November 2009
1 post
4 tags
Rising Currents
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center made their plans public regarding Rising Currents, their Waterfront project in New York.
The purpose of this venture is to address the increased water levels and safeguard the ecosystems that are at risk of endangerment.
The details of the project are discussed in-depth at Artdaily.org.
Click here to read the article on...
October 2009
3 posts
5 tags
Copyright Accountability
Shepard Fairey, the artist recognized for creating the Hope poster associated with President Obama’s campaign, took accountability for lying about the photograph on which he based the reproduced image. The confession, made known to the public on Friday, finally came up after months of fighting lawsuit charges from the Associated Press.
The New York Times reported the following:
Mr. Fairey...
4 tags
"How It Is" at the Tate Modern
Yesterday, the Tate Modern in London opened the newest addition to their renown Unilever Series. It is not very often that I would want or need to leave New York City to visit a notable installation or exhibition, but this particular instance is very tempting. If “How It Is” is anything like its predecessors, it will be quite an experience.”How It
From Artdaily.org:
Polish...
5 tags
Relocation of The Barnes
After a long, arduous and highly controversial battle, The Barnes Foundation has reached a milestone in their process of relocation. This week, the Philadelphia Inquirer (Philly.com) and the New York Times posted a series of images showing designs for the building which will house the art collection when it moves to Philadelphia, PA in 2011.
From the New York Times:
Although Albert C. Barnes,...
September 2009
2 posts
6 tags
Weeding Out the Blockbusters
The recently appointed director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Campbell, made it known that the institution’s active schedule of loan exhibitions will be significantly reduced over the next few years. Finally, someone is willing to risk a potential drop in visitor numbers and disappointing a section of the public to protect a museum from completely overextending itself!
The Art...
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Meeting Mr. Murakami
I just read an interesting, albeit anxiety-ridden article over at the New York Times. Guy Trebay discusses what it’s like to meet superstar artist Takashi Murakami at the Boom Boom Room in New York, after one of his art openings, during fashion week:
Sample question: Do you find that conducting the whirlwind jet-setting life of an ultra-genius pop star artist and handbag designer leaves...
August 2009
3 posts
5 tags
Confusion over stolen "Picasso"
Currently there is a rather large confusion occurring over a stolen artwork - Iraq claims the painting to be a valid Picasso, while the Louvre denounces the piece as a fake:
From the New York Times’ Arts Beat:
Iraqi security forces on Thursday displayed what they said was a Picasso painting, who they said had stolen the painting during the occupation of Kuwait in 1990, The Associated Press...
6 tags
America is changing—but are its art museums?
A recent Art Newspaper article addresses the issue, America is changing- but are its art museums?
The article questions the diversity of art museums:
”..you do not have to look at major US art museums for long to realise that most of the senior management is white, unlike staff at comparable levels in corporations, universities and government offices. When is this going to change? Those...
7 tags
Founder of MOCA China still MIA
The Art Newspaper reported that the founder of MoCA China, Jeffrey du Vallier d’Aragon Aranita, has still not returned to Hong Kong to deal with his creditors and debts. With an ambitious plan to open up several MoCA museums across China that would share collections and programming, the artist/entrepreneur defied skeptics when he was even able to open the one and only MoCA on October 3, 2008....
July 2009
4 posts
The Disposable Film Festival
Even though photography was invented in 1839, it was debated as an art form right into the twentieth century—thanks to the pioneering efforts of artists such as Alfred Stieglitz, photography finally was legitimized as an art form. It takes a while for any new technological medium to evolve into an art medium, and be accepted as such.
The Disposable Film Festival represents the pioneering...
6 tags
Picasso still a crowd-pleaser
You’d think by 2010, we’d exhausted all the stories, exhibitions and interpretations of arguably the world’s most famous artist: Picasso. But the painter, who practically single-handedly influenced and directed modernism over a sixty year period, left us a rich ouevre to continuously pour over.
While perusing art news on MutualArt.com, I came across several recent stories...
6 tags
The Madoffs of the Art World
It’s amazing how in times of need, i.e. the past few years that this country’s economy has been suffering, there is still so much repulsive greed among the wealthiest of the wealthy.
In what authorities are calling the biggest art fraud case in New York history, Lawrence B. Salander, a veteran art dealer, and his former right-hand-woman Leigh Morse, were respectively indicted and...
7 tags
Can Trees Sing?
We’ve all heard the expression stop and smell the roses. But artist David Robert asks us to stop and listen to the roses.
I learned about the natural explorations of artist David Robert in the “inspirational series” by Bassett & Partners, an ethnographic research firm based out of San Francisco. The company makes these short, inspirational films to just get you to think...
