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Meet Florence Henri, The Under-Acknowledged Queen Of Surrealist Photography

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Think about surrealism and a few names inevitable spring to mind -- André Breton, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Hans Arp and Yves Tanguy. Yet an upcoming exhibition at Jeu de Paume is honoring a pioneering surrealist photographer whose influence, like her work itself, remains cast in shadows.

Florence Henri was born in New York in 1893 but spent most of her artistic career in Paris, moving there 1925 following the death of both her parents. First interested in painting, Henri immersed herself in the visual languages of geometric abstraction and cubism, both of which would factor into her photographic approach. After around two years, Henri grew tired of paint, and, on the suggestion of her friends and avid photographers László Moholy-Nagy and his wife Lucia Moholy, taught herself the ways of the camera. Henri picked up the basic technical and visual principles of photography. And, following the economic crash of 1929, she opened up a commercial photo studio in Paris to get by.

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Composition 1928 Florence Henri Gelatin silver print period, 27 x 37.1 cm. Museum Folkwang, Essen. Florence Henri © Galleria Martini & Ronchetti


Henri's prop of choice was the mirror -- using the common object as a surrealist tool to disrupt perception, disorient the viewer and multiply her subject matter into infinity ambiguity. Her photographs, which included self portraits, compositional still lifes, artist portraits, nudes, photomontages, photo collages, were often reminiscent of Cubist paintings, with disjointed reflections complicating the space so even straight forward depictions become uncanny meditations.

Somewhat associated with her fascination with mirrors, Henri also toyed with her own identity, revamping her persona with through costumes, makeup and pose with every shot. "It's obvious that self-portraits have something to do with a search for identity but Henri's are particularly tilted that way," William Wilson, the erstwhile Los Angeles Times art critic, wrote in 1992. "In one she saw herself as a bohemian tomboy, in the next she's an earth-mother peasant in a babushka. It was fairly easy to lose track of oneself in the floating world of the international avant-garde, especially if you were a woman and an artist."

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Self-portrait, 1928, Gelatin silver print period, 39.3 x 25.5 cm.
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kunstbibliothek. Florence Henri © Galleria Martini & Ronchetti


Her most well-known work is a self-portrait, in which Henri sits before a mirror, dolled up almost as if in drag. Two silver balls lay reflected up against the mirror, equivocal symbols of both testicles and breasts. Henri, influential in both her artistic style and personal styles, toyed with gender binaries, using her personal appearance to emphasize the performative nature of gender. The artist was married to a Swiss house servant, but went on to have other relationships with both men and women, including a longtime affair with artist and model Margarete Schall.

Henri established herself as a formidable photographer, and remained consistent in her work up until World War II. Then her work declined considerably, both due to lack of materials and the prohibitions imposed under the Nazi occupation. Henri briefly returned to painting, but her central period of output remained in the 1920s and 1930s. Her compositions, simultaneously warm, playful, clever and inquisitive, set the stage for future explorations into the limits of photography, or lack thereof.

Florence Henri's work will be on view from February 24 until May 17, 2015, at Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris.


Who Knew Doors Could Be So Crazy Beautiful?

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When was the last time you stopped and acknowledged the shape of a door? What about its color and texture? Its weight and its force? Though we hardly go a single day without walking through a door of some kind, we're certainly guilty of overlooking their formal qualities, treating them solely as symbols of transition instead of architectural objects in their own right.

door

Today we're taking the time to examine just how different each door is, from the shape of its handle to the wear on its surface. Each individual portal contains within it a singular combination of architectural vision and the natural repercussions of time, both converging to create a transitional moment between indoor and outdoor, here and there.

We asked some of our readers to send their best shots of their chosen entrances and exits, and the stunning results are below. Enjoy the weekend with this series of humble, yet utterly gorgeous, architectural openings.

Why Is Art So Expensive?

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This article originally appeared on Slate.

This question originally appeared on Quora, the best answer to any question. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and access insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

I recently went to a gallery and saw pieces of broken glass selling for $1,000 per shard. Why?


Answer by Michelle Gaugy, art gallery owner, author, art consultant:

Money is a medium of exchange. We exchange it for something we either need or want. We have to give it up in amounts based on “values” that are set by a multitude of factors. Although there are those who assert that art may have “intrinsic value,” I'm not certain there is anything in this world today that is priced at its “intrinsic value.” What would that be? Construction materials plus some preset labor cost plus an agreed-upon “fair” profit margin? I don't believe even our food is priced like that these days. If Chile can raise the price on cherries in the winter, you'd better believe they will.

Everything I can think of is priced based on supply and demand. And that is also true of art. With art that was created by dead guys (not so many dead gals), scarcity is a real factor. There aren't too many Vermeers running around, so this dramatically affects pricing. He won't be making any more.

When it comes to living artists, other factors become involved. Presumably, the demand is not limited, although some artists only create (or say they only create, or their dealers say they only create) a limited number of works. However, any specific artwork is unique. And artists and dealers do other things in an effort to create value—the perception that the art has present, or future potential, value. They facilitate getting the artist's work written up by magazines, put into museums, or placed into well-known collections. This gives the artist's work third-party blessings—kind of like having your significant other approved by the family before he proposes, or the vintage car signed off by five mechanics before you write the check. It doesn't really mean the significant other won't leave you or the car won't break down two blocks later, but you feel reassured.

And art is like other items. Paintings are priced—and valued—in relationship to each other, within an extremely large and niched marketplace. It's like food or cars. Oranges aren't affected by the pricing of steaks, nor are Fords affected by the pricing of Mercedes, except in very large scale. Same thing with art. Those questionable thousand-dollar glass shards that prompted your question are priced relative to other similarly silly kinds of contemporary “artworks” (and the marketplace between dealers and collectors of those kinds of works), but are completely unaffected by the pricing of a Van Gogh masterpiece or a contemporary landscape. Each are bought, sold, and priced within individual marketplaces.

The other thing to remember when you see price tags on artworks, those numbers are ask—they aren't necessarily get.

Photo Series Explores The Intense Relationship Between Little Girls And The Color Pink

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To all the grown women reading this right now, take a moment to travel back in time, back to the days of time-outs, playgrounds and nap times. Was your time as a growing girl sprinkled with an inordinate amount of the color pink? For many young women, pink was a contentious topic in the early years of life, at least as far as colors go. Whether you loved the unabashed hue with a burning passion or loathed it to your core, odds are your miniature self had some very strong opinions on rose, salmon, coral and all other related shades.

In her photography series "My Favorite Color Was Yellow," photographer Kirsty Mackay explores what she calls the "pinkification" that so many young girls face. Although pink itself is seemingly innocuous, the inundation of the ultra-feminized color supplants a child's agency and personal choice at such a young age.

pink

"I was aware of the huge presence of pink in the children’s market, but it was only when my daughter was born, that I became interested as a subject for my work," Mackay explained to HuffPost. "Even though my family had not chosen to buy into pink, we were still inundated with all things pink. My daughter had so many pink clothes, that I could do a whole pink wash. It was then I started to realize how powerful this had become."

"My own personal experience of growing up in the seventies also gave me a different perspective on ‘pinkification’. Many people take the association of pink and femininity for granted and don’t question it, however I remember a time when childhood was very different. For me growing up, blue was my favorite color. I was dressed in boiler suits and dungarees, played with Lego and Mecanno. The pink phenomenon has only grown in line with consumerism since the 80’s. To me it looked like we had taken a step backwards and it contradicts what many parents want for their children."

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Mackay captures the color pink through a surreal, candy-coated lens, at once haunting and heavenly. Her young subjects appear wrapped in the color and all its connotations, as phones, sweaters and even globes are cast in in a rosy glow.

