The bizarre 16th Century 'dance plague' that gripped French city Strasbourg

Top Gun: Maverick is better than the original

Is it possible to reboot our minds by living a more feral existence?

How the death of Paris student Malik Oussekine changed France forever

14 min read

The only known Black British man to have fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War

“I am half Black, I grew up in the National Children’s Home and Orphanage. Fascism meant hunger and war”.

Of the countless people born in Oxfordshire, few lived such an incredible life as Charlie Hutchison. Born in 1918, Charlie became the only known Black British man to have fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. He was also among the first to travel to Spain, one of the youngest, and also one of the longest serving volunteers. His life-long hatred of fascism would bring him to participate in many key events in history, including the Battle of Cable Street, the Dunkirk Evacuation, the liberation of France and Italy. During WWII he also took part in the liberation of Belsen concentration camp. Charlie spent 10 years fighting a bloody crusade against various fascist movements throughout Europe. Once returning to Britain he married the love of his life and started a family, living the rest of his life as an activist involved in anti-apartheid, nuclear disarmament, and trade unionism.

Despite all his achievements, his life story had gone entirely unnoticed by Oxford historians until very recently. When the Oxford Spanish Civil War Memorial was unveiled in 2017, Charlie Hutchison was not recognised among the 31 known people with links to Oxfordshire to whom the memorial had been dedicated to. Despite being overlooked by professional historians, his achievements were eventually made public knowledge in 2019 thanks to a project by London school children.

Note: This article contains never-before published photographs of Charlie Hutchison, provided by Charlie Hutchison’s daughter Susan Lilian Small and published on the Museum of Oxford website with her permission.

9 min read

The origins of the folk traditions of May Day

Ancient origins

May Day, like most folklore customs, has its roots in the Dark Ages. The ancient Celts divided the year into four major festivals – Samhain (October 31st – November 1st), Imbolic (February 1st), Beltane (May 1st) and Lughnasadh (August 1st). Beltane, a Celtic word meaning ‘the fire (or fires) of Bel’ marked the beginning of summer for the Celts. The festival celebrated the coming of longer, lighter days, the rebirth and renewal of spring, and the hope for a plentiful harvest in the year ahead. Beltane is still celebrated throughout the UK today, though it is now better known as May 1st or May Day.

‘Heathenish vanity’ and pagan superstitions

The most well-known of Oxford’s May Day traditions is of course, Magdalen College’s choir singing Hymnus Eucharisticus from the top of Magdalen Tower at 6am to waiting crowds below. This tradition, however, has only been documented from about 1674 and marking May Day in Oxford goes back much further than that. More detail on Magdalen College’s role in the celebrations can be found on the Museum of Oxford blog here.

Pre-Christian traditions and pagan superstitions particularly relating to nature, still had a strong influence in the Middle Ages. The earliest accounts of Maytime celebrations mainly refer to ‘bringing in the May’ which is when people would go out into the fields and countryside to gather flowers and greenery to decorate their homes and other buildings. Green has long been associated with life and rebirth, which is embodied by The Green Man, an ancient pagan figure representing fertility and growth. A central figure in May Day celebrations throughout Northern and Central Europe, he is the male counterpart of the May Queen, and is often portrayed with acorns and hawthorn leaves, medieval symbols of fertility associated with spring.

If you look closely, the Green Man pops up all over Oxford and Oxfordshire, in churches, on college buildings and in street architecture. The Green Man features in churches as symbol of rebirth and resurrection, key ideas in Christianity, and serves as an example of how images from the ‘old religion’ were brought into medieval churches to tie them to the Christian faith.

“This is my Versailles,” Mike Gibson says as we stand in a backyard in Bishopville, South Carolina. He pauses for a moment, regarding this perfect site of precisely trimmed trees and geometric shrubs, and displays an abundance of pride. For me, this topiary garden is a wonderland. Standing in the shadows of a row of slinky, sensuous, and hulking trees, I feel a deep sense of letting go as the trees accept my admiration.

Five months ago, Gibson acquired the unique title of topiary artist-in-residence of the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden, and as we stand there the 35-year-old exudes a sureness that he is exactly where he should be. But building something to last forever is difficult. Everything here is always a work in progress. Nothing is lost on Gibson: There is a dying juniper, and many of the beds need clearing. The longer he looks, the longer his to-do list grows.

