"I was the victim of a brutal emotional mugging… I was shaking, on the verge of tears and genuinely frightened… [by] a set of paintings that are so filled with rage, fear and frustration that, for the first time in my life, I began to understand what it must be like to be a woman."...
The Museum of Russian Icons, tucked away in an old Massachusetts mill town, is doubling its exhibition space and preparing to host a show featuring rare loans from the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow....
"The former state funeral parlour at 104 rue d'Aubervilliers in north-east Paris will reopen this weekend after being transformed into the city's most daring modern arts centre. […] Not only are Parisians attracted by the macabre past of the building - known only by its street number, Centquatre - the centre will also bring artists and tourists into the 19th arrondissement best known for its high-rises, poverty and gang culture."...
"Artist Ed Stross faces a 30-day stint in jail unless the American Civil Liberties Union manages to overturn his conviction for painting the word "love" on his mural in this Detroit suburb. Stross's long-running dispute with local officials is over his addition of the word to his mural in 1997 in memory of Princess Diana."...
"Having already finished more than half of the fund-raising, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum plans to begin work in January on the renovation and expansion of its ornate [Manhattan] mansion. The project is aimed at energizing the Cooper-Hewitt, regarded in recent years as a somewhat sleepy institution, by carving out space for more ambitious shows and the display of works from its permanent collection."...
Toronto record label Arts &Crafts, the company behind popular Canadian acts such as Feist, Broken Social Scene and Stars, has launched a tiny satellite operation in Mexico City.
Known for making household names of British artists like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin, influential collector Charles Saatchi has turned his sights on contemporary Chinese art for the much anticipated reopening of his namesake gallery in London.
Comments from the top member of the Swedish Academy that American writers are too insular and ignorant to compete with European writing continue to reverberate on this side of the Atlantic.
