Disney-Britton

REUTERS By Staff (An inscription on an Etruscan stele is seen through a magnifying glass in a restoration centre in Florence, Italy, April 20, 2016. REUTERS/Remo Casilli) A rare inscription found on a stone unearthed in an ancient temple near Florence is exciting archaeologists who say it may help reveal the secrets of the Etruscans, one of Italy’s earliest and most enigmatic civilizations. The Etruscans flourished in central Italy 2,500 years ago but their culture and language were assimilated into the Roman empire. They left behind lavish tombs, pottery and statues but tantalizingly few written documents and patchy evidence of their daily lives. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS By Henri Neuendorf Set of the Metropolitan Opera’s “Les Pecheurs De Perles” (Winter 2016) GERMANY---The German Oscar-nominated filmmaker and artist Wim Wenders is embarking on a late career change at the ripe old age of 70 and taking charge of an opera for the first time. According to the New York Times , the opera—which was first performed in 1836—is a three-act performance set on the island of Ceylon in ancient times. It follows the story of two pearl divers whose close friendship risks falling apart when they both fall in love with the same woman, a Hindu priestess. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ken Johnson o The Endless Span of Creation December 15, 1954 24 x 24 inches (61 x 61 cm) Oil on board NEW YORK--- Eugene Von Bruenchenhein (1910-1983) made doughnuts in a Milwaukee bakery. Otherwise he lived and worked in an enchanted world of art and fantasy that he ruled with his wife, Marie, in a small, clapboard house. Now he’s considered one of America’s great self-taught artists. This inspiring exhibition  at Andrew Edlin samples his diverse efforts. These ethereal visions of spiritual glory contrast sharply with the humble circumstances of their origins. [ link ]

+972 BLOG By Eli Valley Haggadot have historically evolved to reflect the needs and aspirations of their respective communities. Eli Valley envisions an American Jewish Haggadah for presidential primary season. Eli Valley is a writer and artist whose work has appeared in The New Republic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, Gawker and elsewhere. A collection of his comics will be released later this year by OR Books. His website is www.elivalley.com and he tweets @elivalley. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS By Amanda Thomas Hassan Hajjaj, Head to Head (2006). Photo: Courtesy of Hassan Hajjaj and The Third Line, Dubai. In March 14, Moroccan artist Hassan Hajjaj opened his newest collection of gender-redefining images at The Third Line art gallery in Duabi. Titled "La Salle de Gym des Femmes Arabes," or the "Gym for Arab Women," the photographs in the exhibition were taken over the course of many years in different locations. In this series, Hajjaj looks to re-define gender norms in the context of athleticism, by placing female figures in the gym or other spaces that are traditionally perceived as masculine. [ link ]

REUTERS By staff "Xian’er" by Master Monk Xianer A Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Beijing has decided to ditch traditional ways and use technology to attract followers. Longquan temple says it has developed a robot monk that can chant Buddhist mantras, move via voice command, and hold a simple conversation. Named Xian’er, the 60-cm (2-foot) tall robot resembles a cartoon-like novice monk in yellow robes with a shaven head, holding a touch screen on his chest. Xian’er can hold a conversation by answering about 20 simple questions about Buddhism and daily life, listed on his screen, and perform seven types of motions on his wheels. [ link ]

THE ALGEMEINER Pages from the Birds’ Head Haggadah, which is currently on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Photo: Google Cultural Institute/Israel Museum via Wikimedia Commons. ISRAEL---The grandchildren of a German-Jewish lawmaker say that the famous Birds’ Head Haggadah, a medieval copy of the Passover haggadah that is currently on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, was stolen from their family by the Nazis. Calling the Nazis’ stealing and subsequent selling of the haggadah a “long-standing illegal and moral injustice,” the family members have enlisted E. Randol Schoenberg — the lawyer made famous by Ryan Reynolds in the film Woman in Gold for his role in the legal battle that restored Gustav Klimt’s paintings to their Jewish heir — to help them secure compensation for what occurred. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS By Hettie Judah Venus, by Sandro Botticelli, about 1490. Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Photo: Volker-H. Schneider Across three sharply delineated displays, " Botticelli Reimagined " considers the work and influence of the 15th century Florentine master. The Victoria & Albert Museum—an Arts and Crafts-inflected temple to the sibling status of the fine and decorative arts—puts its distinctive institutional stamp on the subject, examining Botticelli's influence in the fields of fashion, textiles, and cinema as well as his design of powerful pictorial compositions. This is an ambitious and complex show, touching on issues of religion, power, and aesthetics across five centuries. [ link ]

