ISTANBUL, July 29—Two nights after devastating terrorist bombs exploded on its popular pedestrian shopping block, the neighborhood of Gungoren swarmed with people: old and young men repaired the shattered windows of a clothing shop under the blank, watchful eyes of naked mannequins; women in head scarves shared ice cream next to women in sundresses; shop Read More
Who could have imagined that the aggressive, angry, über-feminist Pina Bausch of 20 years ago would have metamorphosed into the romantic, sensual and—yes—charming Pina Bausch of today? The sensibility that produced what Arlene Croce, in 1984, referred to as “Animal House with weltschmerz” is now celebrating life and love in Istanbul, in a piece called Read More
Who could have imagined that the aggressive, angry, über-feminist Pina Bausch of 20 years ago would have metamorphosed into the romantic, sensual and—yes—charming Pina Bausch of today? The sensibility that produced what Arlene Croce, in 1984, referred to as “ Animal House with weltschmerz” is now celebrating life and love in Istanbul, in a piece Read More
Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver, from his screenplay (in Spanish, with English subtitles), turns out to be by far the most disciplined narrative film, structurally and stylistically, of the 16 or so that he’s made over the past quarter of a century. Mr. Almodóvar’s ingrained partiality to his women characters attains almost heroic proportions here, as he Read More
Clarissa Dalrymple "Next year, in 2007, I think it's like the year of the suicide—the art world commits suicide," said Vasif Kortun. "It starts with Moscow, and then there's the Emirates, and then there's Venice, then in Istanbul; there's Documenta, there is Muenster Sculpture Projects—there's like fifty biennials next year." Mr. Kortun, whose polite patience Read More
"Next year, in 2007, I think it's like the year of the suicide—the art world commits suicide," said Vasif Kortun. "It starts with Moscow, and then there's the Emirates, and then there's Venice, then in Istanbul; there's Documenta, there is Müenster Sculpture Projects—there's like fifty biennials next year." Mr. Kortun, who has a polite patience Read More
Citizens Union's Dick Dadey emailed over revenue numbers for the top New York political consulting and lobbying firms for the past five years that give a strong sense of how political consultants' main product line is increasingly...lobbying. It's not a new trend, but it's a worrying one for good-government groups, as the question of Read More
The exhibition called Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557) , at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, encompasses some 350 objects from approximately 30 countries, including Greece, Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Italy, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro, and Macedonia. This is almost too much geography for most of us to comprehend in a single exhibition, even one Read More
Turkish With a Twist:
Soho Garage Revs Up Kitchen A dark-haired woman of a certain age, muffled up to the chin in a black coat, took a seat by herself at a small table near the bar. "You need a glass of wine," said the manager. "In red, we have Spanish, Portuguese, French, Turkish …. " Read MoreI have never cared much for what art museums call "orientation" galleries. With their plethora of video and computer images, their stocks of well-worn art-historical clichés and their breezy reduction of complex aesthetic and historical issues to a few easily grasped labels and formulas, they have always struck me as a poor way to introduce Read More
Your diarist is filing this dispatch from a small village named Halton, some 50 miles northwest of London.
To be more precise, I am filing this dispatch from inside an American-made motor home sitting on the great lawn of a 52-room English country manor house, built by the banker Alfred de Rothschild in 1882. At Read More