June 2009
6 posts
6 tags
Gay Art
Whether you’re gay or straight, you’re guaranteed some pants-dropping fun at NYC Gay Pride—it’s the closest thing to Mardi Gras New York will ever have. I myself checked out the parade of drag queens with nicer legs than me (and walking forty blocks in 4 inch heels no less!). During a momentary lull in the procession, my mind wandered to my blogging duties. What will I...
5 tags
The Artful Dodger: Han van Meegeren and Forgeries
Some of you may have come across Errol Morris’ seven part installment in the New York Times this May about Han van Meegeren, the Netherlandish man who forged Vermeers in the 1930s (scroll down to the bottom to start with part 1). His creations were so convincing that art historians rewrote the stylistic trajectory of the famous 17th century Dutch artist to accommodate these “newly...
Exhibition of Madonna Nudes
After her 1991 film Truth or Dare, her full monty hitchhiking stunt in 1992, and the three-way smooch with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 Video Music Awards, one might think Studio nudes of Madonna? Big deal. The difference, of course, is that these thirty year old photographs were not publicity stunts of a superstar, but bread-and-butter for an unknown dance student. At just...
4 tags
A Film by Banksy
As someone keenly interested in the relationship of artists to institutions, the street artist Banksy is one of my favorite artists. His funny but often caustic stencils, graffiti, and installations have not only graced the streets of his home-town London, but also faraway locales, such as here in New York, or the more socially- and politically-charged locations of post-Katrina New Orleans, or the...
7 tags
Art and Islam in the Obama Age
On the same day as President Obama’s historic “New Beginning” speech to the Muslim world (if you haven’t seen it, watch it), The New York Times published an article about “The Intersection of Islam, America and Identity,” focusing particularly on the creations of two Iranian female artists living and working in the New York area. Asma Ahmed Shikoh moved to New...
6 tags
Artistic Creativity: Learned or...Surgically...
One of the most oft-asked but rarely answered questions in art—and other fields—is where does creative genius come from? When one sees a da Vinci drawing or hears a Mozart sonata, one asks oneself, how did they do it? New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote an op-ed piece last month that bursts the bubble of anyone harboring romantic notions of some innate reserve of talent in...
May 2009
3 posts
7 tags
The Israel Museum receives money
From The Art Newspaper via MutualArt:
NEW YORK. The Israel Museum has received $12m from the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation, towards the renovation, reinstallation and endowment of its fine arts wing, which will be renamed after Edmond and Lily Safra. The gift is part of a $100m renovation campaign, of which over $90m has already been committed, that will unify its 20-acre campus and...
6 tags
Moore sculpture likely melted down for scrap
This article, from Bloomberg.com, reports that U.K. police fear that a Henry Moore sculpture stolen three years ago may have been melted down for scrap metal. The sculpture was estimated to be worth 3 million pounds, and if sold for scrap, would net 2500 pounds.
An excerpt from the article:
“There was a wave of thefts of statues around the time the Moore was stolen,” Dick Ellis, director of...
Christie's Auction
Here are some images of the work that sold at yesterday’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale at Christie’s:
Roy Lichtenstein - Frolic - sold for $6,018,500
David Hockney - Beverly Hills Housewife - sold for $7,922,500
Claes Oldenburg - Typewriter Eraser - sold for $2,210,500
John Baldessari - Painting for Kubler - sold for $1,874,500
Ed Ruscha - Hell, Heaven -...
March 2009
7 posts
6 tags
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Maastricht Art Fair
The Maastricht Art Fair was also the height of good art. It was filled with brilliant old masters paintings, arts and antiques from across the world and all of amazing quality. This year the fair is no different - only this year there are more jitters than anything else. The fair is on through Sunday of this week so we’ll have to see how things fare but Carol Vogel, in her recent piece in...
4 tags
Armory Show
Holland Cotter has an article in the NYTimes that sums up the Armory show quite nicely - with special emphasis on the fact that we’re in a down market and we’re trying to sell a bunch of art in a sector (art fairs) that have been typically very lucrative.
The Armory Show, which is on through Sunday, has always been closely watched for what it has to say about the health of the art...
5 tags
Picture Day
I’m in more a picture day today. It’s crazy snowy outside today (we’re supposed to get a foot of snow) and I’m all bundled up in long underwear, hats, gloves, scarves, etc. Check out Guy Wiggins one of my favorite American Impressionists - his speciality is painting snowy New York scenes:
Love it! But it is so much prettier to look at than it is to actually be here....
February 2009
8 posts
4 tags
Brucke Show at Neue Gallerie
Well, if any of you read my blog consistently, you’ll know that the Neue Gallerie is one of my favorite spots in all of New York City. It is such a charming, small space with some killer art. It feels more like a gallery or a person’s home than it does a major museum - and yet is has some of the best Eastern European art in the world. Well, Roberta Smith wrote a review about their...
