The Banksy Self-Destructing Art Mystery

The Banksy Self-Destructing Art Mystery by Leticia Marie Sanchez Last week in London, after being sold for 1.4 million dollars at auction, a Banksy painting self-destructed. Banksy’s “Girl with a Balloon” had just sold at Sotheby’s when a hidden shredder inside the painting began to slice and dice the work, to gasps from the auction crowd.…

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Making the Fig and Other Artistic Insults

An Eye for an Eye, a Fig for a Fig by Leticia Marie Sanchez Even noble literary figures need to blow off steam. Shakespeare’s Capulets and Montagues deliver the shocking, duel-provoking insult of thumb-biting.  Only a duel could avenge such a slur on one’s honor. Sampson: I will bite my thumb at them, which is…

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San Francisco art heist: “The Preppy Sockless Picasso Thief”

Flashback to 2011 when a Picasso sketch was stolen by a man who preferred to go sockless.. Who: Preppy Sockless Picasso  Thief What: Steals Picasso 1962 sketch ““Tête de femme,” valued at $275,000 before heading to party in Napa Where: San Francisco’s Weinstein Gallery at Geary and Powell Streets When: Tuesday the 5th of July, 2011 The man calmly removed the sketch from the wall of the gallery, wrapped…

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Life of an artist…Philip Glass..

Philip Glass, the creative and celebrated modern composer, courageously blazed a trail despite all the absurdities facing artists. According to Elizabeth Lundy, in Secret Lives of Great Composers, Mr. Glass took on sundry jobs to pay the bills during the 60′s and 70′s, even while his operas were being performed at the Met in Lincoln Center: Shortly…

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Theater Review: Under Bacchae’s spell- a MUST SEE production at the Getty Villa

Under Bacchae’s Spell By Leticia Marie Sanchez The first few moments of Euripides’ Bacchae at the Getty Villa set the tone for the entire evening. Screaming Jay Hawkins’ raw, electrifying 1956 blues hit “I Put a Spell on You” plays in the outdoor theater, jolting the audience as the spartanly dressed Bacchanalian chorus emerges from classical columns. Their fearless leader Dionysus,…

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Henri Matisse- Don’t touch the fruit!

by Leticia Marie Sanchez According to Kathleen Krull, in her book “Lives of the Artists,” Henri Matisse subsisted on a strict diet of rice-only when he first started out as a painter. Not Rice-A-Roni. Just plain boiled rice. Matisse refused to even allow himself to indulge in the luscious fruit that he bought for his…

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Verdi: A bold request

Verdi: A bold request by Leticia Marie Sanchez Verdi: A bold request by Leticia Marie Sanchez The following correspondence in the form of abridged letters between Giuseppe Verdi and one very unusual opera-goer, Prospero Bertani: Much Honoured Signor Verdi,       Reggio, May 7, 1872 On the second of this month, attracted by the sensation which your…

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Getty Villa Chefs and the Bacchae..

Chefs at the Getty Villa are already preparing the menu for the concessions available on the nights of the performances of Bacchae, opening September 6th. Treatsinclude the edible butterfly on this chocolate tart. The pleasure-seeking Dionysus would certainly approve of this Cultural Cocktail for the senses!

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