You wonder how one man could have built all this. Yet one man did. Pearl Fryar began this journey back in 1980 after looking for a home near his job as an engineer for a Coca-Cola bottling factory. Fryar, who is Black, felt unwelcome in a white neighborhood near the plant (“Black people don’t keep up their yards,” he was told) and settled on a mostly Black residential street farther out in Lee County. It was there that he began his relentless pursuit of the little Garden of the Month lawn sign that a local garden club awarded to meticulously groomed yards in the neighborhood. Fryar would work 12-hour shifts at the factory and then labor through the night on his garden with the help of a floodlight, a double-blade gas-powered hedge trimmer, a wobbly ladder, and a jury-rigged hydraulic lift. He did this with no training or horticultural books. He simply listened to the trees, opening them up, allowing the sun to shine in.

In 1984 a small pom-pom topiary caught his eye at a local nursery. The garden center’s owner gave Fryar a three-minute pruning lesson and a throwaway juniper to practice on. Fryar planted it, cultivated it (with no fertilizer or pesticides), pruned it, and was hooked. Soon came another plant, then another, mostly whatever he could rescue from the nursery’s compost heap, unwanted or near-death plants that were given to him or sold to him cheap. Gibson estimates that 40 percent of the trees in the garden came from the trash.

Jan Fabre, an artist and choreographer who is well known in Belgium, received an 18-month suspended prison sentence from an Antwerp court today amid an investigation into claims of sexual harassment and indecent assault.

He was found guilty in six cases, including the one concerning assault, which involved an alleged French kiss. The artist has denied that this act and any other forms of harassment took place.

The Brussels Times reported that the suspended sentence—meaning he does not have to serve his sentence in a prison if he meets certain conditions—also strips Fabre of his civil rights for the next five years, preventing him from undertaking activities like voting in the country he has long called home.

In 2018, 20 people formerly affiliated with Fabre’s Troubleyn dance company alleged that the artist had sexually harassed employees. The accusations were made public in a letter to the culture magazine Rekto Verso. Eight signed the letter with their name, while the remaining 12 were mentioned anonymously.

According to the letter, Fabre would contact women with opportunities to dance for him. Then he would “approach the performer sexually.” The letter also accused Fabre of tricking people into sitting for erotic photographs. These actions allegedly became a “hidden currency” within the company, which at once point received around $1 million from the Flemish government annually.

The lobby of the Paris townhouse occupied by the Pierre Yovanovitch office and showrooms is not beige, per se, but rather a warm cream. Two floors of the townhouse are dedicated to exemplifying what your house could look like if you were to hire Yovanovitch’s firm. As they’re showrooms, these two floors are completely stocked with the interior designer’s furniture line (though he mixes designers in his actual projects), and art fills the walls just so. Like the furniture, the art is switched in and out regularly, supplied by acclaimed contemporary gallery Kamel Mennour, whose Paris spaces were designed by Yovanovitch. The townhouse is within striking distance of all the major Parisian museums, but after passing through the grand entry door—so common in Paris—the bustle of the tourist-packed area disappears. Stepping inside is to step into a hush.

On display in one of the showrooms is a Yovanovitch piece recently acquired by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs: the Mama Bear chair. It is the middle-sized piece in a set of three inspired by the Goldilocks fairytale; there are also a larger Papa and a smaller Baby. As the name suggests, the chair looks something like a bear, with the upper corners bloomed into ears, the armrests and larger segments plumped, and two indents in the middle of the back giving the impression of eyes. The Bear chairs are upholstered in a white textured fabric that looks fluffy from a distance, but on closer look one can see the fibers are actually gathered into something more pebbly, more robust. Like all good-quality furniture, it doesn’t sag as soon as butt meets cushion but embraces the body instead; it encourages lounging, but not slacking.

The Bear chairs were designed in 2012 for a private client, but Yovanovitch introduced them to the public only in 2017, showing them at the R & Company gallery in New York, which sells his furniture. “It’s a way for me to become a brand,” Yovanovitch says without irony, while settled on one of the long couches in his office. Although he formally launched his furniture line, consisting of 45 pieces, only last year, he has run his studio for more than 20 years. As he designed interiors, it made sense to start creating furniture for the houses he was renovating. “It gives me more freedom,” he says, “because I can design what I want.”

The Bear chairs, specifically, were made to be round to counter the very straight lines of the original house Yovanovitch was designing (he has since started embracing more curves in rooms’ architecture). He wanted something with humor, thinking that private spaces shouldn’t be too serious—it’s where we’re supposed to be ourselves, after all.

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Soft pastels not only are more powdery than hard pastels but because they contain less binder they also contain more pigment. The very best of them are formulated with an incredibly high ratio of pigment to binder to offer unmatched color richness, all while leaving less dust in their wake. Professional-grade pastels also have excellent lightfastness. While these colorful sticks can be costly, a set of reliable and beautiful ones is a worthwhile investment, especially if you sell your work. Unlike student-grade pastels, these higher-end ones are often available by the piece, so you can gradually fill your arsenal with different brands if you find yourself drawn to certain colors by different makers. Here are five of our favorites.

