Arts

President Donald Trump will award the Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight with the National Medal of Arts, the White House announced on Sunday. In a statement, the White House confirmed that Jon Voight, who is one of Trump’s few prominent Hollywood supporters, will be honored at a ceremony later this week for his “exceptional capacity as an actor to portray deeply complex characters.”“Captivating audiences, he has given us insights into the richness of the human mind and heart,” the statement read. Voight, who won the Academy Award for best actor in 1978 for his role as veteran Luke Martin in Coming Home, is a fervent supporter of the president. Earlier this year, the star declared President Trump the “greatest president since Abraham Lincoln.” “Our country is stronger, safer and with more jobs, because our president has made his every move correct,” he said Voight, who is the father of actress Angelina Jolie. “Don’t be … [Read more...] about Trump to Award Jon Voight with National Medal of Arts

A Caravaggio masterpiece stolen from a Palermo church 50 years ago and listed among FBI’s “most wanted” stolen artworks, was kept in the home of a powerful mafia boss, who sliced off a piece of the canvas in order to convince the Catholic church to make a deal for its return, according to previously unseen testimony from the priest who tried to recover it. In an video interview filmed in 2001, but locked in a drawer and now revealed exclusively to the Guardian, the parish priest of the Oratory of San Lorenzo revealed astonishing details of the October 1969 theft of Merisi da Caravaggio’s Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence. Monsignor Benedetto Rocco, who died in 2013, said the painting was in the home of notorious Sicilian mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti – a claim only confirmed for the first time by investigators last year – and said he had attempted to extort the church for its return. “A few months after [the theft], a letter arrived at … [Read more...] about The ‘kidnapped’ Caravaggio: how the mafia took a razor blade to a masterpiece

The first question, on entering the completed interior of the church of Sagrada Família, is: "Is it really there?" We have been so long accustomed to the idea that Barcelona's most famous landmark is a permanent ruin, unfinished and unfinishable, that it comes as a shock to find it is now keeping out the weather, for the first time in its 130 years of making. The canned ecstasy of the Hallelujah Chorus plays on the PA system and sunbeams pierce its forest of columns with such dazzle and precision that, you think, they must be digital. It is like walking into the Colosseum and finding it all there, with awnings, crowds, sand, blood, beasts, gladiators and thumb-turning emperor which, being clearly impossible, would most easily be explained as a video game in three dimensions. The second question is: "Is it really Gaudí?" The great Catalan architect famously adjusted his buildings as he went along, modifying details in response to unusual stones found in the quarry and forever … [Read more...] about Sagrada Familia: Gaudí’s cathedral is nearly done, but would he have liked it?

It’s fair to say it’s not been a great few days for Prince Andrew, and, on Monday, it got even worse after he was accused of using the n-word in a conversation with a former British government adviser. Rohan Silva, a key aide of former Prime Minister David Cameron, alleges that at a meeting in 2012, attended by himself and an unnamed royal aide, he asked the Queen’s second son whether the government department responsible for trade “could be doing a better job.” He said the Duke of York responded: “Well, If you’ll pardon the expression, that really is the n***** in the woodpile.”  Silva, who has Sri Lankan heritage and was born in the U.K., has written about the encounter in a column in today’s London Evening Standard. Palace sources categorically denied to the Standard that Andrew ever used the phrase. Silva, 38, said he clearly recalls “how I walked blinking into the sunshine outside Buckingham Palace, reeling at the … [Read more...] about Now Prince Andrew Is Accused of Using the N-Word

Spaceships. Specifically, spaceships shooting at each other. And fire. That is what celebrated UK-based comic book artist Warwick Johnson-Cadwell remembers drawing as a young boy.“I always drew. It was the easy way to play. I didn’t have to worry about asking my parents to buy me spaceships… well, I asked them to buy as many spaceships as I could, but I could make my own spaceships.”The unassuming artist, who was in Bengaluru for the Maruti Suzuki Arena Bengaluru Comic Con held over the weekend in Whitefield, smiles as he adds, “Drawing is something I do every day. I don't necessarily set myself a job daily. But if I don't draw, I feel like I need to sit down and catch up. I have done a few jobs where I was meant to be working but I was drawing quietly in my sketchbook instead.”Warwick has worked in editorial illustration, animation, concept design, storyboarding and narrative art. His projects include a much-celebrated take on Tank Girl as well as … [Read more...] about Warwick Johnson-Cadwell of ‘Samurai Jack’ fame on his latest work

Good morning, Bay Area. It’s Monday, Nov. 18, and the Oakland Police Department has changed how it conducts traffic stops. Also, those power outages might be back this week. Here’s what you need to know to start your day. Cops’ new way To curb racial bias, Oakland police are pulling fewer people over. Will it work? The Police Department has long been accused of using traffic violations to search and question people of color. Now officers are declining to pull people over in most cases for low-level infractions like a broken windshield. Instead, officers are focused on more serious violations and people they’ve identified as potential suspects. The number of “discretionary” stops — the ones initiated by an officer, not a call for service — dropped from 31,528 in 2017 to 19,900 last year. The racial disparity changed only marginally, with African Americans comprising 61% of motorists stopped in 2017 and 55% in 2018. City leaders see signs … [Read more...] about Bay Briefing: Oakland police and racial bias — a new approach to curbing it