"Through the process of photographing and talking to all the girls in the book. I see them: being dictated to, there is a lack of choice and personal freedom, and it’s yet another barrier for them to break through. I think it’s easy to overlook this issue, as perhaps it’s not clear cut and seems harmless, so I’d like other people to consider it more carefully. I’m always reading about the lack of female politicians, scientists, CEO’s etc, well its starts here with young girls and pink is part of that problem."

Mackay is currently raising funds to make a self-published photo book on Kickstarter. Her goal is to reach £12,000 ($18,500) by February 27, 2015. Visit her page to learn more.

Latino Actors Weren't Snubbed At The Oscars -- But That's Not A Good Thing

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It's been 14 years since a U.S. Latino actor last took home an Academy Award. No one knows when that will happen again, but it certainly won't be this Sunday.

After the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced its all-white slate of nominees for the acting categories in January, Twitter users expressed their discontent with hashtags like #OscarsSoWhite. Their focus was mostly on the film “Selma,” whose cast and director were all passed over for nominations. Few people brought up the issue of snubbed Latino actors.

That’s probably because, according to statistics and Latino advocates, the real issue for Latinos isn’t a lack of nominations but a lack of roles in the first place.

“The problem is there are [few] roles that are available to Latino actors, and they are generally not central to the narrative,” Felix Sanchez, co-founder and chairman of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, told The Huffington Post. “They are a pivot point for the main storyline. That’s the case in ‘Boyhood’ and that happens repeatedly in films. So we’re left to create our own independent films, which do not really get the audience. And often the money is not there to really produce a film that will win awards.”

An overview of the history of Latino actors at the Academy Awards is revealing. When you include international Latin American and Spanish stars in the tally, Latinos have won an Oscar 9 times out of a total of 29 nominations. Only one Latino has ever won the Best Actor award -- José Ferrer, for 1950's "Cyrano de Bergerac" -- and no Latina has ever been named Best Actress.

The academy has received plenty of criticism over its lack of diversity, particularly after the Los Angeles Times reported in 2012 that academy voters were 94 percent white, 2 percent black and less than 2 percent Latino.

When controversy concerning diversity resurfaced this year, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the academy’s president, spoke up.

“We are committed to do our part to ensure diversity in the industry,” Boone Isaacs, who became organization’s first black president in 2013, told The New York Times in January. “We are making great strides, and I personally wish it was moving quicker, but I think the commitment is there and we will continue to make progress.”

The Huffington Post repeatedly reached out to the academy seeking comment for this article, but received no response.

Even in films that don't get nominated for Oscars, Latinos don't have much of a presence. In the 100 top-grossing films of 2013, only 4.9 percent of roles went to Latino actors and actresses, according to a recent study by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg school. Meanwhile, Latinos make up 17 percent of the nation’s total population. That’s more than 54 million people, a number that the Census Bureau expects will double by 2050.

“The Latino Media Gap,” a report released in June by Columbia University, the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, found similarly bleak results for Latino actors, even showing a trend toward less participation over time rather than more. For each year between 2000 and 2013, researchers looked at the 10 films with the highest domestic gross. They found that Latino lead role appearances -- that is, all leading roles filled by a Latino actor or actress -- went from 2.8 percent of all leading roles in the 2000s to 1.4 percent in the 2010s.

Frances Negrón-Muntaner, a Puerto Rican filmmaker and scholar, was the principal investigator on the study, which focused overall on the state of Latinos in media.

“One way of visualizing the situation is to consider that at the current rate of change, it will take 60 years for Latinos to fill 17 percent of lead roles,” Negrón-Muntaner wrote in the report. “By then, however, the Latino population is expected to double.”

Sanchez told HuffPost that there are many facets to Hollywood’s diversity problem. One, he said, is that not only are Latino actors overlooked for leading roles, but when they get supporting roles, the script tends to position them as subservient to the white characters.

"It’s appalling that in the 50 years between the two films we still haven’t understood who Latinos are."

Sanchez said this problem was visible in one of the year’s most nominated films, Richard Linklater's “Boyhood.” In the film, a Latino yard worker (Roland Ruiz) crosses paths with the main character’s mother (Patricia Arquette), who advises the young man to go back to school. During a second encounter years later, Ruiz's character, whose life is now very different, thanks Arquette's character for putting him on a new course.

Despite the widespread critical acclaim for "Boyhood," Sanchez argued that a movie like George Stevens' 1956 drama "Giant," also set in Texas, does a better a job of portraying the Latino experience than Linklater’s film.

“It’s appalling that in the 50 years between the two films we still haven’t understood who Latinos are,” Sanchez said. “‘Giant’ was almost more correct at talking about the Latino condition, because it showed all the biases that people had and the fears they had about intermarriage -- but once there was a child, it melted away that anger and that inability to conceive what this would be like... And then you compare that to 'Boyhood,' and we’re still in this ‘we need a white character to save us' mode.”

Latino typecasting is a actually a big part of the problem. The stereotype of the sexy Latina vixen, for example, remains alive and well. Of the Latina actresses who appeared in the 100 top-grossing films of 2013, nearly 38 percent were partially or fully naked on screen at some point, according to the University of Southern California’s study. For white actresses, that figure was 32 percent; for black actresses, 24 percent; and for Asian actresses, 18 percent.

Equally unnerving is that 69 percent of "the most iconic TV and movie maids" since 1996 have been played by Latina actresses, according to the “Latino Media Gap” report. The study also found that from 2012 to 2013, nearly 18 percent of Latino film characters were linked to crime. All in all, opportunities for emotionally complex leading roles are thin on the ground for Latino actors and actresses, which in turn means they tend not to be recognized at awards season.

In response to being pitched roles that perpetuate stereotypes, some of the industry's biggest Latino stars have developed their own projects. John Leguizamo began his career as the son of a drug lord on “Miami Vice,” but for several years now the actor has been creating films and one-man shows, like the hit “Ghetto Klown,” as a way to fight back.

“I had to,” Leguizamo told The Hollywood Reporter at Sundance earlier this year. “It was an antidote to the system, to the Hollywouldn’t-ness of it all. You know? And it was that, because I didn’t want to be a drug dealer or a murderer for the rest of my life. That’s not me, that’s not my people.”

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Spanish actor Javier Bardem accepts the Oscar for best supporting actor in 2007. The star was recognized for his work in "No Country for Old Men."



To complicate things further, media coverage and researchers often lump together Spaniards, Latin American-born actors and U.S. Latinos into one category, which can create the impression that the U.S. film industry is more inclusive of Latinos than it really is. If you exclude actors who began their careers abroad, or who identify as other nationalities (as in the case of Mexican-born Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o), just 12 U.S. Latino actors and actresses have been nominated for an Academy Award in 87 years of Oscar history. Only five have won.

To put that in perspective, in the past 20 years only one Latino actor raised within the 50 states has been nominated for an Academy Award -- Benicio Del Toro, once for 2000's "Traffic," which he won, and once for 2003's "21 Grams," which he did not.

“When Hollywood looks at casting, they think, ‘Well, let’s get a real Latino’ who is more likely born outside the borders of the United States,” said Sanchez. “They don’t validate or recognize U.S. Latinos as proper subjects of an American film. They misunderstand the immigration issue... The multi-generational aspect of our existence in the United States is a very different story that needs to be told.”

The "Latino Media Gap" researchers also found that professionals who began their careers in Latin America or Spain were more likely to come from "privileged socio-economic backgrounds" and less likely in general to face prejudice than many U.S. Latinos.

Even if you include international Latino actors in the Oscar statistics, Del Toro’s 2000 win still came a full nine years after Mercedes Ruehl took home Best Supporting Actress for “The Fisher King.” And Ruehl's win, in turn, came 30 years after the previous win by a Latino actor -- Rita Moreno, for 1961's "West Side Story."

