This is a wonderfully vivid story from the WSJ about the relationship of dealer William Acquavella and artist Lucien Freud and the artist’s bookie.
March 25, 2011
Posted inOpinion
Ugliest (and Earliest) Cezanne Ever Found
Ok, some dude buys a painting cuz he likes the frame, turns out it may be Post-Impressionist super-painter Paul Cezanne’s earliest painting eva — he would’ve been a 15 year old art student at the time. Now that people think it’s a Cezanne it may be worth £40million. But wait, it’s pretty fugly. Discuss. [Daily Mail]
Posted inOpinion
Julian Schnabel Screams Over GF’s Hair on NBC
This for your day in art world gossip — Julian Schnabel, past-his-prime 80s neo-expressionist painter and burgeoning filmmaker, got into a screaming match with girlfriend Rula Jebreal over how NBC stylists had done her hair for an appearance on Morning Joe.
Posted inArt
Blurring Luxury and Art: Nadia Plesner vs Louis Vuitton
The story of Louis Vuitton’s recent legal action against 29-year-old Dutch artist Nadia Plesner is a curious one. Not only because Plesner had already been sued by Louis Vuitton in 2008, and not only because it was over her use of the same design, and it involved the same bit of imagery, a starved and platter-eyed young African boy, holding a chihuahua and the Audra bag, à la Paris Hilton, but because Plesner is using the same defense that failed her in 2008 and Louis Vuitton took the same action against her that it did three years ago: an ex parte court ruling against her. But let’s take a closer look.
Posted inNews
Japanese Modernist Landmark Preserved in Manhattan
At only 40 years old, Japan Society’s low-slung modernist headquarters at 333 East 47th Street has just been named New York’s youngest landmark building by the state’s Landmark Preservation Commission. The structure, designed by Junzo Yoshimura and George G. Shimamoto and first completed in 1971, translates traditional Japanese architectural forms into a modernist idiom, bowing to neither but combining the two languages in an innovative and complex way. I spoke with Japan Society vice president Joe Earle about the landmark designation and his experience of the building itself.
