“Every day is International AIDS Day.” [@AA_Bronson]
The SCUM Manifesto is available for download. [Ubu web via @AA_Bronson]
Who’s paying for Miami’s new museums? A good question, since millions of dollars are now coming from taxpayers. [The Art Newspaper]
In continuation of yesterday’s pitbull news, a weatherman who had steak treats in his suit gets lots of kisses from a pitbull in the middle of his segment. [Boing Boing]
Art history nerds, this is for you. In light of the controversies surrounding the Al Wakrah Stadium in Qatar (slave labor, vaginal design, and plans to host the 2022 World Cup), Arch Daily rounds up a list of controversial buildings throughout history. [Arch Daily]
How to get an Art Basel VIP pass: make rich friends. Otherwise “if you have to ask for a VIP pass, you’re probably not going to get one”. You’re not getting one. [artnet News]
Here’s some good news, though: an Art Basel VIP pass gets you into the Margulies Collection, which will donate $10 per VIP. It’s not the all around cut of ticket sales that we wanted, but it’s a step. [artnet News]
Richard Prince is opening his Catskills retreat to the public, like Marfa. [Wall Street Journal]
Amazing nuts! This TED talk includes mind-melding video optical illusions. So cool. [TED]
YouTube had to raise its view counter limit to accommodate the 2.1 billion views of Gangnam Style. There are 7.1 billion people on the planet, suggesting that every person in the developed world has seen this video. [The Verge]
William Powhida tracks what artists can do to, hopefully, make money. It’s not that there isn’t enough money to go around. [Creative Time Reports]
Highlights from Jerry Saltz’s Facebook chat yesterday. He brings donuts to the office every day, and advises, “don’t hide your opinion in one word in the middle of the last paragraph”. Guilty. [Vulture]
Hans Ulrich Obrist: get some sleep. You’re stressing us out, and your lifestyle justifies the existence of 24/7 art news. Nobody needs 24/7 art news. [New Yorker]
But for those who want 24/7 art news, UBS is introducing the BETA version of Planet Art, an app that delivers contemporary art news. We’re one of the sources, so we’re part of the problem? [Art Fix Daily]
Artists in Moscow are being kicked out of their studio spaces by the government, despite promises their leases would be renewed through 2025. No reason has been given for why the leases aren’t being renewed, but kudos to the Art Newspaper for being able to find a single dissenting voice. Anatoly Osmolovsky, an artist, curator and the rector of the Institute of Contemporary Art Basa says the spaces should be banned because they are a relic of Stalinism. [The Art Newspaper via: @mfortki]
Ruffles, teddy bears, and leaping should give you some cheer throughout the day. [Tanzcorps Colonia Rut Wiess]
Canada has a biennial right now at the AGO. “Biennial,” however, is loosely defined here as “a selection of recent acquisitions to the National Gallery of Canada’s Canadian Contemporary, Indigenous and Photography holdings.” [Art Gallery of Ontario]
An East Hampton dealer accused of making fake Pollocks and de Koonings, “and using some of the money to buy a submarine,” has pleaded guilty to wire fraud. [New York Times]
The culture wars drag on: Jacksonville City Council labels a photo of a nude pregnant woman “pornography”, and threatens to pull funding for MoCA Jacksonville for showing the image. [@Kriston Capps]
A beachside Nazi resort, “Hitler’s Hamptons,” is filling up with condos after years of debate. People are buying them like crazy. [Vocativ]
Duncan Campbell, of Ireland, has won the Turner Prize for a video about African art and Marxism. [BBC]
And a Virginia boy wins every merit badge there is. Vocativ has rounded up his weirdest achievements which include fingerprinting and truck transportation. [Vocativ]
Girl Scout cookies are going up for sale online!!! But how will the Girl Scouts earn their prizes? [Brightest Young Things]
The St. Claire names AFC’s Panda Calendar a must-have for your Christmas list. Thaaanks guyyys. [The St. Claire]
The lighting district is coming to its certain end. Another hardware store closes after rent hikes. [Bowery Boogie]
Everything you need to know about mechanical pencils. [Metafilter]
A Vogue article argues that when it comes to manipulation anything goes, because people have been manipulating photos since the medium’s inception, and then changes its mind, arguing that manipulated photos immediately become illustration. The piece overlooks issues negative body image standards for women. It also liberally makes use of random formatting decisions and is full of typos, which I think is a commentary on what should be “fixed”. [Vogue]
Paddy Johnson will be heading down to Art Basel today. Check back for updates.
