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

Dylan: The Making of Blonde on Blonde in Nashville.

Almost half a century has passed since Freewheelin’, with reams of articles and years of reverence all piling up, and, still, too much Dylan isn't enough. Sean Wilentz plays the fly on the wall for Dylan's Nashville studio sessions for Blonde on Blonde, dissecting all the elements that contributed to the album's “3 A.M. aura”—the often grueling but ultimately brilliant all-night sessions leading to an album that just about deserves its own fiftieth anniversary. *** A memory from the summer

Van Gogh’s Art, in His Own Words (Exhibit/NYC)

No one is certain when Vincent van Gogh and Émile Bernard first met. It was probably in March 1886, shortly after van Gogh, nearly 33, moved to Paris from Antwerp and encountered Bernard, 15 years his junior, in Fernand Cormon’s atelier. They saw each other again in Père Tanguy’s art supply shop, a popular meeting place for the city’s young artists, and a friendship developed. Van Gogh wrote some 800 letters in his lifetime, including 22 to Bernard from December 1887 to November 188

A Painting Comes Home (or at Least a Facsimile)

— Can — and should — technology right a historical wrong? That’s a question Italians have been asking since a facsimile of Veronese’s 16th-century “Wedding at Cana” was installed on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore a few weeks ago. At the heart of the debate is the digital re-creation of this vast 1563 painting, which Napoleon’s forces removed from the refectory in the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore 210 years ago and took back to France as war booty. The facsimile, by

Scorsese documentrary about Beatle George Harrison

The Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese plans a documentary on the life of George Harrison, left, who died of cancer in 2001 at the age of 58. In Mr. Scorsese’s latest excursion into music-based films — which include “The Last Waltz,” about the Band; “No Direction Home,” about Bob Dylan; and the forthcoming “Shine a Light,” about the Rolling Stones — Mr. Scorsese will examine Mr. Harrison’s career as a Beatle, his years as a successful soloist, his ventures as a movie producer and his Eastern

NYT feature on the house that inspired Hawthorne's House of the 7 Gables

SALEM, Mass. — You needn’t have read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The House of the Seven Gables” to appreciate the fine Salem house of the same name that was recently designated a National Historic Landmark. The house has many attributes: important history, a picturesque site overlooking the Salem harbor, proximity to Hawthorne’s birthplace and an interior filled with 17th- , 18th- and 19th-century antiques. In the book, an 1851 romance, Hawthorne begins, “Halfway down

"Gerda Taro" and "This Is War! Robert Capa at Work" (Exhibit/NYC)

There are a number of narratives running through “Gerda Taro” and “This Is War! Robert Capa at Work,” at the International Center of Photography. One concerns the rediscovery of Taro, an accomplished photographer whose brief career has been nearly forgotten. Another tracks the development of Capa, whom Picture Post magazine called “the greatest war photographer in the world.” A third is the story of two young people, Taro and Capa, who fled Nazi Germany, moved to Paris and formed a working partn

Smithsonian TV Channel Make Its Debut

The long-delayed Smithsonian television channel finally made its debut this week on satellite provider DirecTV. The launch ends a lengthy saga of fits and starts and controversy since the Smithsonian Institution first announced its exclusive deal with the Showtime Networks, Inc. to develop a television network nearly two years ago. Originally conceived as an on-demand digital channel, the network debuted on September 26 as a traditional channel with regular programming scheduled 24-hours a day.

Italy and Getty Sign Pact on Artifacts

ROME, Sept. 25 — In a low-key ceremony, the Italian Culture Ministry and the J. Paul Getty Museum of Los Angeles signed an agreement here on Tuesday under which the museum will hand over 40 archaeological artifacts that Italy says were looted from its soil.

Banished (Documentary about Jim Crow)

There are ghosts haunting Marco Williams’s quietly sorrowful documentary “Banished,” about the forced expulsion of black Southerners from their homes in the troubled and violent decades after the Civil War. Dressed in what looks like their Sunday best, in dark suits and high-collar dresses, they stare solemnly into an unwelcoming world. A couple ride in a cart along a pretty country road, and others stand awkwardly before houses with peeling paint. There are few smiles. Photography was then a se

Heirs Make Huge Claim Over Dutch Works of Art

Just as the Dutch government was moving to discourage new claims for restitution of art looted during World War II, the heirs of a Dutch Jewish art dealer have filed one of the largest claims to date for paintings now held in Dutch museums. Four heirs of the dealer, Nathan Katz, who died in 1949, say that he was the rightful owner of more than 200 artworks recovered in Germany at the end of the war and handed over to the Dutch government. The claimants are Mr. Katz’s four children:

Sally Field to play Lincoln's wife

Actress Sally Field is all set to play Mary Todd Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's long-gestating biopic Lincoln. The film will be based on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's ˜Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. According to Hollywood Reporter, the movie may focus on the 16th US president's role in leading the North in the Civil War. The newspaper also reported that Liam Neeson has been signed to play Lincoln in the movie. Ea

Jane Jacobs, Foe of Plans and Friend of City Life (Exhibit/NYC)

Nearly a half century ago, at the dawn of an era renowned for its utopian dreams and dystopian diagnoses, a journalist who loved the American city wrote an attack on all the professional planners and idealists who believed they could design the perfect urban habitat, the city beautiful, a metropolitan Eden. Forget it, was the message Jane Jacobs elegantly hammered home in that 1961 book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” There is no utopia to be found. And every fantasy

N.C. exhibit showcases 400 years of state history, art

Hundreds of paintings, pieces of furniture and other artistic creations that span nearly 400 years of state history will become part of a permanent gallery at the North Carolina Museum of History when the exhibit opens Saturday. "Pleasing to the Eye: The Decorative Arts of North Carolina" contains items ranging in age from a childhood portrait painted in 1639 of King Charles II of England to a cup and saucer created in 1994 by a sixth-generation North Carolina potter.

Salon gives Ken Burns's series a big thumbs up

Sixty-two years ago, the greatest conflict in the history of humanity came to an end. Fifty to 60 million people had died. Many millions more were wounded or had lost their homes. Nations were shattered. The most appalling genocide ever had taken place. And for the first time, nuclear weapons had been used, raising the specter of human extinction. Every way of trying to tell a story this vast carries with it blind spots, reveals its own assumptions and biases. Ken Burns'"The War" is n

Bring battle painting 'into view'

A painting of King William of Orange heading to the Battle of the Boyne should hang in public, a nationalist assembly member has said. The artwork has been largely hidden from public view since being bought by the Stormont Government in 1933 for £209 and four shillings. The plea for a wider platform came after it was found hanging in the Speaker's office last month. The SDLP's John Dallat said a prominent place in Stormont should be found. He said it

Smithsonian Channel To Make Its Debut, But Only on DirecTV

The Smithsonian's controversial cable television programming will debut Wednesday, but right now only those with a specific satellite dish will be able to see it. Subscribers to DirecTV, one of two main satellite TV carriers, will have access to the 75 hours of programming from the Smithsonian Channel, produced in cooperation with Showtime Networks, the network will announce today. Several groups objected to the contract because the Smithsonian signed over to Showtime s

West Side Story Turns 50

"It's just really hard to believe that its 50 years," said Chita Rivera after the curtain went up on the West Side Story half a century ago this week. Chita Rivera, as the original Anita, would help change the American musical, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason. "When you take me back, its still so thrilling and so moving," said Rivera. The movie would later take it to the rest of America. West Side Story was young, edgy an

Letters show Picasso was no collaborator

He stayed in Paris when the Nazis invaded, keeping his head down and prompting claims that he must have collaborated with Hitler's regime. But, covertly, Picasso played a "brave" role in supporting the French Resistance, according to previously unpublished letters revealed this weekend. Professor Peter Read, head of the French department in the University of Kent at Canterbury, has gained access to a collection of letters proving that Picasso actively and courageously supp

If Grant Had Been Singing at Appomattox

WHOEVER said that history doesn’t repeat itself never reckoned with Philip Glass. No, it is not a matter of musical repetitiveness, though there is plenty of that. In this case the motivation for a new Glass opera echoes that of a much older one, and both works loom large in the new season. “Appomattox,” based on the surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant at the end of the Civil War, will have its premiere at the San Francisco Opera on Oct. 5. And in April the Metropolitan O

Gerda Taro: A Wartime Photographer in Her Own Light (Robert Capa's partner) (Exhibit/NYC)

Sometime in the spring of 1936, the lovers and photographers André Friedmann and Gerta Pohorylle changed their names and, in the process, the history of photography. To distinguish themselves from other Jewish émigrés in Paris at the time, Mr. Friedmann, a Hungarian Jew, took the name Robert Capa; Ms. Pohorylle, also Jewish and born in Poland, became Gerda Taro. Working at times as “Capa,” an imaginary American photographer, they began documenting the Spanish Civil War, capturing the ruined town