Category Archives: Oscar Wilde

‘Absolutely hideous’: new London sculpture of Oscar Wilde condemned by his grandson

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Gloomy segmented head of famed playwright fails to convey his wit and brilliance, says Merlin Holland

A huge sculpture of Oscar Wilde’s head lying on its side, his face sliced into segments, has been condemned as “absolutely hideous” by the playwright’s grandson.

Merlin Holland, an expert on Wilde’s life and works, has ­criticised a 2ft-high black bronze sculpture by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi that is to be unveiled in a public garden in Chelsea, south-west London, near Wilde’s former home.

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Banksy offers to raise £10m to buy Reading prison for art centre

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Artist would sell stencil used to paint mural depicting what was thought to be Oscar Wilde on listed building

Banksy has offered to raise millions of pounds towards buying Reading prison, where Oscar Wilde was once held, so that it can be turned into an arts centre.

The street artist has promised to match the jail’s £10m asking price by selling the stencil he used to paint on the Grade II-listed building in March, a move campaigners hope will prevent it from being sold to housing developers.

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The Picture of Dorian Gray review – the ugly face of social media

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Eternal youth and beauty exist only online in this thoroughly modern adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s fable, which counts Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley among its impressive cast

If Dorian Gray were reborn in our age, it seems entirely fitting that he would be a social media star obsessing over his image. So it makes great intuitive sense for this adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel to situate its protagonist in the centre of the digital whirl of 2021.

There is now no physical painting: the deal made with Basil Hallward allows Dorian eternal youth and beauty online, but age marks him in the real world, his face becoming etched with the ugliness of his accumulating misdeeds (snorting coke, catfishing and late night hookups). The pandemic is incorporated into the drama and enhances the storyline as Dorian wears his mask to cover his ageing face.

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Oscar Wilde NYC

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Oscar Wilde, the author of "The Picture of Dorian Gray," "The Importance of Being Earnest," and infinite witticisms seemingly ready-made for Facebook-"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes"-is a revered cultural icon. Perhaps for the first time, though, he's being revered in NoMad, where a recently opened bar is named after him.