A protest is slated to take place on Sun Dec 19 at 1pm EST at New York’s Metropolitan Museum. We have links to a handy flyer and a protest action kit!
Posted inOpinion
Jeff Koons’ Balls Remade Into Lego Sculpture
The Little Artists, now known as Cake & Neave, turn iconic works of art into tiny lego sculptures. In one series, the duo create artist portraits like this one of Jeff Koons, featured with his (basket)balls. This isn’t the Made in Heaven series, people!
Posted inNews
More Answers in MOCA Mural Censorship [UPDATE 4]
Some answers are finally surfacing after a week of the LA MOCA controversy. Recently an email between the censored street artist Blu and renowned graffiti photographer Henry Chalfant has been posted online. Blu has confirmed to me via email that the text is real, and Chalfant has said he will provide his comments on the situation this afternoon.
The email reveals, among other things, that MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch did not request or see any preliminary sketches for Blu’s mural, MOCA whitewashed the mural without informing Blu, the artist has yet to be paid, and Blu encountered many veterans who found the mural “truthful.”
Posted inNews
Beirut’s Oldest Synagogue Getting Restored
Al-Jazeera reports that the once vibrant center of Jewish life in Beirut, Lebanon, and the city’s largest and oldest surving synagogue, Magen Abraham is being restored by private donations, including from local Muslims.
Posted inArt
Thinking About the Origins of Street Art, Part 1
Setting a time and a place for the birth of street or urban art is always a tricky question, as one could argue that its history is as old as humanity. Besides, it’s not that easy to find documentation about the development of street art and graffiti before the 1980s because of the way technology has transformed the way we study the past. Any episode before the advent of the internet or digital cameras isn’t as easy to track down, particularly in regards to underground scenes. Sure there’s the library but only academics, writers, and intellectuals tend to venture into the hallowed halls of learning to spend a whole day (or days) researching. Here are some precedents you may not know about.
Posted inOpinion
European Commission Deems Flavin “Lighting Fittings”
If it looks like lighting, smells like lighting and lights things up, it’s probably lighting! At least so says the European Commission in an argument over whether or not the work of Dan Flavin and Bill Viola qualify as art. They don’t think so, and express their criticisms in a series of hilarious quotes.
Posted inOpinion
Why Secretary Clough Won’t Leave the Smithsonian
The scandal that erupted when the Smithsonian’s secretary G. Wayne Clough decided to remove David Wojnarowicz’s “A Fire in My Belly” from the National Portrait Gallery’s Hide/Seek exhibition under Republican political pressure shows no sign of calming down. Only in the past week, the Warhol Foundation has threatened to cease funding the Smithsonian’s programming if the piece isn’t restored (it will not be) and the New York Times has published an op-ed by Frank Rich declaiming the move as “gay-bashing,” and one of the artists involved with the show is requesting his work be removed from the show. The anger has expanded to the extent that some are calling for Secretary Clough, the single individual responsible for the censorship decision, to resign. Here’s why that won’t happen.
Posted inNews
Smithsonian Director Unrepentant, Curator Talks “American Taliban,” Catholic League Gets a Beer
At a conversation held with Hide/Seek curators Jonathan Katz and David C. Ward at the New York Public Library December 15th, a few things became clear about the censorship scandal: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery director Martin Sullivan is far from repentant over the decision, and the Catholic League, who initiated the “offense” taken at the video, are largely absent.
Posted inArt
Painting Real Fiction: Christopher K. Ho at Winkleman
Regional Painting (2010), at Winkleman Gallery, is not a remarkable presentation; the casual viewer could be excused for thinking it is just another painting show. Twelve paintings on linen, each twelve by sixteen inches, beautifully framed in walnut, greatly varied in technique and style, are hung equidistant around the gallery. Some are intentionally amateur, others unexpectedly virtuosic, all preserve some part of the clear-primed linen. There is an antique quality to some, taking their cue from early 20th C. abstraction, others are more contemporary and even a little slick. They are Christopher K. Ho’s legitimate attempt at earnest painting, but also represent a much larger system of conceptual artworks.
Posted inNews
Blu Says Whitewash Was ‘a CURATORIAL CHOICE that involves the CENSORSHIP of a mural’
Artist Blu has just blogged about his surprise that the word “censorship” is disappearing from the discussion of his whitewashed mural and being replaced by the word “curatorial choice.” He also reveals why the mural isn’t as finished as some of his other work …
Posted inNews
Artist Requests to Be Removed from Smithsonian’s Hide/Seek [UPDATE 3]
New York-based artist and artistic director of the Institute of Art, Religion and Social Justice AA Bronson has sent an email to the National Portrait Gallery requesting that his work “Felix, June 5, 1994” (1994/99) [pictured above] be removed from their Hide/Seek exhibition in light of the recent censorship of David Wojnarowicz’s “A Fire In My Belly” video.
Posted inNews
Send Christmas Cards to Imprisoned Artist Wu Yuren
In a protest that has become practice in China, Karen Patterson is starting a movement to flood imprisoned Chinese artist Wu Yuren (AKA “Little Ai”) with Christmas cards as a gesture of support. The artist has been imprisoned for his participation in a protest against studio demolitions since May 31, 2010.
