Monster Mash: Robert De Niro establishes new art prize, Broadway's 'Book of Mormon' finds lead elders

Star power: Robert De Niro has established a $25,000 annual prize for a U.S. painter in honor of his late artist father. (Bloomberg)

Clean-cut: Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells have joined the cast of Broadway's "Book of Mormon," opening March 24. (Playbill)

Major acquisition: The Philadelphia Museum of Art is acquiring a trove of photographs by Paul Strand. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Dissident voice: Chinese artist Wu Yuren is on trial in Beijing after a protest that he led against property developers. (Voice of America)

Mobile app: New York's Museum of Modern Art has just released its first application for the Apple iPad. (New York Times)

Going home: The Netherlands has returned a long-missing work by Jan Brueghel the Younger to Concordia University in Canada. (Agence France-Presse)

Musical summit: The International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians said it plans to bring its annual meeting to Detroit in August, in a show of support for the striking musicians of the Detroit Symphony. (Crains Detroit Business)

Politics and art: The Portland Public Art Committee in Maine has voted to relocate a controversial piece of public art titled “Tracing the Fore.” (Portland Press Herald)

And in the L.A. Times: The L.A. Philharmonic lands the premiere of a long-lost Shostakovich opera; artist Jasper Johns and cellist Yo-Yo Ma are to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011; music critic Mark Swed on the music of George Crumb.

-- David Ng

Photo: Robert De Niro stands next to a painting executed by his father, Robert De Niro Sr. Credit: Dave Allocca / Associated Press

Comments

[william wray]

I had a studio space In the mid- eighties at 465 West Broadway, a floor or two down from Mr. De Niro. When I was shown my letter box right next to an R. De Niro I asked my landlord half jokingly: "is this the THE R. Diro?" My landlord (an older artist) who didn't get out out much said confidently "oh yes it's him." For months I hoped to see him in the elevator. After repeatedly exchanging pleasantries with a older gentlemen who looked like an older version of R D, with a bike helmet, bike and little toy dog tucked under his arm, it finally dawned on to me Roberts Deniro had a father... I angled for a meeting in his studio once, but was politely rebuffed. I have tried harder if I was crazy about his work at the time, but I was into realism then, It's only now I wish I'd tried harder.