vineri, 29 aprilie 2011
joi, 21 aprilie 2011
NY Times and LA Times each win two Pulitzer Prizes
This handout photograph by Barbara Davidson of the Los Angeles times won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography as announced in New York, April 18, 2011. Ten-year-old Erica Miranda was shot three times in the back, knee and hip while playing basketball outside her home in Compton. A young man had walked up to the crowded street corner and started firing a handgun in what police believe was a gang assault. A 17-year-old relative and a 45-year-old family friend, both men, were also shot three times and survived. At Long Beach Memorial Medical Center: Miller Children's Hospital, Erica waits for her bandage to be changed.
Credit: Reuters/Barbara Davidson/Los Angeles TimesNEW YORK | Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:12am EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times were each awarded two coveted Pulitzer Prizes for journalism on Monday.
The Los Angeles Times won the public service award for its exposure of corruption in the Californian city of Bell where officials tapped the treasury to pay themselves large salaries. The newspaper's coverage led to arrests and reforms.
Los Angeles Times photographer Barbara Davidson won the prize for feature photography for her pictures of innocent victims caught in the crossfire of Los Angeles gang violence.
The New York Times' Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry won the international reporting category for putting "a human face on the faltering justice system in Russia."
David Leonhardt of The New York Times won the commentary award for "his graceful penetration of America's complicated economic questions, from the federal budget deficit to health care reform."
The Pulitzer Prizes honor journalism, books, drama and poetry and are awarded annually by the Pulitzer Prize Board at New York City's Columbia University.
Each winner receives $10,000.
There was no prize for breaking news this year and the board did not explain its decision.
ProPublica, a nonprofit news group which last year became the first online news service to win a Pulitzer, this year took home the national reporting award for Jesse Eisinger's and Jake Bernstein's exposure of questionable practices on Wall Street that contributed to the U.S. economic downturn.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by Laura MacInnis)
This handout photograph by Barbara Davidson of the Los Angeles times won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography as announced in New York, April 18, 2011. Ten-year-old Erica Miranda was shot three times in the back, knee and hip while playing basketball outside her home in Compton. A young man had walked up to the crowded street corner and started firing a handgun in what police believe was a gang assault. A 17-year-old relative and a 45-year-old family friend, both men, were also shot three times and survived. At Long Beach Memorial Medical Center: Miller Children's Hospital, Erica waits for her bandage to be changed.
Credit: Reuters/Barbara Davidson/Los Angeles TimesNEW YORK | Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:12am EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times were each awarded two coveted Pulitzer Prizes for journalism on Monday.
The Los Angeles Times won the public service award for its exposure of corruption in the Californian city of Bell where officials tapped the treasury to pay themselves large salaries. The newspaper's coverage led to arrests and reforms.
Los Angeles Times photographer Barbara Davidson won the prize for feature photography for her pictures of innocent victims caught in the crossfire of Los Angeles gang violence.
The New York Times' Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry won the international reporting category for putting "a human face on the faltering justice system in Russia."
David Leonhardt of The New York Times won the commentary award for "his graceful penetration of America's complicated economic questions, from the federal budget deficit to health care reform."
The Pulitzer Prizes honor journalism, books, drama and poetry and are awarded annually by the Pulitzer Prize Board at New York City's Columbia University.
Each winner receives $10,000.
There was no prize for breaking news this year and the board did not explain its decision.
ProPublica, a nonprofit news group which last year became the first online news service to win a Pulitzer, this year took home the national reporting award for Jesse Eisinger's and Jake Bernstein's exposure of questionable practices on Wall Street that contributed to the U.S. economic downturn.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by Laura MacInnis)
London hit "War Horse" makes thrilling Broadway bow
By David Rooney
Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:14am EDT
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - It's easy to see what attracted Steven Spielberg to British children's author Michael Morpugo's novel "War Horse."
But it's hard to imagine how the screen version, due in December, can improve upon the thrilling experience of this stage adaptation, which is as emotionally stirring, visually arresting and compellingly told as anything on the filmmaker's resume.
Produced by London's National Theater, the play premiered in 2007 and went on after two sell-out engagements to become a smash in the West End, where it's still running. This Broadway transfer makes tremendous use of the deep stage and various aisles of Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, creating a spectacle both intimate and epic. The limited run is scheduled through June 26, but rapturous word of mouth seems certain to change that to an open-ended stay.
Adapted by Nick Stafford in association with the Handspring Puppet Company, the play is specific in its historic setting of World War I, yet any concerns about American audiences' distance from that conflict are unfounded. The writer and creative team make this story universal in its reflections on war, its consideration of how we define courage and cowardice, and its portrayal of the purest kind of love.
Comparisons to "The Lion King" are inevitable but also facile. While the puppetry designs of South African company Handspring and its founders Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones are the undisputed stars here, this is an entirely different, far more emotionally immersive experience than the Disney show. It belongs to a rich tradition of British story-theater that favors artisanal craftsmanship over technology. When it works, as it does so exquisitely here, this can be as transporting for adults as it is for children.
Operated onstage by teams of three or more puppeteers, the life-size horses are breathtaking in their detail. The designs eschew naturalism for constructions of leather, cloth, cane and wire that share every secret of the mechanisms involved. Yet, in every way -- their breathing, their flaring nostrils, twitching ears and soulful eyes, their powerful flanks and movements that can be skittish or graceful -- these are not cute facsimiles but flesh-and-blood creatures. What's remarkable is how quickly the puppeteers, who also provide vocal sounds for the horses, vanish through sheer force of imagination.
Directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris with a fluid narrative grasp and seamless cohesion between design and performance elements, the show follows the life of a horse named Joey from birth. As a foal, Joey appears to grow before our eyes before being purchased by Ted Narracott (Boris McGiver), a Devon farmer. Ted pays a ridiculous amount for the horse merely to outbid his brother Arthur (T. Ryder Smith), their bitter rivalry shared by their respective sons, Albert (Seth Numrich) and Billy (Matt Doyle). When Ted's feisty wife Rose (Alyssa Bresnahan) learns that the mortgage money has gone on a horse not even bred for farm work, she orders 16-year-old Albert to raise the animal until it's healthy enough to fetch a good price.
Joey's speed and strength attract Arthur's attention, resulting in a bet with Ted that the horse cannot be trained to pull a plow. When Albert's perseverance wins his father the bet, he also becomes Joey's owner, nixing any plan to sell. But when Britain goes to war, and large sums are being paid for cavalry horses, Ted sells Joey to the army behind his son's back.
Word reaches Albert that the officer riding Joey has been killed, so he runs off to France, lies about his age and enlists, determined to find the animal. Joey, meanwhile, has been captured by the Germans and put to work pulling an ambulance cart in a casualty clearance station in the Somme Valley.
The battle scenes are stylized, almost balletic at times, yet charged and visceral. The horror of horses being ridden into barbed wire and machine-gun fire yields particularly distressing moments. One striking stage picture, in which a horse and a tank rear up in each other's paths, provides a wrenching illustration of the conflict of nature with the machine age. But despite its penetrating sorrows, the overriding tenderness of this story of how a boy and his horse endure the brutality of war will leave few in the audience unmoved.
One could nitpick that the directors overuse the folk songs and battle anthems that punctuate the action, or that Stafford's writing is at times simplistic in explicating its themes, notably in a face-to-face encounter between a British and a German soldier. But overall, the presentation and writing are sentimental in the noblest possible way.
While the actors can't quite compete with the majestic beauty of the puppets (which include ravens and an ornery goose), the American cast all contribute vivid characterizations and total commitment to the illusion that these animals are real.
Numrich brings heartbreaking conviction to Albert's love of Joey and his almost unwavering faith that the horse has survived. In a uniformly strong ensemble, Peter Hermann also makes a deep impression as a German who assumes a medical officer's identity to avoid returning to the front. This character typifies the play's refusal to break down antagonists into villains and heroes, but rather to show that everyone is a victim in war.
It's impossible to overstate the effectiveness of Rae Smith's gorgeous design work. Its most evocative element is the torn page of a sketchbook overhead, which maps the shifting action and changing atmosphere with a mix of pencil drawings and projections.
In its blending of modern and traditional storytelling, its poetic imagery and primal emotion, this is the kind of magical theater event that comes along only rarely. As an introduction to the stage for young audiences, "War Horse" has the uplifting power to make lifelong converts. For more seasoned theatergoers, it has the elegance and inventiveness to erase the jaded memories of dozens of more cynical entertainments.
By David Rooney
Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:14am EDT
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - It's easy to see what attracted Steven Spielberg to British children's author Michael Morpugo's novel "War Horse."
But it's hard to imagine how the screen version, due in December, can improve upon the thrilling experience of this stage adaptation, which is as emotionally stirring, visually arresting and compellingly told as anything on the filmmaker's resume.
