Recently by Laura Collins-Hughes

While some of us are basking in an all-William-Kentridge-all-the-time moment, the matter of who and/or what killed Caravaggio demands our contemplation as well. Granted, this is a 400-year-old mystery, yet it made a strong bid for renewed attention this week, notably with Stacy Meichtry's terrific Wall Street Journal piece on Silvano Vinceti, the Italian TV host who's leading the charge to dig up as many graves as necessary in order to find the artist's ancient bones. (Footnote: "Mr. Vinceti recently announced plans to unearth Leonardo da Vinci. His goal: debunk claims that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of the painter and, if possible, prove he was a vegetarian--a hunch Mr. Vinceti has had for years." So: Get your shovels ready for that.)

As Michael Day reports in The Independent, "researchers from the universities of Ravenna and Bologna have prepared DNA tests on the corpses in a Tuscan crypt that many believe contains [Caravaggio's] remains. They have already narrowed their investigation down to nine corpses, which have been sent to Ravenna for carbon-dating."

Reuters' Marie-Louise Gumuchian duly visits the Italian town of Caravaggio, where "a team of Italian anthropologists" went this week to conduct DNA "tests with possible descendents -- some of them carrying derivations of the family name. As Caravaggio died childless the team looked for the painter's closest blood descendents in search of a match."

Meanwhile, in The New York Times, Michael Kimmelman largely ignores the quest for the artist's remains in favor of discussing his work -- including the argument that "Caravaggio has gradually, if unevenly, overtaken Michelangelo."

Not long ago, you were one of the most prolific freelance book critics in the United States. Now, after a stint as Granta's American editor, you've left New York for London, where you have the top spot on Granta's masthead. Being a freelance critic for (mostly) American newspapers and being the editor of a British literary magazine demand very different skill sets, maybe not so much intellectually as organizationally and socially. How have you made the transition?

That's right -- you could say the Americans and the English are divided by a common language. And not just the words. But I've quite enjoyed it. Granta's history has always been hybrid: an English literary magazine, resurrected by Americans, embraced by the English, and populated by writers from Ingo Schulze to Milan Kundera with of course generous contributions by the profoundly talented British and American novelists who have grown up with us. I think those moments of cultural friction are actually what give the magazine its distinct feel and texture. Managing that and making it into art, rather than something disjointed, is a much bigger challenge than figuring out when it's my turn to buy the round at a pub.

When a publication lays off a batch of key employees, the editor has to say something in an attempt to soothe the staffers who remain. Still, as reassurances go, "Today's changes won't be noticed by readers" is unlikely to pass muster. That's what editor Tim Gray told the survivors at troubled Variety yesterday after he laid off chief film critic Todd McCarthy, chief theater critic David Rooney, film critic Derek Elley and "features editor/indie film reporter Sharon Swart, along with several copy and design desk employees," according to TheWrap.

Even if the three critics take Gray up on his offer to let them continue as freelancers, there's no question that readers will notice the difference. Using what has become boilerplate language for media industry budget cutters, Gray told survivors in a memo, "Our goal is the same: To maintain, or improve, our quality coverage." A laudable ambition, but firing people is a thoroughly unrealistic way of attempting to reach it, as editors and publishers well know. What's remarkable is that, as long as they're dealing in fantasy, they don't come up with better talking points.

The issue is not solely one of skilled, experienced critics being cut loose -- though McCarthy, a 31-year veteran of Variety, speaks eloquently to that in an interview with Sharon Waxman. There's also the matter of what happens behind the scenes. Newspapers never have had fact-checkers as such, but good editors and copy editors serve that function, and they've saved many a writer's butt from inaccuracies, inadvertently libelous statements, and general sloppiness. Of course, it helps immensely when those editors know the writers, and therefore know what to look out for. With fewer editors, and freelancers rather than staff writers, the holes in the safety net get larger, and the publication suffers. That can get expensive. For a current case study from a related industry, see publishing's "The Last Train From Hiroshima" debacle.

