Opinion
Required Reading
This week, real estate as art, Design Museum app, Damien Hirst is a disgrace, online bids doing well at Christie's, Rem Koolhaas profile, Instagram pic cliches, African fashion blogs and more.
Opinion
Opinion
A Performance Art Bike Ride to Save a Friend's Life
LOS ANGELES — A couple of years ago, new-media performance artist Marc Horowitz submitted his life to the audience. Dubbed "The Advice of Strangers," his Creative Time–commissioned performance was determined entirely by opinion polls and votes from the audience. Horowitz is at it again, as he turns
Opinion
Unearthing a 1970s Magritte Documentary
Our profound thanks go out to Boing Boing today for unearthing Adrian Maben's Monsieur René Magritte, an amazing short documentary about René Magritte from 1978. For those not familiar with the artist (although you've probably seen reproductions of some of his most famous images), allow our narrator
Opinion
Filmmaker Hopes to Tell the Story of New York's Bike Messengers
For some mystifying reason, a lot of New Yorkers are still having a hard time accepting that bikes (and accompanying bike lanes) are a good thing for the city — an efficient, healthy and environmentally friendly form of transportation. And yet, despite the resistance, it's clear from just walking an
Opinion
Taking a Closer Look at CNN's "Power" Art Gallery
Last Thursday, CNN did something a mainstream news site doesn't often do: it published a digital art gallery. The gallery is a selection of work by 21 artists devoted to the theme of power. All of the art was commissioned by the news organization, which strikes me as a really interesting and excitin
Opinion
An Unreleased Interview with Cecilia Gimenez
The overnight artstar and founder of Gimenez Modern Restoration Services may have known what she was doing all along … hmmmmm …
Opinion
Required Reading
This week, the unexpected beauty of crime photography, CNN asks artists about their take on power, Jackson Pollock's last painting, kids talk Rothko, Facebook's photo obsession and more.
Opinion
Reddit's Take on Mitt Romney's Plan to Cut Arts Funding
Our "Mitt Romney Says He Would Ax Arts Funding If Elected" made it into Reddit's popular Politics subreddit and the 200+ comments are an interesting insight into the hive mind of a social news network that often ridicules contemporary art.
Opinion
A Star Is Born: Internet Loves Disfigured Jesus Fresco
This week, those of us in the Hyperallergic offices have been obsessed with the story of Cecilia Gimenez, the really bad octogenarian art "restorer" who transformed a 19th C church fresco by painter Elías García Martínez into a meme-worthy art work. And the resulting meme rocks!
Opinion
Shanghai's Skyscrapers in Mist
LOS ANGELES — I'm a sucker for skyscraper photos. Ever since I first set foot in downtown Los Angeles and then Manhattan, I've loved looking up at buildings. Tall ones, fancy ones — almost every major city has at least one interesting one, and in a place like China, there are more tall buildings tha
Opinion
Exclusive: Octogenarian Restorer Strikes Again!
Remember the infamous 80 year old who "restored" the 19th C. fresco in a Spanish church? Some may think it's a joke, but we think she's a genius. We invited The Punk Restorer™ — we thought she needed rebranding — to shuck away her attempts to restore minor works and tackle masterpieces instead.
Opinion
Lessons in Radical Art Restoration: What Not to Do 101
In what can only be described as an art conservation nightmare, a 19th C. church fresco in the town of Borja, Spain, by painter Elías García Martínez has been radically "restored" by an octogenarian neighbor.