Robots do tai chi at the Westport Library. (Image courtesy of Danny Ghitis for The Wall Street Journal)
Now that there’s this Jeff Koons retrospective at The Whitney, I guess it’s a good time for collectors to sell their work. Collector Frank Cohen waited eight years for his balloon dog to be made, and now he’s selling it because “it’s too massive”. In that same article Christie’s chairman Brett Gorvy explains that Koons like monkeys and that’s why they are in his work. Read this if you like rubbing sandpaper on your brain. [Bloomberg]
Watch these dogs with a waterhose on fullscreen. [YouTube]
Hyperallergic has some great photos from “Crossing Brooklyn”, a survey show of contemporary art made in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Museum. It opens tomorrow. [Hyperallergic]
Art Basel launches “Survey”, a section of the fair which will host 13 mini historical surveys. Is this a trend? Frieze does this too. [artnet News]
Humanoid robots at the Westport Library are supposed to teach people programming. But mostly, they’re awesome and can dance and do kickboxing. [Wall Street Journal, via The Paris Review]
Philadelphia-based performance and comic artist Beth Heinly launches a new cosplay inspiration tumblr. She does a pretty good Ann Coulter. [cosplaynhoes]
It looks like there will be more reasons to make the trek up to Flushing Meadows. Laura Raicovich, of Creative Time, has been named executive director of the Queens Museum. She’s replacing Tom Finkelpearl who left his post to be New York City’s cultural affairs commissioner. [Artforum]
Feisty headline from artnet News! “Obscure Russians Buy the Art Newspaper”. Lol. This refers to Russian mathematician, engineer, and collector Inna Bazhenova, who’s had her eye on the paper since 2010, even though its circulation has been declining. “ I pass the baton to her because she and her husband Dmitry are young, they are rich, they are honest and have convinced me that they share my ideals,” says owner Umberto Allemandi. [The Art Newspaper]
It’s Old Masters Week! That might not have much appeal to the world-at-large, but all week, New York’s auction houses are putting Renaissance works up on the block. One new development this year: Sotheby’s is introducing a private selling exhibition in conjunction with its auction. [Gallerist NY]
Mana Contemporary is hedging its bets on Jersey City’s tourism industry. The New Jersey-based art gallery, studio, and storage space has plans to build a Jersey City hotel, as well as a sculpture park and theatre near the Mana campus. And because Mana owner Moishe Mana has money—or an affinity for risk—new Mana “branches” are in the works for London and Los Angeles, and there’s a plan for a street-art museum close to the Holland Tunnel. [The Art Newspaper]
If you have a penis you may be more likely to get sick this winter. [Salon]
This whole Gawker vs. Quentin Tarantino controversy is way less interesting than the time they outed him as a toe-sucking creep. [Gawker]
Some good news for writers: The Knight Foundation is launching a new $1 million initiative to fund non-profit journalism. Applications open February 1, 2014. [Nieman Journalism Lab]
The new iPhone os won’t auto-correct misspellings of “abortion.” There are many other “hot button” words that also aren’t offered auto-corrections, but they aren’t equivalents; “rape,” “murder,” “virginity,” or the like. The more I think about this policy, the more offensive I find it. [The Daily Beast]
Your hate-read for the day: 750 words on why interviewing foxy celebrities ruined this journalist’s ability to date women who weren’t famous. [The New York Times]
Carolina Garcia Jayaram has been named CEO of United States Artists, a major grantmaking organization for artists. She leaves her position as Executive Director of the Chicago Artists Coalition. [United States Artists, via: Art Daily]
When discussing the work of William Burroughs, art critic Peter Schjeldahl describes the difference between literary criticism and art criticism. “The experience [of literature] is so drawn out,” he tells the New Yorker. “The experience of art works is very concentrated and it can be renewed. It doesn’t take very much time.” [The New Yorker, via: Andrew Russeth]
