What's Up
Jim Henson, photojournalist Lola Alvarez Bravo and the heaviest bird that can fly
- By Jess Blumberg
- Smithsonian magazine, September 2007, Subscribe
Munich-based Ingo Maurer assembled metal chopsticks, porcelain shards and Buddha dolls to create this three-foot-tall chandelier, which he calls "an appeal not to stagnate in one's habits." Tom Vack / Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
Different Light
Munich-based Ingo Maurer assembled metal chopsticks, porcelain shards and Buddha dolls to create this three-foot-tall chandelier, which he calls "an appeal not to stagnate in one's habits." Fifty-three of his tricked-out fixtures shine at the Cooper-Hewitt starting September 14.
Chromatic
In a tiny Washington, D.C. studio, Morris Louis (1912-62) poured diluted acrylics on huge pieces of unstretched canvas and manipulated the fabric to let the colors flow. Starting September 20, the Hirshhorn will show 28 major works by Louis.
Lola Alvarez Bravo (1907-93) spent 60 years documenting daily life in Mexico—though she's most famous for her intimate portraits of good friend Frida Kahlo. At the Ripley Center through November 11.
Beyond Kermit
Muppet creator Jim Henson, who died in 1990 at age 53, also directed commercials and created an Oscar-nominated short film, 1965's Time Piece. A new Smithsonian traveling exhibition spotlighting his work is in Little Rock until November 25, then goes to Mesa, Arizona.
Ample Avian
The heaviest bird that can fly? The kori bustard, which weighs up to 40 pounds. Few zoos in North America breed the bird, native to the African savanna, but four were hatched this summer at the National Zoo.
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