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Charles Aaron on the death of Barry Hannah (Spin)
Laura Bleiberg reviews the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre (Los Angeles Times)
Larry Blumenfeld on Robin D. G. Kelley's "Thelonious Monk" (ListenGood)
Robert Campbell on an urban paradox embodied (The Boston Globe)
Robert Christgau on Dessa's "A Badly Broken Code" (msn.com)
Laura Collins-Hughes on Gina Welch's "In the Land of Believers" (Los Angeles Times)
Lily Tung Crystal on Asian-American actors in the Bay Area (American Theatre)
Francis Davis on Dee Dee Bridgewater and Stephanie Nakasian (The Village Voice)
Sasha Frere-Jones on Bill Withers (The New Yorker)
Matthew Gurewitsch goes nose to Nose with William Kentridge (The New York Times)
Matthew Gurewitsch reviews a Karajan documentary (Pundicity, courtesy Opera News)
Christopher Hawthorne on the death of Raimund Abraham (Los Angeles Times)
John Horn on documentaries and the Oscar effect (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday on Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's collaboration (The Washington Post)
Marty Hughley profiles Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Bill Rauch (The Oregonian)
Marty Hughley on the revival of ARTicles (The Oregonian)
Ann Powers reviews Jimi Hendrix's "Valleys of Neptune" (Los Angeles Times)
Craig Seligman on St. Clair McKelway (The New York Times)
Laura Sydell on unsigned musicians flocking to ASCAP (NPR)
Laura Sydell on Spotify's impending U.S. launch (NPR)
Werner Trieschmann on Rogue Wave (Nashville Scene)
Jerome Weeks interviews Lou Reed about his landscape photography (KERA, Dallas)
Jerome Weeks talks theater with Mike Daisey (KERA, Dallas)

This is the first in a series on people and organizations that make it possible for artists' work to be made and presented.

If there were such a thing as an ideal moment for a small, experimental arts group to find itself in temporary digs, trying to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for a new home and stabilize its finances, the Great Recession probably wouldn't be it. Nonetheless, that was the unlucky timing of San Francisco visual arts organization Southern Exposure, which had decamped in 2006 from its longtime space, expecting to return after a seismic upgrade.

Instead, a series of delays foiled that plan, leaving it a nomad in the depths of the downturn, in a famously expensive city. But SoEx has been rooted in that city since 1974, and vulnerability did not turn into defeat. This past October, it finally moved into its new home: a sleek, 4,000-square-foot rented space in a gritty, industrial zone of the Mission District, kitty-corner from a pipe organ factory. The inaugural exhibition of commissioned work addressed a topic that must have been much on Southern Exposure's collective mind during those wandering years: "scenarios related to an uncertain and ever-shifting future."

It would be priggish to ignore the run-up to the Oscars as the week's big arts story -- though it's safe to say none of us needs to read another piece comparing "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker." It is, after all, a packed field this year.

So packed, what with the 10 nominees for best picture, that the Kodak Theatre is getting uncomfortably crowded, at least in terms of the number of people jostling for orchestra seats. In a story about Oscar-ceremony ticket demand, Variety raises the specter of nominated producers being seated in the parterre. Horrors: the back of the house!

The Wall Street Journal does the math and concludes that a best-picture statue for "The Hurt Locker" would smash a record held by Woody Allen since 1978: lowest-grossing winner "in modern history -- and maybe ever." Women & Hollywood, meanwhile, contemplates what it means if Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win best director, and what it means if she doesn't.

The New York Times poses the question, "Do the Oscars Undermine Artistry?," while the Associated Press notes the corn industry's very different concern: that a best-documentary win for "Food, Inc." could damage its reputation.

Also, a bit of fun: The Los Angeles Times suggests chocolate dresses as a good look for the red carpet, and TheWrap offers a story and slideshow on a pair of human-size, "mysterious 'skeleton-Oscar' statues" that appeared Thursday morning in Los Angeles, one near the Hollywood sign.

It's so seldom that I get the chance to quote the FBI that I'm just going to go ahead and do it:

Art and cultural property crime -- which includes theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines -- is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses running as high as $6 billion annually.

In answer to John's query, I offer the following, from an NAJPer responding to the return of ARTicles:

It would be nice to read commentary that isn't endlessly referential to other bloggy things. I'm already overwhelmed with all the insider feuds burning up Twitter and Facebook. And endless commiseration about the collapse of journalism. I'm so over it, already. I feel like it's all become a giant navel-gazing festival. Hope Version 2.0 transcends all that!