LOS ANGELES TIMES By Jessica Gelt "Raising of the Cross (Elevación de la Cruz)" by Mexican painter Antonio de Torres was among the pieces acquired as part of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's annual Collectors Committee weekend event. (2016 Museum Associates / LACMA) CALIFORNIA---The Collectors Committee weekend has been a staple of the museum's fundraising efforts since 1986. During the last three decades, the event has resulted in the acquisition of 208 artworks through donations totaling more than $38 million. The five artworks added to the permanent collection include Iranian artist Siamak Filizadeh’s "Underground" (2014), a series of 22 digitally manipulated photographs that resemble a monumental painting; a handmade soft sculpture by Claes Oldenburg titled "Typewriter Eraser" (1970); a pair of large screens by Japanese painter Soga Shohaku titled "Oxen and Shepherds" (18th century); the Pop art sculpture "Jump Rop...

REUTERS By staff (Oprah Winfrey at the 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California February 21, 2015. REUTERS/Adrees Latif ) Oprah Winfrey is returning to scripted television more than two decades after her last regular small screen acting gig in a show that is close to her heart – a family drama centered around a black mega-church in Memphis. Winfrey, 62, plays a manipulative blues club owner in the 13-episode series “Greenleaf” for her OWN cable television channel that she called “a dream come true.” “I believe that what we all love is a good story,” Winfrey said at a screening on Wednesday at the Tribeca film festival, ahead of the show’s TV debut on June 21. [ link ]

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE [ AOPrize Finalist: Click to Vote ] By David Van Biema Tobi Kahn (American, born 1952), Omer Calendar, Saphyr, 2002, acrylic on wood, 27 1/2 x 22 1/4 x 9 1/2 in. (69.9 x 56.5 x 24.1 cm). PDigital image © 2006 The Jewish Museum, New York. Photo by Ardon Bar Hama As the early-April sunlight streamed through a window in his cheerfully cluttered studio in Queens, New York artist Tobi Kahn bent over a workbench with a number 10 Filbert brush. He was putting the third wash of glaze — out of eight — on a painstakingly worked silver-painted peg, a unique miniature sculpture soon to join 48 others. Kahn’s first Omer counter (he is now creating his third cycle of seven) hangs in New York’s Jewish Museum. The 49 sculpted forms are set in a grid; each one can be placed in its designated space in only a single way. By a daily act, the viewer becomes a participant in the continually changing work, a celebration that takes place over measured time. [ link ]

REUTERS By Staff Devotees at Thai temple give alms to tens of thousands of Buddhist monks The temple, 49 km (30 miles) north of the capital, Bangkok, is run by the influential, if controversial, Dhammakaya sect, and has been dogged by allegations of corruption for years, but has always denied them. Around 50,000 monks clad in orange robes chanted as devotees wearing white to symbolize the purity of the Buddha flocked to give alms at the Wat Phra Dhammakaya, famed for its enormous golden stupa that resembles an unidentified flying object. [ link ]

