“One Sunday, several months ago, early risers gazing at Czech Television’s CT2 channel saw picturesque panoramas of the Czech countryside, broadcast to the wordless accompaniment of elevator music. It was the usual narcoleptic morning weather show. Then came the nuclear blast…”
That Mushroom Cloud? They’re Just Svejking Around The New York Times.
“Even amid the foundation stories of the indigenous art renaissance, the tale of Daniel Walbidi and the birth of the painting movement in the remote coastal community of Bidyadanga stands out…
It was mid-1999: Daniel, a thin, delicate young man, only 16, walked in to the little Short Street Gallery in Broome’s Chinatown, and approached its manager, the flame-haired Emily Rohr: “I am an artist,” she remembers him saying, in a grave voice, “and there are old people in my community who need to paint.”Somewhat startled, Rohr listened to his account: he told her how the old desert men and women living at Bidyadanga were full of knowledge, how they dreamed of their distant country each day they spent in coastal exile, and how those dreams and conversations had filled up his mind in turn…”
Our old people need to paint, Nicholas Rothwell, The Australian.
“The posh art critic has been turning up in the unlikeliest of places recently and there are now plenty of tribute sites devoted to him.Last week Johnny Depp revealed what his next source of vocal inspiration will be (after modelling Jack Sparrow on Keith Richards). During an interview for BBC’s Newsnight, he announced: “I like that guy Brian Sewell – he has a very interesting approach.” Sewell has been turning up in the unlikeliest of places recently. After hilariously losing out to DJ Spoony on Celebrity Mastermind, he briefly raised the tone on Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack. I presume the Brian Sewell MySpace poetry page is a spoof. It’s obvious that BrianSewell.co.uk is; although the makers insist their voice generator (aka The Sewell Sampler) and their flash video of him delivering a rendition of Give Peace A Chance are intended to be “in his honour”. They aren’t the only tribute sites either: this one for instance offers Sewell-inspired erotic fiction…”
Catch of the day: Brian Sewell, internet star , Guardian Unlimited Art Blog.
A codger, recently.
“A man of 84 who fooled the art world by selling fake antiques that his son made in his garden shed was given a two-year suspended jail term today.
George Greenhalgh, nicknamed the “Artful Codger”, would turn up in his wheelchair at art houses and museums claiming he found or inherited the objects.
His son, Shaun, 47, “knocked up” the artworks at the family’s terraced home in Bolton, Greater Manchester, using art and history books for inspiration…”
Artful Codger’ spared jail over counterfeit art, The Guardian.