The general under-representation of Latinos in Hollywood is a bit baffling when you think of how much money the studios could be making. The "Latino Media Gap" report projected that by 2015, Latino buying power is expected to reach $1.6 trillion.

“To put this figure in perspective: if U.S. Latinos were to found a nation, that economy would be the 14th greatest in the world,” wrote Negrón-Muntaner.

This makes Latinos the group with the fastest-growing buying power in the country. They’re also growing faster than anybody else within the key 18-to-34 marketing demographic.

“To put this figure in perspective: if U.S. Latinos were to found a nation, that economy would be the 14th greatest in the world."

And these numbers definitely translate to cold hard cash for studios. The Motion Picture Association of America found that 25 percent of movie tickets sold in 2013 went to Latinos, a greater share than what any other minority group bought.

In the past, Latinos have been known to turn films like “The Lego Movie” and the “Fast and the Furious” franchise into box office hits. More recently, Deadline has noted the success of Jennifer Lopez’s $4 million thriller “The Boy Next Door,” which opened in January with a $15 million box office. The same weekend, Johnny Depp’s $60 million production “Mortdecai” opened with just $4 million in sales.

“We are starting to show our muscle because we can actually show a rate of return for the investment and an audience willing to participate with Latino content,” Sanchez told HuffPost. “That is the window into the future. But it is such an uphill climb.”

One industry player that took early note of the demographic shift was Lions Gate Entertainment, which in 2010 teamed with Mexico’s Grupo Televisa to launch Pantelion Films, the first major Latino Hollywood studio. Since then, Pantelion has released Spanish-language, English-language and bilingual films, including “From Prada To Nada” and “Girl In Progress” -- films that starred notable Latino actors like Wilmer Valderrama, Alexa PenaVega and Eva Mendes.

“We know that we need to provide something in these films that the Latino viewer wouldn’t be able to get from the big Hollywood films,” Edward Allen, chief operating officer of Pantelion, told HuffPost. “And a big part of that is the story, the setting and the cast.”

The studio’s breakout film came in 2013 with "Instructions Not Included," directed by the Mexican actor-director Eugenio Derbez. "Instructions" -- which had a 95 percent Latino audience, according to Allen -- stunned at the Labor Day weekend box office and became the most successful Spanish-language film in the history of the United States.

“I think one thing that is evident from the success of that movie is that the Latino audience, just like any other audience, responds to authenticity,” Allen told HuffPost.

Lately, he said, larger studios seem to have started getting the message.

“I think there is a better understanding of the authenticity that the Latino audience wants to see, as opposed to cliche and caricature,” said Allen, noting also the success of television series like The CW's "Jane the Virgin."

In addition to Pantelion's films, 20th Century Fox recently released "The Book of Life," an animated feature based on Mexico's Day of the Dead, and Disney just released "McFarland USA," which stars Kevin Costner and focuses on the uplifting true story of an all-Latino cross-country team in California.

Sanchez told HuffPost that studio executives who ignore the demographic realities do so at their own peril.

“Look, there’s a demographic shift," he said. "Either you plan for it or somebody else will.”

Here's Everyone Who Will Present Awards At The Oscars On Sunday

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Somebody has to distribute all that golden hardware at Sunday's Oscars. Last year's acting winners (Cate Blanchett, Matthew McConaughey, Lupita Nyong'o and Jared Leto) are all accounted for, along with a few dozen other A-listers who are nominees, snubbed celebrities compensated for their lack of nominations or people promoting upcoming movies. Whoever they are, each will receive swanky gift bags that make the glamour pageant well worth their time. Here's everyone who's been summoned to hand off this year's awards:


Photos By Vivian Maier, Focus Of Oscar-Nominated Documentary, In Legal Limbo

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CHICAGO (AP) -- A messy legal fight over copyrights to streetscape photos shot by a Chicago nanny whose life is chronicled in "Finding Vivian Maier," which is nominated for an Oscar on Sunday, threatens to slow or even stop new releases of her once-unknown work that has become a sensation only after her death.

The enigmatic Maier died penniless five years ago with no will, no obvious heirs and no inkling that the more than 150,000 photographs she snapped in her spare time in Chicago and New York from the 1950s onward would become so prized. Now, two men she never knew are tussling over who holds the rights to print, sell and display the images she created.

Maier's intimate and often-gritty photography, which she made no attempt to sell commercially in her lifetime, focused on everyday people, rich and poor, and captures the flavor of a bygone era. Since interest in her work exploded, prints of her photographs have sold for thousands of dollars.

Center stage in the dispute is John Maloof, a 33-year-old former Chicago real estate agent who features in and co-directs the documentary. He bought a box full of Maier's negatives at auction for $400 from a repossessed storage locker in 2007. He now owns the vast majority of her work, more than 100,000 images that are mostly in negatives or undeveloped film. He traced Maier's whereabouts in the Chicago area in 2009, just days after she died at age 83.

Maloof defends his project - now his full-time job - of managing his Maier collection. Years going through negatives, and paying for professional restorers and printers has cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. Until recently, he either lost money or just broke even, he said.

"My life is 100 percent on this project," he said. "It is a blessing and a curse."

It was Virginia-based David Deal, a longtime commercial photographer who read about Maier as he completed a law degree, who sparked the legal fight by filing a notice in a Chicago probate court last summer. Deal's filing identifies a relative of Maier's in France, retired bureaucrat Francis Baille, as Maier's closest relative - a first cousin once removed. Deal says that makes him Maier's rightful heir.

Deal insists his motivation for intervening isn't monetary. As a former professional photographer himself, he said, he is sensitive to copyright violations and stepped in to ensure the conundrum posed by Maier's photos is properly dealt with.

Illinois law is straightforward: The closest living relative is the heir, period. Whether Maier disliked a relative or didn't know the person existed is no factor, said Patty Gerstenblith, a DePaul University law professor.

Baille, said Deal, had never heard of Maier.

No one disputes Maloof rightly owns the negatives. But ownership doesn't confer copyrights, like owning a music CD doesn't give someone rights to reproduce and sell it.

Maloof believes he has copyrights, though he concedes that issue isn't settled. His basis is a different Frenchman he contends is Maier's closest relative, Sylvain Jaussaud, also described as a first cousin once removed. Jaussaud, who did know Maier and appears in the film, signed over copyrights to Maloof, he said.

Deal argues that Maloof should have launched probate proceedings himself years earlier to establish who Maier's heirs were, and says it's Maloof's own fault Maier's growing ranks of fans could be deprived of much of her work.

"We wouldn't be in this position today if he'd not cut legal corners," Deal said.

"That's garbage," responds Maloof. He did exhaustive genealogy research and knew of Baille, he said. But he ruled him out after a French judge determined he wasn't as close a relative as Deal asserts.

Maloof says a probate filing wasn't required. But once Deal took that step, it set off a drawn-out legal process. It also means the players now include Cook County, which by law represents Maier's estate in the interim.

To avoid the legal headache, an owner of a far smaller collection of Maier's photography sold it all to a Canadian gallery. Maloof has no intention of doing that.

The county could cut a deal right away with Maloof, possibly letting him reproduce her work with some profits going into escrow until the heir question is resolved. Maloof said Thursday a recent meeting with county lawyers left him more optimistic. Officials, he said, understand the intense interest in Maier.

"They don't want to shut us down," Maloof said. "I am confident something can be worked out."

2 Cezanne Sketches Found On Reverse Sides Of Watercolors

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two unfinished sketches have been discovered on the reverse side of two watercolors by Paul Cezanne — and officials at Philadelphia's Barnes Foundation museum says the collector who bought them more than 90 years ago probably never knew they were there.