Legendary folk singer, amazing person and activist, Pete Seeger has died at age 94. [The Guardian]
As we prepare for Basel Miami, let us reflect on Aurel Schmidt’s approach: “It’s a great way for people in the art world to actually have fun together.” [T Magazine, 2009]
Manish Vora, co-founder of Grey Area, tells it like it is, “So much of the Basel fatigue is that a lot of the events are not that fun.” Pre-party Basel coverage has already started at NYT. This year’s concern? Celeb parties are a bigger draw than art parties. [The New York Times]
BUTT Magazine has taken down our favorite reportage from the fairs, but Choire Sicha quoted a juicy paragraph of it back in 2009. Even that much is worth the read. [The Awl]
Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn gets a lauding profile from the New York Times. Marilyn Minter has the best quotes in the piece, “I was really attracted to her in the first place because she had black artists and women, and never made a big deal out of it,” she said. We also learn a little about a Minter painting called “The Singer”, which sadly won’t be at Basel this year. [The New York Times]
NADA’s offering tours to kids at Basel this year. [In the Air]
New York Magazine will go from publishing their magazine weekly to every other week. They plan to use the money they save to beef up the long form features in the magazine and invest in online content. [The New York Times]
Jay and Stuart Podolsky are landlords making a fortune by renting shelter spaces to the city. Their nicknames back when one such building was used as a hostel? The “terror lords”. Andrew Rice really did a great job with this story. [New York Magazine]
A revised bill for the Equity for Visual Artists Act, which would introduce artists’ resale rights to the art market will be floated in the Capital come January. With all the political gridlock there though, we don’t anticipate the bill passing anytime soon. [The Art Newspaper]
Eric Ginsburg’s "Bart (the dog)", 12x12. 2013. (Image from NURTUREArt's benefit site)
Julia Halperin reports that the New Museum will be transforming the warehouse next to them into an “incubator” for art, design and technology. Associate Director Massimiliano Gioni says the project is an extension of the New Museum’s interest in “developing new formats for the distribution of knowledge.” That’s perhaps overstating a real estate venture, but whatever it is, the museum’s got a new revenue stream, and that’s likely a good thing. [The Art Newspaper]
The government shutdown cost the Smithsonian nearly 3 million dollars. [The Art Newspaper]
Yung Jake has noticed a new trend: leaning art and architecture. Naturally he’s started a tumblr to chart this trend. [Leanrs]
An entire listicle charting the importance of blue. We told you this was a trending color. [The Huffington Post]
First Park has a new public artwork: Christopher Walken Rex. The artists Caleb Kuball and Ethan Cyr say the idea came from watching the family in the Queen of Versailles. Cyr’s quoted: “I saw how rich those kids were, and their lack of creation with all that money. I decided if I could get that much money I would make something great.” [boweryboogie]
Hyperallergic selects five favorites from Bushwick Beat Nite. [Hyperallergic]
If that Hyperallergic post made you think that you might like to get in on some art, now’s your chance. NURTUREArt’s benefit is happening tonight, and they have more work I’ve ever seen in a benefit auction. I suggest Eric Ginsburg’s Bart (the dog), but there are literally hundreds more to choose from. [nurtureart.artcat.com]
A mobster’s art collection goes on view at a museum in Southern Italy. On display are “18 fakes.” The exhibition’s curator describes the criminal-collector as “a not particularly refined auction-goer.” [Frieze]
You’re not having a bad day—Scot Haney, the weatherman for CBS’s Hartford, is. He ate cat vomit on broadcast TV. [New York Magazine]
20-year-old “artist” Petra Collins has designed a t-shirt for American Apparel with a girl touching her bushy vagina. While menstruating no less. [VICE, of course]
