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      Laurent de Brunhoff, Artist Who Made Babar Famous, Dies at 98

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      After his father, who created the character, died, he continued the series of books about a modest elephant and his escapades in Paris for seven decades.Laurent de Brunhoff, the French artist who nurtured his father’s creation, a beloved, very Gallic and very civilized elephant named Babar, for nearly seven decades — sending him, among other places, into a haunted castle, to New York City and into outer space — died on Friday at his home in Key West, Fla. He was 98.The cause was complications of a stroke, said his wife, Phyllis Rose.Babar was born one night in 1930 in a leafy Paris suburb. Laurent, then 5, and his brother, Mathieu, 4, were having trouble sleeping. Their mother, Cécile de Brunhoff, a pianist and music teacher, began to spin a tale about an orphaned baby elephant who flees the jungle and runs to Paris, which is conveniently located nearby.The boys were enthralled by the story, and in the morning they raced off to tell their father, Jean de Brunhoff, an artist; he embraced the tale and began to sketch the little elephant, whom he named Babar, and flesh out his adventures.Laurent, right, and Mathieu du Brunhoff at about the time their mother first conjured a story about the baby elephant that became Babar.via de Brunhoff familyIn Paris, Jean imagined, Babar is rescued by a rich woman — simply referred to as the Old Lady — who introduces him to all sorts of modern delights. Armed with the Old Lady’s purse, Babar visits a department store, where he rides the elevator up and down, irritating the operator: “This is not a toy, Mr. Elephant.” He buys a suit in “a becoming shade of green” and, though the year is 1930, a pair of spats, the natty, gaitered footwear of a 19th-century gentleman.He drives the Old Lady’s automobile, enjoys a bubble bath and receives lessons in arithmetic and other subjects. But he misses his old life and weeps for his mother, and when his young cousins Arthur and Celeste track him down, he returns to the jungle with them — but not before outfitting Arthur and Celeste in fine clothes of their own.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Met Museum Hires Its First Head of Provenance Research

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      Lucian Simmons is leaving Sotheby’s to lead the museum’s increased efforts to review its collection, which has recently returned looted artifacts, including dozens last year.As part of its more aggressive restitution investigation efforts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday announced that it had appointed a Sotheby’s executive to the newly created position of head of provenance research.Lucian Simmons will leave Sotheby’s, where he is vice chairman and worldwide head of the restitution department — and senior specialist for the Impressionist and Modern art department — to take on the role of coordinating research efforts across the museum, starting in May.Like museums all over the world, the Met has faced increased scrutiny from law enforcement officials, academics and the news media over the extent to which its collection of more than 1.5 million works includes looted artifacts. In recent years, for example, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has seized dozens of antiquities from the museum to return them to countries including Turkey, Egypt and Italy.In a telephone interview, Max Hollein, the museum’s director and chief executive, said the volume of materials an auction house must review gave Simmons the background necessary to take on a review of the Met’s encyclopedic collection.“He has a vast amount of experience understanding the level of research you need to apply and what timelines you need to set to get to a result,” Hollein said. “He probably had to deal with more issues at Sotheby’s than have many other institutions. You have to vet and scrutinize a huge number of objects. He’s someone who understands the theory but who also has a very practical attitude.”The Met last year announced a major new effort to review its holdings and policies with a view toward returning items it finds to have problematic histories.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Outdoor Art to See in Hong Kong This Spring

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      Eye-popping pieces are cropping up around Victoria Harbor this month, just in time for Art Basel Hong Kong.This month, just before Art Basel Hong Kong begins, an array of artworks — some towering, some glowing, another harking back to old Hong Kong — will pop up outside the walls of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.Five of these new, large-scale works were commissioned by a department of Hong Kong’s government for its outdoor art project, “Art@Harbour,” the harbor being Victoria Harbor, which separates Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon Peninsula.Another piece was jointly commissioned by M+, Hong Kong’s contemporary art museum, and Art Basel Hong Kong. That work, a new black-and-white film by the Chinese artist and filmmaker Yang Fudong, “Sparrow on the Sea,” will be projected on the museum’s facade nightly.One of the “Art@Harbour” projects, “Schrödinger’s Bed,” is by the Hong Kong artist Dylan Kwok.Mr. Kwok’s work is named after Schrödinger’s cat, the famous thought experiment by the theoretical physicist Erwin Schrödinger.That experiment, which the scientist proposed as a commentary on quantum mechanics, suggests that, if a cat is inside a sealed box with something which may kill it, it is impossible to know whether the cat is alive or dead until you observe the cat. So, until you open the box, the cat is at once both dead and alive.Mr. Kwok explained by email that his installation, in Tamar Park, a waterfront green space in the Admiralty district, “consists of nine futuristic daybeds that are placed in a tic-tac-toe alignment. Six inflatable cats in checkerboard patterns are (randomly) seated or lay on six daybeds out of the total of nine.” These outdoor couches are programmed to glow in differing patterns from 6 p.m. to midnight, he added, to surprise visitors sitting on them.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Artforum Selects Tina Rivers Ryan as New Top Editor

