in the coalmine for so many social issues How long have you had this job? What route did you take to get here? I came to the Guardian’s books desk in a rather roundabout way. I journalism
Damien Hirst on growing up in Leeds and seeings his work at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
yorkshirepost.co.uk - David Behrens
A blob of what looks like Blu Tak is stuck to the back of Damien Hirst’s phone. One wonders if it is a temporary convenience or a piece of conceptual …
Highways and Rivers Form Capillaries on Anatomical Paper Organs by Katrin Rodegast | Colossal
thisiscolossal.com - Laura Staugaitis
Illustrator and paper artist Katrin Rodegast fused human anatomy and city maps in her editorial work for Globe, the magazine of ETH Zurich, a Swiss …
This May Be the Only Known Recording of Frida Kahlo’s Voice
smithsonianmag.com - Meilan Solly
A recently unearthed audio clip featured in the 1955 pilot episode of Mexican radio show “El Bachiller” could represent the only known example of …
'It's long overdue': the first exhibition for Native American female artists
The Guardian - Nadja Sayej
Walk into most museums and there might be something missing on the wall labels beside Native American artworks – an Apache dress from the 19th century might just read: “Title, year, materials.” What’s
Frida Kahlo's only known voice recording possibly found in Mexico
The Guardian - Steph Harmon
Frida Kahlo might have one of the most recognisable and commodified faces in the art world, but what did her voice sound like? French photographer Giséle Freund once described it as “melodious and warm”,