Artforum’s profile on the Greek-born American sculptor Chryssa ends on a rather strange note. “One day in her studio, I noticed a gun. She pointed to it and said she was planning to shoot [Arnold] Glimcher. Sure she was being mistreated and ignored in New York, she shut her studio on lower Broadway for good and apparently returned to Athens.” Chryssa died earlier this year in Greece. (Above: Chryssa’s “Large Bird Shape.” Courtesy Albright-Knox Art Gallery.) [Artforum via Andrew Russeth]
“If elected president, Barack Obama plans to prioritize, well, barring broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast from prioritizing Internet content.” That was in 2007. With news this week that the F.C.C. is considering “fast lanes” for commercial providers, let’s hope that he keeps to his promise. [CNET via Reddit]
Triple Canopy announces their 2014 Commission recipients: Kieran Daly, Primavera di Filippi & Samer Hassan, Sowon Kwon, Timothy Leonido, Frank Pasquale, Jared Stanley, and Gillian Walsh. Looking forward to seeing their projects. [Triple Canopy]
Next week, the Frieze Art Fair will come to New York yet again; talks will include a keynote by UbuWeb founder Kenneth Goldsmith and a roundtable between Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot and David Remnick of the New Yorker. We’re sure these talks will fill up quickly—their lecture hall is pretty tiny. [Frieze via Artsbeat]
Bill de Blasio has not yet addressed his promise to stop the Central Library Plan, and instead he’s kept $151 million in the budget for the renovation. Very fishy. [Bloomberg News]
Artspace provides their own rankings system for “10 of the Most Influential MFA Programs in the World.” Not sure if they talked to anyone at the School of the Art Institute (where Corinna went for grad school); their excerpt focuses on their MA program in Visual and Critical Studies, not an MFA program. Thankfully, Artspace lists off the ridiculous amount you’ll pay in tuition by enrolling in any of these programs: Bard costs $55,000 per year; Columbia costs 51,676; and UCLA sounds like a bargain at $23,465 for out-of-state residents. Sigh. [Artspace]
More on the ongoing battle between hedge funder and activist shareholder Daniel Loeb and the storied auction house Sotheby’s. Loeb has nominated three director candidates and now advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that shareholders vote for two of the three board nominees he has proposed, one of them being Loeb himself. [New York Times]
Hyperallergic has partnered with London’s Lost Lectures. Tonight, The Awl co-founder and blogger Choire Sicha will talk along with Photographer Barbara Nitke, street performers Flex (is King) + Deirdre Schoo and scientist Marc Abrahams. Should be an interesting night. [Hyperallergic]
At a White House event for kids, a 10-year-old girl hands Michelle Obama her dad’s resume, and says he’s been out of work for three years. [NPR]
London’s Victoria & Albert Museum just made a pile of money. They’ve confirmed rumors that they are getting the blockbuster Alexander McQueen show. [Artnet]
Kriston Capps continues his coverage on Washington, D.C.’s Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art and Design. On April 7, the museum’s board, along with the boards of the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University were supposed to vote on how the Corcoran will be absorbed into these other two institutions. That deadline was skipped. [City Paper]
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]
Bloomberg defends NYDP’s Controversial Stop and Kiss Program. [The Onion]
Rob Pruitt Art Awards were announced last night. Andrew Russeth nabs best critic (Mazel-tov!). Rosemarie Trockel, Artist of The Year (Woot!), and Wade Guyton Os, Solo Show of the Year (LOLZ). [Art in America]
Julia Kaganskiy has been appointed the Director of the New Museum’s new incubator for art, technology, and design. What a great appointment! [The New Museum]
The Detroit Institute of Arts continues to live on a roller coaster of pseudo news. Detroit has been deemed eligible to file for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy, which has prompted a bunch of new stories about the fate of D.I.A.’s collection. What’s the new information here? Almost nothing. [Art in America]
The MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” grant recipients have been announced. The five year, $625,000 grant, is amongst the highest accolades a professional can receive, and famously comes with “No Strings Attached”. Carrie Mae Weems is the only visual artist on the list. [The Atlantic Wire]
Photographer Michel Roggo went swimming with bears. After ripping the heads off some fish, the bears climbed into his boat. [New Scientist]
Andrew Russeth reviews Angel Otero at Lehmann Maupin. It’s harsh. [Gallerist]
Santiago Calatrava is having a bad day. Suzanne Daley has collected all the projects he’s done that have run over budget or fail to respond to the needs of his clients. The list amounts to three page long feature on his fuck-ups. (An enjoyable read.) [The New York Times]
Andy Horwitz went to a symposium about Theaster Gates’s Dorchester Projects at the New School’s Vera List center. He examines the relationship between the lecture and the work it discussed, and has some great quotes from Gates about money. [Culturebot]
Can’t say we agree with Christian Viveros-Faune’s latest review of the Propellor Group’s Lived, Lives, Will Live at Lombard Freid Projects. The show takes on the art world’s obsession with celebrity, by creating, amongst other works, a series of paintings that weave the hair pieces worn by Hollywood Star turned art collector, Leonardo DiCaprio, onto paintings of Lenin. Mysteriously, CVF likes this. [The Village Voice]
Looks like Fall 2013 won’t be promising any new awakenings in the New York art world. This season, the institution leans harder than ever on its white male mainstays.
“I probably use more paint than anyone in the history of art,” says Artist Holton Rower proudly. “50 gallons!” he tells us, multiple times. He then explains that with the paint used to produce one of his works, you could paint a house inside and out 10 times. Did Rower mention how much paint it takes to make his work? [Tips]
Ed Winkleman and Elizabeth Dee will be speaking in Art Basel on the role of mid-level galleries. Here’s a preview of their talk, in interview form. [Winkleman Blog]
Art dealer Matthew Marks and curator Jack Bankowsky’s West Village townhouse is up for sale. For $17.5 million, you, too, can own ceilings made for large-scale art, seven fireplaces, powder room, and basement gym. [Curbed New York]
Frieze has been killing it on the Biennale coverage. Dan Fox has a few afterthoughts on the Venice Biennale. I particularly like his rebuttal to this year’s biennale critics. [Frieze]
Also, Amy Sherlock on the Biennale winners. [Frieze]
We could have predicted this one, but the Pratt art store is finally closing. The art school’s film and video department will move into the building. [DNAinfo]
“Art in Transmission”, an article about how looking at art on a phone affects how we perceive and value it, has sparked a bit of conversation on Twitter this morning. The article indulges in some unfortunate generalizations—art is no longer discovered in biennials and fairs and magazines, but on the phone—being high up there for me, but it’s worth a look regardless. Set a bit of time aside for this—it’s written in academic-ese. [Artforum via:Andrew Russeth, Tyler Green, Kriston Capps]
"Intercourses" still from Jesper Just's installation at Danish Pavilion. Image via: The New York Times
Canadian artist Shary Boyle had the National Gallery’s help this year in fundraising for her pavilion, which cost 1.5 Million. That’s pretty cheap—the United States would not even disclose how much was spent on their Pavilion in 2011—and that’s evidenced by their opening, which will host…a cash bar? Canadian culture does not yet understand the power of philanthropy. [The Globe and Mail]
After 20 years, Paul McCarthy’s goat finally got tired of being dry-humped. The sculpture’s motor died two weeks ago. [In The Air]
Andrew Russeth may see more art than Jerry Saltz. He’s recommending the ICP’s Triennial, therefore I will go see it. [Gallerist]
Artist Rirkrit Tiravanjia on Art Basel Hong Kong. “When bankers get together they talk about art,” he said. “When artists get together, they talk about money.” So, this is the state of the blue chip art world; removed from reality. [Bloomberg]
Andrew Goldstein interviews Jesper Just on his new multi-channel film installation at the Danish Pavilion. Just uses a replica city of Paris, located just outside the Chinese city of Hangzhou as his subject. We gave Just’s show at Nicolai Wallner a mixed review when we visited Copenhagen last year, so we’re looking forward to seeing what he does in Venice. Interestingly, the artist collaborated with the New York-based design firm Project Projects to produce an accompanying graphic campaign for “Intercourses” that will run online and as posters in the cities of New York, Hong Kong, Copenhagen, Paris and Shanghai [ArtSpace]
A brilliant metaphor: Running up that escalator. [The Medium]
Complex lists Chelsea as the best art neighborhood in the world, for its diversity. They write of Hurricane Sandy that “even the little guys managed to find a way to stay afloat, a testament to the resilience and strength of the community.” Among most notable galleries is Postmasters, which leaves next week to escape the skyrocketing rent. [Complex]
Thanks to Andrew Russeth for pointing out this jewel on billionaires Joe Nahmad from 2007. He’s rich, but notoriously difficult to deal with. It’s hard to get the Nahmads to pay. They don’t stick to the terms of the deal. Nahmad never tips waiters and once ate 14 croissants for breakfast. [Forbes]
An art student chopped off a live chicken’s head in the Alberta College of Art and Design cafeteria; it was all part of the student’s loose interpretation on a class assignment to film a protest. Police will not press charges. [Maclean’s, via @CAA]
Those hoping ArtPrize’s new Executive Director Christian Gaines will curb the amount of kitsch the citywide event has become known for should prepare to have their hopes dashed. Gaines, a former film festival manager, says he has no plans to alter the voting process that’s come to define the event. [Hyperallergic]
Some architects like the former Folk Art Museum building! More than 30 architects and board members of the Architectural League of New York signed a letter that asks MoMA not to tear it down. The building was designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects. [Architect Magazine]
Move over, 1988. Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Simon Castets are leading a study of artists born after 1989, called 89plus; the project has just selected 22-year-old Alex Mackin Dolan for a residency at the Armory. [ANIMAL]
In this week’s round up of vitriol-filled art criticism, Karen Rosenberg kinda sorta reveals her true feelings about Ed Ruscha, while Andrew Russeth suggests Nate Lowman just quit. But does telling an artist to change careers ever have an effect? Lindsay Pollock might have the answer.
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
Paddy Johnson, Editorial Director