4 tags
University Museums
There is an interesting article in the NY Times Arts section today about the importance of University art museums. This article is no doubt spurred by the recent uproar with the proposal closure of the Rose Museum at Brandeis University. All that aside, the article makes some excellent points: University museums don’t need to generate visitors in the same way public museums do, University...
8 tags
YSL Auction Chaos →
This crazy article about Yves St. Laurent has been ALL over the news. It’s insane. Who knew that people would care so much about the art collection of an eccentric old man. Christie’s is going ALL OUT on this auction with the (probable) hope that it lifts them out of the tough times of economic hardship.
The excitement is built in part, of course, around the fame of Mr. Saint Laurent,...
6 tags
A pioneering art-in-the-workplace experiment is... →
Apparently a social experiment started in the 1950s is coming to an end. The experiment, meant to expose corporate and factory workers, was a big hit among workers and staff alike. BAT (British American Tobacco), the world’s second largest tobacco company employs 55,000 people in 180 countries. Workers lobbied to keep the art collection but management seemed sure to sell it off. They have...
7 tags
Postcards...not in a Museum gift shop?
The Met has a new exhibit of…wait for it…Walker Evans’ personal postcards. Apparently, the man who would become a great photographer of the 1920s and 30s got his early schools in this vernacular art.
So next time you see a touristy post card just remember that one day these tidbits might be insight into a forgotten era of American pop-culture. I think this is a very intriguing...
8 tags
"It's Time We Met"
The Met has started a new ad campaign. The museum will be plastering city buses and buildings with amateur photos of people at the Met which were posted to flickr. I think this says a lot about the new administration and how they’re trying to be cool and hip and reach a new breed of visitors.
This photo, of Gene and Cindy Russell was taken by their daughter Laura while they were all on...
4 tags
This is Depressing →
Did anyone else see the article in the New York Times this morning? As someone thinking about the prospect of finding a job in the art world in May, I certainly did…and now I’m depressed. It seems to be increasingly difficult for overly qualified men and women (who are, by the by, willing to be way underpaid for overworking) to find jobs in the arts.
While the woman profiled in the...
9 tags
Not All Art Sales are Dying →
A recent NY Times article points out that despite the falling art prices in modern, impressionist and contemporary art, Old Masters Works (or at least those by a select few like Turner) are holding up quite well.
The recent Sotheby’s and Christie’s Old Masters auctions are holding up better than expected. “One of J. M. W. Turner’s classically romantic images brought $13...
January 2009
7 posts
12 tags
Damage to Gaza Cultural Sites →
In times of war, we must remember that people and families are not the only casualties (though those casualties are horrific enough). The Art Newspaper recently published a report stating that they have evidence that Gaza’s Antiquities Museum has been damaged and with it many of their artifacts.
“The glass doors and windows have been shattered and the roof and walls have been...
5 tags
I Knew This Couldn't Last Forever →
I knew that Americans would, at some point, start asking for results from our beloved new president and only time will tell if our rosy outlook on Barack Obama will continue in its way. Arts Supporter, David Ross, wrote a ten point suggestion letter in the Art Newspaper. His suggestions seem ordinary enough and simple enough to implement but we shall see. The president is facing a tougher economy...
8 tags
Street Art Earns its Place in Museums →
It turns out that my mention of Sheperd Fairey (but, really, who hasn’t been thinking about this man a lot lately) was very timely. The New York Times published an interesting story about the “street artist” just a day or two ago. The article (of which I’ve reproduced in part below) goes on to talk about the normalization of what was originally a counter-culture measure in...
16 tags
Not about "art" but...
Well, this post is not really about the visual arts but is important and pertinent all the same. The Academy Award nominations were announced yesterday morning and the results are quite exciting. I must preface this by saying that besides from the visual arts, going to the movies is one of my favorite things to do in my spare time (not that there is much of that anymore). I wanted to discuss the...
7 tags
Art Hoax or Artistic Freedom? →
In the wake of the US presidential inauguration, Europe is reeling from some poorly made art decisions. The Czech Republic commissioned the well known Czech artist David Cerny to make a piece to commemorate the Czech’s six month presidency of the EU. They had intended that he create a piece expressing the unity of the EU and its member-partners with 27 artists from the 27 member-nations each...
Spending MORE on Art?
The French Government has recently decided to increase the amount of allocated spending dedicated to the Arts - a majority of this will be spent on the arts and museums. This all comes at a time when the world economies are reeling and socialized governments like France’s will be held responsible for the lives and welfare of their citizens. I am not a French government minister not a Public...