The Art Trade’s ‘Necessary Evil’ Keeps Getting More Expensive - Artnet News

Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe, January 1889 emerges like a vaguely familiar, climactic apparition about a third of the way through the new blockbuster exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton (FLV) in Paris. Here, we find “poor Vincent,” as he is occasionally referred to in the exhibition catalog, smoking a pipe, an activity he associated with calm contemplation. Behind him, swaths of orange and red form a bold contrast to his green jacket and matching green eyes, which steadily look back at us. As the painting’s title notes, we see the artist with his left ear in a white dressing; the work is one of two self-portraits he made after cutting off his earlobe following a fight with Paul Gauguin. While van Gogh, painted in his now iconic style, is immediately recognizable, this particular portrait, like so many paintings in this exhibition of modern art icons, feels almost new.

To be clear, Stacey Dooley says she has never taken ketamine. But it is one of the most popular recreational drugs among those under 24, so she is meeting some of the long-term users who are living with the consequences. From learning about “ket bladder” (passing blood or parts of an eroding bladder in the urine) to hearing how much the drug helps them to “dissociate”, the conversations are eye-opening and often heartbreaking. Hollie RichardsonThe Great British Bake Off8pm, Channel 4 It’s dessert week in the tent, which brings newness in round one: the bakers tackle a signature challenge with staggered starts, so letting one’s errors melt into the general chaos isn’t an option. After a technical bake set by Nigella Lawson, the showstopper is a retro confection demanding classic puddings worthy of a squeaky-wheeled dessert trolley. Jack SealeOnly Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive9pm, U&GoldAnd cut … David Jason as Del Boy and Nicholas Lyndhurst as Rodney in a clip from Only Fools And Horses Christmas Special 1996. Photograph: © BBCA lovely jubbly watch for fans of the beloved sitcom.

A theatre boss has promised to channel the “pioneering spirit of Manchester” and be “brave and fearless” as she unveiled a new season of work, two years after a deeply damaging censorship row. Selina Cartmell, the artistic director of the Royal Exchange in Manchester, revealed details of 2027-28 productions that include a retelling of the Munich air disaster and a modern Stockport-set version of the ancient Greek myth Phaedra. Cartmell took over at the theatre two years ago, during what was one of the biggest crises in its 50-year history. A production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was cancelled in a dispute over one of the production’s songs, which referenced transgender rights and contained the phrase “free Palestine”. There were accusations of censorship, although an independent review did not find that but did highlight “significant leadership failures”. The play’s director, Stef O’Driscoll, talked of a growing “fear-driven decision-making in the arts”. Cartmell told the Guardian it had been “a very challenging time” for the theatre, and the board at the time took “full responsibility”.

The woodland is stuck to our skin. Sound designers Elena Peña and Dave Price are hunched next to me, burying a microphone into mossy ground. Composer Dom Coyote is listening on headphones, crunching out a rhythm with his boot before shucking his shoes for a subtler sound. “It’s got to be socks off, Dom,” says Price. Coyote obliges, the balls of his feet soon covered in dead conifer needles. “Do you wish you’d had a pedicure now?” Peña asks. It’s a short drive from Bristol to this patch on the Mendip Hills, where pine cones and rowan berries scatter at the entrance to the trees. We’re on the hunt for sounds to orchestrate a staging of Max Porter’s novel Lanny. The adaptation by Somerset-based Bea Roberts moves the spectral story of a lost boy and a mulch-guzzling creature from commuting-distance-to-London to commuting-distance-to-Bristol, with director Nancy Medina wanting the show’s sound to exist within the city’s historical music scene. “A kind of trip-hop world,” says Coyote, who is exploring this idea by replacing electronic beats with those of the natural world. “So we need to go and play the forest.” Every sun-dappled object becomes an instrument.

Ed Gamble does not like seeing himself on screen. “I know a lot of comics who struggle with watching themselves,” he says. “No one should be having to look at their own face so much. It feels simultaneously arrogant and also the most self-flagellating thing you can do.”Unfortunately for him, he is inescapable. Gamble presents the BBC’s wildly successful companion show to the Traitors, The Traitors: Uncloaked, along with the hugely popular podcast Off Menu, with the comedian and current Celebrity Traitors contestant James Acaster. Over the summer, Gamble hosted a new show, Unacceptable, in which comedians try to stand up their worst opinions – a format produced by Romesh Ranganathan, surely the only comic with a heavier workload than Gamble. Another series starts next month. A special for Amazon Prime, based on Gamble’s last two standup tours, will also be available this month. He is, of course, grateful and delighted about all this. It’s a long time since I’ve met someone so self-aware and willing to acknowledge their many privileges without a hint of chippiness. Lord and lady of the castle … Gamble with Celebrity Traitors host Claudia Winkleman.