Alex Da Corte Sets St. Vincent Aflame, and Other News

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Alex Da Corte Sets St. Vincent Aflame

On a recent trip to Madrid, the musician St. Vincent and visual artist Alex Da Corte visited the Museo del Prado and became transfixed by Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings. Created at the end of his life around 1820, the works reflect the Spanish painter’s embittered attitude toward humanity through dim lighting and haunting themes like a Titan feasting on bodies or a coven cowering before a goat-headed devil. “You see Saturn eating his sons, the witch’s mask,” St. Vincent, whose birth name is Annie Clark, told NME in an interview. “We walked into this claustrophobic room and saw the paintings that Goya made at the end of his life. He didn’t necessarily want them seen, but these were paintings that he had in his house. Alex and I looked at each other and it was electric.”

Goya’s macabre meditations inspired the visuals for St. Vincent’s seventh studio album All Born Screaming, which arrives on April 26. Da Corte’s visuals grace both the cover and the video for lead single “Broken Man,” in which flames rise and fall along the edges of the singer’s figure while she jerkily dances to industrial guitar riffs and menacing lyrics like “On the street, I’m a king-sized killer / I can make your kingdom come.” The record, she describes, is “black, white, and all the colors in the fire, because it’s about life and death. Life and death is pretty binary—you’re alive or you’re dead.” It’s an austere departure from Da Corte’s typically vivid films and sculptures that play on pop culture, but the effect is compelling enough to see what else the duo has in store. —Ryan Waddoups

Thousands have signed a petition to create a statue commemorating the late owl Flaco.

More than 3,000 people have signed a petition urging New York City to erect a permanent statue honoring Flaco, the beloved Eurasian eagle owl who died recently after colliding with a window. Flaco, who captured the city’s imagination after being set free from the Central Park Zoo, lived for more than a year in Manhattan before his untimely demise. Petition author Mike Hubbard, inspired by Flaco’s journey, believes the statue can evoke the same sense of wonder and connection for those who couldn’t see him firsthand. Despite the challenges of gaining approval for commemorative statues in Central Park, New Yorkers have already begun creating impromptu tributes to Flaco, reflecting the impact he had on the city’s collective consciousness.

Foster + Partners is reportedly designing a one-mile-high skyscraper in Saudi Arabia.

Foster + Partners is reportedly designing a 1.24-mile-high skyscraper in Riyadh, which would become the world’s tallest building, exceeding Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. The megatall skyscraper, situated near Riyadh’s international airport, is part of a surge of megaprojects in Saudi Arabia, including the ongoing construction of the Jeddah Tower. Foster + Partners has a significant presence in the country, having previously completed projects like the Al Faisaliah Tower and high-speed rail stations, and is currently involved in designing airports and luxury resorts along the Red Sea coast, including a groundbreaking marine life center.

The San Francisco Art Institute and its Diego Rivera mural is sold to a new nonprofit.

After declaring bankruptcy last year, the San Francisco Art Institute, burdened by a $20 million debt, has been sold to a new nonprofit led by philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs. The institute’s historic campus, including the famed multimillion-dollar mural by Diego Rivera, was purchased for around $30 million, with the mural remaining a significant asset valued at $50 million. The nonprofit, which aims to maintain the campus as an arts institute, plans to address maintenance issues over the next four years while preserving the mural in a dedicated viewing room. The campus has produced notable alumni like Annie Leibovitz and Kehinde Wiley, with Rivera’s mural serving as a tribute to the industrial worker and a testament to the institute’s legacy.

A SpaceX-backed startup says that preorders for its $300,000 flying car are skyrocketing.

Alef Aeronautics, a San Mateo-based firm backed by SpaceX, has announced 2,850 preorders for its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle, the Alef Model A, priced at $300,000 each. The company, led by CEO Jim Dukhovny, claims this makes it the bestselling aircraft in history, surpassing Boeing and Airbus. Alef plans to launch the Model A by 2025, with a unique design resembling a flying car. Despite skepticism from figures like Elon Musk regarding flying cars, Alef aims to revolutionize transportation with its vehicle, which has received a special airworthiness certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Critic, curator, writer, and photographer Vince Aletti receives this year’s AIPAD Award. 

The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) has given the critic, curator, and writer Vince Aletti the annual AIPAD Award, recognizing his impact on fine art photography. Aletti, known as a cultural arbiter with contributions to The New Yorker and The Village Voice, has embodied a lifelong dedication to the promotion and understanding of photography. The ceremony, scheduled during the VIP Opening of The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, will celebrate Aletti’s career and role in shaping public perception of photography. Aletti will participate in a panel on April 26 alongside previous AIPAD Award recipient Jeff Rosenheim.

Today’s attractive distractions:

Here’s how the Criterion Collection became the film world’s arbiter of taste.

The Inventor explores Leonardo da Vinci’s later life, but is kind of storyless.

A helium discovery in rural Minnesota may be the biggest in North America.

Irving V. Link spent an idyllic 42 years poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel.