The Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) and the Huygens Institute today launched the first part of The Mondrian Papers, an online edition of the complete letters and articles by the Dutch painter Piet Mondriaan. In addition to scans and transcriptions of the writings in their original language - Dutch or French - the online edition includes English translations.
Last year in August, we travelled to Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole, where during the summer the sun never sets, though temperatures still hover around zero. We took a boat to the abandoned Russian mining town of Pyramiden, accompanied by a wiry guide with a few missing teeth and a deep longing for the good old days of the Soviet Union he had grown up in.
I love Amsterdam. I go every year for the galleries, the opera, the beer, the genever, the rijsttaffel, the brown cafés and, well, the fun. I’ve had many a fine time there, sometimes with and sometimes without dear Mrs Ray. It’s a top place. I was cut to the quick, then, on hearing recently that the