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Artists and NFL Quarterbacks: A Brief Guide

The 2014 Super Bowl, also known as Super Bowl XLVIII, will be held on Sunday, February 2 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. What’s that got to do with art? As it turns out, there are certain distinct parallels between the high-profile athletes who patrol the chalky gridiron and the art stars who exhibit in the chalky white enclaves that patrol the art world.

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How to Talk About Art: Christopher Wool Edition (#H2TAA)

Even though Wool has been blue-chip long enough (since 2010) to make him a staple on a newbie collector’s wish list and the likely star of many a speculator’s wet dream, post-auction media rhapsodizing about the “record price” “achieved” by his 1988 painting “Apocalypse Now” has become the gateway to any conversation about him, at least for the next week or so — or until the show at the Guggenheim ends.

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The Taming of Christopher Wool

Christopher Wool is having a moment. Arguably his most famous painting, “Apocalypse Now,” will be offered on the auction block on November 12 as part of Christie’s postwar and contemporary art evening sale, with an estimate of $15–20 million. His retrospective at the Guggenheim, organized by associate curator Katherine Brinson, opened late last month to much fanfare.

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Art Fair as Group Exhibition

Despite the best efforts of art critics and reporters, it remains inadvisable to talk about any art fair as an exhibition, or a precisely curated experience. They’re more like avalanches of information from which viewers can filter out their own message, in the manner of an aesthetic Ouija board. However, if there is one fair in Miami that most resembles an exhibition, it’s SEVEN, which collects a group of (you guessed it) seven independent-minded New York galleries.