Newsletter
Newsletter 332
Monday, April 6th, 2020 Newsletter,It feels a bit pointless writing a newsletter when there is virtually no news apart from the coronavirus. It’s becoming absurd to watch or listen to news broadcasts in which the sports section is devoted to stories about what else has been cancelled or is about to be cancelled. Then there are the stories about […]
Newsletter 330
Monday, March 23rd, 2020 Newsletter,Everything has escalated so quickly in these Days of the Virus I’m starting to wonder if anything will be left open within a week or so. My emails are nothing but a long procession of cancellations and postponements. The one that struck me most forcibly was the cancellation of the Sydney Film Festival – not […]
Newsletter 329
Wednesday, March 18th, 2020 Newsletter,I’m afraid that delays are becoming too frequent with this newsletter, but as soon as I got back from France I had to deal firstly with the zombification of jet lag, then it was full-on Sydney Biennale. Next week I won’t have any excuses. By accident rather than design it’s turned out to be a […]
Newsletter 328
Friday, March 13th, 2020 Newsletter,Late again, but I’ve got a reasonable excuse. I’m in Paris, in anticipation of the National Gallery of Vitoria’s Pierre Bonnard exhibition that begins in June. I know it’s the worst possible time to be travelling anywhere, but not being by nature a fearful person I’m unconvinced of the need to stay home stockpling toilet […]
Newsletter 327
Saturday, March 7th, 2020 Newsletter,Bad sight of the week was Donald Trump defiling the Motera stadium in Ahmedabad with his impure presence and mangling the name of the immortal Tendulkar. Surely that should have been enough to send 110,000 Indians into an uproar, but so bizarre is the world of politics nowadays that they all seemed excited to be […]
Newsletter 326
Wednesday, February 26th, 2020 Newsletter,One of the temptations of writing a film column is to read – or reread – the novel upon which a movie is based. Over the past decade this has given me an excuse to plunge into Great Expectations, Anna Karenina, Far From the Madding Crowd, Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, and other classics. This […]
Newsletter 325
Friday, February 21st, 2020 Newsletter,It’s been a great week for the Koreans. Never slow to celebrate some international triumph they can be justly proud of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasitescooping all the big awards at this year’s Oscars. Is this only a flash in the pan, or does it usher in a new, global openness on behalf of the American Academy? […]
Newsletter 324
Tuesday, February 11th, 2020 Newsletter,Just when the rest of the world has decided to stay home and wear a face mask I’m in the middle of a travel binge – back from India and now off to Bangladesh for the Dhaka Art Summit. The upside is that it’s suddenly easier to get a good seat on an international flight. […]
Newsletter 323
Monday, February 3rd, 2020 Newsletter,After four days in New Delhi I’m revising my opinion that Sydney’s appalling air quality, due to the bushfires, is anything like the grey haze one inhales in the Indian capital. The pollution in Delhi is really dreadful, although people are telling me it’s much better than it was last year! True or false, it […]
Newsletter 322
Tuesday, January 28th, 2020 Newsletter,This is my second week without an art column and it’s vaguely gratifying that people are asking: “What’s happening?” Answer: nothing much, only a break. It hasn’t been an especially relaxing time as I’ve had a few pressing family issues, but it’s provided a little calm before the next writing storm arrives. Instead of a […]