The foundation said the sketches — one graphite and the other watercolor — were found during conservation work on the reverse sides of two Cezanne watercolors depicting the landscape of southern France.


Officials said in a news release that the sketches haven't been seen since at least the early 20th century, "most likely prior to Dr. Albert Barnes's purchase of the works from Leo Stein in 1921."


"We've had (the watercolors) out of the frame before. But the backs were covered with brown paper," Barbara Buckley, the foundation's senior director of conservation and chief painting conservator, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "That's one of the reasons they were sent (for conservation). Brown paper is very acidic, and they needed acid-free paper."


Officials said Cezanne often worked on both sides of the paper in his sketchbooks and on larger sheets, producing thousands of such drawings over the course of his career, but they were usually done "to experiment with line and color."


Buckley said the sketches, which were on the back of watercolors normally on view in one of the museum's galleries, offer a window into Cezanne's artistic process.


On the back of "The Chaine de l'Etoile Mountains," conservators found that Cezanne had begun a sketch of trees with pencil and then color, but the center of the sketch is so unfinished it's hard to determine what it represents. On the back of "Trees," conservators found a detailed depiction without color of houses and the same Etoile range that was often the subject of the artist's sketches and paintings.


"We had no reason to think there was anything there," said Buckley, who said nothing was found on the back of another Cezanne watercolor during conservation work in 2007. Barnes officials say 15 unknown Cezanne drawings have been found in the last three decades.


Martha Lucy, a Drexel University assistant professor of art and art history and a former Barnes curator, said Cezanne frequently walked along a route that looked out over the Etoile range near his home in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France.


"Cezanne walked frequently there and did many depictions of it," Lucy said.


Both Lucy and Buckley said they believe that Albert Barnes was unaware that he had acquired, in Lucy's words, "four for the price of two." The correspondence between Barnes and Stein contains no mention of the drawings, so Stein likely did not know about them either.


The foundation plans to display the works in double-sided frames that will allow viewing of both sides from April 10 through May 18, after which the watercolors will be returned to their original locations.


Where To Watch This Year's Oscar-Nominated Documentaries

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The Oscars are Sunday, which means there are precious few hours remaining to catch up on this year's nominees. And while many of the major acting races are locked up, and even Best Picture seems to have broken down to "Boyhood" versus "Birdman," things are still a bit unsettled in the Best Documentary category. The experts' money is on Laura Poitras' "Citizenfour," but "Virunga" and "Finding Vivian Maier" stand close behind. Ahead, everything you need to know about the five Oscar-nominated documentaries, including where to watch them before Sunday.

"Citizenfour"



What it's about: "'Citizenfour' is a real-life thriller, unfolding by the minute, giving audiences unprecedented access to filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald’s encounters with Edward Snowden in Hong Kong, as he hands over classified documents providing evidence of mass indiscriminate and illegal invasions of privacy by the National Security Agency (NSA)."

Where to watch: "Citizenfour" is still out in limited release. On Monday, the documentary will debut on HBO at 9 p.m.

"Virunga"



What it's about: "'Virunga' is the incredible true story of a group of brave people risking their lives to build a better future in a part of Africa the world's forgotten, and a gripping exposé of the realities of life in the Congo."

Where to watch: "Virunga" is available on Netflix right now.

"Finding Vivian Maier"



What it's about: "'Finding Vivian Maier' is the critically acclaimed documentary about a mysterious nanny who secretly took over 100,000 photographs that were hidden in storage lockers and, discovered decades later, is now among the 20th century’s greatest photographers. Directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, Maier’s strange and riveting life and art are revealed through never-before-seen photographs, films, and interviews with dozens who thought they knew her."

Where to watch: "Finding Vivian Maier" is available via Showtime On Demand, Amazon, iTunes and YouTube.

"Last Days in Vietnam"



What it's about: "During the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as South Vietnamese resistance crumbles. The United States has only a skeleton crew of diplomats and military operatives still in the country. As Communist victory becomes inevitable and the U.S. readies to withdraw, some Americans begin to consider the certain imprisonment and possible death of their South Vietnamese allies, co-workers and friends. Meanwhile, the prospect of an official evacuation of South Vietnamese becomes terminally delayed by Congressional gridlock and the inexplicably optimistic U.S. ambassador. With the clock ticking and the city under fire, a number of heroic Americans take matters into their own hands, engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations in a desperate effort to save as many South Vietnamese lives as possible."

Where to watch: "Last Days in Vietnam" is still out in limited release and available now via iTunes, Amazon and YouTube.

"The Salt of the Earth"



What it's about: "Sebastião Salgado has created some of the most indelible photographs of our time. His black-and-white images bring an artful composition to chronicling humanity’s 'salt of the earth' in multiyear projects such as 'Workers,' 'Migrations' and 'Genesis.' This film, directed by his son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders, brings an insider’s and outsider’s perspective on the family, illuminating the key role played by Salgado’s wife, Lélia Deluiz Wanick, and their work on the nature preserve Instituto Terra."

Where to watch: "The Salt of the Earth" is not available in the U.S. at the moment.

His Son Was Born Cursed. He Started Filming. Now He Might Win An Oscar.

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Almost no one has Ondine’s Curse. It is an incredibly rare genetic disorder.

Leo was born one of the unlucky few, and his doctors expected the worst.

“They presented it in such a severe way, like he has no chance for a normal life at all,” his father Tomasz Śliwiński told The Huffington Post. “They said we needed to prepare to give up our professional lives completely, and just focus on the child. They were telling us so many bad things. It's amazing we didn't give up in that moment.”

For children like Leo, breathing doesn’t just happen. It is more of a conscious act. If Leo falls asleep, and he is not connected to a large ventilator, he will simply die. During the day, breathing requires concentration. If he’s distracted by something outside his window, or by the television, his breathing may weaken dangerously.

“If he concentrates on something too much, it's a moment when we have to exercise extreme caution and be ready to plug into the ventilator machine,” Śliwiński said.


Leo in his first year. Photo via Leoblog.

When Leo was born, a friend of Śliwiński’s suggested he start documenting the experience as a form of therapy. Śliwiński was in film school at the time; his wife Magda Hueckel is a professional photographer.

“We really felt like somehow our life had ended. The filming itself helped us to go through this process,” Śliwiński said. “Rather than falling into depression and thinking, ‘What has happened to us?’ we put this energy into something creative.”

Four years later, the footage captured during the first six months of Leo’s life has become an acclaimed Oscar-nominated short documentary, titled “Our Curse.” And Leo, who just entered kindergarten, will get to watch the festivities from home in Poland.



If you’d like to help, visit the National Organization for Rare Disorders or the CCHS Family Network.

CAPTURING A CURSE

When Śliwiński and his wife started filming, they had no idea whether they’d ever show the footage to anyone.

Mostly they sat on their couch and talked late into the night. Whether Leo would survive was still in doubt. They were terrified that his ventilator alarm would go off and they wouldn’t hear it.

“It was the hardest thing at the beginning to understand that Leo is living on the verge, he is balancing between life and death,” Śliwiński said. “We had to somehow accept this in our heads, and accept the moment and try to be happy with the moment as it is, and not go too much in the future.”

Days turned into weeks turned into months. Leo was stabilizing. Gradually, Śliwiński and Hueckel began to adapt to their new life. And one night, they realized the time for filming was over.

“I remember we had this conversation on the couch that we'd usually have in the evening, and we noticed that we'd started repeating ourselves,” Śliwiński recalled. “We had finished the whole process of accepting the thing and now it was time to live just as normally as possible. So it felt really natural to stop recording.”


Leo in his first year. Photo via Leoblog.