CNN By Thmas Page "Europa" (2008) by South African Nandipha Mntambo NEW YORK---It seems no museum collection is complete without a few token African masks. Many of us have glimpsed them walking between exhibits, but few of us know what role they actually play to the many cultures on the continent that adopt them. Why, for instance, do members of Malawi's Nyau society dance around in an Elvis Presley disguise? The Brooklyn Museum in New York is looking to fill in the gaps with its new exhibition, Disguise: Masks and Global African Art. "Masks have long been used by African artists to define relationships―between individuals, communities, the environment, or the cosmos―and, sometimes, to challenge the status quo. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Jonathan Jones Byzantine-style mosaic showing the Virgin as advocate for the human race, from Palermo Cathedral in Sicily (AD 1130-1189). Photograph: © Museo Diocesano di Palermo The Normans, those lean invaders in scaly chain mail who slew and conquered their way into Britain in the embroidered scenes of the Bayeux tapestry, have a harsh reputation. The British Museum’s latest stimulating survey of world history shows why we should rediscover these feudal fighters as heroes of multiculturalism. Far from a simple hymn to the lovely landscapes and ruins of Sicily, this exhibition invites you to rethink Britain’s own history and heritage. The Normans, it shows, creatively blended religion and art and in Sicily sponsored the most liberal culture of the middle ages. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By James Barron Arches on one wall of the chapel are said to echo elements in the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times NEW YORK---After a stay at an Upper East Side hospital, the designer Dennis Basso decided that a nondenominational chapel there was in need of an update. Mr. Basso said in a gravelly voice that seems to know only one volume level, booming. “The carved candleholders are from Italy.” And the chapel — officially the Leland Eggleston Cofer Memorial Chapel at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center on the Upper East Side of Manhattan — still had that new-carpet smell, thanks to 93 square yards of the stuff, customized for the project, installed not long before. “This is God’s workroom,” he said. “You walk in here and feel like you’re in the place of the Lord, no matter who your god is.” [ link ]

HYPERALLERGIC By Tim Keane Harry Sternberg, “Creators and Critics” (1985-1986), woodcut, 34 5/8 x 17 7/8 inches ( courtesy San Diego Museum of Art ) CALIFORNIA---When Harry Sternberg started out as an artist, in the late 1920s and through the 1930s, he was drawn to proletarian subjects. Across more than seven decades, Sternberg’s art is informed by the sacred precariousness of workaday existence. These existences are occasionally embellished by fantasy but they exude a robust physicality. Distinctively American, Sternberg’s figures radiate energy even as they are dramatically constrained by larger forces — amoral capitalism or perhaps just the godless universe — within which human beings create, and surrender, their fates. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest and Gregory Disney-Britton "For Brothers" by Tom Sanford for Passover 2016 Our Jewish friends began celebrating  Passover  this week, the eight  holydays  (April 22-30, 2016) that recognize their deliverance from slavery in ancient Egypt. To honor Passover, a gallery in Manhattan created the exhibition " The 4 Sons " based on the ritual where participants share the story of "four sons"—one who is wise, one who is wicked, one who is simple, and one who does not know to ask. One of the paintings, "For Brothers" (above) by  Tom Sanford  features a colorful can of Budweiser, and represents the son who doesn’t know which question to ask—or in this case, which drink to order. Question for this week: Which of the four sons are you?

THE TABLET MAGAZINE By Jordana Narin “For Brothers” by Tom Sanford In the heart of Hamilton Heights—a neighborhood in West Harlem that’s brimming with history, culture, and personality—is Gitler & ____ , an art gallery run by Avi Gitl er . Though Gitler’s gallery has hosted 22 exhibitions to date, its current display, called “The 4 Sons,” is its first Jewish-themed one. It’s dedicated, of course, to Passover . Rooted in the narrative of the Four Sons —one wise, one wicked, one simple, and one who doesn’t yet know how to ask— told during the Passover Seder , the exhibit hosts artwork from 11 artists who were “invited to create his or her own portrait of these tersely described brothers, or in some respect, to transcend their ‘Egypt.’ ”[ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By TOURÉ Prince, performing in 1985, exuded carnality. His sexual orientation, though, was all his own, and it was oriented toward you. Credit Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images People may consider the work of Prince, who died Thursday, to be electrifyingly erotic, and it surely was, but people don’t realize how much time Prince spent all but evangelizing for his vision of Christianity . People may consider the work of Prince, who died Thursday, to be electrifyingly erotic, and it surely was, but people don’t realize how much time Prince spent all but evangelizing for his vision of Christianity. Sex to him was part of a spiritual life. The God he worshiped wants us to have passionate and meaningful sex. His former tour manager Alan Leeds told me: “For him the love of God and the sexual urges we feel are one and the same somehow. For him it all comes from the same root inside a human being. God planted these urges and it’s never wrong to feel that way. The urge ...