Produced by London's National Theater, the play premiered in 2007 and went on after two sell-out engagements to become a smash in the West End, where it's still running. This Broadway transfer makes tremendous use of the deep stage and various aisles of Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater, creating a spectacle both intimate and epic. The limited run is scheduled through June 26, but rapturous word of mouth seems certain to change that to an open-ended stay.
Adapted by Nick Stafford in association with the Handspring Puppet Company, the play is specific in its historic setting of World War I, yet any concerns about American audiences' distance from that conflict are unfounded. The writer and creative team make this story universal in its reflections on war, its consideration of how we define courage and cowardice, and its portrayal of the purest kind of love.
Comparisons to "The Lion King" are inevitable but also facile. While the puppetry designs of South African company Handspring and its founders Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones are the undisputed stars here, this is an entirely different, far more emotionally immersive experience than the Disney show. It belongs to a rich tradition of British story-theater that favors artisanal craftsmanship over technology. When it works, as it does so exquisitely here, this can be as transporting for adults as it is for children.
Operated onstage by teams of three or more puppeteers, the life-size horses are breathtaking in their detail. The designs eschew naturalism for constructions of leather, cloth, cane and wire that share every secret of the mechanisms involved. Yet, in every way -- their breathing, their flaring nostrils, twitching ears and soulful eyes, their powerful flanks and movements that can be skittish or graceful -- these are not cute facsimiles but flesh-and-blood creatures. What's remarkable is how quickly the puppeteers, who also provide vocal sounds for the horses, vanish through sheer force of imagination.
Directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris with a fluid narrative grasp and seamless cohesion between design and performance elements, the show follows the life of a horse named Joey from birth. As a foal, Joey appears to grow before our eyes before being purchased by Ted Narracott (Boris McGiver), a Devon farmer. Ted pays a ridiculous amount for the horse merely to outbid his brother Arthur (T. Ryder Smith), their bitter rivalry shared by their respective sons, Albert (Seth Numrich) and Billy (Matt Doyle). When Ted's feisty wife Rose (Alyssa Bresnahan) learns that the mortgage money has gone on a horse not even bred for farm work, she orders 16-year-old Albert to raise the animal until it's healthy enough to fetch a good price.
Joey's speed and strength attract Arthur's attention, resulting in a bet with Ted that the horse cannot be trained to pull a plow. When Albert's perseverance wins his father the bet, he also becomes Joey's owner, nixing any plan to sell. But when Britain goes to war, and large sums are being paid for cavalry horses, Ted sells Joey to the army behind his son's back.
Word reaches Albert that the officer riding Joey has been killed, so he runs off to France, lies about his age and enlists, determined to find the animal. Joey, meanwhile, has been captured by the Germans and put to work pulling an ambulance cart in a casualty clearance station in the Somme Valley.
The battle scenes are stylized, almost balletic at times, yet charged and visceral. The horror of horses being ridden into barbed wire and machine-gun fire yields particularly distressing moments. One striking stage picture, in which a horse and a tank rear up in each other's paths, provides a wrenching illustration of the conflict of nature with the machine age. But despite its penetrating sorrows, the overriding tenderness of this story of how a boy and his horse endure the brutality of war will leave few in the audience unmoved.
One could nitpick that the directors overuse the folk songs and battle anthems that punctuate the action, or that Stafford's writing is at times simplistic in explicating its themes, notably in a face-to-face encounter between a British and a German soldier. But overall, the presentation and writing are sentimental in the noblest possible way.
While the actors can't quite compete with the majestic beauty of the puppets (which include ravens and an ornery goose), the American cast all contribute vivid characterizations and total commitment to the illusion that these animals are real.
Numrich brings heartbreaking conviction to Albert's love of Joey and his almost unwavering faith that the horse has survived. In a uniformly strong ensemble, Peter Hermann also makes a deep impression as a German who assumes a medical officer's identity to avoid returning to the front. This character typifies the play's refusal to break down antagonists into villains and heroes, but rather to show that everyone is a victim in war.
It's impossible to overstate the effectiveness of Rae Smith's gorgeous design work. Its most evocative element is the torn page of a sketchbook overhead, which maps the shifting action and changing atmosphere with a mix of pencil drawings and projections.
In its blending of modern and traditional storytelling, its poetic imagery and primal emotion, this is the kind of magical theater event that comes along only rarely. As an introduction to the stage for young audiences, "War Horse" has the uplifting power to make lifelong converts. For more seasoned theatergoers, it has the elegance and inventiveness to erase the jaded memories of dozens of more cynical entertainments.