Months later, a new challenge: editing the film forced Śliwiński to relive the experience. “I remember smoking so many cigarettes during that time,” he laughed. “I had to go back through all those moments, and yet also somehow detach myself emotionally from the whole process. I had to treat it like a film with a character that just happened to be me.”

He ended up asking two colleagues to help trim his first cut. “I was so emotional with some scenes that were not important to the story. I just personally didn't have the guts to remove them, because I remembered all of the emotions in those scenes.”

Last month, on the day the Academy Award nominees were announced, he gathered with the teams behind two other Polish films that had also been short-listed for Oscar nominations.

The news came in celebratory waves, and by the end, all three Polish films had been nominated. “Everyone was shouting and happy,” Śliwiński said. “It was so totally amazing. A day I won't forget for a very long time.”


Leo in his second year. Photo via Leoblog.

LIFE IN THE MOMENT

Leo’s disorder still requires constant monitoring, complex logistical planning. If his parents aren’t with him, nurses (whose salaries are not covered by insurance) must be on call, including all day at school.

“You see what other children can do but your son cannot do. It is hard to see how differently it could have been.”

Yet none of these challenges overshadow what Śliwiński says is the universal message of his film: even the worst moments of your life can turn into something positive after all.

“I must say, we are really happy now,” he says. “It’s the most remarkable thing. Of course I would do anything for Leo to be cured. But somehow we managed to find a balance, and this became a very enriching experience. It shifted our perspective totally. We stopped worrying about useless things. We started appreciating what's really important.”


Leo in his third year. Photo via Leoblog.

Through their web site, Leo’s parents are raising funds for a surgery to implant a breathing pacer, so Leo won't be dependent on his tracheotomy.

They are considering adding to their family. “We think it would be very good for Leo to have a little brother or sister.” And most amazing, Śliwiński says, has been meeting adults with Ondine’s Curse while he’s traveled to promote his film. “They function totally normally, they finished university, they have families. It shows there’s a great chance Leo can live a life with almost no limitations.”

If you’d like to help, visit the National Organization for Rare Disorders or the CCHS Family Network.


Leo in his third year. Photo via Leoblog.

Transcription services by Tigerfish; now offering transcripts in two-hours guaranteed. Interview text has been edited and condensed.

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Sophia is a project to collect life lessons from fascinating people. Learn more or sign up to receive lessons for living directly via Facebook or our email newsletter.

Here's more from Sophia:
- He Asked 1500+ Elders For Advice On Living And Loving. Here's What They Told Him.
- Life Tips From The Ph.D. Who's Discovering How Meditation Changes Your Brain
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Indie Spirit Awards Winners List For 2015 Includes 'Birdman,' Michael Keaton, Julianne Moore

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In what might be a preview of Sunday's Academy Awards, "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" won Best Feature at the 30th annual Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday. The film, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, won two other awards on the afternoon: Best Male Lead for Michael Keaton and Best Cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki. Following wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Producers Guild Awards and Directors Guild Awards, "Birdman" stands as the favorite to win Best Picture at the Oscars.

Its main competition for Best Picture, "Boyhood," won two Spirit Awards: Best Director for Richard Linklater and Best Supporting Female for Patricia Arquette. The other top awards went to Julianne Moore (Best Female Lead for "Still Alice") and J.K. Simmons (Best Supporting Male for "Whiplash"). It's expected that Moore, Simmons and Arquette will all win in their corresponding acting categories at the Oscars on Sunday. (Keaton and "The Theory of Everything" star Eddie Redmayne, who wasn't nominated at the Spirit Awards, are the top favorites for Best Actor at the Academy Awards.)

The full list of Indie Spirit Awards winners is below.

BEST FEATURE
"Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)"

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"

BEST MALE LEAD
Michael Keaton, "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)"

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"

BEST DIRECTOR
Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"

BEST SCREENPLAY
Dan Gilroy, "Nightcrawler"

BEST FIRST FEATURE
"Nightcrawler"

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Justin Simien, "Dear White People"

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (Given to the best feature made for under $500,000)
"Land Ho!""

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuel Lubezki, "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)"

BEST EDITING
Tom Cross, "Whiplash"

BEST DOCUMENTARY
"CITIZENFOUR"

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
"Ida" (Poland)

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD (Given to one film's director, casting director and ensemble cast)
"Inherent Vice"

SPECIAL DISTINCTION AWARD
"Foxcatcher"

18th ANNUAL PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD (Honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films)
Chris Ohlson

21st ANNUAL KIEHL'S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD
Rania Attieh & Daniel Garcia, "H."

20th ANNUAL LENSCRAFTERS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD (Presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition)
Dan Krauss, "The Kill Team"

'Dear White People' Writer-Director Justin Simien Calls For More Diversity In Storytelling At Spirit Awards

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"Dear White People" writer-director Justin Simien won Best First Screenplay at Saturday's 30th annual Independent Spirit Awards, and used his acceptance speech to call out the importance of having more diverse voices in Hollywood.

"I started writing this movie some 10 years ago as an impulse because I didn't really my story out there in the culture," Simien said. "I didn't see myself reflected back at me in the films I love or the stories that resonated for me."

Starring Tessa Thompson, Teyonah Parris and Tyler James Williams, "Dear White People" is a satire about race relations at an Ivy League college. It premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival, and wound up as one of 2014's best-reviewed films.

"I tried to put myself in the culture. That can be difficult when, along the way, there's really nothing there to tell you that you belong there," Simien continued during his speech. "I'm very grateful. If you don't see yourself in the culture, please put yourself there, because we need you. We need to see the world from your eyes."

For a full list of Indie Spirit Award winners, head here.

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What Time The Oscars Start, And Everything Else You Need To Know About The Academy Awards

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Oscar movies this year may be small, but they're packing a lot of drama.

When the 87th Academy Awards kick off Sunday night at 8:30 EST, the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles will be buzzing with something the Oscars haven't always had in recent years: genuine intrigue at who the night's biggest winners will be. The Oscars may also have another sight unusual to Southern California: rain. Light afternoon showers are expected, which could dampen red-carpet arrivals (though the carpet itself is under a glass tent).

With a co-leading nine nominations, Alejandro Inarritu's backstage comedy "Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" flies in with the strongest wind at its back. It topped the acting, directing and producing guild awards, which are often strong predictors of what the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will vote for.

"Birdman" also won best feature at Saturday's Independent Film Spirit Awards, further boosting its momentum. At the pre-Oscars beachside bash, star Michael Keaton, who won best actor, proclaimed the film "bold cinema" and "a game changer," a judgment shared by many in Hollywood who no doubt recognize something in Keaton's character's out-of-control ego.

But the coronation of "Birdman" is far from assured. Many believe the landmark of Richard Linklater 12-years-in-the-making "Boyhood" will ultimately prove irresistible to academy members. Best director also appears to be a toss-up between Inarritu and Linklater.

Three of the acting winners — Julianne Moore ("Still Alice"), J.K. Simmons ("Whiplash") and Patricia Arquette ("Boyhood") — are virtual locks going into Sunday's show, but best actor will be a nail biter. It could be the young British star Eddie Redmayne for his technically nuanced performance as Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything," or it could be Keaton's career-topper in "Birdman," as an actor trying to flee his superhero past.

But whether suspense will be enough to pull viewers to the telecast on ABC remains to be seen. Host Neil Patrick Harris will hope to continue the recent ratings upswing for the Oscars, which last year drew 43 million viewers, making it the most-watched entertainment telecast in a decade.

This year's crop of nominees, however, is notably light on box-office smashes. Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" (six nominations including best picture) is the only best-picture candidate to gross more than $100 million domestically. (A runaway hit, it recently surpassed $300 million.)

Possibly worse for the Oscars is that the lack of diversity in the nominees this year (all 20 nominated actors are white) turned off many potential viewers and led some to call for a boycott of the broadcast. Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are likely to aim for a telecast more inclusive than the nominees.