THE BRUIN By Carol Yao World arts and cultures professor and theatrical director Peter Sellars traveled to the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhaung, China to see the Buddhist-influenced art illustrated on the walls. (Zinnia Moreno/Daily Bruin) CALIFORNIA---Peter Sellars traveled halfway across the globe to see the dusty caverns of the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang, China. Sellars, a world arts and cultures professor and a theatrical director known for his interpretations of classical and contemporary operas and plays, developed an interest in the Buddhist-influenced art illustrated on the walls of the Mogao Grottoes 25 years ago, and has been collecting shelves of literature on the cave art and sculptures ever since. He began collaborating with the Getty Center two years ago to organize an exhibit on the caves that will be on display this summer. [ link ]

USA TODAY By Lauren Markoe Simon Schama hosts a seder or Passover meal. (Photo: Tim Kirby, Oxford Film & Television) Passover is the most celebrated of all Jewish holidays with more than 70% of Jewish Americans taking part in a seder, its ritual meal. Here’s your guide to the basics of the holiday, which begins at sundown Friday — plus some lesser-known facts that explain why this celebration of liberation lies at the center of Jewish belief and tradition. The youngest person at a Passover seder chants or recites — in Hebrew, English, Yiddish or another language — the Four Questions. The four are introduced by a preliminary question: “Why is this night different from all other nights?” The questions and their answers explain the symbolism of the food and rituals associated with the seder. [ link ]

THE WASHINGTON POST By Richard Harrington, October 11, 1988 Raunchy Prince (1958-2016) was actually a conservative Christian who reportedly opposed gay marriage (Courtesy of The Washington Post, April 21, 2016) WASHINGTON, DC---In the music of Prince, the erotic battles with the spiritual, the carnal battles with the cosmic, and everything seems to end in a draw. That's because Prince himself has yet to resolve the split between his newly focused religious faith and the exultant sexual desires that have informed his music for almost a decade. Nowhere was that more apparent than at the end of the first set when Prince offered a visceral "Anna Stesia," a virtual bridge between sex and sanctity, between love and devotion. If those in the audience didn't quite know how to react, they nonetheless acted enthusiastically, turning into a gospel choir of sorts for the refrain "Love is God, God is love, girls and boys love God above." [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jennifer Schuesller, Binyamin Appelbaum and Wesley Morris Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist who helped rescue slaves, in the late 1800s. Credit H. B. Lindsley, via Library of Congress The United States is adding a few new faces to its currency. Harriet Tubman will appear on the front of a new $20 bill to be unveiled in 2020, and a pair of civil rights scenes, one featuring suffragist leaders, will appear on the backs of redesigned $5 and $10 bills, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday. The old faces will remain. Alexander Hamilton stays on the front of the $10 and Andrew Jackson moves to the back of the $20. But there will be women in American wallets for the first time in more than a century (when Martha Washington appeared) and African-Americans for the first time in the nation’s history. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Holland Cotter “Me and My Neon Box” (1971), included in the Kay WalkingStick retrospective at the National Museum of the American Indian. Credit Kay WalkingStick WASHINGTON, DC---“Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist,” at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, is an overdue career survey of a near half-century of work by an artist, now 81, for whom “American” has multiple and conflicted meanings. As she grew increasingly absorbed in the realities of her Native American ancestry, she approached them through a series of powerful diptychs that juxtaposed landscapes and symbolic abstraction. Their mood of mingled anger and sorrow sharpened into lamentation after the sudden death of her husband. [ link ]

RELIGIONS NEWS SERVICE By Kimberly Winston First Congregational Church of Los Angeles presents "Art & Spirit," a gallery which includes the Virgin of Guadalupe hanging above an acrylic painting of a single upholstered chair. Religion News Service photo by Kimberly Winston CALIFORNIA---To walk into First Congregational Church of Los Angeles on a Sunday morning is to see all the trappings of the mainline Protestant denominations pundits say are dying for lack of innovation, of relevance, of connection to the world outside church walls. But step into the hall next to the main sanctuary and it’s a different story. There, the church has been transformed from 1930s Gothic-style cathedral to 21st-century art gallery , with painting, etchings, photographs, drawings, collages and prints by artists as renowned as Rembrandt van Rijn and Albrecht Durer and as obscure as the Latino neighborhood’s young men and women, hanging side by side. [ link ]

