Established 1961 21 Lifestyle Features Wednesday, December 11, 2019

t a stately museum in City, great-grandpuppies reside. tion and model to Mexican artists, it has also of Kahlo and Rivera paintings. There is a statue priceless paintings by Kahlo and “Xolos,” as they are known for short, are a joined the list of icons that represent Mexican in the dogs’ honor on the museum grounds, and ADiego Rivera share pride of place with quintessentially Mexican dog. The ancient identity, such as Day of the Dead skeletons, a professional caretaker just for them. “To us, an unruly pack of hairless black dogs: Mexico’s species goes back 7,000 years and was first and the Aztec calendar,” said these dogs are living works of art, just like prized . The 13 dogs who reside domesticated around 5,500 years ago. The Maria Olvido Moreno, an art historian at Rivera’s and Kahlo’s paintings,” said curator on the leafy grounds of the Museo Dolores Aztecs named the dog for the god of death, Mexico’s largest university, UNAM. Josefina Garcia. Olmedo are the direct descendants of ones that Xolotl, combined with “itzcuintli,” or dog. They belonged to Kahlo and Rivera, whose searingly had themselves buried with xolos so the dogs Doggy survivors ‘Coco’ and rock stars intimate portraits (her) and sprawling murals could guide them to Mictlan, the underworld Xolos lack hair - though some do have a Xolos have become cool once again in the (him) made them the towering power couple of where they believed life continued after death. mohawk on top of their head - because of a 21st century - the dog of choice for 20- and 20th-century Mexican art. The dogs have gone in and out of style since genetic mutation that makes their organisms 30-somethings proud to embrace their unable to read the DNA for fur, according to Mexican heritage. They have had articles experts. They are also known for missing pre- devoted to them in such places as the style molar teeth, which leads to another character- pages of The New York Times, were declared istic look: their pink tongues can often be seen an official “icon of ” in 2016 and lolling out of their mouths. Additionally, their are the preferred pooch for residents like bodies are particularly warm. In ancient times, Ruben Albarran, frontman for famed rock band people with rheumatism or asthma would press Cafe Tacvba. “They have this link to Mexican the dogs to their bodies as treatment. culture that I love,” Albarran told AFP. A xolo By the time, Mexico launched its war for also featured prominently in Disney-Pixar’s independence from Spain in 1810, the xolo was 2017 movie “Coco”, which won the Oscar for on the brink of extinction. The Spaniards had best animated film. spurned the animals as a symbol of what they “Xolos are a good choice for people who considered pagan beliefs, and even killed and are interested in Mexican identity. And a hair- ate them. But xolos were able to survive largely less dog makes an excellent pet for fast-mov- thanks to the mountains of southern Mexico, a ing Mexico City. They can live in an apartment remote region where they lived in the wild and are easy to care for,” said Raul Valadez, an before being re-domesticated by indigenous expert at UNAM’s paleozoology lab. Proud peasant farmers. xolo owner Oscar Gamas, a 43-year-old audio But the dogs’ big cultural comeback came designer in Mexico City, said he, like many A Xoloitzcuintle (Ancient Mexican hairless dog) rests on the grass at the garden of the Dolores Olmedo after the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The rev- (Ancient Mexican hairless dogs) people, first got interested in the dogs for their Museum in Mexico City. — AFP photos olution ousted dictator Porfirio Diaz and his rest by a Xoloitzcuintle statue at the garden of the “symbolism.” But then he fell in love with his Europhile ruling class. The new Mexican cul- Dolores Olmedo Museum in Mexico City, Mexico. dog Deck’s reserved yet fiercely loyal and pro- Kahlo and Rivera were proud of their the Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1519 and tural elite, including Kahlo and Rivera, set tective personality. “When you live with one, Mexican heritage, which made the xoloitzcuin- toppled the Aztecs. about reclaiming long-stigmatized symbols of Rivera gave a pair of them to their friend you discover they have a personality that really tle - a tongue-twister pronounced something But five centuries later, they are rolling indigenous identity - not least the xolo. Kahlo Dolores Olmedo, a businesswoman, philanthro- sets them apart,” he said. — AFP like show-low-eats-QUEEN-t-lay - an obvious around in the glory of a renaissance, beloved (1907-1954) and Rivera (1886-1957) can be pist and art collector. Those are the ancestors choice for the family dog. They even put their by the hipster set in trendy neighborhoods seen proudly posing with and cuddling their of the dogs that now roam the grounds of the dogs in their paintings - some of them now on across Mexico City and the country. “The xolos in black-and-white photos from the mid- museum Olmedo established in her former display at the museum where their great- xoloitzcuintle has not just served as an inspira- 20th century. home, which hosts the world’s largest collection