Boston NPR interviews MFA curator Kristen Gresh on her show “She Who Tells a Story,” which features work by 12 women photographers from Iran and the Arab world. [WBUR]
Hrag Vartanian talks to the organizers of the Phillips digital auction Paddles ON!, which takes place tonight at 8:30 pm. [Hyperallergic]
Art funds pool money from investors to purchase works, and industry is deteriorating. “Of the 36 funds that Noah Horowitz, now the director of the Armory Show art fair, lists in the appendix to his 2011 book Art of the Deal,” writes Melanie Gerlis for The Art Newspaper. “Ten had been abandoned by the time it was published and a further seven have since joined them.” [The Art Newspaper]
German print magazine Du devotes its October issue entirely to Maurizio Cattelan—the cover is particularly tasteless. [Du]
Alice Munro, an 82-year-old Canadian novelist, wins the Nobel Prize in Literature. (Her daughter called her this morning when she heard and informed her of the good news.) We’re thrilled, as she’s a favorite here at AFC! [The New York Times]
Install shot from Matthew Day Jackson's current exhibition at Hauser & Wirth (Image courtesy of the gallery)
The all-American macho artist is alive and well in Matthew Day Jackson. Times Magazine has a profile of racecars, blood lust, and sculptures to hold the ages. [The New York Times Magazine]
For art worlders seeking to bone up on dirty Danish, dirty Arabic, dirty Russian, or dirty Hindi before fair season, Animal New York presents “Lewd Linguist”: a semi-autobiographical language guide to navigating gay sex, round-the-world. Handy! [Animal]
Today is the chance to catch some of the La Di Da film festival, the popular indie film festival headed by New York Times critic Miriam Bale, at Anthology Film Archives. [The New Yorker]
The Art Newspaper’s Julia Halperin reports that around 15 up-and-coming galleries from China will be the next Armory fair’s international highlight. [The Art Newspaper]
Now we can all litter in space! This new company sells DIY kits, to send stuff into space. [The New Scientist]
Rhizome’s Charles Eppley interviewed Barbara London, the co-curator of the “Soundings” show at MoMa. The interview ends with the two agreeing that yes, sound is here to stay. [Rhizome]
NYC cultural heavyweights tell WSJ what they’ll be getting into this fall. Thelma Golden of the Studio Museum in Harlem will read Hilton Als’ new book “White Girls” and watch the new season of “Girls” on HBO. [The Wall Street Journal, behind the paywall]
Holland Cotter has identified a new trend in art: historical awareness. He reviews the the Prada Foundation’s remounting of the 1969 show, “When Attitudes Become Form,” and learns a little about the construction of myth. Great piece. [The New York Times]
The Russian art magazine Art Chronika will cease publication. This is yet another hit to the already small Moscow art scene, which has been hemorrhaging commercial art galleries over the last year. [Gallerist NY]
New York Supreme Court ruled artist Arne Svenson was in his rights to photograph his neighbors without their permission. Yay for the First Amendment and all, but these photos still sound creepy. [The Art Newspaper]
Physicists are fiercely debating whether a person would be crushed by gravity or flash-fried by a firewall of energy if caught in a black hole. The stakes? Oh, just the veracity of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. This article is a little difficult to follow without some background in physics. [The New York Times]
Hyperallergic’s Mostafa Heddaya has a great piece on how Detroit’s defaults actually affect the Detroit Institute of Art’s “assets”. [Hyperallergic]
Gawker founding editor Elizabeth Spiers tears Bryan Goldberg apart for introducing Bustle.com as the first publication that targets women or goes beyond the narrow scope of women’s magazines. He also defended himself from backlash by speculating that his critics are probably mad at him because he’s a man addressing a market for women. Face-palm. [Flavorwire]
Fiercely Independent. New York art news, reviews and culture commentary. Paddy Johnson, Editorial Director Michael Anthony Farley, Senior Editor Whitney Kimball, IMG MGMT Editor
Contact us at: paddyATartfcity.com