Picasso’s Sacred Monster Eats Chicago: A Mystery Solved?

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What does this mysterious sculpture depict? Popular answers include: an aardvark, a bird, an Afghan hound, and one of Picasso’s lovers. But to my eyes, it looks like a sphinx—a monster that (like the anamorphic skull haunting Hans Holbein’s famous painting The Ambassadors) only snaps into focus when viewed from an oblique perspective. To perceive the recumbent sphinx you have to approach the piece not from the front but from behind and to the side.

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Lady Gaga’s Secret Religion

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Is Lady Gaga (the self-proclaimed “fame monster” so well known for her enticing pop music, outrageous fashion, and elaborately staged spectacles) involved in a pseudo-religious conspiracy of global moment? The answer is “yes”—but not for the reasons that…

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I Want a Perfect Body

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Americans are the inheritors of a religious tradition that holds that inner goodness is reflected in outer beauty—but the pursuit of bodily perfection is an endeavor, both personal and commercial, that has global reach. Whether someone is looking for a better nose, or for immortality, the quest has everything to do with religion.

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