Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

Tel Aviv Museum of Art Opens Exhibition of Collages from 1916 to 2008

Collage is routinely used to describe artistic technique and practice. However, the validity of the present exhibition – which offers the viewer, in an exhibition that does not rely on chronological sequence, a selection of collages ranging from 1916 to 2008, mostly from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art collection – does not lean upon the term's limited functional meaning, but rather on the identification of collage as an utterance: the fundamental, characteristic even, utterance of the 20th century,

Oklahoma City Museum of Art Final Venue for Exhibition of 17th-century Masterpieces

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art will present The Dutch Italianates: 17th-century Masterpieces from Dulwich Picture Gallery, an exhibition presenting views of the Italian landscape of the seventeenth century as seen through Dutch artists’ eyes. The Museum is the final venue for The Dutch Italianates, which will be on view in Oklahoma City from October 8, 2009, through January 3, 2010. This exhibition will display a group of thirty-nine paintings by the famed masters of the Dutch Ita

Agatha Christie's private life would have stumped even Poirot

More than 30 years after her death, in January 1976, Agatha Christie is news once again. HarperCollins – with whom she first signed a three-book deal back in 1924 – is about to publish Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks, a hefty volume that details, exhaustively, the contents of the 73 extant notebooks in which she sketched out plots for her detective fiction. In fact, there is nothing very "secret" about Christie's notebooks, which were first analysed by Janet Morgan in 1

Boston University Art Gallery Presents Missionary Photography in Korea

The Boston University Art Gallery opens its season with the largest ever exhibition of Korean missionary photographs in the United States , Missionary Photography in Korea: Encountering the West through Christianity. A travelling show, organized by The Korea Society, the exhibition documents the encounter between East and West which occurred in Korea during the late 19th century. Missionary Photography captures the dawning of the new religious identities, culture clashes, and altered societal la

Outbreak 1939, Imperial War Museum, London

Exhibitions about the Second World War are, by and large, expected to be gruellingly dramatic affairs. Commemorating the 70th anniversary of its outbreak, however, the Imperial War Museum's new show is a rather different animal, capturing not the storm of conflict but its eerily quiet beginning. A 1930s living room replete with replica wireless sets and reproduction newspapers sets the scene for headlines that emblazon the walls with optimistic – and misreported – news stories. &quo

Art treasures may be sold to fund 'Titanic' museum (UK)

Trotting along a deserted beach; leading out a pack of hounds in a winter landscape; or locked together in the heat of the race; the elegant horses in Sir Alfred Munnings' renowned paintings speak of a quieter, more traditional Britain. They are also, figuratively speaking, about to gallop headlong into a row that is engulfing Britain's art elite – including the chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts, Charles Saumarez Smith, and the chairman of the Museums, Libraries and Arc

Michael Jackson, Woodstock Spark Surge In Memorabilia

Death and nostalgia are proving to be a money-making opportunity for music memorabilia collectors and big auction houses who are hawking everything from Michael Jackson's iconic white glitter glove to old ticket stubs from rock's legendary Woodstock festival. Indeed, the sudden and tragic death of the King of Pop along with news shows commemorating the 40th anniversary of Woodstock have triggered a surge in the number of music fans frantically scouring the internet and auction hous

Amazing Grace Memorial in Liverpool

“Without William Wilberforce the abolitionist campaign would not have succeeded, but without John Newton there would have been no William Wilberforce.” This is the conclusion of Jonathan Aitken, author of John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (2007). This is no exaggeration by the former Member of Parliament and author of Nixon: A Life (1994). Since it was the wisdom of the slave-trader turned born-again Gospel minister, John Newton, that guided William Wilberforce through a

Credit Crisis Is a Big Draw for Finance Museum

The Museum of American Finance was faced with an awkward situation recently: some of the corporate sponsors of the museum — dedicated to glories of free markets — had, well, failed. Rather than fretting, the museum tapped its own entrepreneurial spirit and mounted an exhibit — “Tracking the Credit Crisis” — that reveals what the museum’s president, Lee Kjelleren, calls the “greed, recklessness and arrogance” of Wall Street. Probably not what Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lyn

'Bang Bang Club' Movie Documents Apartheid in S. Africa

The Bang Bang Club is the title of a documentary film currently in production that examines South Africa during the last days of apartheid, and the impact that violence had on four photojournalists covering the conflict. The movie is based on The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War (2000), a book documenting the lives of those four photogs: Ken Oosterbroek, Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva. The book was written by Marinovich and Silva, the two of that group who s

