3 results for "Mystery"

Leonard Cohen: a crack in everything

Victor Shiffman,Sylvie Simmons,Chantal Ringuet,John Zeppetelli
The world-renowned novelist, poet and singer/songwriter inspired generations of writers, musicians and artists. For decades, Leonard Cohen tenaciously supplied the world with melancholy but urgent observations on the state of the human heart. With equal parts gravitas and grace, he teased out a startlingly inventive and singular language, depicting both an exalted spirituality and an earthly sexuality. His interweaving of the sacred and the profane, of mystery and accessibility, was such a compelling combination it became seared into memory. Situated between monograph and devotional exercise, this visually striking publication documents a unique exhibition and pays homage to a global star's enormous cultural achievements. Visual artists, filmmakers, performers and musicians from around the world revisit Cohen's words, songs, and biography with new perspectives. Cohen himself makes an appearance as a visual artist with a projection of his many self-portraits. Co-curators John Zeppetelli and Victor Shiffman discuss the two years that went into bringing the ambitious event to fruition, from its original conception as a celebration to its final form of a tribute suffused in elegy. Cohen biographer Sylvie Simmons reviews Cohen's career from early promise to unexpected paths, through set-backs, and onto its astounding culmination. Chantal Ringuet draws upon specific moments in Cohen's life from early childhood to his last writings where he seems to be reciting his own Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. Also featured are artist statements from each of the 40 participants.
Musée d'art contemporain 2018 160 pages

Soulful creatures: animal mummies in ancient Egypt

Bleiberg, Edward
In the ancient burial grounds of Saqqara, outside the Egyptian capital, Memphis, over five million individual ibis mummies have been excavated from one cemetery alone. Yet the mummification of animals and its role in ancient Egyptian culture has remained shrouded in mystery. Why was the religious purpose of these animal mummies? How were they made? And why are there so many? 'Soulful Creatures' sheds new light on these questions by taking a closer look at the Brooklyn Museum's renowned Egyptian collection, which includes snake, dog, and hawk mummies; crocodile and falcon coffins; and baboon votive offerings.
Brooklyn Museum in association with D Giles Ltd 2013 151 pages

Caravaggio's angel

Brandon, Ruth
Dr Reggie Lee, newly arrived at the National Gallery, is putting together a small exhibition around three Caravaggios depicting 'St Cecilia and the Angel'. One is at the Getty, one at the Louvre, and she hopes it won't be too hard to track down the third. But a series of inexplicable obstacles keep getting in her way - and then, unexpectedly, a fourth Caravaggio turns up. One of them must be a fake. But which? When people start to die, it seems clear that someone doesn't want Reggie's show to go ahead. Why, she can't imagine. But her career is at stake, and she'd damned if she'll let herself be intimidated and bullied by these unseen forces. So Reggie investigates and her research takes her from Surrealist suicides to shady Italian art dealers, from seventeenth-century painting techniques to modern French politics in a viciously-fought Presidential election year. By the end it seems as though nobody in the opaque and ill-defined world of art can really stay incorruptible - perhaps not even Reggie herself.
Soho Constable 2008 272 pages