T. S. Eliot's widow's art to be auctioned

Artworks include pieces by Constable, Freud and Bacon

TS Eliot and his wife Valerie's apartment in London. Photograph: AP.

From Maev Kennedy (The Guardian):

Years after the death of TS Eliot, when the cunning, treacherous, and sometimes criminal felines of his Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats were transformed into the spectacularly successful musical Cats, the royalties allowed the poet's widow, Valerie, to amass a collection of art and antiques that could have graced a museum.

She collected works by John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough, Stanley Spencer and LS Lowry, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, along with jewellery and furniture, portrait miniatures, and a flattering view by Winston Churchill of his host's front garden.

Valerie Eliot died last year, aged 86, and at her request her treasures – described as "one of the finest collections of British art to come to the market in generations" – are to be auctioned at Christie's in November. Proceeds from the sale, estimated at £5m, will be used to continue her work of encouraging young poets and artists through her charity, Old Possum's Practical Trust. [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Valerie Eliot 1926-2012
• T. S. Eliot, The Ariel Poems (Numbers 1-8)
• BBC Arena Documentary: T. S. Eliot
• The Letters of T. S. Eliot (Volume 2: 1923-1925)
• T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land as iPad app
• T. S. Eliot Working at Faber
• Review: T. S. Eliot's Letters

Mark Lawson: why don't more visual artists do theatre?

Why aren't collaborations between visual and performance art more common?

Alberto Giacometti (left) with a sculpted tree for Samuel Beckett's (right) Waiting for Godot

From The Guardian: 'Stage design is clearly a form of art, but full-time painters and sculptors have only rarely become involved in theatre – although two current exhibitions demonstrate the potential when they do. The thrilling Edvard Munch exhibition at Tate Modern in London includes a room devoted to the Norwegian artist's work in theatre, and the sculptor Antony Gormley has on show at Castle Coole in Enniskillen a work called Godot Tree – Gormley's interpretation of the opening stage direction ("A country road. A tree. Evening.") in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. The tree, which is required to grow four or five leaves during the interval, will be used in a world-touring production that begins in Australia later this year.' [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Kafka's Metamorphosis as Dance Theatre
• Rivane Neuenschwander adapts Beckett's First Love as Art Installation