Warhol's Iconic Jackson Painting Auctioned

The painting is a chimera of 1980s culture: a portrait of Michael Jackson painted by Andy Warhol to commemorate the Thriller album's record-breaking sales. The painting was auctioned by the Vered Gallery on New York's Long Island this week for an undisclosed amount, although one report said the price was in excess of $1 million (the starting bid was $800,000.) That would be evidence of the art market's collapse, as the average price for a Warhol in recent years has been $17 million, while the mo

Mom's legacy is world renowned black collection

LOS ANGELES—When the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum of African American History & Culture is finished it will rival New York's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in size and significance. Clayton's son, Avery Clayton, is still cataloging the hundreds of thousands of things his mom collected before she died in 2006 at the age of 83. But he is also getting ready for the museum's first major exhibition. It's a joint project with the Huntington Librar

'Afghan Star': documenting history with a musical beat

Small windows can sometimes open onto the widest vistas. That's the case with "Afghan Star," an informative documentary revealing how decades of war and years of Taliban repression have fallen to the wayside, however briefly, as Kabul's answer to "American Idol" seduces a violence-weary Afghanistan. British filmmaker Havana Marking and her crew keep their focus on the song contest, which is as cheesy and glitzy as any of its Western counterparts. But

Frida Kahlo scholars say discovery of 'astonishing lost archive' is a fake

More than half a century after her death, the Mexican surrealist who had Leon Trotsky and Josephine Baker as lovers and Diego Rivera as her husband, soulmate and tormenter-in-chief, is at the centre of a new controversy. Fittingly for an artist who insisted, "I paint my own reality", the latest row over Frida Kahlo revolves around truth and authenticity. Princeton Architectural Press, which will soon publish a book of Kahlo's oil paintings, diary entries and p

Adolf Hitler paintings to go under the hammer in Germany

Three watercolours depicting cottages, mills and churches nestled in rural landscapes will be auctioned on Sept 5, Weidler's auction house in Nuremberg said on Thursday. "They're very neutral paintings," Kerstin Weidler told Reuters. "The white church picture is drawn very well in his style - of course he didn't make it into the Academy of Fine Arts," she added. The three paintings are dated from 1910 and 1911 and originate from Vienna where Hitler s

Nude photo of Jackie Kennedy Onassis found among Andy Warhol's possessions

The photo, which show the former first lady skinny dipping, is signed "For Andy, with enduring affection, Jackie Montauk" - a reference to the artist's beach front estate in Montauk, on Long Island. The revealing photograph was discovered by archivists sifting through 610 cardboard boxes, filing cabinets and a shipping container that belonged to the pop artist. Researchers working for the Andy Warhol Foundation have also found a piece of crusty wedding cake

President's House memorial design criticized

As construction of the President's House memorial is poised to begin, sharp criticisms have been leveled at the architectural design, catching officials by surprise and focusing attention on purportedly historically inaccurate elements of the project. The house's dimensions are incorrect, the arc of a bow window is distorted, and the building's now-infamous slave quarters are incorrectly located, the critics assert. Some historians and members of a committee charged wit

Amazing Barnum Revival Will Astound the World!

We interrupt our nostalgic return to Bethel, N.Y., for the greatest concert in history to travel to Bethel, Conn., birthplace of the man who dreamed up the Greatest Show on Earth. And with a no-doubt titanic P. T. Barnum revival around the corner, it’s not a bad time to reconsider the man who during his life was perhaps the most famous American on earth, has been hailed as “the architect of the modern culture industry,” coined the term “show business” and never said, “There’s a suck

Frick Art & Historical Center to Present Entertaining the President: A Household at Work

On July 4, 1902, Henry Clay Frick, one of America's greatest industrialists and art collectors, hosted President Theodore Roosevelt and 20 other gentlemen at a luncheon at Clayton, the Frick family home in Pittsburgh's East End. The president visited Pittsburgh for a day-long celebration that included a parade, a speech in Schenley Park, a lavish dinner, and fireworks in the evening. This exciting day in Pittsburgh history is being commemorated at the Frick Art & Historical Center this summe

Andy Warhol's Portrait of Michael Jackson Fetches $1 Million at Auction

Andy Warhol's portrait of Michael Jackson sold for more than $1 million at an East Hampton, New York, gallery last night, according to Janet Lehrm one of the gallery owners. Pre-sale estimates ranged from one to 10 million US dollars. The painting shows Michael Jackson wearing a red jacket from his Thriller era. The portrait, measuring 30 by 26 inches (76.2 by 66 centimeters), was purchased for US$278,500 in May at the Sotheby's auction house. Janet Lehr