THE WASHINGTON POST By Peggy McGlone Small shackles from the 1800s are among the artifacts that will be on display at National Museum of African American History and Culture. (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture) WASHINGTON, DC---The shackles are among the thousands of items that will be on view at the National Museum of African American History and Culture when it opens Sept. 24. These artifacts will tell stories of slavery, Reconstruction, segregation and the civil rights movement. Museum officials anticipate tears, sighs and even some anger as visitors proceed through the galleries. The visitor experience has been a priority from the beginning, addressed in the design of the building, the organization of exhibitions, and the text and videos that supplement the displays. [ link ]

IRISH TIMES By David Maher One of the stolen paintings now recovered IRELAND---Six valuable pieces of art that were stolen from a church three years ago have been recovered. The oil paintings, part of a set of 14 Stations of the Cross, were found by gardai during a search of wasteland near Edenderry, Co Offaly on Tuesday. The paintings were originally thieved from the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Kiltullagh, Co Galway in June 2013. They were found in good condition by gardaí who work in Edenderry and Tullamore, Co Offaly. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Rachel L. Swarns The grave of Cornelius Hawkins, one of 272 slaves sold by the Jesuits in 1838 to help keep what is now Georgetown University afloat. Credit William Widmer for The New York Times WASHINGTON, D.C.---The human cargo was loaded on ships at a bustling wharf in the nation’s capital, destined for the plantations of the Deep South. Some slaves pleaded for rosaries as they were rounded up, praying for deliverance. But on this day, in the fall of 1838, no one was spared. But this was no ordinary slave sale. The enslaved African-Americans had belonged to the nation’s most prominent Jesuit priests. And they were sold, along with scores of others, to help secure the future of the premier Catholic institution of higher learning at the time, known today as Georgetown University. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Shirin Neshat, Sara Khaki (Patriots) (detail), from the series below “The Book of Kings,” 2012; Ink on laser-exposed silver gelatin print, 60 x 45 in.; Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels; © Shirin Neshat WASHINGTON, DC---A landmark exhibition of photographs by 12 contemporary women artists from Iran and the Arab world will be on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) through July. "She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World" challenges stereotypes surrounding the people, landscapes, and cultures of the region, and provides insight into political and social issues. The exhibition presents more than 80 photographs and a video installation. These provocative works—most created within the last decade—range in genre from portraiture, to documentary, to staged narratives.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest and Gregory Disney-Britton "Puja and Piety" at  Santa Barbara Museum of Art, April 17-August 28, 2016 April 2016 brings with it a new season of the art of the religious imagination, and this time from India! As Indian activists and Western scholars  debate Hindu identity , Walt Disney Studios did their part too with " Jungle Book ," and we’re excited to showcase the Hindu deities in a new exhibition, ‘ Puja and Piety ,’ at The Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California. This exhibition celebrates the complexity of Asian religious art by examining the relationship between aesthetic expression and the devotional practice, or puja , in the three ancient religions of India. The exhibition opens today. Question of week: What should Americans learn from the religious art of India?

THE WASHINGTON POST By Ann Hornaday Panthers and tigers and bears. Oh, my. The beloved 1967 Disney cartoon classic “ The Jungle Book ” takes on a dazzling live-action-ish life in Jon Favreau’s adaptation , a visual wonderment of color, texture, movement and spectacular animal life. Brought to the screen with computer­generated animation, the Indian jungle of ­ Rudyard Kipling’s original stories glimmers and shines here, with each fern frond and dappled glade enticing the viewer further into its primal depths. Like all classic Disney productions, “ The Jungle Book ” possesses its share of fear, suffering and loss. But somehow the audience comes out whistling — in this case, with joy and quite a bit of awe. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Vanessa Friedman The Marks & Spencer “burkini.” Is it fashion’s responsibility to ease acceptance of different identities; to foster tolerance and understanding — or to promote a specific aesthetic expression of liberty? On the surface, the argument is about the trend — call it that — among a growing number of fashion brands to offer Islamic, or “modest” collections. On one side are those who say the social contract demands that everyone eschew symbols of their personal belief systems in service of the secular collective; on the other, those who insist that freedom includes the freedom to wear whatever you want (and sell whatever you want). [ link ]

ARTFORUM MISSISSIPPI---In an act of protest, Neuberger Museum director Tracy Fitzpatrick boycotted a press preview staged today at the Mississippi Museum of Art for an exhibition that highlights the Neuberger Museum’s own collection. Fitzpatrick—along with other prominent US arts organizations—has issued a statement against Mississippi’s newly-instated anti-LGBTQ law. Supporters of the law view the passing of the bill as a victory for US citizens’ religious freedoms while critics have denounced the law as open discrimination against the LGBTQ community. [ link ]

THE ART NEWSPAPER By Jane Jakeman The Mamluk-era Mosque of Sultan Hassan in Cairo from Egypt and Nubia by David Roberts (published between 1845 and 1849). " God is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth: Light in Islamic Art and Culture " is a glossy, profusely illustrated volume resulting from a Palermo symposium with contributions by well-known scholars. "The Gulf: High Culture/Hard Labor" is a cheaply produced paperback by lesser-known artists and social commentators. What connects two such disparate publications? Light is an enduring topic in Islamic science and art history, much of the discussion stemming from a well-known topos in the Sura of Light (Koran 24:35), where the image of a lamp in a niche is related to revelation of the divine. [ link ]

INSIDE HIGHER EDUCATION By Elizabeth Redden Cover of Wendy Doniger's book The Hindus: An Alternative History. A cultural and religious war is raging in which Western academics are the enemy. Disputes over alleged mischaracterizations of Hinduism and India by Western scholars are long simmering and boil over from time to time. And now again in 2016. In February scholars in India initiated a petition calling for the removal of a major Sanskrit scholar, Columbia University’s Sheldon Pollock, from the general editorship of a Harvard University Press series of Indian classical texts on the grounds that his writings “misrepresent our cultural heritage” and that he had “shown disrespect for the unity and integrity of India” (this of a scholar who has received the Indian president’s award for Sanskrit, as well as the Padma Shri Award, one of the Indian government’s highest civilian honors). [ link ]

BROADWAY WORLD NEW JERSEY---Bringing together both historic and contemporary objects from its diverse collections-Asian, African, American and the decorative arts of Europe-the Newark Museum's winter 2016 feature exhibition showcases the history and breadth of Islamic art. More than 100 works on display in "Wondrous Worlds: Art & Islam Through Time & Place" reflect aspects of faith, culture and everyday life of Muslims across the world and throughout the ages. The exhibition runs through May 15, 2016. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Doreen Carvajal The French art dealer Eric Turquin presented the painting “Judith Beheading Holofernes” at his gallery in Paris on Tuesday. Credit Patrick Kovarik/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images FRANCE---It seems almost too good to be true: A long-lost Caravaggio worth millions is discovered languishing in an attic in France, unseen by the family that had lived there for generations. But that is indeed the case, a French art dealer said this week, in declaring that after two years of research, a painting of “Judith Beheading Holofernes” found near Toulouse in 2014 was an authentic work by the Italian Renaissance master. The dealer, Eric Turquin, showed off the painting at a news conference on Tuesday at his Paris gallery, where it remains while he awaits a buyer for the work, which he estimates is valued at more than 120 million euros, or $136 million. [ link ]

THE SUN-SENTINEL By Rabbi Barry Silver The “Covenant Eternal: Circumcision” (c. 1967) painting, part of the “Aliyah” series by Salvador Dalí. Photo: TIJS at Emory University. Beginning with Abraham, Jews have always asked questions, and modern Jews even question the Biblical account of Abraham, but for the sake of argument, let's take it at face value. According to the Torah, when God told Abraham that he would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham challenged God's decree asking "How could the master of justice not act justly?" When Abraham failed to meet the quota, these depraved cities were destroyed, but God felt it was the thought that counts, and rewarded Abraham's chutzpah in challenging God by making him the first Jew and giving him the "privilege" of circumcising himself and his sons. [ link ]