Warhol's self-portrait could sell for $40 million
Andy Warhol's 1986 'Self-Portrait'.
Credit: Reuters/Christie'sBy Chris MichaudNEW YORK | Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:03pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Andy Warhol self-portrait completed shortly before his death is expected to sell for as much as $40 million at auction next month, Christie's said on Wednesday.
"Self-Portrait," a large haunting depiction of Warhol rendered in deep red and black, was done in 1986 and displayed in a widely praised gallery show in London just months before he died after routine surgery in New York.
"It is a rare event that a work of this grandeur and stature comes to market," said Amy Cappellazzo, Christie's international co-head and deputy chairman of post-war and contemporary art.
"With all the other examples in museums, it will be the last chance that buyers will have to bid on a work that shifted art history," she added about the sale on May 11.
The record price for a Warhol self-portrait is $32.6 million set last May at Sotheby's in New York. "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)," which Christie's sold for a whopping $71.7 million in 2007, is the record for any Warhol sold at auction.
Two weeks ago Christie's announced it would sell the pop artist's very first self portrait, a 1963 four-panel acrylic silkscreen depicting him in a trench coat and sunglasses being sold by the family of Detroit collector Florence Barron, who commissioned it for $1,600. It is expected to fetch $30 million or more.
At the time of the 1986 exhibition, art historian Robert Rosenblum observed that Warhol was addressing one of art's great themes of an aging master looking at himself with "melancholy introspection," not unlike the self-portraits of Rembrandt and Van Gogh.
Of the large self-portraits Warhol painted in 1986, the other six are all in museums, including the New York's Guggenheim and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, or in foundation collections.
Andy Warhol's 1986 'Self-Portrait'.
Credit: Reuters/Christie'sBy Chris MichaudNEW YORK | Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:03pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Andy Warhol self-portrait completed shortly before his death is expected to sell for as much as $40 million at auction next month, Christie's said on Wednesday.
"Self-Portrait," a large haunting depiction of Warhol rendered in deep red and black, was done in 1986 and displayed in a widely praised gallery show in London just months before he died after routine surgery in New York.
"It is a rare event that a work of this grandeur and stature comes to market," said Amy Cappellazzo, Christie's international co-head and deputy chairman of post-war and contemporary art.
"With all the other examples in museums, it will be the last chance that buyers will have to bid on a work that shifted art history," she added about the sale on May 11.
The record price for a Warhol self-portrait is $32.6 million set last May at Sotheby's in New York. "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)," which Christie's sold for a whopping $71.7 million in 2007, is the record for any Warhol sold at auction.
Two weeks ago Christie's announced it would sell the pop artist's very first self portrait, a 1963 four-panel acrylic silkscreen depicting him in a trench coat and sunglasses being sold by the family of Detroit collector Florence Barron, who commissioned it for $1,600. It is expected to fetch $30 million or more.
At the time of the 1986 exhibition, art historian Robert Rosenblum observed that Warhol was addressing one of art's great themes of an aging master looking at himself with "melancholy introspection," not unlike the self-portraits of Rembrandt and Van Gogh.
Of the large self-portraits Warhol painted in 1986, the other six are all in museums, including the New York's Guggenheim and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, or in foundation collections.
joi, 14 aprilie 2011
Warhol bought for $1,600 could fetch $30 million
A portrait of actress Elizabeth Taylor by Andy Warhol is seen at the Phillips de Pury gallery in New York, March 28, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Shannon StapletonBy Chris MichaudNEW YORK | Fri Apr 8, 2011 1:57pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Andy Warhol self-portrait purchased in 1963 for $1,600 on an installment plan is poised to fetch $30 million or more when it hits the auction block at Christie's in May.
"Self-Portrait," a four-panel acrylic silkscreen depicting the pop artist wearing a trench coat and sunglasses, is being sold by the family of Detroit collector Florence Barron.
Barron first commissioned Warhol to paint her portrait, but changed her mind and suggested the young artist depict himself, telling him, "Nobody knows me ... They want to see you."
The result was Warhol's first self portrait, four images taken in a coin-operated photo booth rendered in hues of blue.
"My mother didn't look at collecting in terms of 'is this important or not important,'" Guy Barron told Reuters.
"She looked at it from the standpoint of what resonated with her, and of 'I want to live with it.' It was not done as some people do today, as wall power."
The portrait graced the living room wall of the family home in Detroit. It also went on public display, serving as the cover image for catalogs from major Warhol exhibitions and retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain.