ARTnews RECOMMENDS
Rembrandt Soft Pastels
Rembrandt’s pastels lean soft but are versatile enough to take you through an artwork from start to finish. In other words, these are great go-to pastels: You can use them for underlayers, then gradually build solid coats or glazes of color while blending and scumbling with ease. Still, they’re sturdy enough to use for crisp, detailed strokes, and they aren’t as prone to breaking as softer brands like Schmincke (more on that below). Each stick is made of pure pigments mixed with high-quality kaolin clay, which gives the paste a velvet consistency. Rembrandt’s line is also excellent in its color offerings, with 42 pure colors available in 40 shades and 121 tints—and they’re sold in half-sticks, too, so you can buy more shades while spending less. In addition to individual sticks, you can purchase thoughtfully grouped sets of similar color values, from reds to violets to greens.

WE ALSO LIKE
Schmincke Soft Pastels
Schmincke likely makes the softest pastels on the market—and the most fragile—but with individual sticks costing more than $5, they’re too pricey to be our top pick. Combining strong saturation with an almost fluffy, smooth consistency, these pastels excel when used for multilayered techniques, allowing different value ranges to come through even on dark papers. They are also particularly well suited for creating highlights. Artists can enjoy an impressive range of 400 colors—specifically, 75 pure colors in five grades as well as dozens of neutrals, darks, and whites. Those who want to treat themselves can purchase large assortments of 60 colors and up that come display-ready in gorgeous maple boxes.

ANOTHER OPTION
PanPastel Artists’ Painting Pastels Sets
This product offers a fun and different way to use and experiment with pastels. Soft pastels are compressed into little disks rather than sticks, which means they can be used almost like paints. You can apply them with special applicators or sponges to cover large areas in uniform color blocks, cutting down on time compared with traditional coloring, or use the edges and pointed tips of these tools to create fine details. The pan format also reduces the need for binders and fillers, so these pastels are less dusty than their handheld counterparts while still being perfectly compatible with traditional pastels.

The U.K.’s High Court ruled this week that NFTs are considered property and thus victims of NFT theft can now have their stolen assets frozen through court injunctions.

The decision comes after months of repeated NFT thefts, as savvy hackers have exploited loopholes and poor security literacy to seize high-profile NFTs. Just earlier this week, Bored Ape Yacht Club, possibly the most well-known NFT project, was hit with a massive hack, leading to an estimated $3 million in NFT assets stolen. So far, victims of theft have been left without much recourse given that the market is unregulated and decentralized.

That may now change, at least in the U.K., thanks to the case Lavinia Deborah Osbourne v (1) Persons Unknown (2) Ozone Networks Inc Trading as Opensea, which was filed this past March. Osbourne, the founder of Women in Blockchain Talks, had two of her NFTs stolen from the Boss Beauties collection, a series of 10,000 NFTs depicting illustrated, diverse, successful career women.

The High Court’s ruling on the case, which is due to come out in writing next week, would allow victims to obtain court injunctions against individuals whose cryptowallet has been identified to be carrying a stolen NFT and to the NFT platform on which the stolen asset is being sold.

Kate Gee, a lawyer who has been briefed on the case by Osbourne’s barrister, Racheal Muldoon, told ARTnews the injunction can be served in just a matter of hours. That is, if you have the right information.

A German group dedicated to Jewish causes has criticized how Documenta, the famed quinquennial in Kassel, responded to allegations of anti-Semitism raised earlier this year.

Documenta first came under scrutiny in January, when the German group Alliance Against Anti-Semitism Kassel accused the quinquennial of “involvement of anti-Israeli activists” in this year’s edition, which is curated by the Indonesian collective ruangrupa. Documenta has vehemently denied the allegations of anti-Semitism, some of which were picked up by major German publications.

In response to the controversy, Documenta said it would organize an events series at which it would address anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and racism. Titled “We need to talk!,” the series’ stated aim is to focus on “zeroing in on the blank spots in the German debate surrounding antisemitism and racism.” Its first event is set for May 8.

In a letter penned to Germany’s culture minister Claudia Roth, Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, accused Documenta’s event of having “a clear bias against anti-Semitism” with the event. The German press agency dpa first reported news of the letter.

According to dpa, Schuster’s letter centered around an event planned for May 22, which focuses on “anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian racism,” according to its description. “Only clear commitments and much more, decisive political action at every level of politics, art, culture and society help against anti-Semitism,” Schuster wrote. “No one may acquit themselves of this responsibility—not even in the name of artistic freedom.”

France is investigating the plundering of an ancient shipwreck discovered in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.

The 2,200-year-old vessel was discovered by archeologists in 2017. A recent official exploration of the wreck revealed that unauthorized divers had reached it first, damaging the structure and plundering the rare clay containers stored within.