THE WEEK By Jackie Friedman and Lauren Hansen Manuel de Jesus Quilizapa works on a statue in his workshop in Izalco, El Salvador. | (REUTERS/Jose Cabezas) Catholics have a long tradition of using statues, paintings, and stained glass to tell the story of Jesus' life. The art plays an important role for the faithful, inspiring and channeling devotion. n the small, predominantly Catholic country of El Salvador, a dwindling group of artisans have dedicated their lives to restoring these ancient figures and works. Below, a peek into two of the El Salvadorian family-run workshops still breathing life into the country's ancient religious art. [ link ]

PALM BEACH DAILY NEWS By Jan Sjostrom Many of the elaborately carved and gilded frames in Spanish Colonial Art exhibit, such as the one ringing this 18th-century painting by an unidentified artist of “Our Lady of Sorrows,” are original. The show is at The Society of the Four Arts through Sunday. FLORIDA---For a wealthy resident of the Spanish Caribbean during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, one of the best ways to climb the social ladder was to bankroll an expensive and showy piece of art for the church. The product of this confluence of wealth and devotion is on view in “Power & Piety: Spanish Colonial Art” at The Society of the Four Arts. Organized by the Museum of Biblical Art and Art Services International, the exhibition is drawn from the collection of Venezuelan art connoisseur Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. [ link ]

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Maureen C. Gilmer His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, greets cellist Michael Fitzpatrick after he played an introduction at Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN, Friday, May 14th, 2010. (Photo: Robert Scheer / IndyStar) INDIANA---The Dalai Lama will bring his message of peace and tolerance to Indianapolis this summer in a public talk titled "Compassion as the Pillar of World Peace." Ticket sales have not been announced, but here are five things you should know in advance of his visit. Ticket information is expected to be released soon, but the Indiana Farmers Coliseum and Ticketmaster can be reached at (855) 754-7808 or (800) 745-3000. Attendees are advised to arrive at the venue by 10:30 a.m. to allow time to be seated for the program, which is expected to begin shortly after noon June 25. [ link ]

ALGEMEINER The “Thou hast laid me” painting, part of the “Aliyah” series by Salvador Dalí. Photo: TIJS at Emory University . A series of biblical and Zionist-themed paintings by Salvador Dalí has gone on private display in the heart of New York City in an effort to showcase through art the historical connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, the collection’s owner told The Algemeiner . Art dealer Hillel Philip , who owns one of 250 sets of prints of Dalí’s little-known “Aliyah, the Rebirth of Israel” series, told The Algemeiner , “You have all of Jewish history, all the dreams of the Jews for 2,000 years, in these paintings.” [ link ]

APOLLO MAGAZINE The Gods Appeal to the Great Devi for Help (early 19th century), Folio from a Devimahatmya series with Sanskrit text in Devanagari script on reverse, India, Himachal Pradesh. Lent by Narendra and Rita Parson CALIFORNIA---This exhibition celebrates the complexity of South Asian representation and iconography by examining the relationship between aesthetic expression and the devotional practice, or puja, in the three native religions of the Indian subcontinent. Drawn from SBMA’s collection and augmented by loans, the exhibition presents some 160 objects of diverse medium created over the past two millennia for temples, home worship, festivals, and roadside shrines. [ link ]

BLOUIN | ARTINFO By Bibhu Pattnaik Balarama as the Eighth Avatar of Vishnu and Elder Brother of Krishna (11th century) Sandstone. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Gift of Wright S. Ludington.) CALIFORNIA---The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) in California will showcase images of Hindu deities in an upcoming exhibition, ‘Puja and Piety,’ which will run from April 17 to Aug. 28, 2016. The show will exhibit more than 160 objects of diverse media created over the past two millennia for temples, home worship, festivals, and roadside shrines. This exhibition is the first in North America to celebrate the diversity of South Asian art by examining the relationship between aesthetic expression and the devotional practice, or puja, in the three native religions of the Indian subcontinent. [ link ]