Brett Gorvy, Christie's international co-head and deputy chairman for post-war and contemporary art, said the work marked the beginning of Warhol's own stardom.
"With dark sunglasses an oblivious gaze, Warhol was ahead of his time in creating a new archetype of glamour," Gorvy said.
"The painting is remarkable not only for its visual impact and the introduction of the photo booth genre, but for marking a key moment in the history of art, when Warhol takes his place in the pantheon of celebrity alongside Marilyn, Elizabeth and Elvis."
Barron, whose family includes two married sons and several grandchildren, said they were auctioning the work because "dividing is not possible, so selling makes the most sense."
"I feel that Andy Warhol himself would appreciate this, because he always talked about everyone in their lifetime having their turn in the spotlight for 15 minutes. Who'd have thought that his self-portrait would play such a role in our lives?"
The record for a Warhol self-portrait is $32.6 million set last May at Sotheby's in New York. The record price for any Warhol sold at auction is "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)," which Christie's sold for a whopping $71.7 million in 2007.
A portrait of actress Elizabeth Taylor by Andy Warhol is seen at the Phillips de Pury gallery in New York, March 28, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Shannon StapletonBy Chris MichaudNEW YORK | Fri Apr 8, 2011 1:57pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Andy Warhol self-portrait purchased in 1963 for $1,600 on an installment plan is poised to fetch $30 million or more when it hits the auction block at Christie's in May.
"Self-Portrait," a four-panel acrylic silkscreen depicting the pop artist wearing a trench coat and sunglasses, is being sold by the family of Detroit collector Florence Barron.
Barron first commissioned Warhol to paint her portrait, but changed her mind and suggested the young artist depict himself, telling him, "Nobody knows me ... They want to see you."
The result was Warhol's first self portrait, four images taken in a coin-operated photo booth rendered in hues of blue.
"My mother didn't look at collecting in terms of 'is this important or not important,'" Guy Barron told Reuters.
"She looked at it from the standpoint of what resonated with her, and of 'I want to live with it.' It was not done as some people do today, as wall power."
The portrait graced the living room wall of the family home in Detroit. It also went on public display, serving as the cover image for catalogs from major Warhol exhibitions and retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain.
Brett Gorvy, Christie's international co-head and deputy chairman for post-war and contemporary art, said the work marked the beginning of Warhol's own stardom.
"With dark sunglasses an oblivious gaze, Warhol was ahead of his time in creating a new archetype of glamour," Gorvy said.
"The painting is remarkable not only for its visual impact and the introduction of the photo booth genre, but for marking a key moment in the history of art, when Warhol takes his place in the pantheon of celebrity alongside Marilyn, Elizabeth and Elvis."
Barron, whose family includes two married sons and several grandchildren, said they were auctioning the work because "dividing is not possible, so selling makes the most sense."
"I feel that Andy Warhol himself would appreciate this, because he always talked about everyone in their lifetime having their turn in the spotlight for 15 minutes. Who'd have thought that his self-portrait would play such a role in our lives?"
The record for a Warhol self-portrait is $32.6 million set last May at Sotheby's in New York. The record price for any Warhol sold at auction is "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)," which Christie's sold for a whopping $71.7 million in 2007.
Italy's Santa Croce restoration offers rare close up view
Combination picture of tiny faces that can be found on the 600-year-old Capella Maggiore frescoes at Florence's Santa Croce Basilica, April 7, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Alessandro BianchiBy Philip PullellaFLORENCE, Italy | Mon Apr 11, 2011 5:07pm EDT
FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters) - For lovers of Italian art, it's as close as you can come to ascending a stairway to heaven and looking angels in the eye.
For the first time after a major restoration, the scaffolding that has shrouded the 850 sq m (9,150 sq ft) of frescoes of the Capella Maggiore in Florence's famed Santa Croce Basilica will not be dismantled immediately.
Instead, for about a year, a small number of visitors will be able to don hard hats and clamber up the clanking steps to admire the 600-year-old frescos of Agnolo Gaddi, the last major "descendant" of the Giotto school, from close up.
"Climbing up the scaffolding and standing in precisely the same spot where the artist stood is a bit like traveling in a time machine," said Alberto Felici, one of the team that spent five years restoring the frescoes.
"You can re-live the emotions and the atmosphere that the painter experienced 600 years ago," he said, speaking some 30 m (90 ft) above the basilica's ground floor.
Since the next restoration may not take place for centuries, it is the chance of a lifetime to get within inches of a masterpiece that helped pave the way for the Renaissance.
In E.M. Forster's novel "A Room With a View," the young Lucy Honeychurch "wandered not unpleasantly about Santa Croce, which, though it is like a barn, has harvested many beautiful things inside its walls."
The rich harvest that Lucy Honeychurch and millions of real visitors could not see as they craned their necks is the wealth of details, some only a few centimeters (inches) large, that the $3.5 million restoration brought to light.
"There are things here like a fish in a stream or a bird that the artist knew would never be visible from the ground but that he put there anyway either out of a sense of perfection or personal amusement," said Felici.
LAST DESCENDENT OF GIOTTO
Gaddi, who lived from 1350 to 1396 and painted the Capella Maggiore in the 1380s, had good genes. His father was Taddeo Gaddi, the major pupil of the Florentine master Giotto, whose work also adorns the walls of Santa Croce.
Agnolo Gaddi was Giotto's last stylistic descendant.
So it is with awe and reverence that restorers who worked on the project speak of the master, whose spirit seems to be at once before their eyes and looking over their shoulders.
"After 600 hundred years I approach the wall and still see things," said chief restorer Mariarosa Lanfranchi. "I see where he made an incision to make a halo, I see a color that he later corrected, I see a point of light," she said, speaking of Gaddi with the ease with which one talks of a neighbor.
"It still speaks to us and that is truly emotional."
Combination picture of tiny faces that can be found on the 600-year-old Capella Maggiore frescoes at Florence's Santa Croce Basilica, April 7, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Alessandro BianchiBy Philip PullellaFLORENCE, Italy | Mon Apr 11, 2011 5:07pm EDT
FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters) - For lovers of Italian art, it's as close as you can come to ascending a stairway to heaven and looking angels in the eye.
For the first time after a major restoration, the scaffolding that has shrouded the 850 sq m (9,150 sq ft) of frescoes of the Capella Maggiore in Florence's famed Santa Croce Basilica will not be dismantled immediately.
Instead, for about a year, a small number of visitors will be able to don hard hats and clamber up the clanking steps to admire the 600-year-old frescos of Agnolo Gaddi, the last major "descendant" of the Giotto school, from close up.
"Climbing up the scaffolding and standing in precisely the same spot where the artist stood is a bit like traveling in a time machine," said Alberto Felici, one of the team that spent five years restoring the frescoes.
"You can re-live the emotions and the atmosphere that the painter experienced 600 years ago," he said, speaking some 30 m (90 ft) above the basilica's ground floor.
Since the next restoration may not take place for centuries, it is the chance of a lifetime to get within inches of a masterpiece that helped pave the way for the Renaissance.
In E.M. Forster's novel "A Room With a View," the young Lucy Honeychurch "wandered not unpleasantly about Santa Croce, which, though it is like a barn, has harvested many beautiful things inside its walls."
The rich harvest that Lucy Honeychurch and millions of real visitors could not see as they craned their necks is the wealth of details, some only a few centimeters (inches) large, that the $3.5 million restoration brought to light.
"There are things here like a fish in a stream or a bird that the artist knew would never be visible from the ground but that he put there anyway either out of a sense of perfection or personal amusement," said Felici.
LAST DESCENDENT OF GIOTTO
Gaddi, who lived from 1350 to 1396 and painted the Capella Maggiore in the 1380s, had good genes. His father was Taddeo Gaddi, the major pupil of the Florentine master Giotto, whose work also adorns the walls of Santa Croce.
Agnolo Gaddi was Giotto's last stylistic descendant.
So it is with awe and reverence that restorers who worked on the project speak of the master, whose spirit seems to be at once before their eyes and looking over their shoulders.
"After 600 hundred years I approach the wall and still see things," said chief restorer Mariarosa Lanfranchi. "I see where he made an incision to make a halo, I see a color that he later corrected, I see a point of light," she said, speaking of Gaddi with the ease with which one talks of a neighbor.
"It still speaks to us and that is truly emotional."
Playwright Edward Albee to receive MacDowell medal
Edward Albee arrives on the red carpet for the Kennedy Center Honors at the Kennedy Center in Washington, December 5, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Jonathan ErnstLOS ANGELES | Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:45am EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Playwright Edward Albee, the author of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?," will receive the Edward MacDowell Medal for lifetime achievement, the organization behind the award said on Tuesday.
Albee will become only the third playwright to receive the annual award since it was first handed out in 1960. The medal will be presented to him on August 14.