n the land of the Sagas, it isn’t Christmas Gudmundur, have already picked the Danish rule. The custom “has something to most titles per capita behind Britain, if there isn’t a deluge of books under the books they want out of the “Bokatidindi”, do with the importance of literature during according to the International Publishers Itree - literally. The Jolabokaflod, or an 80-page catalogue of novels, poetry the Icelandic fight for independence and Association. Christmas Book Flood, is a much-loved and children’s books distributed free of the Icelandic search for identity: part of Around one in 10 Icelanders publishes tradition that has been celebrated in charge to all households. The 2019 cata- being an Icelander was to read books,” a book in their lifetime. And they’re big Iceland since 1945. It’s a bit like Britain’s logue features 842 new titles. Almost seven said Halldor Gudmundsson, an author and readers. The country counts more than 83 “Super Thursday”, when hundreds of hard- out of 10 Icelanders buy at least one book the former head of Iceland’s biggest pub- libraries - one for every 4,300 inhabi- A man stands in front of paintings by Pierre Soulages backs hit the shelves on the first Thursday as a Christmas gift, according to the lisher, Forlagid. tants. More than 90 percent of Icelanders during a press visit prior to the exhibition’s opening at of October, but much bigger: two-thirds of Icelandic Publishers Association. While books are increasingly being read at least one book a year, and half the Louvre museum, in Paris. — AFP books in Iceland are published in published at other times of the year, the read more than eight a year, according to November and December. Hundreds of ‘To be Icelandic is to read’ Jolabokaflod remains crucial for the pub- a 2013 study from Bifrost University. In new titles go on sale in bookshops and Iceland’s literary tradition was born lishing industry, accounting for 40 percent particular, the country has a thriving Man in black: Soulages supermarkets at reduced prices, a yuletide about 900 years ago with the Sagas, wide- of book sales in 2018, according to appetite for crime fiction and boasts a custom that has also become vital for the ly seen as a gem in world literature and still Statistics Iceland. “It’s so important that if host of crime writers, who over the last publishing industry’s survival. studied in school by Icelandic children this tradition dies, Icelandic publishing couple of decades have placed it on the gets Louvre tribute world map of police detective novels alongside their Swedish, Norwegian or Danish counterparts. for 100th birthday

Industry struggles hey call him art’s man in black. Artist Pierre Some books are bought during the Soulages has painted primarily in black for Jolabokaflod at supermarkets, where Teight decades — foreswearing all other bookshelves are set up near the produce, colours since 1979. Now the Louvre museum in frozen foods or bread sections, at hard-to- Paris is marking his 100th birthday with a rare resist prices. At full price, the average tribute to a living artist. Twenty works - out of hardback costs 6,990 kronur (about 52 more than 1,700 canvasses he has produced over euros, $57), more than twice the cost in his long career - will be shown in a special three- France or Britain. “You can’t buy books all month show, which opens Wednesday. The French year because you would just go broke,” master, still working despite turning 100 on says Brynjolfur Thorsteinsson, a 28-year- Christmas Eve, may yet make the opening in the old sales assistant at Mal og menning, one face of a national strike which has paralysed Visitors check out the Iceland pavilion featuring giant projections of people reading, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where Iceland was the of Iceland’s oldest bookshops in Reykjavik. France’s rail network. guest of honour. — AFP photos Part of the high cost comes from the The Pompidou Centre in Paris, which staged a value-added tax (VAT) on books, hiked huge Soulages retrospective in 2009, is also get- from seven to 11 percent in 2015, which ting in on the celebrations by showing 14 of its On Christmas Eve, Icelanders tradition- today. The Icelandic Sagas describe events dies. It’s very clear,” said director Pall comes on top of already high printing and collection of 25 paintings. Having worked mostly ally exchange books and spend the among inhabitants of Iceland in the 10th Valsson, at Bjartur, Iceland’s second- import costs - as Iceland has almost no in black since 1946, Soulages began his voyage to evening reading — perhaps curling up by and 11th centuries. Written in the 13th cen- biggest publisher, where the Jolabokaflod forests, books have to be printed abroad. the dark heart of the colour in 1979 with a series the fireside with the latest crime novel by tury, they focus on history, especially accounts for 70 percent of annual sales. The high prices have had a negative of paintings called “outrenoir”, or beyond black. Arnaldur Indridason, who’s topped best- genealogical and family history, reflecting impact