Burning Questions for Artistic Inspiration

AI, REBEL: THE ART AND ACTIVISM OF AI WEIWEIMarch 12 – September 15, 2025Seattle Art Museum1300 1st Ave., Seattle, Washington 98101For more information, visit seattleartmuseum.orgPHOTOS: Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio, © Ai Weiwei Words by Cynthia Martens For some in Naples, out with the old means tossing pots and pans, and even furniture and appliances, from the balcony on New Year’s Eve. In the 18th century, the Italian Ruggieri family, inspired by the Chinese mastery of fireworks, became famous for their pyrotechnic performances before European royalty, including for the marriage of the future Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in France. Unfortunately, the spectacular boom-and-crackle caused the crowd to panic, and over a hundred people reportedly died in the ensuing stampede—yet fireworks remain a popular expression of celebration and renewal. One of the four classical elements, fire fascinates as a symbol of life and destruction. Flames provide light, heat and comfort, but they also consume and destroy. There are countless fire-related idioms. To play with fire is to flirt with danger; to set the world on fire is to achieve dramatic success; to burn out is to exhaust oneself. In French, être tout feu tout flame—to be all fire and flame—is to be passionately enthusiastic. Recent news headlines have been ablaze: On January 7, just days after Californians raised their glasses to the new year, sparks set off wildfires that tore through the Los Angeles metropolitan area, killing and injuring dozens and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate. And with Donald Trump newly sworn in as 47th president of the United States, various media outlets have described his rhetoric as “incendiary” and his agenda as “scorched earth.”  To say the least, the world is a powder keg. As smartphones ping incessantly, alerting us to global suffering and to disasters both natural and political, it’s hard not to feel powerless. It can be tempting to retreat or just turn everything off. But the best way to spread light is to share it. Italian poet Dante Alighieri, upon entering a dark and foreboding wood, was undaunted by the sight of a speckled leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. In fact, he wrote The Divine Comedy after being condemned to perpetual exile from his native Florence. Shouldn’t the rest of us be able to summon our courage and face the Inferno? We may not produce a Western literary cannon, but we can still embrace human creativity and engage in constructive dialogue. Ashes to ashes and funk to funkyWe know Major Tom’s a junkieStrung out in heaven’s highHitting an all-time low… David Bowie used his songs “Space Oddity” and “Ashes to Ashes” to express human vulnerability and the longing for comfort. “Here we had the great blast of American technological know-how shoving this guy up into space, but once he gets there, he’s not quite sure why he’s there,” Bowie remarked in a 1980 interview with New Musical Express magazine. LAZARUSJune 5 – June 15, 2025Teatro ArgentinaLargo di Torre Argentina 52, 00186 Rome, ItalyFor more information,visit teatrodiroma.netPHOTOS: ©Fabio Lovino Ground control to Major Tom: This spring, the Bowie musical Lazarus is coming back to Italy, kicking off in Cesena on April 5 and reaching Florence, Genoa, Bologna, and Modena before raising the curtain in Rome on June 5 at the gorgeous Teatro Argentina, a red-cushioned 18th-century venue with an ornate cupola of floral wreaths, gold and goddesses. (Lovers of obscure trivia, take note: the theater was built on the site of the Theater of Pompey, where Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC.) Created by Bowie and the Irish playwright Enda Walsh, Lazarus debuted Off-Broadway in 2015 and first reached Italy in 2023 in Turin. Directed by Valter Malosti, the Italian show stars a local cast including Manuel Agnelli, Casadilego, and Michela Lucenti, who bring to life the musings, dreams, and delusions of Thomas Newton, a morose humanoid alien stuck on planet Earth. He doesn’t get out much and wallows in gin, to the tune of various Bowie compositions—not that we’re suggesting you do the same. TIMELESS MUCHA: THE MAGIC OF LINEA new exhibition in D.C. explores the influence of Alfons Mucha’s work on later graphic design, including concert posters such as this one by Alton Kelley, 1971.Through May 18, 2025The Phillips Collection1600 21st St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20009Goh Annex and Sant Building, Floor 3For more information,visit phillipscollection.orgPHOTOS: Courtesy of the Phillips Collection. Theater posters are an often-underrated art form. In Washington, D.C., the Phillips Collection is showcasing the works of Czech artist Alfons (or Alphonse) Mucha, celebrated for his stylized theatrical posters and decorative panels, as well as illustrations for books and magazines, and advertisements for biscuits, champagne and bicycles. Now, Timeless Mucha: The Magic of Line invites viewers to explore the impact of Mucha’s elaborate, flowery style on more modern art and graphic design. The artist is quasi-synonymous with Art Nouveau; Mucha’s works are likely familiar even to those who do not know him by name. A scan of Etsy reveals their steady popularity on tea boxes, posters, and canvas prints, which likely would have pleased him. “I was happy to be involved in an art for the people and not for private drawing rooms,” he once wrote. “It was inexpensive, accessible to the general public, and it found a home in poor families as well as in more affluent circles.” NEVER FLINCH BY STEPHEN KINGPublished by ScribnerScheduled for release May 27, 2025PHOTOS: Courtesy of Scribner. Author Stephen King has said he likes to explore how the extraordinary intrudes into ordinary life. On May 27, King’s latest work, Never Flinch, starring recurring character Holly Gibney, hits shelves, presenting a dual narrative touching on vigilantism: Readers both follow the investigation of a local police department into an anonymous threat of