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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 12 december 2019
Thunberg ‘a bit surprised’ to be Time ‘Person of the Year’

By FRANK JORDANS Thunberg said she was “They say they listen and
Associated Press hopeful that the message they say they understand,
MADRID (AP) — Teenage being pushed by her and but it sure doesn’t seem like
climate activist Greta Thun- other activists — that gov- it.”
berg said she was surprised ernments need to drasti- “If they really would listen
and honored Wednesday cally increase their efforts and understand then I think
to learn she had been to combat climate change they need to prove that
named Time’s youngest — is finally getting through. by translating that into ac-
“Person of the Year,” say- But she insisted that the tion,” she added.
ing the accolade deserved media should also pay at- She said the experience of
to be shared by others in tention to other activists, the past 15 months, going
the global movement she particularly indigenous from solo-protester outside
helped inspire. people who she said “are the Swedish parliament to
The 16-year-old Swede hit hardest by the climate speaking in front of world
has become the face of a and environmental crisis,” leaders at the U.N. General
new generation of activists, and to the science around Assembly, had changed
drawing large crowds with global warming. her.
her appearances at pro- “That is what I am trying to “I think life is much more
tests and conferences over do, to use my platform to meaningful now that I have
the past year and a half. do,” she said. something to do that has
Some have welcomed Thunberg said the move- an impact,” she said.
her activism, including ment, which has staged Thunberg has tried to pre-
her speeches challenging repeated worldwide pro- serve some privacy de-
world leaders to do more tests attended by hundreds spite the relentless interest
to stop global warming. of thousands of people, she’s received from media
But others have criticized had managed to spread and adoring fans in recent
her sometimes combative awareness about the need months.
tone. to urgently reduce planet- She was mobbed on her
“For sounding the alarm warming greenhouse gas arrival in Madrid last week
about humanity’s predato- emissions and help those and the attention paid to
ry relationship with the only already affected by cli- her appearances at the
home we have, for bring- This photo provided by Time magazine shows Greta Thunberg, mate change. climate conference has far
ing to a fragmented world who has been named Time’s youngest “person of the year” on “To get in a sense of urgen- outstripped that of other
Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019.
a voice that transcends Associated Press cy in the conversation that events, save for Hollywood
backgrounds and borders, is very needed right now to stars like Harrison Ford.
for showing us all what it conference in Madrid, “I’m of course, very grate- be able to move forward,” “I would like to be left
might look like when a new Thunberg told The Associat- ful for that, very honored,” she said. alone,” Thunberg said
generation leads, Greta ed Press she was “a bit sur- Thunberg said, but added “That, I think, is our biggest when asked about her
Thunberg is TIME’s 2019 Per- prised” at the recognition. that “it should be every- success.” plans for the next days. She
son of the Year,” the media “I could never have imag- one in the Fridays for Future Asked whether she thought will later travel home to
franchise said on its web- ined anything like that movement because what world leaders were begin- Sweden, to spend Christ-
site. happening,” she said in a we have done, we have ning to respond to this mes- mas with her family and
Leaving a U.N. climate phone interview. done together.” sage, Thunberg said: dogs, she added.q
Raphael show with famous Madonna paintings opens in Berlin

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER to Raphael’s early works in Urbino and died at the
Associated Press from the beginning of the age of 37 in Rome. To-
BERLIN (AP) — Berlin is 16th century and depict gether with Michelangelo
opening the first of three Madonna and her child and Leonardo da Vinci, he
Raphael exhibitions this in different variations. One is one of the most famous
week as the art world cel- shows Jesus on his moth- Italian artists of the Renais-
ebrates the 500th anniver- er’s lap with pink flowers sance period.
sary of the Renaissance in his hands, another with The presentation takes a
master’s death next year. a goldfinch on his leg. On historical look at the col-
Five paintings of the Vir- most of the paintings Mary lection of the Berlin mu-
gin Mary and her son that has a solemn look, as if she seums, showing works
are usually not exhibited in already knew about her by the “young Raphael”
the same space are all on son’s fate. that were widely popular
display in one room at the The exhibition’s center- The painting ‚Madonna of the Pinks’ of Renaissance artist when the first museum was
city’s Gemaeldegalerie piece is a tondo, or round Raphael from London’s National Gallery is on display at an founded in the city in 1830.
museum. In addition, Ra- painting, called “Ter- exhibition at the Gemaeldegalerie in Berlin, Wednesday, The exhibition also sheds
phael’s famous “The Ma- ranuova Madonna” from Germany, Dec. 11, 2019. light on the early acquisi-
donna of the Pinks” will be about 1505 that Raphael Associated Press tion policies of the Gemael-
on loan from the National created shortly after his ar- “The big Raphael year ers on Wednesday. “The degalerie in the broader
Gallery in London for the rival in Florence. It shows 2020 is already starting in show gives a precise view context of the history of art
exhibition called “Raphael Madonna with her child, Berlin in December 2019,” on Raphael before he be- collecting in Europe and it
in Berlin. The Madonnas of surrounded by the infant the director of the Ge- came the star artist at the shows the image that 19th-
the Gemaeldegalerie.” St. John and an unknown maeldegalerie, Michael Vatican.” century Germany had of
The six paintings belong child with a halo. Eissenhauer, told report- Raphael was born in 1483 Raphael.q