Monday's Art Notes

_A visitor looks at the painting 'The Sensorium' by American artist "Walton Ford":http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/ford/index.html at the Hamburger Bahnhof Gallery in Berlin. Ford's large-format animal paintings can be seen during an exhibition in Berlin till May 24, 2010. Photo by Michael Gottschalk/ AFP/ Getty Images_ * A Picasso painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art "had a too-close encounter with a visitor last Friday":http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/33694/accident-leaves-gash-in-a-picasso-at-the-met/. A woman taking an art class at the museum lost her balance and fell into "'The Actor,'":http://pablo-picasso.paintings.name/rose-period/actor-1904.php tearing a six-inch hole in the canvas. The Museum says it will be repaired in time for an upcoming show, "Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." * As relief efforts continue in Haiti, the "New York Times":http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/world/americas/24heritage.html?partner=rss&emc=rss and the "Los Angeles Times":http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-haiti-artists24-2010jan24,0,5707519.story both have assessments of the cultural impact of the disaster on the island. * Interactive theater, as imagined by the "American Repertory Theater":http://www.americanrepertorytheater.org/, "is a big hit in Boston":http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/01/22/the_patrons_plunge_in/?page=1. Creative re-takes of classics like "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "MacBeth" turn audience members into participants. * To text during a performance or not to text? Terry Teachout had "this commentary on a different kind of interactive":http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703699204575016970909969024.html?mod=WSJ_ArtsEnt_LifestyleArtEnt_4 art experience.