Culture Canvas

A roundup of the week’s arts and culture headlines.

Actor Harry Morgan, who played Colonel Potter on “M*A*S*H” and Officer Bill Gannon on “Dragnet,” died Wednesday at the age of 96, via The New York Times.

*

Singer Barbara Cook, singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, actress Meryl Streep and saxophonist and composer Sonny Rollins were honored by the Kennedy Center this week, via ARTINFO|+ARTINFO%29. President Obama, Bill Cosby and Stephen Colbert were on hand to introduce some of the honorees. Art Beat profiled Rollins ahead of the ceremony.

*

Federal authorities are investigating whether or not several coveted, modernist paintings are actually forgeries, via The New York Times. At least 15 of those paintings came from a gallery in Long Island, but were then sold through well-known art galleries in New York.

*

Sculptor Martin Boyce won this year’s Turner Prize, via the BBC.

*

The nonprofit United States Artists announced the recipients of its annual grant this week, via The New York Times. The organization awarded 52 fellows $50,000 in unrestricted funding to pursue their work. Recipients include artists Allen Ruppersberg, Lorraine O’Grady, and Carolee Schneemann, choreographers Liz Lerman and Donald Byrd, poet Campbell McGrath and filmmaker Steve James.

*

Chilean poet Nicanor Parra is this year’s winner of the Miguel de Cervantes prize, via the CBC.

*

British art collector Charles Saatchi criticized the materialism of the art world in unvarnished terms, writing in The Guardian: “Even a self-serving narcissistic showoff like me finds this new art world too toe-curling for comfort. In the fervour of peacock excess, it’s not even considered necessary to waste one’s time looking at the works on display. At the world’s mega-art blowouts, it’s only the pictures that end up as wallflowers.” The newspaper’s arts correspondent, Mark Brown, signaled his agreement, though with less verve.

*

Musicians Philip Glass, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson joined Occupy protests outside of Lincoln Center late last week, via Hyperallergic. The demonstrations were meant to criticize Lincoln Center’s policies as well as those of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and coincided with the final performance of Glass’s opera Satyagraha at the Metropolitan Opera. Glass spoke to the crowd in front of Lincoln Center.

*

Poet Alice Oswald withdrew from the TS Eliot prize shortlist this week, via The Guardian. She objects to new funding of the prize by an investment company, saying, “I think poetry should be questioning not endorsing such institutions.” John Kinsella pulled out of the running the next day, saying, “[T]he business of Aurum does not sit with my personal politics and ethics.”

*

Tanztheater Wuppertal, the dance troupe founded by Pina Bausch in 1973, faces an uncertain future two years after Bausch’s death, via The Los Angeles Times. A new 3D documentary by Wim Wenders is inspiring new interest in Bausch’s work. The visionary choreographer made no arrangements for the company prior to her death in 2009.

*

A current exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci’s work at London’s National Gallery will soon have a new venue: the big screen.

*

A new movie, “Cloud Atlas,” which spans six narratives and multiple time periods, is being made with collaborating teams of producers, directors and financiers, via The New York Times. That model may become more commonplace, especially with ambitious projects.

*

Dancer Mariafrancesca Garritano says that one-in-five dancers at Italy’s world-famous La Scala has an eating disorder, via The Guardian. Garritano joined La Scala when she was 16.

*

Spotify, Europe’s largest subscription music service, has been in the United States since the summer. It provides streaming on-demand music from a broad catalog. The company’s CEO discussed Spotify and responded to criticism of the service on NPR’s “Weekend Edition.”

*

Photographer Lloyd DeGrane documented life at the Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, Ill., via WBEZ. His photos are now on display at Roosevelt University in Chicago, along with DeGrane’s correspondence with former inmate and writer Simon “Sam G” Gutierrez.

*

Hubert Sumlin, the influential blues guitarist and longtime collaborator of Howlin’ Wolf, died this week at the age of 80, via Rolling Stone.

Leo Friedman, the photographer who captured Broadway’s icons and glamor, died this week at the age of 92, via Playbill.