Thursday's Art Notes

_A man looks at 'The field next to the other Road' while visiting the American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat's exhibition, on October 19, 2010, at the Modern Arts Museum in Paris. This exhibition runs through January 30, 2011. Photo by Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images_ * The arts are not escaping historic government spending cuts in Britain. Arts Council England is having its budget cut "by almost 30 percent":http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11582070. * "In Slate, Daniel Mason wants to know:":http://www.slate.com/id/2271613/ Was 18th-century sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt out of his mind? * Or perhaps Messerschmidt was just sad. "Wired's Jonah Lehrer writes about a recent academic study:":http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-creative/ "The Dark Side of Creativity: Biological Vulnerability and Negative Emotions Lead to Greater Artistic Creativity." * "In the Atlantic, poet Adam Roberts tells us":http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/10/the-righteous-skeptics-guide-to-reading-poetry/64824/ why we should read poetry. It's the first of a five-part series about "the value of verse in the 21st century." * Russian Yulianna Avdeeva became the first woman in 45 years to win the prestigious Chopin Piano Competition, "via BBC":http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11594322.