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

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The arts are not escaping historic government spending cuts in Britain. Arts Council England is having its budget cut by almost 30 percent.

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In Slate, Daniel Mason wants to know: Was 18th-century sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt out of his mind?

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Or perhaps Messerschmidt was just sad. Wired’s Jonah Lehrer writes about a recent academic study: “The Dark Side of Creativity: Biological Vulnerability and Negative Emotions Lead to Greater Artistic Creativity.”

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In the Atlantic, poet Adam Roberts tells us why we should read poetry. It’s the first of a five-part series about “the value of verse in the 21st century.”

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Russian Yulianna Avdeeva became the first woman in 45 years to win the prestigious Chopin Piano Competition, via BBC.