Roger Ebert’s is taking a “leave of presence”. His cancer has returned. This really bums me out, but his post is incredible to read. So few people are as full of life and ideas. May he live forever. [Chicago Sun Times]
Is the future of Chelsea really in question? That’s the premise of The Art Newspaper’s story on Sandy fall out, but there isn’t much evidence that galleries are moving due to high insurance rates. In fact, they interview dealer Zach Feuer who indicates that he’s probably not going anywhere since he’s got another seven to eight years on his lease. [The Art Newspaper]
I’m already skeptical of this work: 303 is temporarily moving to make way for their bigger building, so artist Doug Aitken has made a hole in the ground and a sonic fountain that’s supposed to evoke the demolition. “I wanted to use sound as a tool to destroy the exhibition space.” he told Art in America. Watch his incredibly choreographed video on the galleries website. [303 Gallery]
Hyperallergic pays a visit to the Museum of Everything, now in Paris, and is wowed by the diversity of artmaking showcased. Among other works cited we learn that it’s full of Henry Darger drawings, Dietrich Orth’s paintings of imagined machines, and Alfred and Corinne Marie, build intensely complicated temples of whimsy from typewriter and electronic parts. If you’re going to Venice Biennale, they’ll having a show by Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery. [Hyperallergic]
New York Times critic Ken Johnson responds to the critics of two of his reviews last fall The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World and Now Dig This!, in particular an article by David Levi-Strauss. We responded back in November, when a petition was launched imploring the New York Times to talk with Ken Johnson, and found that his words, were not quite worth the ire they evoked, though they didn’t put him entirely in the clear either. His response to the critics is well argued. [Art in America]
Doug Aitken's 100 YRS at 303 Gallery, Image Courtesy of Kyle Petreycik
It’s Truffaut (with a little bit of Godard), it’s Wes Anderson, and it’s a Prada commercial. [@gregorg, Twitter]
So, with that Prada commercial it looks like nothing’s changed about the world since the 1960s. The art world, according to William Powhida, does change. In a recent lecture (with notes published online) Powhida compares our lives in the art world to being a MOCA microcosm: we’re beholden to moneyed backers, not like we like it, and “[h]ow well these policies work is entirely dependent on how you think the world is doing, and not just our society”. He also has some good things to say about the gallery model and dealers who, while putting on the guise of success, often aren’t, and only keep going out of “a condition of need (or likely desperation).” MOCA only looks like it’s floundering because we have some insight into what’s happening on the board; we’d probably think the same if we knew what was up inside Chelsea’s backrooms. [@Powhida, Twitter]
Update: George Lucas, we reported in early April, wanted to open up a museum. Now he’s submitted a proposal to city officials to make it happen. From the proposal, we know the museum’s name (Lucas Cultural Arts Museum), and it’s devoted to all the “storytelling” arts (comics, illustration, and animation). If you have any questions, feel free to email the museum’s sole contact: museum@skywalkerranch.com. [The Drawn Blog]
Ew. State Senator Malcolm A. Smith, a Democrat, and City Councilman Daniel J. Halloran III, a Republican, were arrested early Tuesday on charges of trying to fix this year’s mayoral race in New York City. [NYTimes]
Mary Louise Schumacher complains that the Tow Center report on journalism marginalizes culture coverage, and deeming it unimportant relative to “true stories that can change society”. The study itself is very strange, describing itself as part survey, part manifesto. I’m not sure it’s the best starting point for a conversation about arts journalism in mainstream publications. [JS Online]
Brooklyn artist KAWS’ “COMPANION (PASSING THROUGH),” his anime-style cartoon character crying, which has been touring over the past few years from Hong Kong to various US cities, will stop next at Philly’s 30th Street Station. [Hypebeast]
Ho.lee.mo.lee. The Telegraph lists not one, but ten, luxury hotels that have artist residency programs. [Telegraph] No surprise, they tend to favor fashion illustration. [Vogue/Telegraph]
Exhibition view, Jacob Kassay, Art:Concept, Paris, May 8th to June 5th 2010 Courtesy Art : Concept, Paris - Photo : Fabrice Gousset
