- This amateur portrait helped catch a murder suspect. I kinda like it. [Buzzfeed]
- 2015 was a scandalous year in the art world. [artnet News]
- The Rubell Family Collection plays a good media game. As one of the 11 tax-exempt private museums currently scrutinized in the Senate Finance Committee’s investigation, they’re the first to go public about complying with the inquiry. The admission is then followed by what appears to be a summary of their yearly report, spun for their hometown paper. [The Miami Herald]
- Just when you thought you couldn’t possibly read anything else about Martin Shkreli and/or the Wu-Tang album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, this comes along. Here’s an oddly fascinating look at the issues surrounding copyright and the legal status of Shkreli’s assets—which might just align to result in the free distribution of the music. [Motherboard]
- I get the media is squeezing all they can from the holiday content farm, but this piece of fluff on Warhol and his affinity towards Christmas takes the cake for being so primely formatted for Google Trending. The only interesting tidbit is buried at the very bottom, on the lack of scholarship regarding the practicing Catholic’s religious painting. [artnet News]
- Hyperallergic weighs in on the Rijksmuseum’s “Adjustment of Colonial Terminology” project we wrote about earlier this month. While the piece clarifies that much of the renaming is mostly applicable not to the original racially-charged titling of works but later additions or renamings by museum staff, it still seems totally arbitrary, in the sense that a new title like “Girl holding a fan” omits information that a former title like “Girl from the Indies” contains. And a commenter raises a good question: “So if I were a historian or curator and I wanted to see depictions of people from Africa and the African diaspora would I be able to keyword search that under the new system?” [Hyperallergic]
- The Shade Room is probably my [Rea] favourite Instagram account for making the social media activities of black celebrities it’s gossip beat, and changed the way I consume my celebrity news. This profile on its founder, 25 year old Angie Nwandu, is inspiring, especially for this quote: “she’s a perfect avatar for this particular media moment: a young woman of color who knew nothing about the media business when she launched, still figuring it out as she goes along.” [Buzzfeed]
- British architecture firm Heatherwick Studio has unveiled plans for Shanghai’s arts district. The scheme piles housing, trees, and other functions into a massive, lumpy, terrace-covered structure that looks like a mountain and curves around existing historic structures. I want to live there. [Dezeen]
- A study by an economist suggests that artists’ most valuable works are NOT produced during periods of depression. [The Art Newspaper
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