"Edward Albee was chosen for a clear and obvious reason: he is a towering presence in American theater," Andre Bishop, chairman of this year's MacDowell medalist selection committee, said in a statement.
Albee has long been considered one of the United States' greatest playwrights, alongside such giants as Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill.
His works deal with disillusionment, loneliness and unseen agony in a sometimes scathing manner. His most famous play, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?," opened in 1962 and was seen as a brutal examination of middle-class American life.
Albee, 83, has written 30 plays and won three Pulitzer Prizes and three Tony Awards. His other notable works include his first play "The Zoo Story," which he wrote at age 30, "A Delicate Balance," "Seascape," and "Three Tall Women."
The New Hampshire-based MacDowell Colony, the organization behind the medal, is an artist residency program that has provided fellowships to more than 6,500 artists since its founding in 1907.
Past winners of the MacDowell Medal include painter Georgia O'Keeffe, composer Leonard Bernstein and architect I.M. Pei. The other two playwrights who received the medal were Thornton Wilder and Lillian Hellman.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Peter Bohan)
Edward Albee arrives on the red carpet for the Kennedy Center Honors at the Kennedy Center in Washington, December 5, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Jonathan ErnstLOS ANGELES | Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:45am EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Playwright Edward Albee, the author of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?," will receive the Edward MacDowell Medal for lifetime achievement, the organization behind the award said on Tuesday.
Albee will become only the third playwright to receive the annual award since it was first handed out in 1960. The medal will be presented to him on August 14.
"Edward Albee was chosen for a clear and obvious reason: he is a towering presence in American theater," Andre Bishop, chairman of this year's MacDowell medalist selection committee, said in a statement.
Albee has long been considered one of the United States' greatest playwrights, alongside such giants as Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill.
His works deal with disillusionment, loneliness and unseen agony in a sometimes scathing manner. His most famous play, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?," opened in 1962 and was seen as a brutal examination of middle-class American life.
Albee, 83, has written 30 plays and won three Pulitzer Prizes and three Tony Awards. His other notable works include his first play "The Zoo Story," which he wrote at age 30, "A Delicate Balance," "Seascape," and "Three Tall Women."
The New Hampshire-based MacDowell Colony, the organization behind the medal, is an artist residency program that has provided fellowships to more than 6,500 artists since its founding in 1907.
Past winners of the MacDowell Medal include painter Georgia O'Keeffe, composer Leonard Bernstein and architect I.M. Pei. The other two playwrights who received the medal were Thornton Wilder and Lillian Hellman.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Peter Bohan)
Free Chinese artist, says bold sign at UK gallery
A sign along the top of the Tate Modern art gallery reads '''Release Ai Weiwei'' in London April 8, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Luke MacGregorLONDON | Fri Apr 8, 2011 4:34pm EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - A "Release Ai WeiWei" sign went up at the top of London's prominent Tate Modern art gallery on Friday in support of the detained Chinese artist and activist.
The gallery put the words in large capital letters on the lightbox capping the former power station which is situated on the bank of the River Thames.
The Chinese government said Thursday Ai was being investigated for "suspected economic crimes," while his family said he was the innocent victim of a political witchhunt.
His secretive detention has caused an international uproar.
Burly, bearded Ai had a hand in designing the Bird's Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and has juggled a prominent international art career with colorful campaigns against government censorship and political restrictions, often using the Internet.
The artist filled the Tate Modern's cavernous Turbine Hall with over 100 million handmade porcelain sunflower seeds for an installment in 2010.
(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova; Editing by Sophie Hares)
A sign along the top of the Tate Modern art gallery reads '''Release Ai Weiwei'' in London April 8, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Luke MacGregorLONDON | Fri Apr 8, 2011 4:34pm EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - A "Release Ai WeiWei" sign went up at the top of London's prominent Tate Modern art gallery on Friday in support of the detained Chinese artist and activist.
The gallery put the words in large capital letters on the lightbox capping the former power station which is situated on the bank of the River Thames.
The Chinese government said Thursday Ai was being investigated for "suspected economic crimes," while his family said he was the innocent victim of a political witchhunt.
His secretive detention has caused an international uproar.
Burly, bearded Ai had a hand in designing the Bird's Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and has juggled a prominent international art career with colorful campaigns against government censorship and political restrictions, often using the Internet.
The artist filled the Tate Modern's cavernous Turbine Hall with over 100 million handmade porcelain sunflower seeds for an installment in 2010.