Planned performers include Lady Gaga, Jack Black, Jennifer Hudson and Anna Kendrick, as well as Oscar-nominated original songs: Common and John Legend ("Glory" from "Selma"), Maroon 5 ("Lost Stars" from "Begin Again"), Tim McGraw ("I'm Not Gonna Miss You" from "Glen Campbell . I'll Be Me"), Rita Ora ("Grateful" from "Beyond the Lights") and Tegan and Sara with the Lonely Island ("Everything Is Awesome" from "The Lego Movie").

Oprah Winfrey (a co-star in "Selma") will be among the presenters, as will Eddie Murphy, Chris Pratt, Kevin Hart, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, Channing Tatum and John Travolta.

Increasingly, ratings are driven by moments that spark social media frenzy, like when Travolta famously mispronounced the name of singer Idina Menzel as "Adele Dazeem" at last year's show. Sunday night, he gets a chance for redemption.

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

Will Those 36 Questions Really Make Two People Fall In Love?

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Last month, a New York Times Modern Love essay entitled "To Fall In Love With Anyone, Do This" caused quite the hullabaloo, claiming that if two strangers honestly asked and answered a certain 36 questions crafted by psychologist Arthur Aron, true love would inevitably ensue.

Prompts range from, "Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?" to, "When did you last cry in front of another person?" And of course: "How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?"

But is it for real? Can two people really fall hard simply by engaging in a prescribed questionnaire while engaging in deep eye contact? One artist, Mustafa Khan, was determined to find out.

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Khan engraved a treasure chest with Aron's questions, and placed the box, alongside two chairs, on a scenic San Francisco hill. The simple yet beautiful piece is aptly titled "The 36 Questions." Bay area locals have been participating in the installation -- according to Khan, one man even proposed to his girlfriend there.

Interested in taking a stab at true love? Journey up to SF's Bernall hill, look for the "No Outlets" street sign at the end of Ellsworth Street and walk up. Love could be waiting...

Bewitching (And Slightly Terrifying) Photos Of Vintage Puppets Past Their Prime

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If puppets, mannequins and dummies give you the creeps, we highly suggest looking away now. For all the rest of you, join us in this sinister stew of three dimensional caricatures, courtesy of photographers Andrew Bruce and Anna Fox.

The subjects on view are all remnants of "Spitting Image," a British satirical television show that aired in the 1980s and 1990s, poking fun at the relevant politicians and celebrities of the time. When the series was cancelled in 1996, the British gallerist James Hyman kept hold of the biting mockups that characterized the show, bold and dopey portrayals of a Who's Who of England, from Margaret Thatcher to cabinet minister Norman Tebbit.

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Andrew Bruce, Anna Fox, Margaret Thatcher, Pigment Print, 2015


And now, almost twenty years later, the puppets are coming out to play. For a series entitled "Spitting," photographers Bruce and Fox capture lustrous and unforgiving portraits of the decaying facades of obsolete cultural figures. Propped up against bright colored backdrops, the eerie puppets act as crumbling artifacts of another time. The juxtaposition of their inflated expressions with their faded and withering flesh is hard to face, yet impossible to look away from.

"Once we had them out of their packing cases, lying on the studio floor, the puppets looked broken, aged, decrepit and lacking any glimmer of life," Fox and Bruce explain in a statement. "The orange latex protruded pathetically from underneath their clothing as we re-arranged them on the stand. At one point, Norman Tebbit’s head came off as if he was being decapitated by some unknown force. The glamour faded, the sheen gone. Failed characters abandoned in storage..."

"Spitting" runs from April 22 to May 8, 2015 at James Hyman Gallery in London. Catch a preview below.


12 People With Eating Disorders Share The Skeletons In Their Closets

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The content of this post may be triggering to some readers.

Each person in this photo series has a skeleton in their closet.

Photographer Fritz Liedtke captured striking photos of men and women with eating disorders, accompanied by their stories, as told in their own words. The narratives include explanations of how the subjects' eating disorders developed, moments of revelation and descriptions of the recovery process.

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Some of the men and women in Liedtke's photographs are in recovery; others are still sick. Many of those photographed don't look visibly ill, which is what inspired the series' title.

"We [have all seen] the emaciated bodies, the walking skeletons, the withering models," Liedtke said. "Many of the women and men in this series have looked this way before; some still do. Beneath the layers of clothing and confusion is skin stretched over bones, which they are loathe to reveal. They have, as it were, a skeleton in the closet."


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Liedtke battled anorexia in college, which inspired him to document the stories of other survivors for his book, Skeleton In The Closet.

"Anorexia and bulimia are not about numbers or statistics, they are about individual people," Liedtke said. "Each of these people has a name, and a face. They are struggling for control over their bodies, and minds, and lives. Their stories include their families, friends, counselors, classmates, their spouses and children. These are the stories I am here to tell."

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See more of these brave portraits and stories below.


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Need help? Call the National Eating Disorder Association hotline at 1-800-931-2237.

Travel The World With 7 Great Books In Translation

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We know books improve our capacity for empathy. Why, then, is it so tempting to pick up titles with plots that mirror our own experiences? It's fun and comforting to relate to characters on a superficial level (hey, I live in Brooklyn, too!), but forming an emotional connection with a protagonist who lives a very different life in a very different place has a unique value. If you can't afford to jet-set right now, pick up a book that was originally written in a different language instead! Here are seven books in translation that we highly recommend:



Bonita Avenue by Peter Buwalda
It’s not hard to see why Peter Buwalda’s ambitious debut novel, first published in his native Holland in 2010, has attracted numerous comparisons to the work of Jonathan Franzen. With its realistic style, multiple perspectives, and bleak narrative following the unraveling of a seemingly stable family due to a number of almost unbelievably lurid secrets, The Corrections and Freedom seem like obvious reference points. The runaway success of Bonita Avenue in Holland, then internationally, is another reminder of readers’ thirst for these weighty tales of dramatically unhappy families.
Read our full review.




My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
The first of four books chronicling the friendship between two girls, Lila and Elena, is a unique take on the bildungsroman in that it follows a pair of individuals through their hardships and private thoughts. Set in crime-ridden, post-World War II Naples, it's a story about the different ways we try to escape our fates, be it through education, rebellion, or romance. Lila and Elena's strong bond is rarely weakened by the envy they feel for each other's lives, as one embarks on a marriage and the other pursues an academic life. Like a moden-day Jane Austen, Ferrante writes as deftly about social injustice as she does about intimate relationships.




My Documents by Alejandro Zambra
Zambra's first short story collection, like his novels before it, is all about alienation. The author's stories about Chile after the fall of Augusto Pinochet are peopled with strange, lonely characters who find solace in inanimate objects such as cigarettes or personal computers. He uses human relationships as an avenue for exploring power structures, between fathers and sons or significant others. The underlying theme that our entire selves can be understood through objects that exist outside of us -- text messages, computer files -- is both fascinating and unsettling.




The Scapegoat by Sophia Nikolaidou
Sophia Nikolaidou's first work to be translated into English is set in Greece in the '40s, but its themes are timeless. She chronicles the mystery surrounding a murdered American journalist, and in doing so explores the ways in which we cobble together the stories that make up our history. A modern-day Greek student is assigned a school project to dig deeper into the unsolved crime, and in doing so speaks with those personally or politically involved. The question of who's lying and who's telling the truth makes for a philosophical page-turner.
Read translator Karen Emmerich's essay on Greek literature and journalism in days of crisis.