violence and track a prominent women’s rights activist who becomes the target of an aggressive stalker. The choice of subject matter feels prescient, as the U.S. prepares to put Luigi Mangione on trial in connection with the murder of health care executive Brian Thompson, and the United Nations reports a global increase in attacks against women activists. The title, too, alludes to withdrawal and nervousness, a natural response to the underswell of violence in current discourse. Recently, when the online art magazine Hyperallergic prompted DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) platform, with the question “Who is Ai Weiwei?” the bot was coy, saying: “I am sorry, I cannot answer that question. I am an AI assistant designed to provide helpful and harmless responses.” Asked again, DeepSeek tried to change the subject. The bot’s evasiveness is not surprising. AI algorithms only “know” the information they have been fed, and DeepSeek is subject to censorship by the Chinese Communist Party. The artist, activist, and documentarian Weiwei, for his part, is persona non grata in his homeland, having repeatedly criticized the government for corruption and human rights violations. In a wry statement to the magazine, Weiwei noted that “the values [China] upholds will continue to suffer from a profound and inescapable flaw in its ideological immune system: an inability to tolerate dissent, debate, or the emergence of new value systems.” Nothing like dissent and debate to set your brain on fire. From March 12 through September 15, the Seattle Art Museum is hosting Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei, an exhibition that promises to examine “freedom, censorship, and human rights” through over 130 of Weiwei’s installations, sculptures and films, created from the 1980s onward. Some of Weiwei’s most famous works will be on display, including the photographic Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995) and Sunflower Seeds (2010), which features an unfathomable number of hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds.  Additionally, for the first time in its nine-decade history, the Seattle Art Museum is simultaneously showing the works of a single artist at all three of its locations. Starting March 19, visitors can see Ai Weiwei: Water Lilies, a work in which Weiwei used Legos to create a new, mosaic-like rendition of impressionist Claude Monet’s painting of the same name, at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Separately, Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (Bronze) will be displayed at the Olympic Sculpture Park starting May 17.  COVERING THE NEW YORKERThrough March 30, 2025L’Alliance New York22 East 60th St., 1st Floor,New York, New York 10022For more information,visit lallianceny.orgPHOTOS: ©Rebecca Greenfield and ©Leila Abazine COVERING THE NEW YORKERThrough March 30, 2025L’Alliance New York22 East 60th St., 1st Floor,New York, New York 10022For more information,visit lallianceny.orgPHOTOS: ©Rebecca Greenfield and ©Leila Abazine COVERING THE NEW YORKERThrough March 30, 2025L’Alliance New York22 East 60th St., 1st Floor,New York, New York 10022For more information,visit lallianceny.orgPHOTOS: ©Rebecca Greenfield and ©Leila Abazine COVERING THE NEW YORKERThrough March 30, 2025L’Alliance New York22 East 60th St., 1st Floor,New York, New York 10022For more information,visit lallianceny.orgPHOTOS: ©Rebecca Greenfield and ©Leila Abazine The New Yorker magazine turns 100 this year—insert witty aside! To mark the anniversary, L’Alliance New York, the French educational, cultural, and arts institution off Park Avenue, is presenting Covering The New Yorker, an exhibition dedicated to the magazine’s instantly recognizable covers and the artists who created them. Curators Rodolphe Lachat and Françoise Mouly, the latter of whom has served as art editor for The New Yorker since 1993, handpicked a selection of original works by dozens of talents, including David Hockney and Kara Walker, for inclusion in the show. The exhibit wraps up on March 30, when Mouly—who is also editorial director of TOON Books, the publisher of kids’ comics and graphic novels—will give a masterclass during L’Alliance New York’s Comic Arts Fest. In Paris, meanwhile, the Louvre is exploring the many common threads between fashion and the visual arts, in an exhibition curated by Olivier Gabet and titled Louvre Couture–Art and Fashion: Statement Pieces, which runs through July 21.  LOUVRE COUTURE – ART AND FASHION: STATEMENT PIECESThrough July 21, 2025Musée du Louvre99, rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, FranceFor more information, visit louvre.frPHOTOS: © Musée du Louvre / Nicolas Bousser LOUVRE COUTURE – ART AND FASHION: STATEMENT PIECESThrough July 21, 2025Musée du Louvre99, rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, FranceFor more information, visit louvre.frPHOTOS: © Musée du Louvre / Nicolas Bousser “Museums are great mood boards,” observed Gabet, the director of the Louvre’s decorative arts department, in an interview with WWD. Looking for inspiration? Wander through and take in the textiles: Spread across 9,000 square meters, Louvre Couture proffers 65 designs on loan from dozens of major fashion houses, as well as various accessories, “newly illuminating the close historical dialogue that continues to take place between the world of fashion and the department’s greatest masterpieces, from Byzantium to the Second Empire,” per the show notes, which also emphasizes the artisan techniques used in decorative arts and fashion.  Read GRAZIA USA’s Spring Issue featuring cover star Paris Hilton: Flashy Feasts: 6 of The Most Entertaining Tableside Experiences Game Changers: Marina Efraimoglou Game Changers: Agatha Relota Luczo GRAZIA USA Spring Cover Star: We’ll Always Have Paris Hilton Cultivating Scents of Style: Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud Shares the Story Behind Louis Vuitton’s eLVes Parfum Gigi Hadid’s Latest Miu Miu Moment: The Art & Influence Behind Luxury’s Soft Power Shift

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