David Hockney’s pool painting breaks record for living artist at auction with $90m sale November 17, 2018 David Hockney's iconic painting of a man by a swimming pool has been sold for $90.3m (£70.3m) at an auction in New York, smashing the previous record for the highest price paid at auction for work by a living artist. The 1972 piece, named "Potrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)", was bought by an [...]
The Crimes of Grindelwald review: Pure Potter fodder November 16, 2018 Two years on from Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, the Harry Potter spin-off returns. Set in 1920s Paris, Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) escapes custody and is planning an uprising of Pure Blood wizards intent on overthrowing those loser muggles. To stop him, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) enlists Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as an [...]
La Bayadere review: The Royal Opera House’s production of an Indian fantasy is a surrealist spectacle November 16, 2018 As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, the thought of hunkering down in luxurious surroundings to watch a ballet becomes ever-more appealing. And there couldn’t be a better contrast to this chilly dark season than La Bayadere. This Indian fantasy is a sumptuous riot of colour, full of imagery of sacred flames [...]
Hadestown at the National Theatre review: Great tunes help mask a modern musical that doesn’t quite click November 16, 2018 Hadestown is the latest breakout musical to transfer from Broadway to London, with a run at the National Theatre almost certain to be followed by a sold-out stint on the West End. It’s a modern, stylised retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, the original star-crossed lovers who even death couldn’t separate. After meeting [...]
Suspiria review: Call Me By Your Name director’s remake of Dario Argento classic is a wild ride November 16, 2018 Dario Argento’s horror masterpiece Suspiria shuns traditional storytelling. The absurdist fairy-tale about a young girl enrolling at a ballet school run by witches takes place in an hermetically sealed doll’s house filled with surreal nightmares. Gaudy, acid-trip visuals and layer upon layer of baroque texture create a sense of claustrophobic delirium that’s been aped – [...]
Pinter Three and Four review: The Harold Pinter Theatre continues its excellent run of the eponymous playwright’s short works November 16, 2018 The Harold Pinter Theatre continues its season of one-act plays written by its namesake with another six hours of rarely-performed material that can – nay, should – be viewed in a single, mammoth sitting. Pinter Three – there will be a total of seven productions, running through to next year – is the most challenging [...]
Dead In A Week (Or Your Money Back) review: A jokeless black comedy that fails to spin comedy from suicide November 15, 2018 Like cancer, terrorism, and Theresa May’s inbox, there’s not much fun to be found in suicide. But that’s not to say there’s no comedy in it. Chris Morris spun satirical gold out of slapstick jihadists in Three Lions, and life-affirming cancer caper 50/50 deftly showed the funnier side of a terminal illness. But black comedy [...]
New iPad Pro 12.9 inch review: The best tablet money can buy but can it replace your laptop? November 15, 2018 I’ve been writing about iPads for years, and each iteration comes with the promise that this is the one that will replace your laptop or desktop PC. And it’s always been true… for a small number of people. The iPad has been the only connected device my mother has used since she picked one up [...]
Why edgy art, craft gin and spa treatments are all part of the modern hairdressing experience November 14, 2018 The digital age has come for many traditional industries over the past few years, from taxi driving to hotels. But one trade that won’t be disappearing with the tap of an app is hairdressing. Anyone who has seen that video of the Boston Dynamics robot falling over while stacking boxes will know that androids aren’t [...]
Homes Future at the Design Museum is a mad, retrofuturist vision of how designers of the past thought the future might look November 14, 2018 That the British are obsessed with our homes is a truism. Few other nations obsess quite so much about daily fluctuations in house prices, or attach quite so much cultural and social cachet to the idea of home ownership. The tale of modern British history is in large part the tale of our relationship with [...]