- The McRib is like this Hans Holbein painting, writes media critic Ian Bogost. “To understand McRib fully, we have to look at the sandwich askew.” And all this time, I was looking at it like a sandwich. [The Atlantic]
- The Smithsonian has now introduced Smithsonian X 3D, a website that lets anyone make 3D prints from its collection. [Forbes]
- Frieze d/e might be one of the few print publications tackling the continued gender inequity in art exhibitions. Managing editor Paul Teasdale interviews writer Elvia Wilk about new media exhibitions, specifically. [freize d/e]
- Don/Dean is a blog that interviews a different photographer every Sunday. They like to feature artists working in places other than New York, with a focus on straight photography that has a surreal edge. Yesterday they interviewed Bowling Green, OH based Justin Thomas Leonard. [Don/Dean]
- “ I don’t feel like getting out my placards in defence of the many, many new public art galleries (the Public showed visual art as well as hosting other art forms) that opened in the years of New Labour,” writes Jonathan Jones. This sounds a little like a rant on digital art, but overall, he may have a point—consolidating art spaces could get everybody paid, and broaden the public’s ideas about art. [The Guardian]
- In Portland, the city’s public art has been yarn-bombed. I wouldn’t care, but some of the sweaters look really, really pro. I want what these otters are wearing. (Corinna) [Imgur]
- Get a preview of Brendan Toller’s documentary about recording industry legend Danny Fields, who managed The Stooges, The MC5, and The Ramones. [W]
- RISD’s president John Maeda on why Obama’s STEM program should incentivize art and design, mostly because it enriches the consumer experience. [Forbes]
- The Guardian publishes a series of letters exchanged between the world’s best known philosopher Slavoj Žižek and Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. [The Guardian]
Game of Clones from GameOfClones on Vimeo.
[Editor's Note: IMG MGMT is an annual image-based artist essay series. Today's invited artist, Jack Early, is represented by McCaffrey Fine Art. Early has shown at Frieze New York, Art Basel Switzerland, Daniel Reich Gallery, Southfirst, and the Serpentine Gallery, among others. As part of the collaborative duo Pruitt-Early, he has similarly shown around the world.]
It’s always fun to play the look-alike game.
"The Humans", Written and directed by Alexandre Singh;
- The Whitney Biennial artist list is out! More on this, soon. [The New York Times]
- Benjamin Sutton caught Alexandre Singh’s, “The Humans” at BAM last night and reports very mixed results. As Sutton tells it, it’s a re-imagining of Paradise Lost that starts off funny and full of action, and descends into over written drawn out courtroom drama. I had high hopes for this show—Singh is known for his fantastic strange semi-historical performances—so it’s a bit of a bummer to read this. [In the Air]
- Is the art market a boom or bust? Me, Felix Salmon, Thomas Galbraith, and John Seed discuss. [Huffpo Live]
- Ad Reinhart is best known for his black paintings, but he was also a cartoonist. Who knew? [ArtNews]
- Flux No-So-Silent Auction takes place January 15th, 2014. Get your tickets now. [Flux Factory]
- A look at suspect looting stories. [The Guardian]
- Wow. The Studio Museum gets a glowing review from Holland Cotter for “The Shadows Took Shape”, a group show that explores Afrofuturism. [The New York Times]
- Is it humanly possible for one mayor to do more damage to his credibility than Toronto Mayor Rob Ford? After a video tape was released of Ford smoking crack, allegations that drunkenly told a staff member he wanted to eat her pussy were released. In response to those allegations he told the press, “I’m happily married and I’ve got more than enough to eat at home.” Then, he attended a city council meeting wearing a football jersey that had “MAYOR” written on the back. This morning The Star has a long reported piece about Ford’s alcohol abuse problem. Apparently junior staffers bought Ford a bottle of vodka approximately 10 times per month and were routinely tasked with taking care of Ford’s personal errands. Through all this, somehow he’s still the mayor. [The Star]
Francis Bacon’s triptych of Lucian Freud is the new most expensive artwork in the universe. Unfortunately, it’s too orangey to fit this week’s Color Wheel, beige.
Our IMG MGMT essay series returns tomorrow. Don’t underestimate its continuing significance.
The contemporary auctions are breaking records again. Maybe it’s time to revisit Sarah Thornton’s reasons not to write about the art market.
A video game that unpacks the real meaning of art.
"Study for the Nurse from the Battleship Potemkin", Francis Bacon, 1957
- WSJ’s comparing buying a Bacon painting to buying the services of a sports player (“The Art of Fielding”). William Powhida points out that unlike art, a player isn’t “private property that we may or may not see again.” [Wall Street Journal]
- AFC’s twitter feed is filled with tweets expressing horror over last night’s record breaking auction results at Sotheby’s. (This sales video for Warhol’s Car Crash prompted ArtInfo’s Tyler Green to ask how the Sotheby’s people live with themselves). What people buy isn’t the problem here. It’s the income inequality driving the success of these auctions that deserves outrage and action. [Twitter]
- The term “hedge fund activist” has been coined. Apparently this term describes shareholders who exert pressure on the companies they’ve invested in, to change in directions they see fit. Daniel S. Loeb, for example, thinks Sotheby’s needs a makeover. [Dealbook]
- Lily Allen takes issue with sexism in the music industry. Cue the think pieces. [The Guardian]
- Selina Gomez is in the sentimental art film “Searching” by Victoria Mahoney. She’s wearing lingerie, so I guess that’s reason to talk about it? [The Superficial]
- Jerry Saltz on Reddit AMA. Regular Saltz readers will be familiar with most of his answers, but he did remind us (AFC’s Paddy Johnson) that we like Francis Bacon a whole lot more than Saltz. His 2009 show at the Met was fantastic. [Vulture, summary]
- An activist artist in Switzerland is gathering signatures for a minimum federal income distributed to all people. The New York Times’ Annie Lowry doesn’t think it’s that crazy, arguing that here and abroad it would only be a better use of money locked up in welfare. [New York Times]
If et al’s exhibition, GRIND STONE, is any indication, discarded materials as medium often result in a beige palette.
In 2014, the New Museum will gift the world with one book. Just one? Yes, but it should be an important one.