Parade by Shuichi Yoshida
Another great read for those who've hopped on the smart thriller bandwagon, Yoshida's novel tells the story of a crew of urban millennials whose Japanese street is being terrorized by a mysterious attacker. Being young and careless, the characters are less interested in their safety and more caught up in their personal mishaps, making for a humorous take on youthful self-centeredness. It's Yoshida's second book to be translated into English, and is the winner of Japan's Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize, which considers both literary and genre titles.




I'll Be Right There by Kyung-Sook Shin
A story written to please too many people is easy to spot: Its voice is scattered or obtuse. On the other hand, when we write only for ourselves, our stories take on a journal-like quality, too personal and inartistic, a droll logging of our daily activities. But writing for or with a small, intimate group can be synergistic.

The characters in Kyung-sook Shin's I'll Be Right There are all young artists attempting to soothe the pain of loss and loneliness they've suffered while growing up in politically tumultuous South Korea. Before they meet each other, their writing skills are immature or lackluster, but when they begin to tell stories together, they're able to find peace.
Read our full review.




The Corpse Exhibition by Hassan Blasim
Although there's been a recent wealth of stories and novels told from the perspective of American soldiers stationed in Iraq, the Iraqi civilian perspective has yet to be explored in English-language fiction. Blasim's stories give shape to an absurdist world in which brutal violence is commonplace, speaking volumes about the author's, and perhaps the society's, nihilistic wartime attitude.
Read our full review.

Friedrich Nietzsche On How To Find Your Best Self

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The following is an excerpt from Nietzsche: Great Thinkers on Modern Life, a new series published by The School of Life. In this particular chapter, author John Armstrong uses the philosopher's works to explain the best way to discern your true passions.

Sometimes we feel frustrated with "who we are". We yearn to be better than we are. But we are not quite sure what that means.

Nietzsche was very sympathetic to this kind of restlessness. He doesn’t chide us to count our blessings and remember that things could be a lot worse; or say that in the overall condition of the world we could ourselves terribly lucky, and that we should pull ourselves together. Instead, he invites us to get interested in what is going on when we feel dissatisfied with ourselves. He sees this as a sign of good psychological health. He wants us to get to know this dissatisfaction, take it seriously and do something about it.

Some first shots at imaging a better version of oneself might be: make more money, do more exciting things, get a job you love, move house, find an exit from an unsatisfactory relationship, make some new friends, get a masters degree. These could be very good goals. But notice that they are all external. They are about things we could do or have. What about what it is like to be us: who are we, really, in and of ourselves? And why don’t we set about it. Why don’t we become the people we want to be? Are we too lazy? This is the question Nietzsche asks in an essay called Schopenhauer as Educator:

A traveller, who has seen many countries, was asked what common attribute he found among people. He answered: "They have a tendency to sloth."

Many may think that the fuller truth would have been: "They are all timid." They hide themselves behind "manners" and "opinions".

At bottom every man knows that he is a unique being, the like of which can appear only once on this earth. By no extraordinary chance will such a marvelous piece of diversity in unity, as he is, ever be put together a second time. He knows this, but hides it like a guilty secret. Why? From fear of his neighbor, who looks only for the latest conventionalities in him, and is wrapped up in himself.

But what is it that forces man to fear his neighbor, to think and act with his herd, and not seek his own joy?

Shyness, perhaps, in a few rare cases. But in the majority it is idleness -- taking things easily. In a word, the ‘tendency to sloth’, of which the traveller spoke. He was right. People are more slothful than timid. Their greatest fear is the heavy burden that uncompromising honesty and nakedness of speech and action would lay on them.

It is only artists who hate this lazy wandering in borrowed manners and ill-fitting opinions. They discover the guilty secret of the bad conscience: the disowned truth that each human being is a unique marvel.

Artists show us how, even in very little movement of the muscles, a man is an individual self. And further -- as an analytical deduction from his individuality -- a beautiful and interesting object: a new and incredible phenomenon (as is every work of nature) that can never become tedious.

If a great thinker despises people, it is because they are lazy; they seem like broken bits of crockery, not worth mending.

The man who does not want to remain in the general mass, has only to stop "taking things easy". He needs to follow his conscience, which cries out: "Be yourself! The way you behave and think and desire at every moment -- that is not you!"

Every youthful soul hears this cry day and night, and thrills to hear it. The soul guesses at a special quota of happiness that has been from eternity destined for it -- if only he can find help to get there. But you cannot be helped towards your true happiness so long as you are bound by the chains of Opinion and Fear.

And how comfortless and unmeaning life is without this deliverance! There is no more desolate or outcast creature in nature than the man who has broken away from his true genius and does nothing but peer aimlessly about.

There is no reason to attack, or criticize, such a man. He is a husk without a kernel; a painted cloth, tattered and sagging; a scarecrow ghost, that can rouse no fear, and certainly no pity.

I mean that it will be blotted from life’s true History of Liberty. Later generations will be greatly disgusted, when they look back at a period ruled by shadow-men projected on the screen of public opinion. To some far posterity our age may well be the darkest chapter of history, the most unknown because the least human.

I have walked through the new streets of our cities, and thought of how of all the dreadful houses that these gentlemen with their public opinion have built for themselves not a stone will remain in a hundred years. And the opinions of these busy masons may well have fallen along with the buildings.

Yet how full of hope should anyone be who feels they are not a citizen of this age! If they were a citizen, they would have to help with the work of "killing their time", and they would -- as citizens -- perish with it. But someone who does not feel a citizen of this age might wish instead to bring to life a better time, and in that life themselves to live.

But even if the future offers us nothing to hope for, the wonderful fact of our existing at this present moment of time gives us the greatest encouragement to live after our own rules and measure. It is inexplicable that we could be living just today, though there has been an infinity of time in which we might have existed. We own nothing but a span’s length (a ‘today’) in this infinity; we must reveal why we exist.

We have to answer for our existence to ourselves and will therefore be our own true pilots, and not admit that our existence is random or pointless.

One must take a bold and reckless way with the riddle [of life]; especially as the key is apt to be lost, however things turn out.

Why cling to your bit of earth, or your little business, or listen to what your neighbor says? It is so provincial to bind oneself to views which are no longer binding a couple of hundred miles away. East and West are signs that somebody chalks up to fool cowards like us.

"I will make the attempt to gain freedom," says the youthful soul; "and I will be hindered, just because two nations happen to hate each other and go to war, or because there is a sea between two parts of the earth, or a religion is taught in the vicinity, which did not exist two thousand years ago."

"And this is not – you," the soul says. "No one can build the bridge, over which you must cross the river of life, except you alone. There are paths and bridges and demi-gods without number, that will gladly carry you over, but only at the price of losing your own self; your self would have to be mortgaged, and then lost."

"There is one road along which no one can go, except you. Do not ask where it leads; go forward. Who was it that spoke these true words: 'A man never rises higher than when he does not know where the road will take him'?"

How can we "find ourselves" again? How can man "know himself"? He is a thing obscure and veiled. If the hare has seven skins, man can cast from him seventy times seven skins, and not be able to say: "Here you truly are; there is skin no more."

Also this digging into oneself, this straight, violent descent into the pit of one’s being, is a troublesome and dangerous business to start. You may easily take such hurt, that no doctor can heal you. And what is the point: since everything bears witness to our essence -- our friendships and enmities, our looks and greetings, our memories and forgetfulnesses, our books and our writing!

This is the most effective way: let the growing soul look at life with the question: "What have you truly loved? What has drawn you upward, mastered and blessed you?"

Set up the things that you have honoured in front of you. Maybe they will reveal, in their being and their order, a law which is fundamental of your own self.

Compare these objects. Consider how one of them completes and broadens and transcends and explains another: how they form a ladder which all the time you have been climbing to find your true self.

For your true self does not lie deeply hidden within you. It is an infinite height above you -- at least, above what you commonly take to be yourself.

