Archive

Week in Culture

Babies crawls into theaters, The Real Housewives of New Jersey returns, and Canadian indie rockers face off. VIEW OUR GALLERY of can’t-miss film, TV, art, theater, and fashion picks.

galleries/2010/04/29/week-in-culture/wic-429---8_wdbvjw

He may have popularized the primary-color, Benday-dot faces seen on comic book pages, but a new show at the Gagosian Gallery is showing the world that Roy Lichtenstein had more in his Pop Art repertoire than forlorn women crying on the phone. Roy Lichtenstein: Still Lifes is the first exhibition devoted solely to the iconic Pop artist’s still-life paintings, sculptures, and drawings. The exhibit shows that the game-changer had some traditionalism in him with a massive collection of his largely fruit-based works, spanning the decade from the early 1970s to the start of the ‘80s. Using the motifs established by masters like Matisse, Lichtenstein added his own twist with vivid shades of color and, of course, the Benday dots. “When we think of still lifes, we think of paintings that have a certain atmosphere or ambiance,” the artist once said of his rare collection of works. “My still-life paintings have none of those qualities, they just have pictures of certain things that are in a still life, like lemons and grapefruits and so forth. It’s not meant to have the usual still-life meaning.”

Roy Lichtenstein: Still Lifes opens at the Gagosian Gallery on Saturday, May 8

Estate of Roy Lichtenstein / Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Promised gift of the Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
galleries/2010/04/29/week-in-culture/wic-429---7_tsfumo

Though Battle of the Band competitions may be a bit passé for those who have earned their high-school diplomas, clothing company H&M is bringing back the contest online to see who will play at their Fashion Against AIDS launch party this month. This week, the company announces the 10 highest rated bands eligible to win not only a New York gig on May 19 in front of 500 guests, but also a custom apparel package, and a $200 gift card for each band member. The competition is heating up online, but if you’re still looking for a big break (or a new metallic garment of some sort) get that video on YouTube quick—considering that previous participants in the Fashion Against AIDS event have included Rihanna, Cyndi Lauper, Katy Perry, and Timbaland, this high-stakes fashion-meets-music contest is nothing to scoff at.

H&M’s Battle of the Bands announces their top 10 on Saturday, May 8

Courtesy of H&M
galleries/2010/04/29/week-in-culture/wic-429---5_w49kkm

Chuck Palahniuk, beloved by high-school loners and guys who wear camo cargo shorts, has a new book. Only this time, instead of being about a poem that kills people, or a gang-bang gone horribly wrong, or a man getting his intestines sucked out of himself in his pool, or some weird, gross thing he came up with during a brainstorming session (an animal... that kills people... by having sex... with their mothers!), it's about, um, Lillian Hellman. The left-wing playwright. And no, she doesn't murder anyone with her genitalia or eat her own vomit or whatever Palahniuk books are usually about. She just... grows old. And is almost conned by a would-be suitor. Um, and all the "boldface names" in the book are actually in bold. So maybe that makes this most transgressive book Palahniuk's ever written? Or maybe he's just gotten soft.

Chuck Palahniuk's Tell-All comes out Tuesday, May 4.

galleries/2010/04/29/week-in-culture/wic-429---4_gt1pj7

Laura Bush wrote a book! But if you were hoping for some kind of outrageous tell-all filled with searing indictments of Washington politics, prepare to be disappointed: She is mostly 100 percent on board with her husband's decisions (sorry, " decision points"), except for the whole gay marriage thing, which she supports because she is a reasonable human being. The furthest she goes is to call Harry Reid "graceless" and "petty"—though, when you're a Methodist librarian, that is almost like actually using a curse word. Other details promised to be in the book is her theory that she and her husband were poisoned once in Europe. Her evidence? They became "mysteriously sick" and the president was "bedridden." Yes, poisoning definitely seems like the most likely explanation there. To get a head start, read the 12 most surprising revelations from her memoir.

Spoken from the Heart will be available in bookstores Tuesday, May 4.

galleries/2010/04/29/week-in-culture/wic-429---3_rdrryu

The official Culture Feast stance on the social-media-account-to-book phenomenon is "thanks but hell no thanks," seeing as so far it has mostly resulted in the death of thousands of trees so that people at Urban Outfitters can buy books filled with pictures of dogs. But! Shit My Dad Says, Justin Halpern's Twitter account of his 72-year-old father's profane wisdom, is really, actually, funny, possibly because it is "written" by a hilarious old person instead of by some kind of twenty-something standup-comedy dropout unable to string a sentence together. Plus: Shit My Dad Says, the Twitter, is getting turned into a sitcom starring William Shatner; the show will definitely be bad, due to sitcoms being almost universally unwatchable, so it's important that you pick up the book now, before your memory of the thing is tainted by network television.

Shit My Dad Says comes out Tuesday, May 4.

galleries/2010/04/29/week-in-culture/wic-429---1_uclwnf

The Metropolitan Museum of Art shows up every 5-year-old child playing dress-up this week with the opening of American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity. In the Met’s first Costume Institute show to draw from the Brooklyn Museum’s Costume Collection, the museum epitomizes femininity throughout the late 19th century through the mid-1900s. With a collection of the most glamorous of ball gowns through the ages, a look at the progression from the headdress to the hat, and various other stylish evolutionary examples, the exhibition reveals how clothing mirrored female social, political, and sexual emancipation. From Suffragists to Screen Sirens, the show explores how fashion has influenced the lives of women throughout the generations. With co-chairwomen Oprah Winfrey and Anna Wintour kicking off the show at the Museum’s Costume Institute Gala Benefit on Monday night, one would be hard pressed to find two women more exemplary of the meeting point between style, substance, and strength.

American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Wednesday, May 5

Michael Loccisano / Getty Images; Peter Kramer / AP Photo
galleries/2010/04/29/week-in-culture/wic-429---the-new-pornographers_nibdzx

It’s an age-old struggle with indie rock—the hope your favorite band that no one knows makes it big and the fear that star power will kill them. And Neko Case has placed that predicament at the forefront for The New Pornographers' and their latest effort Together. The singer-songwriter is easily the eight-piece band’s most prominent member with her last solo album, Middle Cyclone, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200 last year. But on The New Pornographers’ fifth album, Case is just one of three lead singers and she’s back with the band that brought her from Vancouver to the bright lights at the front of the music industry. “She’s this great force in the band, but sometimes she’s not there,” primary songwriter Carl Newman told Reuters, referring to Case as “a great strength and great weakness.” As for the other six members of the band, they’re committed to making Together as harmonious as possible with pulsating energy throughout the 12-track album. It’s truly pop rock at its finest and this Canadian supergroup proves there’s no such thing as too many cooks in the kitchen.

Together by The New Pornographers hits stores on Tuesday, May 4

galleries/2010/04/29/week-in-culture/wic-429---6_zyx4wv

The sad, forgotten Tony Awards, once of interest only to a few dozen theater nerds and Bebe Neuwirth, has received a megadose of "youth appeal" in recent years when Hugh Jackman and Neil Patrick Harris hosted. Of the four major awards ceremonies, the Tonys is the only one that comes even close to awarding the year's best, instead of the year's most-buzzed. Of course, it's not perfect—if you've been in a Hollywood movie, you're a lot more likely to win—but you are a lot less likely to throw something at your TV. Which should count for something.

The nominees for the 64th annual Tony Awards will be announced Tuesday, May 4.

Inset: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images