Required Reading

This week, Knoedler scandal update, pleasure of art, how Cecil Beaton saved the Queen, a Situationist iPhone app, Philippe Starck talks creativity/$/sex, rare African art, ringtone drama, Montreal artists remember slain homeless man, Rupert Murdoch’s art tweets, NY streets and the capital of Stolen Islamic art.

 The Art Newspaper has an article on the evolving Knoedler forgery scandal. One snippet:

Legal papers and testimonies also suggest a number of leading art galleries have unwittingly been caught up in the scandals. Timothy Taylor Gallery and art dealer Jaime Frankfurt are named in the Lagrange papers as intermediaries in the sale of the Pollock. Court papers filed by the Dedalus Foundation state that Haunch of Venison opened its New York space in 2008 with a show that “put [a] supposed Newman painting from the so-called David Herbert collection [see box] in place of honour”. The current whereabouts of this work is unclear.

 Jonathan Jones takes issue with some proponents of art who think the morality of art is its worth. He says it’s really about the pleasure.

 The story of one photographer role in saving the British monarch’s image through realism. Cecil Beaton’s photos from the 1930s until the 1960s provided a human face to the Queen Elizabeth II and her family, a reputation that was very much in jeopardy.

 Introducing the Situationist iPhone app. Fastcodesign explains, “Based on the antics of a 1960s avant-garde art gang, ‘Situationist’ turns random encounters into inspirational connections.” [Correction: One of our Facebook commenters pointed out that this app was banned in Sept from the iTunes store and has been barred from the outlet ever since.]

 Occasionally star designer Philippe Starck really gets some good ones in. A few years ago he said that “Everything I have created is absolutely unnecessary. Design, structurally seen, is absolutely void of usefulness.”

Now, in Wired he’s written about creativity, money and sex (the trifecta!). It starts:

Creativity is almost a mortal sickness. It’s not easy to be happy and creative: With creativity comes great anxiety, great effort, great desire for love. To be creative, you have to be curious, generous, to want to try to understand.

You also have to want to be loved.

 The New Scientist reports on a rare and well-preserved Nok terracotta head that was discovered in Nigeria. It is an example of the earliest figurative art in sub-Saharan Africa. (via Left Bank Art Blog)

 Last Tuesday, the cell phone of an audience member caused the maestro of New York’s Philharmonic to stop a Lincoln Center performance until the offending ringtone was turned off. What was the tune? Marimba.

 Artists in Montreal remember the death of a homeless man at the hands of local police.

 Right-winger Rupert Murdoch is tweeting now (lucky us). Thankfully, Marion Maneker of Art Market Monitor is reading them so we don’t have to, and he spotted a few art-related tweets. One about Artsy (his wife is an investor and board member) and the other is about a WSJ story and Gagosian’s Hirst shows (Murdoch owns WSJ and Gagosian is another big Artsy investor). Who says there’s no transparency in media?

 Odd fact of the day: streets make up 25% of New York’s land area. (via @bldgblog)

 Istanbul appears to be a major hub for stolen Islamic art.

Required Reading is published every Sunday morning-ish, and it is comprised of a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts or photo essays worth a second look.