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      The curator and essayist will become the magazine’s next leader after a period of turmoil.Artforum named Tina Rivers Ryan its next top editor on Thursday, selecting the curator to lead the prestigious magazine after a tumultuous year.“For decades, the editors at Artforum have ensured that this historic magazine has remained a trusted and indispensable resource for conversations about contemporary art and its role in the broader culture,” Ryan, who specialized in digital art as a curator at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, said in a statement.Five months ago, the magazine fired David Velasco, its editor in chief, after he signed and published a letter calling for Palestinian liberation shortly after the Israel-Hamas war began. Some staff members were upset with his termination; longtime editors resigned in protest and artists declared a boycott. Some writers pulled their essays and some advertisers pulled their spots in the publication, resulting in a noticeably slimmer issue after the events unfolded.Penske Media Corporation, which owns the publication, has spent the past several months attempting to rebuild.Ryan, who has contributed to Artforum over the years, gained notice for a popular essay criticizing the NFT boom. She later softened her stance and helped the Buffalo museum cash in on the craze by organizing an online exhibition and fund-raiser.“We could not be more excited for this next chapter of Artforum with Tina at the editorial helm,” the magazine’s publishers, Danielle McConnell and Kate Koza, said in a statement. “Tina is a brilliant writer and uniquely positioned to uphold the magazine’s reputation for publishing the highest quality long-form criticism, while also contributing to a dynamic vision of audience expansion via continued digital growth and live events.” More

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      Audience Snapshot: Four Years After Shutdown, a Mixed Recovery

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      Covid brought live performance to a halt. Now the audience for pop concerts and sporting events has roared back, while attendance on Broadway and at some major museums is still down.It was four years ago — on March 12, 2020 — that the coronavirus brought the curtain down on Broadway for what was initially supposed to be a monthlong shutdown, but which wound up lasting a year and a half.The pandemic brought live events and big gatherings to a halt, silencing orchestras, shutting museums and movie theaters and leaving sports teams playing to empty stadiums dotted with cardboard cutouts.Now, four years later, audiences are coming back, but the recovery has been uneven. Here is a snapshot of where things stand now:Broadway audiences are still down 17 percent from prepandemic levels.On Broadway, overall attendance is still down about 17 percent: 9.3 million seats have been filled in the current season as of March 3, down from 11.1 million at the same point in 2020. Box office grosses are down, too: Broadway shows have grossed $1.2 billion so far this season, 14 percent below the level in early March of 2020.Broadway has always had more flops than successes, and the post-pandemic period has been challenging for producers and investors, especially those involved in new musicals. Three pop productions that have opened since the pandemic — “Six,” about the wives of King Henry VIII, “MJ,” about Michael Jackson and “& Juliet,” which imagines an alternate history for Shakespeare’s tragic heroine — are ongoing hits, but far more musicals have flamed out. The industry is looking with some trepidation toward next month, when a large crop of new shows is set to open.Many nonprofit theaters around the country are also struggling — attracting fewer subscribers and producing fewer shows — and some have closed. One bright spot has been the touring Broadway market, which has been booming.— More

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      Petra Mathers, Author Whose Children’s Stories Soared, Dies at 78