The Internet can’t keep a secret. It’s April Fool’s Day, and my feed is filled with gotcha articles and subsequent chatter about them. Thus far, Magda Sawon has announced she’s taking over Gagosian’s space uptown, ARTINFO has run a feature of art stars under the age of 6, and Hyperallergic has a piece on an exhibition that puts Jews in a box. That last one’s an actual story, but if you see a post over there written today by “The Editors”, watch out! [The Internet]
Jerry Saltz surveys the New York landscape and observes that the rich rule from 40,000 miles away, and fewer people are going to galleries. “I’ve tried to keep overhyped careers in check, and had no effect whatsoever.” he writes. ”In fact, so many shows in so many places mean that we now have an overload of writing about art. Joseph Beuys said, “Everyone is an artist.” Now everyone actually is a writer. Like exhibitions that can’t get traction, commentary also has a hard time gaining a foothold, unless you yourself enter the arena of spectacle, becoming something of a spectacle yourself.” This is a pretty great summation of some of the writerly issues, and the piece as a whole tackles a whole lot more. It’s a must read. [Vulture]
Greg Allen responds to AFC contributor Eva Heisler’s review of Jacob Kassay’s show at Art : Concept, fleshing out an argument for why the paintings are less deflection—as she claims—than they are redaction. It’s a great response to the original review, though I have to say I don’t share Allen’s love for Kassay. It seems there’s an awful lot of intellectual resources dedicated to backing paintings that, on their own, don’t have much to say. It’s a very particular kind of viewer that’s going to find interest in comparing two identical press releases, just to glean the knowledge that the following has been redacted: “Dates, “New York,” “collaboration,” and “works on paper,” but also things like “industrial,” “chemical,” “conceptual,” and every reference to photography and his monochrome and mirror forebears. Also blacked out: any privileging of “the perception of the painterly surface,” and particulars of how “the artist carefully keeps control of their reproductions.”
whoa
This kind of parsing has some intellectual rewards, but I’m not convinced Kassay’s work isn’t engaging in a certain amount of navel gazing. Kassay is asking us to reflect on his own motives, and while that’s fair, they’re not so interesting that I wouldn’t rather indulge in a painting made for the virtues of painting. [Greg.org]
Blake Gopnik thinks the feverish pace of museum exhibitions might not be a sign of their good health. [Art Newspaper]
Oh goodie. Canadian arts policy continues to move to the right: No movement has been made towards a policy that would give artists five percent of any resale price, special funding for the arts is being eliminated and private investment will be encouraged by offering tax credits for donations. [Canadianart]
Speaking of resale rights, only California offers resale rights to artists, and last year a judge deemed those rights unconstitutional. Now there’s a fight over said ruling. Julia Halperin reports. [ARTINFO]
This is making me feel a little queezy: Apparently former MOCA curator Paul Schimmel is reportedly in late negotiations to join Hauser & Wirth in LA. [Gallerist]
Dealer Nicole Klagsburn quits after 30 years in the business. “The old school way was to be close to the artists and to the studios. Nowadays, it’s run like a corporation.” she told the Art Newspaper. She claims she’s not broke, but laments the disappearance of smaller galleries like her own thanks to the changing market. [The Art Newspaper]
Sharon Butler highlights the work of Becky Yazdan. I’m not 100 percent on board with this artist’s paintings—it’s a little too careful for my tastes—but the lede painting is a jewel. Check out her show in New Haven. [Two Coats of Paint]
Do not mess with art critics; you might get sued. At least that’s what happened when Danish artist Kristian von Hornsleth pasted art critic Camilla Stockmann’s face into a pornographic collage where she’s the center of a gangbang. Those real mature antics didn’t get Hornsleth anywhere except court. Now, judges have found Hornsleth guilty of copyright infringement for using Stockmann’s image without permission. [The Art Newspaper]
We are now living through the second golden age of American philanthropy. Is this a good thing? A democratic society is committed, at least in principle, to the equality of citizens. But foundations are, virtually by definition, the voice of plutocracy. A thorough look at the pros and cons of these organizations. #longreads. [Boston Review]
