No More Neon on the Novy Arbat

In legislation somewhat reminiscent of Mike Bloomberg's restaurant smoking ban, Vladimir Putin isshutting down all casinos in Russia, effective tonight.

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Meet James Ensor

It's been some three decades since James Ensor has had a major museum exhibition in the US, which makes MoMA's new show a rare pleasure.

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MAS Macho

Behold the Museum aan de stroom (MAS), Antwerp's new municipal history museum. The building, designed by the Dutch architects Neutelings Riedijk, is due to open late next year.

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The Most Beautiful Crapper in the World

In 1772, the Antwerp alderman Adrien van den Bogaert purchased a historic property in the center of the city and then hired architect Engelbert Baets to renovate the place.

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Kosher in Antwerp

This is the first in what will be a series of posts generated over my recent trip to Belgium. Call it an appetizer, served with pleasure.

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Lamsterdam

Master of Shadows will be published in Europe this November, and I'm hoping my distinguished Dutch publisher will undertake a guerilla art project to promote it in Holland.

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European Holiday

I'm off to the Continent, which is a good excuse to dip into the family photo archive for a few reminders of a time when European travel was a bit more of a novelty.

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Bottom of the Ninth

My review of Michael Shapiro's new book on the aborted life of the Continental League, a would be addition to the majors, appears in today's Los Angeles Times.

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Red Star

The New York-Amsterdam connection has been much in the news of late, and rightly so, as this is the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's Dutch-sponsored voyage of American discovery.

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Moscow's Jewish Museum

Earlier this week, plans were released for the new Jewish museum in Moscow.

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All in the Family

My cousin Barbara Schaefer is having a show of recent work at Shop Art, on Bergen Street in Brooklyn.

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House in the Hills

We spent this past weekend at the beautiful weekend home of the Woo family, a masterwork of modernist architecture sequestered high in the rolling Vermont hills.

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Tormented Youth

Next week the MET will put on display Michelangelo's "Torment of Saint Anthony," reputedly the artist's first painting.

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Bowery on the Beach?

Has Leigh Bowery, said to have died more than a decade ago, been hiding out on the Coney Island boardwalk sporting a mullet all along?

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Mark Lamster is a writer on the arts and culture. He is Associate American Editor of The Architectural Review, and is currently at work on his third book, a biography of the late architect Philip Johnson. Follow: @marklamster.

Recent Book

Master of Shadows: The Secret Diplomatic Career of the Painter Peter Paul Rubens
Mark Lamster
Nan A. Talese, 2009
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