This week’s @TheTLS , featuring @RichardEvans36 on German militarism; Laura Thompson on Raine Spencer; A. N. Wilson on Turgenev; @colincraiggrant on Eureka Day; Claire Lowdon on Kamila Shamsie; @rauchway on interest rates – and more.
Langson IMCA in Irvine, CA – September 24, 2022 – January 14, 2023
In 2019, artist Peter Alexander was invited by Langson IMCA Museum Director Kim Kanatani to curate an exhibition of California Impressionism from the Museum’s collections.
Prior to his untimely death in 2020, Alexander had begun identifying works that he felt exemplified the California Impressionists’ profound connection to the light, space, and natural phenomena of California and the similar influence they had on his own work.
In honor of Alexander’s commitment to the project, a team of curators consisting of Kevin Appel, Julianne Gavino, Kim Kanatani, Curt Klebaum, Claudia Parducci, and Bruce Richards expanded the exhibition into a dialogue between the early modernist painters and Alexander’s own work, forming a fluid exchange between generations equally influenced by the atmospheric light of the Golden State.
The passages in this exhibition follow phenomena experienced over the course of a day from dawn, to dusk, to the depths of night. From mountain peaks to the ocean floor, Alexander and these California Impressionist painters echo one another in their pursuit of capturing the ineffable sensibility of place and space.
With works spanning from 1896 to 2020, Echoes of Perception: Peter Alexander and California Impressionism includes 14 Impressionist works from Langson IMCA’s collection along with 11 of Alexander’s resin sculptures, canvases, works on paper, and a painting on velvet that offer an alternative way to engage with California Impressionism through the eyes of this pioneering contemporary artist.
• Antwerp’s greatest museum reopens at last
• Who is UNESCO really for?
• Introducing the Apollo 40 Under 40 Asia Pacific
Plus: the remarkable career of Marianne Werefkin; the making of John Singer Sargent’s notorious Madame X; the occult modernism of Rudolf Steiner; and reviews of the artists who saw in stereo, a history of tomb raiding in Egypt and the memoir of Ibrahim El-Salahi
The New Yorker Magazine – October 3, 2022
T. S. Eliot’s masterpiece is a hundred years old, but it has never stopped sounding new. By Anthony Lane
After Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, ended a decades-long border conflict, he was heralded as a unifier. Now critics accuse him of tearing the country apart.
ROBERT LADUKE: “IMAGINED MEMORIES”
SEPTEMBER 23 – OCTOBER 6, 2022
MEYER GALLERY – SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
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How America’s “first politician” galvanized a colony—and helped set a revolution in motion. BY STACY SCHIFF
Water woes threaten America’s second largest reservoir—but leave new vistas in their wake. PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT BY PETE MCBRIDE
Haunted by the approach of another world war, the beloved fantasy author created a new story of Middle-earth that few people even knew about—until now. BY JOHN GARTH, PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIERAN DODDS
The giant fish faces threats from poachers, boat strikes and climate change. PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEX MUSTARD, TEXT BY TERENCE MONMANEY
From the lab to the art gallery, the latest efforts to understand the fragrant, musky, stinky and utterly baffling world of your nose
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CAROLINE TOMPKINS
art3f breaks the mold of traditional contemporary art fairs by giving these cultural events a human and friendly touch. Without code, without prejudice and without complexes, art3f is a clever mix between the art of the heart, the affordable art and the most beautiful artistic representation of the moment. So many reasons to discover art with your family.
Hilma af Klint dreamt of a spiral-shaped building to house her most important works. According to her notebooks, she wanted it to be built on an island in Sweden but the idea never materialized, and the temple remained an imaginary creation – until now.
More than a century later, af Klint’s vision has been translated into an immersive VR experience. It takes you on a cosmic journey from the Milky Way, through spirals in nature and into a few of the artist’s most important paintings, some of them even coming alive.
Hilma af Klint sometimes referred to her temple as a church for a new era and at other times called it a museum. The exact meaning remains open to interpretation. At the same time, her paintings were clearly intended to lead the viewer to levels of awareness beyond that of everyday life. Was it really a physical building she had in mind? Or was it a spiritual site – something existing in another dimension?
Perhaps her temple, simultaneously spiritual and physical, could not be realised because she did not have access to the right medium. She had no knowledge about the technological possibilities that were to come, and the idea remained on paper. Today things are different. Hilma af Klint’s temple, inspired by the teachings of Christian Rosenkreutz, has arrived with the help of VR. You are invited to enter another world.
Hilma af Klint The Temple was conceived by Daniel Birnbaum and Kurt Almqvist and directed by Marika Stolpe. The experience was produced by Acute Art and published by Stolpe Publishing. Creative Director – Rodrigo Marques. Music – Andrew Sheriff.
Watch video below for more on Hilma af Klint:
The artist discusses Charlotte Gainsbourg, Uggs, and finding inspiration on Instagram.
By Louis Menand
I was born with melodies in my head, and I was looking for a way to hear them in the world.
By Bono
When Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in literature last year, most Americans had never read anything by this fascinating author.
Born in 1948 in Tanzania, Gurnah fled to England after the 1964 uprising in Zanzibar. Over the years, he’s written 10 critically-acclaimed novels.
The latest, “Afterlives” (Riverhead), offers an intimate look at village life in East Africa during the period of German colonialism at the start of the 20th century. This is a book that reclaims forgotten history and honors lost people in a way that’s heartbreaking and revelatory.
“Afterlives” by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Riverhead), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
Maggie O’Farrell’s novel “Hamnet,” about the death of William Shakespeare’s only son, was one of the best books of 2020.
Now O’Farrell is back with “The Marriage Portrait” (Knopf), a terrific historical thriller that drops us into the panicked mind of a teenage girl who knows her husband is plotting to kill her.
The girl is Lucrezia de’ Medici, immortalized by Robert Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess.” History tells us she died in 1561 before she could celebrate her first anniversary, but O’Farrell will have you guessing ’til the very last page.
“The Marriage Portrait” by Maggie O’Farrell (Knopf), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available September 27 via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
What if Americans elected a narcissistic psychopath to the White House?
Some people might say we’ve already seen what that would be like. But James Patterson’s breathless new thriller, “Blowback” (Little, Brown), takes that scenario to the brink of World War III.
Written with Brendan DuBois, “Blowback” imagines a president determined to defeat America’s enemies once and for all.
A pair of secret agents are honored to help the president’s plan – until they realize he’s about to destroy the country.
“Blowback” by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois (Little, Brown and Company), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
Mary Rodgers, who died in 2014, lived her life in the melodies of American musical theater. She was Richard Rodgers’ daughter, composer Adam Guettel’s mother, and Stephen Sondheim’s friend – and she was an accomplished composer and author herself.
Now, all these wonderful stories take center stage in “Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), written with New York Times theater critic Jesse Green.
Through painful relationships and happy ones, disappointments and successes, Rodgers is never anything but candid, forgiving and witty. So, take a seat and let the curtain rise.
“Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers” by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indiebound
Follow @JesseKGreen on Twitter