Kriston Capps calls Pritzker Architecture Prize after a change.org petition launched demanding that Denise Scott Brown be retroactively recognized; the contributions she made, led to her husband to win the prize in 1991. Apparently, Mr. Pritzker has “taken it under advisement.” [Architect Magazine]
Gallerist writes an enormous profile on Julian Schnabel, but can’t get his ex-wife, artist David Salle, Pace Gallery’s Arnold Glimcher, Dealer Mary Boone, and a number of other friends from the 80’s to talk. A significant amount of the story is dedicated to fleshing out Schnabel’s enormous ego. [Gallerist]
Anthony Huberman has been appointed Director of the CCA Wattis Institute. He fills the position recently left vacant by Jens Hoffmann, who took on a Deputy Director position at the Jewish Museum in November 2012. [e-flux]
Have you ever wondered who keeps on refilling Felix-Gonzalez Torres’s candy sculptures? Time Out Chicago critic Lauren Weinberg fills in the gaps. [Time Out Chicago]
The Marina Abramovic Doc won a Peabody Award, reports Michael Miller, the oldest award in broadcasting. She joins the ranks of Judd Apatow, Lena Dunham, Lorne Michaels, and Louie CK. [Gallerist]
Pratt students beware: you are being trolled! There is now a Tumblr devoted to anonymous confessions about the school’s students, faculty, and the “pratt cats outside the engine room.” [Pratt Institute Confessions]
Tech money is being spent on restaurants, lavish parties, and hoodies that will last ten years. It is not being spent on the arts. Ellen Cushing examines The Bacon-Wrapped Economy. [East Bay Express]
In this month’s Frieze, curator Dieter Roelstraete ponders why artists and writers keep talking about leaving the art world. He’s wary about all this noise, which sounds more like a deflated whimper than any siren blasting into the future. With artists, he calls them out for complaints that’re “immediately transformed into an art performance.” With writers, he’s suspicious, wondering: “[W]ould anyone seriously interested in ‘forgetting the art world’ really write an art world book about it?” [Frieze]
New York Magazine has unearthed the secret to listicle gold: all you need is photos of someone hot [re: Ryan Gosling] carrying things. Look at him carry a coffee cup, a book, or laundry and try not to get turned on. Well, we got the “carrying things” part down with our post “Important People Carrying Brillo Boxes at the Armory Show”. Now we just have to get the hotties. [New York Magazine]
In 1979, Basquiat painted the walls of his old girlfriend’s East Village apartment,. Alexis Adler. Now she’s going to cash in with the help of his former assistant Stephen Torton. [ARTinfo]
Two days ago, Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan released “20 Best Trollings in Modern History.” When we read that Roseanne Barr guest edited the New Yorker in 1996, we thought Gawker was trolling us. They were not. [Gawker, The New Yorker]
Last week, Toyo Ito was awarded the Pritzker Prize. Ito is most famous for his 2000 Sendai Mediatheque in Japan. Ito has not yet designed a structure that’s been built in the US. His only commission got scratched. [Culture Grrl]
Somebody get this woman a Pritzker. During a speech in London last week, leading architect Denise Scott Brown demanded retrospective recognition for her longtime creative partner Robert Venturi’s 1991 Pritzer. At the time of the award, they’d been working together as Venturi Scott Brown and Associates for over twenty two years. Brown suspects that their being married has something to do with her snubbing. [archdaily] It’s not the first time the issue has been brought up. [Architect]
Speaking of late recognition, Julia Halperin’s “6 Artists Who Made It Big After Turning 70.” They’re all women. [ARTinfo]
Call 1-855-FOR-1993 from a city pay phone and hear an oral history from 1993. It’s part of the New Museum’s 1993 show, a would-be fun idea were it not for having to touch a pay phone. [Gallerist]
This is ugly: New York based artist Mertin D. Simpson has died, his collection is worth millions, but there’s too much family squabbling over the estate to even cover the cost of his burial. [NY Times]
A brownnosy profile on David Zwirner: a charmer, an odd amalgam, a boy on the playground, a Dr. Strangelove, part shrewd salesman, part cultivated European, and a self-described spring chicken. [NYT Magazine]
Horrific. Conservatives in Egypts new government say that women are inviting rape by participating in public protests. [NY Times]
