TIME: Traveler's Advisory

	TRAVELER'S ADVISORY	APRIL 20, 1998 NO. 16
Traveler's Advisory By SIMON ROBINSON EUROPE LONDON The treasures of the British Library--which include the exquisite 7th century illuminated manuscript known as the Lindisfarne Gospels; the oldest known printed document, a 9th century Chinese translation of the Buddhist Diamond Sutra; and a copy of the first book printed with movable type, the 15th century Gutenberg Bible--have a new home. The plush exhibition halls of the library's new $850 million headquarters at St. Pancras will be opened to the public on April 21, along with an auditorium, bookshop and restaurants. The monumental building, which is being opened in stages through mid-1999, will house 12 million books previously scattered among a dozen sites in and around London. Guided tours of the library cost $5; entry to the permanent exhibitions is free. NORTH AMERICA WASHINGTON The gloom of the 1930s Depression did not stifle Americans' sense of fun. The flip irreverence of the post-World War I Jazz Age survived in the wit of writers like Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley, in the comedy of the Marx Brothers--and in the playful, often acerbic caricatures of movie stars, sporting heroes and gangsters that were a staple of magazines like Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. "Celebrity Caricature in America," at the National Portrait Gallery, examines the roots of today's celebrity-mad culture through 200 cartoon portraits, including those of actresses Mae West and Greta Garbo, singer Josephine Baker, writer Ernest Hemingway and baseball hero Babe Ruth. Through Aug. 23. ASIA KOBE Awaji island, tucked between Japan's largest main island, Honshu, and its smallest, Shikoku, is now easier to reach. Last week the world's longest suspension bridge opened between Kobe, on Honshu, and Awaji. The 3.9-km Akashi Kaikyo bridge, whose 2-km central span is slung between two 297-m-high towers, is designed to withstand winds of up to 300 km/h and earthquakes of Richter 8.5. (The 1995 quake that destroyed Kobe left the bridge, then under construction, unharmed.) With the completion of the $3.8 billion bridge, Japan's four main islands are now linked by road. AFRICA PIETER-MARITZBURG Until recently, art connoisseurs looked down on Zulu pottery. Few pieces found their way into galleries, and those in museums were displayed as anthropological artifacts rather than art works. "Ubumba--Apects of Indigenous Ceramics in KwaZulu-Natal" helps redress that neglect. The show includes ritual drinking vessels fired black with cow dung, tourist-trade pottery reddened with shoe polish, sculptures of people and animals, and studio ceramics. The most dramatic piece is a sculpture topped by a screaming woman's head which depicts the massacre of 19 African National Congress supporters by Inkatha party members at Shobashobane village in 1995. At Tatham Art Gallery through April 26, then at the Durban Art Gallery.
time-webmaster@pathfinder.com

TRAVELER'S ADVISORY

APRIL 20, 1998 NO. 16

Traveler's Advisory

By SIMON ROBINSON

EUROPE

LONDON
The treasures of the British Library--which include the exquisite 7th century illuminated manuscript known as the Lindisfarne Gospels; the oldest known printed document, a 9th century Chinese translation of the Buddhist Diamond Sutra; and a copy of the first book printed with movable type, the 15th century Gutenberg Bible--have a new home. The plush exhibition halls of the library's new $850 million headquarters at St. Pancras will be opened to the public on April 21, along with an auditorium, bookshop and restaurants. The monumental building, which is being opened in stages through mid-1999, will house 12 million books previously scattered among a dozen sites in and around London. Guided tours of the library cost $5; entry to the permanent exhibitions is free.

NORTH AMERICA

WASHINGTON
The gloom of the 1930s Depression did not stifle Americans' sense of fun. The flip irreverence of the post-World War I Jazz Age survived in the wit of writers like Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley, in the comedy of the Marx Brothers--and in the playful, often acerbic caricatures of movie stars, sporting heroes and gangsters that were a staple of magazines like Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. "Celebrity Caricature in America," at the National Portrait Gallery, examines the roots of today's celebrity-mad culture through 200 cartoon portraits, including those of actresses Mae West and Greta Garbo, singer Josephine Baker, writer Ernest Hemingway and baseball hero Babe Ruth. Through Aug. 23.

ASIA

KOBE
Awaji island, tucked between Japan's largest main island, Honshu, and its smallest, Shikoku, is now easier to reach. Last week the world's longest suspension bridge opened between Kobe, on Honshu, and Awaji. The 3.9-km Akashi Kaikyo bridge, whose 2-km central span is slung between two 297-m-high towers, is designed to withstand winds of up to 300 km/h and earthquakes of Richter 8.5. (The 1995 quake that destroyed Kobe left the bridge, then under construction, unharmed.) With the completion of the $3.8 billion bridge, Japan's four main islands are now linked by road.

AFRICA

PIETER-MARITZBURG
Until recently, art connoisseurs looked down on Zulu pottery. Few pieces found their way into galleries, and those in museums were displayed as anthropological artifacts rather than art works. "Ubumba--Apects of Indigenous Ceramics in KwaZulu-Natal" helps redress that neglect. The show includes ritual drinking vessels fired black with cow dung, tourist-trade pottery reddened with shoe polish, sculptures of people and animals, and studio ceramics. The most dramatic piece is a sculpture topped by a screaming woman's head which depicts the massacre of 19 African National Congress supporters by Inkatha party members at Shobashobane village in 1995. At Tatham Art Gallery through April 26, then at the Durban Art Gallery.

time-webmaster@pathfinder.com