A New York moment: 

The Met Breuer (the contemporary arm of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art) has a wonderful show now from artist Vija Celmins, who draws intricate pencil renderings of waves, paints the sky, and makes replicas of rocks. She also has drawn airplanes exploding, and painted a man running from a burning car, allusions to her war-torn childhood. 

A public rift between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures could mean big changes for popular superhero movies. Sony owns the movie rights to the Spider-Man character and just had its highest-grossing movie ever this summer with Spider-Man: Far From Home. The two studios have cooperated in recent years, with Spider-Man appearing in Avengers movies and Marvel’s Iron Man playing an important role in the Spider-Verse.

A New York moment: 

The Bodleian Library in Oxford loaned a trove of J.R.R. Tolkien’s sketches, doodles, and illustrations to New York’s Morgan Library & Museum, which calls it “the most extensive public display of original Tolkien material for several generations.” The exhibit closes May 12, and it has been packed in its final weeks, for good reason. Though the exhibit is contained in only two large rooms, I spent hours inside poring over Tolkien’s meticulous notes, maps, and paintings. 

Artist Roger Blum, now 78, grew up in a troubled Seventh-day Adventist home in Northern California. That upbringing led him to register as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. In 1965, when he was beginning a master’s degree program and trying to establish himself as an illustrator, he received a draft notice.

A New York moment: 

You see a lot of weird stuff on the sidewalks of Manhattan, from discarded pants to one-legged pigeons. One time I came across a steaming pile of potatoes, scattered on the sidewalk, a scenario that still leaves me baffled.

A New York moment:

A D.C. moment:

The new official portraits of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama found a home in the National Portrait Gallery just in time for Presidents Day. The normally quiet gallery—a Smithsonian building visitors often neglect because it’s not situated along the National Mall—was swamped with crowds over the weekend to see the additions to the collection.