Opinion
Weekend Words: Redemption
The news has been so grim this week that just about the only amusing thing that happened is Eliot Spitzer trying to steal Anthony Weiner's ticket for the Redemption Sweepstakes. Will somebody say "Amen"?
Opinion
Opinion
To Live and Die in Newspaper Art Journalism in LA
In response to the firing this week by the Los Angeles Times of their only art reporter, Jori Finkel, over a dozen museum directors and 1,387 (and counting) petition signatories have confronted LAT editor Davan Maharaj in a two-pronged bid to reinstate the laid-off journalist.
Opinion
A Fusion of Facebook, Advertising, and Design Redefines the Creepy Birthday Hug
In what can be optimistically described as a case of something lost in cultural translation, Brazil's Outback Steakhouse franchise had their American-owned ad agency design an anthropomorphized chair that "hugs" you when you are wished a happy birthday via Facebook. Yes, This is The Way We Live Toda
Opinion
Jay-Z Raps at Marina Abramović, or the Day Performance Art Died
Last night, rumors started circulating about Jay-Z doing some kind of Rajnar-Kjartansson-meets-Marina Abramović performance art mashup, in which he would rap his new art-inspired song "Picasso Baby" at a rotating cast of hand-picked art-world individuals continuously for a few hours.
Opinion
Earliest Chinese Writing: Historical Discovery or Dubious Scratches?
Archaeologists in China have apparently unearthed 5,000-year-old hieroglyphs, a discovery with potentially significant implications for the study of the origins of written language, the Associated Press reported today.
Opinion
Museum of the City of NY Wants Your Photographs of Hurricane Sandy
The Museum of the City of New York is planning an exhibition of photographs from Hurricane Sandy for the one-year anniversary of the storm. And importantly, the organizers aren't just interested in professional pictures; they want submissions from anyone and everyone with images to share.
Opinion
The Insta-Aesthetics of War
CHICAGO — Explosives blow up skies the world over. From our smartphone-enhanced filter bubbles, we learn to consume these explosive images on social sites like Instagram, where the Insta-aesthetics of war know no global boundaries. Instagram offers a space for mediating the chemical explosions, corp
Opinion
M.I.A.'s Kickstarter Radicalism
According to a recent and widely publicized tiff involving a trailer leak, filmmaker Steve Loveridge's blog, and Roc Nation, terror-chic rocker M.I.A. might be taking her flailing autobiographical documentary project to the masses via Kickstarter. She announced the possibility in a tweet over the we
Opinion
Mos Def Joins Artistic Resistance to Gitmo Prison Camp
"There are currently 120 detainees on hunger strike in Guantanamo Bay" fades onto the white backdrop in the opening of Yasiin Bey/Mos Def's widely-circulated video published today on the Guardian. The video, directed by Asif Kapadia, shows Yasiin Bey (described as "better known as Mos Def") as he vo
Opinion
Here Are Some Arts Executives Who Made Over $1M in 2011
Earlier this year, speculation swirled around whether the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art would be forced to merge with another institution to survive — the latest episode in an ongoing drama, five years and counting, borne out of the museum's financially precarious situation. But it turns ou
Opinion
Required Reading
This week, New York's arts funding future, 1980s abstraction, racism in the new Lone Ranger movie, Google's RSS deathwish, Lou Reed reviews Kanye West, Rineke Dijkstra photographs the Dutch Royals, and more.
Opinion
Weekend Words: Doubt
Given the checkered history of recent Michelangelo discoveries, Weekend Words proposes a round of the children's card game "I Doubt It."