The ship, dubbed the Fort Royal 1, is believed to have sunk or lost its cargo near Sainte-Marguerite, one of the Lerins islands off the coast of Cannes, during the second century BCE. It carried amphoras, or tall Greek and Roman jars used to store wine.

“Well-conserved wrecks from this period are particularly rare,” said a joint statement from the department of marine archaeology in the French culture ministry and Marseille authorities. “That’s why the opportunity to study the wooden body and the cargo is absolutely exceptional.”

“The losses of scientific and historical information are probably significant,” the statement continued. In response to the “ransacking of a major heritage site,” sailing and mooring around the wreck is now prohibited and an emergency preservation operation has been launched. Conservationists are currently on the scene assessing the damage.

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Watercolor paints come in two forms: in tubes of liquid paint and in pans of dried paint that must be hydrated. Which type to use is a matter of preference, but there are a couple of instances where pans are clearly the better choice. If you like to paint en plein air—a practice ushered in by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille—you’ll likely find that watercolor pans, many of which come in compact carrying cases that can double as palettes, are the most convenient option. They are also a good choice if you paint only occasionally, as you don’t have to worry about your materials drying out. Whatever your reasoning, choosing the right professional paint will make all the difference in your work. For our top recommendations of highly pigmented, rich, flowing pan watercolor paints, browse the list below. 

ARTNEWS RECOMMENDS
Daniel Smith Watercolor Half Pans and Sets
Daniel Smith watercolors are beloved by many artists for their high quality. Each rich color is extremely pigmented and consistent, with superior lightfastness for hues that will not fade. These pan sets contain the same handcrafted, U.S.-made, extra-fine watercolor paint that Daniel Smith sells in tubes. Hand-poured into the pans, the paints are available individually or as sets, several of the latter having been selected by artists (the shades in the Ultimate Mixing Set, for example, were chosen by Jane Blundell).

WE ALSO LIKE
Schmincke Horadam Aquarell Watercolor Pan Sets
The creamy paints in Schmincke’s Horadam Aquarelle watercolor pan sets are quite vibrant. The 140-year-old company, still owned by the descendants of the original Schminckes, uses only natural gums and water-soluble resins to make its paints, which are softer than other brands. While certainly on the pricey end, the paints last for years without degradation. Unfortunately, Schmincke does not sell individual pans to refill or expand their sets, but the same recipe is used for their tubed watercolors, which are sold individually.

ANOTHER OPTION
Yarka St. Petersburg Professional Watercolor Pans and Sets ***CURRENTLY DISCONTINUED***
Semimoist pans, like these from Yarka St. Petersburg, occupy a handy middle ground between the dry paint in pans and the wet paint in tubes. These paint palettes come to life with just the application of a wet brush, eliminating the process of adding water every time you paint. The texture creates a robust color that is distinct in tone from many other palettes, but still true and bright. Note that these are opaque and do not granulate.

Berlin-based artist Alicja Kwade is best known for exploring time and natural systems through mind-bending sculptures that combine rocks, mirrors, and more. Anyone who attended the 2017 Venice Biennale and saw her sculpture Pars Pro Toto (2017), featuring 13 stone spheres that were reflected through pieces of glass, could not forget it. Similar works have been staged on the roof the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at biennials in Finland, India, and elsewhere.

In 2021, the artist turned her exploration of time inward—literally. For an exhibition at the Berlinische Galerie, Kwade printed the entirety of her genome on 259,025 sheets of A4 paper. Its title, Selbstportrait, hinted that she viewed this work as an image of herself.

Some 12,000 sheets were hung from floor to ceiling, and the rest were stored in copper containers. Visitors were also invited to take a page of her DNA sequencing home with them. With this installation, the artist was playing with what we understand to be unique when it comes to identity: she was showcasing her own genetic profile in bold text while also underscoring the fact that 99.9 percent of all human genetic makeup is identical.

Starting today, Kwade’s Selbstportrait has been reformatted for a new NFT project. She’s minted 10,361 NFTs—all come with a 25-page PDF filled with 300,000 letters of Kwade’s DNA code in A, C, G, and T—and she’s selling them for $300, or around 0.1 ETH, each. This new project pushes Selbstportrait’s themes even further, since every NFT is supposed to be a unique digital work, randomized at point of sale. Essentially, this means buyers are unable to choose a specific NFT within the collection corresponding to the artist’s DNA, as each token is distributed randomly.

To learn more about Kwade’s most personal physical artwork to date evolved into its current tokenized form, ARTnews spoke with the artist via email this week.

March 19 – May 1, 2022

March 4 – April 30, 2022

April 2 – 30, 2022

March 3 – May 1, 2022