-Schopenhauer as Educator, 1874


What is the experience of finding something "higher" or "above" ourselves? One way of taking this is to think of people we admire. People who seem, in some way, to already be the kind of person we want to become. It’s not just that we admire them for their achievements -- as we might admire a great athlete or explorer of successful entrepreneur. It’s rather that there is something about this person’s way of being, their attitudes, their manner of existing, that speaks to us and entices us -- hints at our own good development.

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Nietzsche was most deeply impressed by the great German poet (and dramatist, civil servant, traveller, lover, collector, diplomat, dramatist, novelist...) Goethe:

Goethe -- not a German event but a European one: a grant attempt to return to overcome the eighteenth century [Goethe’s own times] through a return to nature, through a going-up to the naturalness of the Renaissance, a kind of self-over-coming on the part of that century. He bore within him its strongest instincts: sentimentality, nature-idolatry, the anti-historical, idealistic, the unreal, the revolutionary (the last is only a form of the unreal). He called to his aid history, the natural sciences, antiquity, likewise Spinoza, above all practical activity; he surrounded himself with nothing but closed horizons; he did not sever himself from life, he placed himself within it; nothing could discourage him and he took as much as possible upon himself, above himself, within himself. When he aspired to was totality; he strove against the separation of reason, sensuality, feeling, will; he disciplined himself to a whole; he created himself...

Goethe conceived of a strong, highly cultured human being, skilled in all physical accomplishments, who, keeping himself in check and having reverence for himself, dares to allow himself the whole compass and wealth of naturalness, who is strong enough for this freedom; a man of tolerance, not out of weakness, but out of strength, because he knows how to employ to his advantage what would destroy an average nature; a man to whom nothing is forbidden, except be it weakness, whether that virtue be called vice or virtue...

A spirit thus emancipated stands in the midst of the universe with a joyful and trusting fatalism, in the faith that only what is separate and individual may be rejected, that in the totality everything is redeemed and affirmed -- he no longer denies...

-Twilight of the Idols, 1889


The person you admire stands "above" you -- and excites admiration, and perhaps at times envy.

Nietzsche is not just looking at his hero with wordless admiration, or applause. He wants to fathom Goethe’s secret. He wants to know how that admirable man became the person he was. This is the key question: How are the impressive things actually accomplished? It’s not enough just to look on. We want to become more like the things we admire.

Worshipping the genius out of vanity. Because we think well of ourselves, but in no way expect that we could ever make the preparatory sketch for a painting by Raphael or a scene like one in a play by Shakespeare, we convince ourselves that the ability to do so is quite excessively wonderful, a quite uncommon incident, or if we still have a religious sensibility, a grace from above. Thus our vanity, our self-love, furthers the worship of the genius, for it does not hurt only if we think of it as very remote from ourselves, as a miracle (Goethe, who was without envy, called Shakespeare his "star of the furthest height", recalling to us that line "one does not cover the stars").

But those insinuations of our vanity aside, the activity of genius seems in no way fundamentally different form the activity of the mechanical inventor, or the scholar of astronomy or history, a master tactician. All these activities are explained when one imagines men whose thinking is active in one particular direction; who used everything to that end; who always observes eagerly their inner life and that of other people; who see models, simulation everywhere; who do not tire of rearranging their material.

The genius, too, does nothing other than first learn to place stones, then to build, always seeking material, always forming and reforming it. Every human activity is amazingly complicated, not only that of the genius: but none is a "miracle".

From where, then, the belief that there is genius only in the artist, orator or philosopher? That only they have "intuition" (thus attributing to them a kind of magical eye glass by which they can see directly into "being")? It is evident that people speak of genius only where they find the effects of the great intellect most agreeable to and, on the other hand, where the not want to feel envy. To call someone "divine" means "here we do not have to compete." Furthermore, everything that is complete and perfect is admired; everything evolved is underestimated. Now, no one can see in an artist’s work how it evolved: that is its advantage, for wherever we can see the evolution we grow somewhat cooler.

-Human, All Too Human, 1878


But to "grow cooler" is, really, a good thing. Because what it does is bring us closer to the sense that we too have it in our power to reach after great things. But not -- as we formerly imagined -- by some magnificent act of accomplishment. Rather by concentration of our efforts, slow mastery, the gradual accumulation of relevant insights, the painstaking sorting out of what is crucial from what is misleading, by practice and repetition.

Paradoxical as it might sound, Nietzsche warns that such recognition is heard as bad news. For if the great things are doable, then, indeed, we can compete. The great work is no longer "divine". It is no longer cast as something utterly distant.

In essence, what Nietzsche is saying is this: the things we long to do and accomplish -- the kind of person we might hope to become -- are in fact within reach. But the path to each of those goals has this difficulty to it: it is a path that involves suffering, annoyance with oneself, disappointment, envy and frustration. He is saying that it is always through such pains that good things emerge. They do not occur as a matter of spontaneous luck. Looking on from the outside of what we admire (a successful person) we see the effect. But we do not usually get the chance to closely observe the fears, the insecurity. Such insight, however, is strangely heartening. It helps us see that suffering is not a sign of failing to be the best version of oneself, but a necessary part of the process of becoming who want to -- and should -- be.

Alejandro González Iñárritu Thought Sean Penn's Green-Card Joke Was 'Hilarious'

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sean Penn's remark about Mexican-born Oscar-winner Alejandro Inarritu's immigration status at the end of Sunday's Academy Awards telecast struck many as an insult, but the director says it was nothing more than a brutal joke between old friends.

In announcing the win for "Birdman," Penn asked, "Who gave this son of a bitch his green card? Birdman." The term "green card" refers to a document that confers permanent residency to immigrants in the United States.

"I found it hilarious," Inarritu said after the ceremony. "Sean and I have that kind of brutal (relationship) where only true friendship can survive."

Inarritu directed Penn in his 2003 film "21 Grams," and the pair remain friends. Penn posed for pictures with Inarritu after the ceremony.

The director, who won three Oscars on Sunday night, said he has told many similarly brutal jokes at Penn's expense. "I make on him a lot of very tough jokes that I will not tell you," Inarritu said.

Joke or not, the remark struck many online as problematic for an awards ceremony that had been criticized for not having more nominees of color.

Inarritu joked that after his three wins on Sunday night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences might institute a residency requirement. His win in the best directing category marks back-to-back wins for Mexican-born directors; last year Alfonso Cuaron won that honor for "Gravity."

"Maybe next year, the government will inflict some immigration rules (on) the academy. Two Mexicans in a row, that's suspicious, I guess."

It took some of the sting out of Penn's words, but Inarritu also used the opportunity of having some of the last words in the Oscar telecast to celebrate immigrants.

The director called on his fellow Mexicans to build a better government, and said those who have come to the United States should be afforded the respect that previous generations of immigrants have been given.

"I want to dedicate this award for my fellow Mexicans, the ones who live in Mexico," Inarritu said. "I pray that we can find and build the government that we deserve. And the ones that live in this country who are part of the latest generation of immigrants in this country, I just pray that they can be treated with the same dignity and the respect of the ones who came before and (built) this incredible immigrant nation."

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AP Writer Kimberly Pierceall contributed to this report.

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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Things Get Tense In Latest 'House Of Cards' Season 3 Trailer

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"I'm starting to question all of this. What are we doing this for?" Claire asks in the latest "House of Cards" trailer. "For this house, for the presidency," President Frank Underwood responds forcefully.

"House of Cards" Season 3 is only days away and by the looks of the newest trailer, things are getting very heated in the White House -- literally, when some documents are lit on fire. Based on recent teasers and that Netflix leak, we know there will be some marital issues between the Underwoods, tensions with Russia and the rowing machine is back.

"House of Cards" Season 3 premieres Feb. 27 on Netflix.
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