Opinion
Halloween Costume Conundrum: Beast Jesus or Big Bird?
With Halloween only three weeks away, those of us in the art community are facing a very important decision: what should we dress up as — Beast Jesus or Big Bird?
Latest
News
Divisive Funding Crisis Shuts Down National Museum of Bosnia
The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina shut its doors last Thursday because of a severe lack of funding. The museum had operated continuously for the last 124 years, even through the Bosnian War in the early 1990s, but a longstanding and infuriating political quagmire have made keeping it ope
News
Corcoran Students Install Giant "4 SALE" Signs to Protest Potential Sale
A series of photos posted on Tumblr a few hours ago show a creative protest against the Corcoran's plan to sell its Beaux-Arts palazzo building across from the White House in exchange for a new center in the DC suburbs. In the guerrilla installation, signs attached to the building spell out "4 SALE.
Art
What's the Point of Sending Pictures into Space?
For his latest project, The Last Pictures, Trevor Paglen is doing something unconventional: he's sending photographs into space. Paglen, an artist and writer with a PhD in geography, worked with researchers and assistants at public art organization Creative Time to select a group of 100 photographs
Art
Rothko Scholar Explains Importance of Vandalized Tate Rothko & Restoration Challenges
We reached out to David Anfam, a Mark Rothko scholar and head of the Rothko catalogue raisonné project, to ask about the importance of "Untitled (Black on Maroon)" (1958) and the possible challenges facing the conservation of the work after Sunday's incident.
News
One Pussy Riot Member Released, Others Still Behind Bars
Yekaterina Samutsevich, the oldest member of the Russian art-punk band Pussy Riot, was released from prison today, though the other two younger members remain behind bars.
Books
"The Wire" Gets Victorian in a Book by Fictional Scholar H.B. Ogden
Like the ever-present junkies on the TV show “The Wire,” fans of the acclaimed HBO series can never seem to get enough. Legions of viewers stayed glued to the tangled plot over five seasons — and their cravings were stoked for five years more through blogs, behind-the-scenes books, essays, college c
Art
The Aesthetics of Data Storage
The New York Times recently published a two-part survey arguing that the data centers owned by the technology companies we all depend on every day — Apple, Google, Facebook — are destroying the environment with their electricity usage. Experts have debated their reasoning. But what the conflict over
Opinion
Should We Ignore Art Vandals?
Many people have been raising questions about how the media should treat attention whores like the Yellowists, who are obviously committing crimes to fan the fires of fame. This is a question that confronts any journalist when covering something that is both criminal and possibly a ploy to attract a
Art
Newly Discovered Magritte Works Show the Surrealist's Process
A trove of fresh drawings and paintings have been officially attributed to the Surrealist master René Magritte by the Magritte Foundation, and they display a restless mind and finely-tuned hand at work. A series of sketches by the artist give a glimpse into how he planned out his compositions.
Opinion
Beast Jesus Could be Restored in Just Seven Minutes, Says Conservator
Cecilia Gimenez's creative restoration of an 120-year-old ecce homo fresco by Elias Garcia Martinez in Spain may have become an international icon for its frizzy mane of hair and blurred face (even inspiring a Halloween costume), but it could all vanish in a matter of minutes.
Art
David Blaine — Performance Artist or Poseur?
Perched on a pillar twenty feet tall like a modern incarnation of St. Simon the Stylite, daredevil magician David Blaine was zapped by one million volts of electricity for 72 hours during his circus-like performance at Pier 54 aptly titled "Electrified, One Million Volts Always On."