ASIA SOCIETY By Eric Fish An Aum Shinrikyo follower meditates before portraits of leader Shoko Asahara and his two sons posted on an altar at a seminary of a Tokyo building on August 11, 1999. (Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images) On March 20, 1995, five men boarded separate trains in Tokyo’s subway and punctured bags of liquid sarin, killing 13 passengers and injuring thousands in the deadliest terror attack in Japanese history. The men were members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which followed the teachings of enigmatic leader Shoko Asahara . Part of the group’s theology, though, was rooted in ancient Buddhist beliefs that had shaped mainstream Japanese society during the Kamakura period , which lasted from 1185 to 1333. Surviving Buddhist art from the Kamakura period — some of which is on display in Asia Society Museum’s current exhibition Kamakura: Realism and Spirituality in the Sculpture of Japan — speaks to the social upheaval of the time. [ link ]

THE HUFFINGTON POST By Kim Dramer Nyoirin Kannon Kamakura Period, early 14th-century Japanese cypress (hinoki) with pigment, gold powder and cut gold leaf (kirikane). Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal NEW YORK---"Kamakura: Realism and Spirituality in the Sculpture of Japan" at Asia Society Museum, is a small exhibition presenting big changes in the art of Japan. On display are powerful works in every sense of the word. These are works commissioned, executed and embellished to bring benefits to the patron, the worshipper and the artist alike. Statues were designed to form a karmic bond with the worshipper, bring merit and benefits to the living, ease the suffering of those in hell and free the faithful from the cycle of reincarnation. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest and Gregory Disney-Britton Self Portrait (1985). Guggenheim Collection We are conditioned to see the non-traditional messenger as evil . In doing so, are we also missing God's true messengers sent as watchmen : "For thus the Lord says to me, 'Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees" ( Isaiah 21:1-16 ). This week, deceased photographer Robert Mapplethorpe  (1946-1989) made headlines as the subject of a new HBO documentary that coincides with exhibitions in Los Angeles . Raised in a strict family, Mapplethorpe was influenced by the rigid conditioning of his church , and he responded with a 1985 self-portrait (above) where he pictures himself with horns to signal the battle between God and evil. Every generation has its messengers. Question for today: Are we listening to the non-traditional watchmen of today?

CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT By Sandra Miesel "The Resurrection of Christ" (right wing of the Isenheim Altarpiece) (1512-1516) by Matthias Grünewald Sacred images do not instantly spring from the pages of Scripture to gauzy forms on gilt-edged holy cards. Traditional Christian art, like Christian theology, developed slowly as the Church’s understanding of the Gospel deepened and the cultures around her shifted. Early Christian artists did not presume to supplement Scripture. After surveying the long development of Resurrection art as faith made visible, it is crucial to remember that Jesus Christ did not rise for his own sake out of personal distaste for allowing his perfect body to undergo corruption. He rose for “us men and our salvation.” [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ben Brantley From left, Elizabeth Teeter, Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, Saoirse Ronan (foreground) and Erin Wilhelmi in Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” at the Walter Kerr Theater. Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times NEW YORK---The Devil has returned to Broadway, with the power to make the strong tremble. It is time to be afraid, very afraid, of a play that seemed perhaps merely worthy when you studied it in high school English class. The director Ivo van Hove and a dazzling international cast — led by Ben Whishaw, Sophie Okonedo, Saoirse Ronan and Ciaran Hinds — have plumbed the raw terror in Arthur Miller’s “ The Crucible ,” which opened on Thursday night at the Walter Kerr Theater . And an endlessly revived historical drama from 1953 suddenly feels like the freshest, scariest play in town. [ link ]

THE ART NEWSPAPER By David D'Arcy The Birds’ Head Haggadah, by the scribe Menahem, southern Germany, around 1300. According to the Israel Museum it was "in the possession of Ludwig and Johanna Marum, Karlsruhe, Germany, until the Nazi epoch" A 13th-century book used in the celebration of Passover, now in the collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, is at the centre of an ownership row. The manuscript, known as the Birds’ Head Haggadah for its colourful illustrations, was once owned by the family of the German-Jewish politician Ludwig Marum, who was an early victim of the Nazi regime. His heirs are pushing to have their title to the work recognised and receive compensation, but they say they want the book to remain on public view at the museum. [ link ]

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