Art Basel gets a new corporate sponsor: Davidoff. In return for sponsorship, the cigar manufacturer will create two outdoor cigar lounges “to offer fair visitors a relaxed venue for discussion, reflection and enjoyment of a fine cigar.” Grossss. I bet the only people in those lounges will be aging dealers who think they’re really cool. And younger hipsters who want to be like Alec Baldwin. [The Sacramento Bee]
Even The Atlantic has hopped aboard the “New Aesthetic” train. I don’t like the vagueness of the term, but I especially don’t like how Ian Bogost constantly compares the New Aesthetic with Futurism and its talk about violence and war. I don’t know many artists interested in how the internet is like a battlefield. [The Atlantic]
Book publisher Project Webster takes sleaze and greed to a new level: they’ve created a line of books with saucy titles like Celebrities with Big Dicks and Doomsday Cults: Getting Ready for the Rapture composed almost entirely from Wikipedia articles. That’s a way to avoid paying writers! [Gawker]
Occupy Museums and Occupy Wall Street will team up with the New York City & Vicinity District Council of Carpenters to protest the Frieze Art Fair on Randall’s Island. [The Art Newspaper]
“If you can’t draw, I’m not interested!!!” Some people on Craigslist just don’t know how art or threesomes work. This girl wants two male artists to draw her in the nude before the three of them get it on. [Craigslist]