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      Her winsome animal characters and their comic adventures expressed universal truths and feelings, rendered in a naïve and often surrealistic style.Petra Mathers, a German-born children’s book illustrator and author whose kindly, often bumbling animal characters were nonetheless quietly heroic and often risked much for love, died on Feb. 6 at her home in Astoria, Ore. She was 78.Patty Flynn, her executor, said that Ms. Mathers and her husband, Michael Mathers, a photographer, who was 79, took their own lives. There did not appear to be an obvious health concern that precipitated their act, though they had often told friends that they could not live without each other. They were a private, devoted couple, and the timing of their deaths remains a mystery.With spare, naïve images rendered in ink, pencil and watercolor, Ms. Mathers’s stories — whose subjects included a soulful museum guard (an alligator) who falls in love with the subject in a painting (another alligator) and a warmhearted chicken named Lottie and her best friend, Herbie, a duck — were just as sparely written, but imbued with sly humor and wit, captivating both her 8-and-under audience and their parents.The first book Ms. Mathers wrote, “Maria Theresa,” was the story of a dreamy fowl who has all sorts of adventures.HarperCollins“Here is the story of a chicken who flees the coop,” Carol Brightman wrote in 1985 in a New York Times review of Ms. Mathers’s first book, “Maria Theresa,” the tale of a dreamy fowl who has all sorts of adventures. “You know the type. No ordinary laying hen, this one sometimes stops ‘in mid-peck as if listening to faraway voices.’”Ms. Mathers’ prose and her “flat, old-fashioned cutout Surrealism” combined “an attention to both the commonplace and the arcane which marks the best of children’s literature,” Ms. Brightman wrote. “The book’s final tableau of circus folk (and fowl) dancing the Tango Argentine outside Miss Lola’s Airstream is a triumph of this vision. What else but a hopelessly romantic chicken, one that never forgets to lay the morning egg, could bring us such a show.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Mercer Labs Exhibit Uses Braille. Is It Accessible to All?

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      Roy Nachum designed the spectacle-filled Mercer Labs, which he touts as inclusive. But some advocates for blind people say his use of Braille can feel exploitative.While he was settling into Manhattan after moving from Israel in 2004, the 24-year-old artist Roy Nachum decided to contend with a second challenge: Inspired by his grandmother who had lost her sight, and in search of new inspiration for his artwork, he blindfolded himself. For the next 168 hours, he felt his way around his apartment in the East Village and used a cane to navigate to and from the nearby grocery store.That experience of being engulfed in the sounds and the chaos of a new city helped inspire the exhibits in his new immersive installation, Mercer Labs. It opened for previews in January at a 36,000-square-foot space in a sleek, Brutalist-style building at 21 Dey Street — the site of the former Century 21 department store.Nachum, whose artwork often incorporates Braille, became renowned for designing the Grammy-nominated cover for Rihanna’s album “Anti,” featuring a photo of Rihanna as a child wearing a gold crown embossed with Braille. He and the real estate developer Michael Cayre founded Mercer Labs with an ambitious mandate: to be a “place where the traditional hierarchies between art, architecture, design, technology and culture are dissolved,” and where “diversity and inclusion are celebrated,” according to a news release. The site is expected to open officially on March 28.One of Roy Nachum’s signature designs is this cover image for Rihanna’s 2016 album, “Anti,” which features a photo of her as a child wearing a gold crown embossed with Braille.The founders advertise Mercer Labs as a “museum of art and technology.” At the moment, it contains 14 exhibition spaces that use high-tech projectors, digital screens, LED lights and sound systems to display Nachum’s perception-teasing creations. Some exhibits feature Braille, tactile displays and immersive sounds intended for blind and low-vision visitors as well as sighted ones. In one of the rooms, attendees with vision can don sleeping masks and listen to a set of immersive sounds, the better to understand Nachum’s experiences from 2004 with touch and navigation. In still another space, guests stroll through a cave covered with pink hydrangeas that can be explored through touch.Nachum’s installations are on view at the moment, but when Mercer Labs officially opens in March, Nachum and Cayre intend for it to become a multipurpose site, with exhibitions by other artists, musicians and even actors; event spaces that can be rented for private use; and displays spotlighting fashion brands as well as up-and-coming New York companies. They would not elaborate on which specific brands or artists they have partnered with, citing nondisclosure agreements.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Chelsea Hotel’s Cast of Characters, Captured by Its Resident Photographer