(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova; Editing by Sophie Hares)
"Red" author to publish new thriller novel
NEW YORK | Mon Apr 11, 2011 1:44pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - British author Warren Ellis, whose comic series "Red" was adapted into a hit film last year, is writing two new novels, the first of which will be released next year, publisher Little, Brown and Company said on Monday.
The 43-year-old author is writing a new thriller, called "Gun Machine," described in a news release as about "a beleaguered New York City detective who stumbles upon a cache of hundreds of guns that each trace back to a wide array of seemingly unrelated unsolved murders."
A second as yet untitled novel has also been planned for the Little, Brown and Company's suspense fiction imprint Mulholland Books.
Ellis's graphic novel, "Red," was transferred to the big screen last year in a blockbuster action film starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren that earned $186 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
His comics, which have included the "Transmetropolitan" and "Planetary" series, sell in excess of 100,000 copies a month in the United States alone, according to Little, Brown.
(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)
NEW YORK | Mon Apr 11, 2011 1:44pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - British author Warren Ellis, whose comic series "Red" was adapted into a hit film last year, is writing two new novels, the first of which will be released next year, publisher Little, Brown and Company said on Monday.
The 43-year-old author is writing a new thriller, called "Gun Machine," described in a news release as about "a beleaguered New York City detective who stumbles upon a cache of hundreds of guns that each trace back to a wide array of seemingly unrelated unsolved murders."
A second as yet untitled novel has also been planned for the Little, Brown and Company's suspense fiction imprint Mulholland Books.
Ellis's graphic novel, "Red," was transferred to the big screen last year in a blockbuster action film starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren that earned $186 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
His comics, which have included the "Transmetropolitan" and "Planetary" series, sell in excess of 100,000 copies a month in the United States alone, according to Little, Brown.
(Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Jill Serjeant)
Three debut novelists contest female Orange prize
LONDON | Tue Apr 12, 2011 3:15pm EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Three first-time novelists and three veterans have been chosen to contest this year's Orange Prize for Fiction, which honors women writers.
First-time novelists Serbian/American Tea Obreht ("The Tiger's Wife"), Canadian Kathleen Winter ("Annabel") and Briton Emma Henderson ("Grace Williams Says it Loud") will be in the running for the 30,000 pound ($49,100) prize to be awarded on June 8, organizers said on Tuesday.
The more experienced members of the short-list are American Nicole Krauss with her third novel "Great House," British/Sierra Leonean novelist Aminatta Foma with her second novel "The Memory of Love", and veteran Irish writer Emma Donoghue on her seventh novel "Room."
"The number of first-time novelists is an indicator of the rude health of women's writing," said prize panel chair Bettany Hughes. "The verve and scope of storylines pays compliment to the female imagination."
Hughes said the judging meeting "fizzed" for hours with conversations about the originality, excellence and readability of the books.
"Even though the stories in our final choices range from kidnapping to colonialism, from the persistence of love to Balkan folk-memory, from hermaphroditism to abuse in care, the books are written with such a skillful lightness of touch, humor, sympathy and passion, they all make for an exhilarating and uplifting read," she said.
The Orange Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible and is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman.
(Reporting by Paul Casciato; Editing by Steve Addison)
LONDON | Tue Apr 12, 2011 3:15pm EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Three first-time novelists and three veterans have been chosen to contest this year's Orange Prize for Fiction, which honors women writers.
First-time novelists Serbian/American Tea Obreht ("The Tiger's Wife"), Canadian Kathleen Winter ("Annabel") and Briton Emma Henderson ("Grace Williams Says it Loud") will be in the running for the 30,000 pound ($49,100) prize to be awarded on June 8, organizers said on Tuesday.
The more experienced members of the short-list are American Nicole Krauss with her third novel "Great House," British/Sierra Leonean novelist Aminatta Foma with her second novel "The Memory of Love", and veteran Irish writer Emma Donoghue on her seventh novel "Room."
"The number of first-time novelists is an indicator of the rude health of women's writing," said prize panel chair Bettany Hughes. "The verve and scope of storylines pays compliment to the female imagination."
Hughes said the judging meeting "fizzed" for hours with conversations about the originality, excellence and readability of the books.
"Even though the stories in our final choices range from kidnapping to colonialism, from the persistence of love to Balkan folk-memory, from hermaphroditism to abuse in care, the books are written with such a skillful lightness of touch, humor, sympathy and passion, they all make for an exhilarating and uplifting read," she said.
The Orange Prize for Fiction was set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible and is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman.
(Reporting by Paul Casciato; Editing by Steve Addison)
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