Maud Newton writes a fascinating story on the unusual trend of Christian fundementalists who are now integrating Jewish traditions into their lives. The piece was sparked by the TLC reality show, “The Sisterhood”. [NY Times]
Actress Tilda Swinton scrunched herself into a glass box at MoMA for all to see. [The Atlantic Wire]
The Chicago Headline Club announced finalists for the Peter Lisagor Awards. Now in its 36th year, the award recognizes outstanding journalism produced over the previous year. No surprise, Art F City contributor Jason Foumberg makes the cut in the “Arts Reporting and Criticism” category. [Headline Club]
Klaus Biesenbach tweeted pictures from the future home of MoMA PS1’s second-ever Volkswagen Dome in the Rockaways. So far, there’s a wooden deck. [Twitter]
Google, after announcing it will pull the plug on Google Reader, unveiled a new, Evernote-inspired app. Nice try, Google, but you can’t win your way back into our blogger hearts so easily. [Mashable]
“OkCupid Date Generator Needed” happened. [Craigslist]
The Met said “Let there be art on Monday.” Beginning July 1, the museum will be open seven days a week. Hurray! [Art Observed]
KYUR8 transformed our “Etsy’s Horse Art Trends” post into a zine. [KYUR8]
Looking into the future, we’re wondering who’s going to Open Engagement this May? It’s a conference all about social practice and it looks great. [Open Engagement]
Is Helen Frankenthaler good or just influential? We still can’t tell from Roberta Smith’s descriptive review. [NY Times]
This one’s better. Smith reviews Virginia Overton’s spare but memorable show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, helping us to solve the mystery of the coffee maker and the bathtub. We’ll have more on that in our upcoming “We Went to Chelsea.” [NY Times]
And because we love Roberta Smith so much, her thoughts on MoCA’s problems. Our favorite bit is when she describes Deitch’s greatest mistake as being optimistic and naive enough to take the job in the first place. She also is very clear that board member Eli Broad is the biggest problem this museum has. [NYTimes]
I want to see a contemporary art show in Boston. Robyn Day offers a clear and satisfying review of “Me Love You Long Time,” a campy-sounding show about sex work and the sex trade, from artists and activists. Sounds like playful engagement with the real world that we’re missing from Chelsea. [Big Red & Shiny]
Facebook’s timeline changed, meh, [Facebook] and prepare to usher in the Smartwatch Revolution. [Daily Beast]
YUHUHUCK. Rattlesnake hearts, and other snake-related photos, in Matt Eich’s Instagram coverage of the annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup in Texas. [The New Yorker]
Between Gutai and Yevgeniy Fiks, Tyler Green has a strong program in his latest podcast, and, in a leader of ledes, manages to segue from that Wegman puppy GIF to Matisse sculpture. *Snaps*. [MAN, podcast] [MAN, Wegman]
Feared critic Charlie Finch, recently of Artnet, writes a brief, but flaming defense of longtime Artnet editor and painter Walter Robinson’s paintings now up at Dorian Grey Gallery. He claims: “Yet, if only by osmosis, the great ironists of figuration, Currin, Peyton and Yuskavage and their legions of inferiors, owe everything to Walter’s painting, while , as his new show proves, he remains a better painter than them!” [anaba]
The great author Chinua Achebe died today at the age of 82. Now’s a great time to reread “Things Fall Apart.” [CNN]
Silva Plath, Two women reading, (left), Nine female figures (right). Photograph: Indiana University Lilly Library
Lots of news from Twitter today:
Deborah Soloman is tweeting that Larry Gagosian has bought the former Harkness House for Ballet Arts on 5th Avenue. No further details yet. [Deborah Solomon]
Magda Sawon of Postmasters is warning art folk over twitter about an email scam. Beware of Helen Harkins, who is asking people to buy art she saw on website. Emails involve fedexing checks and arranging shipments. Do not fall for this. [Magda Sawon]
Yoko Ono weighs in over twitter on the gun debate by tweeting John Lennon’s bloody glasses. [Yoko Ono]
In the papers:
Time Out NY has the city’s best art critic, Howard Halle, making listicles. That makes me a little sad about the state publishing, but on the upside, they’re pretty good listicles. This curated guide to art celebrities should provide enough context to put an end to the misguided idea that George W. Bush is a good painter. [Time Out NY]
Artist Asher Penn interviews artist Spencer Sweeney. [Sex]
Randy Kennedy on social practice projects by Creative Time, The Queens Museum and more. [NYTimes. Paywall]
