Arts & Culture

LONDON — A previously unknown pencil-and-biro drawing of Vanessa Bell by her partner Duncan Grant has surfaced among family papers and been donated to Charleston, the Sussex house where the two artists lived and worked. It shows Bell in profile with her eyes closed. The sheet is dated April 14, 1961, which is after her death on April 7 and her burial on April 12. Charleston's head of collections, Darren Clarke, thinks Grant added the date from memory later in life. Charleston says the drawing is probably his last portrait of her, and it joins the museum's campaign to acquire 50 major Bloomsbury works by 2030. It will not hang in Tate Britain's Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury, which opens November 12. A small reproduction is expected in the catalogue. The drawing goes on display at Charleston in May 2027.

NEW YORK — The Noguchi Museum in New York opens No Ordinary Light: Akari at 75 today, running through September 5, 2027. The exhibition follows Isamu Noguchi's illuminated paper sculptures from their start in Gifu, Japan, in 1951. He eventually made more than 200 variations, and a lantern about two meters across is among the pieces on view, according to Designboom. In London, the Design Museum opens The Nue Black Aesthetic on November 6, running to August 8, 2027, with adult tickets from £15.29, Londonist reports. Both are part of a crowded November design calendar. Designboom also lists Hella Jongerius's Whispering Things in Hamburg and Sabine Marcelis's first museum show in Zurich, which uses 125 lamps to form a tunnel.

NEW YORK — Catapult Book Group, the independent house founded in 2015 by Elizabeth Koch and Andy Hunter, wound down operations on Oct. 30, according to Publishers Weekly. Its imprints are Catapult, Counterpoint Press, Soft Skull Press and Hawthorne Books. Roughly 20 unionized employees, who voted in June to join UAW Local 2110, reached a separation agreement. The union says it more than doubled the severance the company first offered. The company is being sold on an assets-only basis, and the union says it was told staff could not continue with the buyer. The buyer has not been identified, and the sale is believed to be several weeks from closing. Sixteen frontlist titles are slated for spring 2027. Publishing commentator Brooke Warner has speculated that Zando could be the buyer. That is her conjecture and is unconfirmed. Authors' contracts and rights remain unresolved.

TRENTON, N.J. — Baker & Taylor, the shuttered library wholesaler, presented a liquidation plan at an Oct. 28 hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey. Publishers Weekly reports that its assets are valued at $6.6 million, with an estimated liquidation value of about $1.67 million. Post-petition debt is $10.2 million, so nothing would remain for unsecured creditors. Voting creditors have until 4 p.m. EST on Dec. 1 to accept or reject the plan. Law360 reports that a confirmation hearing is set for December. The company closed in late 2025 after a sale to ReaderLink collapsed over its debt, and filed for Chapter 11 in March. Its filings put general unsecured obligations at about $120 million. That includes roughly $68 million owed to publishers and suppliers and $33 million tied to library customers. Penguin Random House is owed more than $23 million. Its publisher-services arm was sold to Lakeside Book Company.

LOS ANGELES — Lionsgate and Meta announced a partnership to release 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' in 3D. The film opens in theaters on Nov. 20. It will later stream in 3D on Meta's VR glasses, which are due in spring 2027 and priced at $1,299, according to Variety. It is the first time Meta has worked with a Hollywood studio to convert a feature for a theatrical release. Director Francis Lawrence and the effects house DNEG handled the conversion. Lionsgate said more of its titles will follow, though none has been named. The film is the sixth in the franchise and the second prequel. The earlier prequel, 'The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,' took in $363 million worldwide in 2023. Meta has not said how the 3D version will be sold to home viewers.

LONDON — Simon Stone's 'Elsinore' leads the 2026 British Independent Film Awards with 12 nominations, announced Tuesday in London. The film stars Andrew Scott as the actor Ian Charleson, who played Hamlet at the National Theatre while dying of AIDS. Clio Barnard's 'I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning' has eight nominations. It won a prize in Cannes' Directors' Fortnight. 'Animol,' the directing debut of 'Adolescence' star Ashley Walters, has seven. Best British independent film is contested by 'Elsinore,' 'I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning,' 'Effi O Blaenau,' 'Queen at Sea' and Mike Leigh's 'Tender Loving Care.' Best director nominees are Stone, Barnard, Leigh, Andrew Haigh ('A Long Winter') and Mark Jenkin ('Rose of Nevada'). Lee Chang-dong's 'Possible Love,' which reaches Netflix on Friday, is among the best international independent film nominees.

NEW YORK — Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins the New York Philharmonic for four performances, November 4 to 7, at David Geffen Hall. He plays Liszt's Second Piano Concerto under Rafael Payare, who also conducts Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 on the same program. Elsewhere in the city, Louis Langrée leads the Orchestra of St. Luke's in Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique at Carnegie Hall on November 5. On November 7, Death of Classical presents Ellis Ludwig-Leone's Quiet Hours at Riverside Church's Christ Chapel. It is a cycle of nine nocturnes written for nine pianist friends, including Timo Andres, Aaron Diehl and Simone Dinnerstein. Each pianist plays one nocturne. Reviews of the Philharmonic concerts have not yet appeared.

Pavel Kolesnikov's Chopin Nocturnes, already named Gramophone's Recording of the Month, has now made the commercial charts. Apple Music Classical's global top-10 for October 26 to November 1 places the album second. Only an album titled Schubert: Treasures ranks higher. The same list includes Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words in fourth place and a Bach Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I recording in sixth. A live Goldberg Variations from Carnegie Hall, recorded in 2025, is tenth. Apple updates the ranking every Monday, and it draws on listening across its own services. It measures popularity, not critical standing. The result shows that the critical praise for the Kolesnikov recording is matched by audience interest. The Violin Channel published the list on November 2.

LONDON — Two reviews from Bachtrack's London critics this week reached different verdicts. Annilese Miskimmon's new Tosca for English National Opera, reviewed on October 30 at the London Coliseum, was judged a problematic disappointment. Its promised reimagining set the opera in what the critic called a village hall. Ben Glassberg conducted, with Axelle Fanyo as Tosca, Chaz'men Williams-Ali as Cavaradossi and Christopher Purves as Scarpia. At the Royal Opera, Damiano Michieletto's staging of Carmen was revived on October 29 under Sesto Quatrini. Reviewer Dominic Lowe described it as brutal and anarchic, and said Ginger Costa-Jackson was well suited to the title role, having sung the part and French repertoire before. The ENO's Dead Man Walking, also by Miskimmon, drew a separate positive review.