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      Plus: a chef’s guesthouse in Bali, art that explores girlhood — and more recommendations from T Magazine.Step by StepThe Fashion Executive Alison Loehnis Shares Her Beauty RegimenLeft: Alison Loehnis, the President of Yoox Net-a-Porter. Right, clockwise from top left: Jennifer Behr Velvet Bow Barrette, $128, jenniferbehr.com; NARS Laguna Bronzing Powder, $40, narscosmetics.com; Augustinus Bader the Cream, $300, net-a-porter.com; Sisley Paris Black Rose Cream Mask, $200, net-a-porter.com; Macrene Actives High Performance Tinted Moisturizer, $165, net-a-porter.com; Oribe Intense Conditioner for Moisture & Control, $52, oribe.com; Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower Eau de Parfum, $380, net-a-porter.com; and Sisley Paris Nutritive Lip Balm, $100, sisley-paris.com.Left: courtesy of Net-a-Porter. Right: courtesy of the brandsIn the morning I tend to wash my face before I get in the shower. I usually use the Dr. Barbara Sturm Enzyme Cleanser; it’s lightweight so is great for travel and comes in a powder form you mix with water. I’m a longtime user of Biologique Recherche and swear by Lotion P50. On my eyes I use the Tata Harper Elixir Vitae Eye Serum, which is firming and lifting. My moisturizer depends on the season: When it’s cold I’ll use Augustinus Bader the Cream. If it’s humid I’ll use the Light Cream. About a year ago, I discovered this desert island product, which is Natura Bissé Diamond Cocoon Sheer Eye cream — it’s a tinted eye cream that makes you look rested. After the shower, I use the Augustinus Bader Body Lotion. When I need it, I’ll use either Biologique Recherche Masque Vernix, which is a bit rich, or Auteur’s retinol serum. For flights, I always take the Omorovicza Queen of Hungary Evening Mist with me — the flight attendants will usually ask for a spray. Sisley has this Black Rose Cream Mask that’s always in my travel bag, too.For makeup, I love Hourglass Veil Hydrating Skin Tint or Macrene Actives Tinted Moisturizer. If it’s humid, I use the Westman Atelier Vital Pressed Skincare setting powder. It leaves no chalky finish whatsoever. I’m an eye person — I love the Hourglass Voyeur Waterproof Liquid Liner for the top lid and, on the bottom, I’ll use Sisley Phyto-Kohl Perfect pencils. For mascara I use Tom Ford Extreme Mascara. NARS Laguna Bronzing Powder, to me, is just perfect. Sisley also has two products that I’m obsessed with, one is the Nutritive Lip Balm and the other is their Phyto-Lip Twist in nude. At night, I’ll go more pronounced on the eyeliner and apply much more mascara. I might use a Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat pencil.Hair-wise, I use Olaplex No. 4P Blonde Enhancer Toning Shampoo. If you have dark hair with highlights, it’s the one thing that counters warmth supersuccessfully. For conditioner, I’ll either use Oribe Intense Conditioner for Moisture & Control or Davines Love Smoothing Conditioner, which is a brand I adore. I use a GHD dryer and a Mason Pearson hairbrush. I also have a Dyson Airwrap that I use just to make sure that I don’t have so much heat on my hair. Oribe has this great product called Imperial Blowout, and I use K18 to repair damage. My style tends to be very pared back, but I absolutely love Jennifer Behr hair accessories — I have her bows in a whole bunch of colors, and I’ll wear one in a low ponytail or a little tortoiseshell clip.I’ve been a Diptyque customer for a long time. The one that I came upon a few years ago and haven’t left is Eucalyptus. You don’t smell it everywhere, and I adore it. I have a really strong sense of smell. My dad worked in the fragrance business and I remember reading about Carnal Flower from Frédéric Malle when it launched, and they described it as this tuberose with a hint of eucalyptus. I bought it without smelling it and I’ve worn it ever since.This interview has been edited and condensed.Stay HereA Guesthouse in Bali With a Seven-Course Tasting MenuLeft: the pool at Shelter Island, a new eight-room guesthouse in Bali from the American chef Will Goldfarb and his wife, Maria. Right: bunk beds in the family room at Shelter Island.Martin WestlakeThe pastry chef Will Goldfarb studied with Ferran Adrià, the chef of El Bulli in Spain, before opening his own restaurant, Room4Dessert, in New York’s NoLIta in the mid-aughts. It was well- known for its eight-course dessert menus (the New Yorker writer Bill Buford described it as “dessert as performance art”). But two years into the project, Goldfarb closed his pioneering restaurant and eventually relocated to the island of Bali. In 2014, he reopened Room4Dessert just outside of Ubud. Its dining experience has always been immersive — during a meal, guests move between the property’s orchard, medicinal herb gardens and a multiroom restaurant with a terrace — but as of this month, visitors can spend the night at Goldfarb’s new eight-room guesthouse, Shelter Island, which he and his wife, Maria, transformed from an abandoned Balinese homestay, upcycling as many materials as they could. Rooms are decorated with locally made paintings, and an umbrella-lined pool is bordered by gardens with fragrant frangipani trees and a traditional shrine. The restaurant, which is next to the guesthouse, serves a seven-course meal preceded by seven snacks — which might include a creamy ricotta-stuffed squash blossom drizzled with a black shallot sauce — and followed by seven petits fours. Once you’ve had your fill of food, there are trails to follow through the nearby rice fields, and cooking, permaculture and ceramics workshops at Goldfarb’s academy. Rooms from $75 a night (including breakfast); room4dessert.com.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More