News (old posts, page 821)
That muscular back! Those fleshy breasts! The National Gallery’s ‘fake’ Rubens looks very real to me
How can anyone call Rubens’ sumptuous masterpiece Samson and Delilah a ‘fake’ and ‘a shoddy artefact’? The Flemish master is simply doing a superb job of copying his own favourite outlaw artist
Samson, a huge muscular hunk of a man, slumbers in the lap of his seducer Delilah, in a bedchamber sumptuously lit by candle. As Delilah looks down on the unconscious form of the great biblical hero, her accomplice is cutting the very tangled locks that hold his superhuman strength. Meanwhile, at the door, soldiers are waiting by torchlight. At the heart of it all is Samson’s rippled naked back, nestled on the woman’s pink silk skirts.
Is this a painting by the Flemish baroque master Peter Paul Rubens? Hell, yes. The wonder is that anyone would ever think otherwise. And yet some do. Michael Daley and his campaigning group ArtWatch UK, and the art historian Euphrosyne Doxiadis (among others), are getting traction with their claims that the National Gallery owns a “fake” or “modern copy” and is covering up that reality.
Continue reading...OpenAI boss says rivals Meta offering $100m for staff to jump ship
Tough, whip-smart and selfless: Melissa Hortman, ‘singular force for democracy’, remembered
Colleagues speak of Hortman’s legislative accomplishments, a ‘steely negotiator’ who went into politics ‘to do something, not to be something’
A group of white male lawmakers were playing cards in a back room while their female colleagues gave speeches on the Minnesota house floor. They weren’t paying attention, and Melissa Hortman had had enough.
“I hate to break up the 100 percent white male card game in the retiring room,” Hortman said in 2017. “But I think this is an important debate.”
Continue reading...Why is there a Maga-branded Instant Pot? Because capitalism never sleeps | Arwa Mahdawi
Trump-related products are popping up all over the US – with the profits guaranteed to never help those who buy them
If you want to demonstrate your fealty to Donald Trump through the medium of branded merchandise (and who doesn’t?) there are ample ways to do so. You can pick up a Trump bible and some of Melania’s lovely “Vote Freedom” jewellery. You can stay in one of his hotels, golf in his resorts, and get yourself a Trump watch. You can buy some of the Trump-branded cryptocurrency that has made the family extremely rich. You can also, as announced on Monday, buy a gold Trump smartphone for just $499 and use Trump mobile as your service provider for $47.45.
I know what you’re thinking. All this is wonderful, but where are the Trump-branded home goods? How can I demonstrate my loyalty to the president while cooking stew in my kitchen? Well, I have great news. Because capitalism is relentless, the Instant Pot brand is coming out with a Trump-inspired design. (Instant Pot, if you’re not familiar, is a pressure cooker that gained a cult-like following several years ago, then went on a downward spiral when it was bought by a private equity firm.) The company is apparently planning various products emblazoned with “Make America Great Again”.
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