Nat King Cole (1919-1965)
art: William P. Gottlieb Library of Congress
bio: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nat-king-cole-mn0000317093/biography
video: https://youtu.be/GfAb0gNPy6s
Rudolph Nureyev (1938-1993)
art: Jamie Wyeth
Brandywine River Museum of Art
bio: http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/opera-and-ballet/rudoph-nureyev/
video: https://youtu.be/qG7JvpPGdEU
The National Gallery of Art was conceived and given to the people of the United States by Andrew W. Mellon (1855–1937). Mellon was a financier and art collector from Pittsburgh who came to Washington in 1921 to serve as secretary of the treasury. During his years of public service he came to believe that the United States
should have a national art museum equal to those of other great nations.
In 1936 Mellon wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt offering to donate his superb art collection for a new museum and to use his own funds to construct a building for itsuse. With the president’s support, Congress accepted Mellon’s gift, which included a sizable endowment, and established the National Gallery of Art in March 1937. Construction began that year at a site on the National Mall along Constitution Avenue between Fourth and Seventh Street NW, near the foot of Capitol Hill.
…
Construction was completed by December 1940, and works of art were installed in the new galleries over the following months. The National Gallery of Art was dedicated on March 17, 1941, with Paul Mellon presenting the museum on behalf of his father, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepting the gift for the nation.
FROM http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/about.html
FDR’s Speech on the Dedication of the National Gallery of Art~
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/audio-video/audio/west-building-dedication-president-fdr.html
Highlights from the collection~
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights.html
75th anniversary programs~
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/about/seventy-fifth-anniversary.html
Patricia Anne “Pattie” Boyd (born March 17, 1944) is a model, photographer and author, born in Somerset, England. She was the first wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton…Pattie began her modeling career in 1962 in London, and appeared on the cover of Vogue and in several advertising campaigns. She was cast in the Beatles’ first feature film A Hard Days Night in 1964, where she first met George Harrison…She married George Harrison in January, 1966 and when being a ‘Beatle wife’ made it too difficult to work, she began taking a strong interest in photography.
Pattie Boyd is sick of being called a muse: ‘What have I done to inspire George Harrison?’
https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-10-14/pattie-boyd-is-sick-of-being-called-a-muse-what-have-i-done-to-inspire-george-harrison.html
Pattie Boyd Talks Art, Fashion, and Beatlemania
https://lithub.com/pattie-boyd-talks-art-fashion-and-beatlemania/
Pattie Boyd, often in the shadow of her famous husbands, has put a trove of mementos up for auction
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/arts/pattie-boyd-often-in-the-shadow-of-her-famous-husbands-has-put-a-trove-of-mementos-up-for-auction
“Yes, as we said to begin with, “The Mikado” is a frank success. It is great nonsense, no doubt; but then it is the very funniest fooling to be seen. And so pretty, too!” ~unsigned review from “The Academy”, March 28 1885 http://www.savoyoperas.org.uk/mikado/mik3.html
“Mr. Gilbert has once more exhibited his facility for seizing upon a subject occupying a considerable share of public attention, and turning it to humorous account. Japanese art is extremely fashionable just at present, and the manners and customs of this strange race may be studied with advantage at Knightsbridge. But it is our home political and social life that is principally caricatured in ‘The Mikado,’ and amid much that is incisive and telling we find obvious reminiscences of earlier productions by the same hand.”
~unsigned review from “The Athenæum”, March 21 1885
http://www.savoyoperas.org.uk/mikado/mik2.html
Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity has held up pretty well after a century out in the world.
The famous theory, which Einstein published in 1915, remains the bedrock upon which scientists’ understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe rests. It continues to inspire research into some of the most fundamental unanswered questions in physics and astronomy.
General relativity “is now, I think, routinely accepted as the foundation of our description of the universe at large, which we call cosmology; of black holes, of neutron stars and of small corrections to the orbits of planets and spacecraft in our own solar system,” said Roger Blandford of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University.
http://www.space.com/28741-einstein-general-relativity-100-years.html
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Explained (Infographic)
http://www.space.com/28738-einstein-theory-of-relativity-explained-infgraphic.html
Graphic by The Misty Miss Christy based on http://archives-dc.library.caltech.edu/islandora/object/ct1%3A439
…And in 1964 he had an idea. Playboy, Life and other magazines had their lavish color fold-outs, so Mad, he thought, should parody them with a cheap black-and-white fold-in.
From 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/arts/design/30genz.html?pagewanted=allInstead of conducting a formal interview, we invited Mr. Jaffee to explain the thought process behind his favorite Fold-Ins from over the years. He certainly didn’t disappoint. Read on to discover how one of the world’s finest optical satirists creates his magic on a monthly basis.
From 2014: https://www.pastemagazine.com/books/state-of-the-art-mad-magazine-icon-al-jaffee-on-hi/Al Jaffee, Iconic Mad Magazine Cartoonist, Retires at Age 99 … and Leaves Behind Advice About Living the Creative Life
From 2020: https://www.openculture.com/2020/06/al-jaffee-iconic-mad-magazine-cartoonist-retires-at-age-99.htmlAl Jaffee, Now 102, Is Ready to Be Added to Mount Rushmore:
MAD’s longest-serving contributor on comedy, art, and the origins of the “Fold-in.”
From 2023: https://www.vulture.com/article/al-jaffee-interview.html
Biography~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Glackens
Barnes Foundation~
https://collection.barnesfoundation.org/objects/5159/Self-Portrait/
NYT exhibition review, 2014~
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/arts/design/william-glackens-spent-a-life-painting-what-was-before-him.html?_r=0
Anne Frank and her sister Margot died of typhus
in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945,
seven months after her family was arrested and only weeks before the camp’s liberation by British soldiers.
In this footage, taken from a home movie of a neighbor’s wedding in July of 1941, we see the 12-year-old Anne Frank looking on from a window in her family’s apartment in Amsterdam.
Anne Frank: her life after the diary ended~ https://www.thelocal.de/20170310/anne-frank-beyond-the-diary
http://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/bios/miller-bio.htm
A gallery of paintings can be found on this blog: Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876 – 1952)
March 11, 1867 – Theatre Imperial de l’Opera, France
DON CARLO started out life as a five-act opera that ran for approximately four hours. Based on Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Spiller, this lengthy piece saw Verdi put the music to a French libretto by Camille du Lode and Joseph Mery. After the opera had been written, it was found to still be too long during the rehearsal period. Since the audience would need to leave before midnight, further cuts were made during this time in order to make sure that the opera finished before this deadline.
FROM http://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/homage-verdi-don-carlo
March 11, 1851 – La Fenice Opera House, Italy
One of the most acclaimed Verdi operas, RIGOLETTO at one point, was very much a case of “touch and go”. The three-act opera, based on Victor Hugo’s play “Le roi s’amuse”, came under close scrutiny of the Austrian censors. …However, by January 1851, a breakthrough was reached, albeit with a number of amendments to the original work. The original setting of the royal court of France was to be changed either to a duchy of France or Italy, while many of the characters were to be renamed, notably the jester, who went from Triboulet to Rigoletto. With the deadline for the premiere looming, Verdi managed to complete the work by early February, leaving a month to spare.
FROM http://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/homage-verdi-rigoletto
The Misty Miss Christy 