on the book market, with sales Since then, no other colour has appeared on his seller lists for the past two decades in his the settlers’ struggles and conflicts. The Writing is in Icelanders’ blood almost slashed in two since 2010. In a bid canvasses. Naturally, he also dresses in black. native country of 360,000 people. Jolabokaflod dates back to the end of The deluge of books can however make to support the industry, the government “Black is never the same because the light is “Literature is very important in Iceland World War II, when Iceland, a poor coun- it difficult for authors to break through. decided this year to reimburse 25 percent always changing it,” Soulages told AFP in his stu- and it is, I guess, the art form that is some- try, imposed strict currency restrictions “Unfortunately, so many good books just of the production costs for books pub- dio earlier this year. thing the whole public can relate to,” artist that limited imports. drown in the flood,” admits thriller writer lished in Icelandic, for both original and and mother-of-two Sigrun Hrolfsdottir, But paper remained affordable, so Lilja Sigurdardottir, whose works have translated works. — AFP Dark obsession who lives in Seltjarnarnes, a small district in books became the Christmas gift of choice. been translated into English and French. He described black as “a very active colour” the Reykjavik area, told AFP. Iceland had also just gained independence Iceland may be the most sparsely populat- that “lights up when you put it next to a dark Her daughter and son, Duna and after seven centuries of Norwegian and ed country in Europe, but it publishes the colour”. “Black isn’t the colour of mourning, white is,” he said in his spotless atelier in the Mediterranean town of Sete. Soulages is France’s most celebrated and expensive artist, with one of Great day for losers: Wimpy Kid author gets French medal his black canvasses selling for 9.6 million euros ($10.5 million) at auction in Paris last month. he Wimpy Kid has finally done good ed as a hilarious anti-hero by a generation Maryland and I studied French when I was He is also the first living painter ever to be - and his creator Jeff Kinney has of children and teenagers. “I always want- in 7th grade and I never could have imag- exhibited at the Hermitage museum in Saint Teven got a medal from France to ed to be a newspaper cartoonist,” Kinney ined coming here and being honoured in Petersburg. Hailed as “the world’s greatest living prove it. The American creator of the confessed. “But I didn’t have the artistic this way,” Kinney added. artist” by former French president Francois bestseller “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books talent.” His eureka moment came “one day The father-of-two said he is convinced Hollande, Soulages admits to being a fierce per- was made an officer of France’s Order of when I realised if I drew at my talent level, that children are much more rounded than fectionist. If a painting is not 100 percent satis- Arts and Letters on Monday, an honour which was at the level of an 11- or 12-year- they were when he was growing up. “I factory, it will never see the light of day. “I burn also conferred on Nobel laureates T. S. old boy,” it might work. “The biggest sur- think that kids self-identify with being a the canvas outside. If it is mediocre, it goes,” he Eliot and Seamus Heaney as well as music prise to me is being published at all, nerd or a wimp in a way that they didn’t told AFP. megastars such as Bono and David Bowie. because the format was so unusual I didn’t when I was growing up. “I think that kids The Louvre exhibition will trace the develop- As the medal was pinned to his chest, think it would be published. are much more comfortable in their own ment of Soulages’s work from the end of World Kinney, 48, said he never expected his sto- skin these days, and that’s a really good War II to the present day. His principal technique ries to become such a cult children’s hit, The kids are cool thing,” he added. Kinney, who has become involves scraping, digging and etching thick lay- selling more than 200 million copies “I fully expected ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ an advocate for limiting screen time for ers of paint with rubber spoons or tiny rakes to worldwide and spawning four movies. In would be rejected. So I think it’s crazy it’s children, has opened a community book- create different textures that absorb or reject light, subtly changing the monotonous black. Born fact, the cartoonist said that the misadven- in 64 languages now and I’m thrilled that shop called An Unlikely Story in his adopt- in 1919 in Rodez, southern France - where a tures of 12-year-old weakling Greg Heffley it’s translated into French,” he told ed hometown of Plainville, Massachusetts, museum is now dedicated to his work - even as a was initially aimed at adults nostalgic for reporters. Three million copies of the where he also has his studio.—AFP child he was obsessed with black.—AFP their middle-school years. books have been sold in France alone. “I But the geeky loser was quickly adopt- think this is really incredible. I grew up in