by Paddy Johnson and Corinna Kirsch on January 14, 2014
Good morning. It’s raining again in New York. Happy commuting!
Here are some links about dogs, artists moving out of the city, and why the Brooklyn Museum is updating Wikipedia pages.
- If you love dogs, then the 49th Annual Grand American Coon Hunt in South Carolina might be for you. You must also like barking though; dogs compete for the most barks per 30 seconds. [VICE]
- In 2009 three sculptures stolen from a Hindu temple in India were confiscated by U.S. special agents in New York. Today officials will hand over these artifacts over to the Indian consulate in New York. [City Room Blog]
- Climate change is real, but if there are no scientists to tell us that, perhaps that will make it easier for conservative governments to force through bills that ignore those problems. The Canadian Federal Government has dismissed over 2,000 scientists in five years. [CBC]
- The Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan responds to Bill Keller’s piece about Lisa Bonchek Adams, a blogger known for chronicling her 4th stage breast cancer treatment. Keller’s piece remains, but Sullivan concedes that Keller did not take the appropriate amount of time to understand his subject’s work. [The New York Times]
- The Brooklyn Heights Association’s library redevelopment questionnaire reminds me of trying to select a healthcare plan on the Obamacare website. You have no idea what you’re looking at or how to apply selection criteria. It turns out the “redevelopment plan” they’re polling us on includes selling the libraries. Your opinion on whether that’s a good idea isn’t asked until 3 pages in (question 9), and the plan is described only as the “redevelopment plan.” SKEEVY. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
- Looks like the worry of artists leaving New York has been on people’s minds for a while. A sobering article from 2010 reports that New York art executives are concerned that art school graduates aren’t even attempting to move to New York at the beginning of their careers. Kate Tepper, a Cooper Union student is moving to Chicago the day her lease expires. “There was a romanticism about being an artist in New York that was handed down in stories, but no artist I know is living that kind of life here,” Ms. Tepper says. “In other cities where space is affordable, artists are now living the kind of life we dreamed about in New York.” [Crain’s]
- By Matthew Oates, the best wax heads that you probably haven’t seen yet in the Lower East Side. [Station Independent Projects]
- Alexandra Thom, with the support of the Kress Foundation, spent the bulk of last year making sure that Wikipedia articles on the Brooklyn Museum’s holdings were accurate. Hrag Vartanian reports. [Hyperallergic]
Read the full article →
by Paddy Johnson Whitney Kimball and Corinna Kirsch on January 13, 2014
Joel as ‘Jessie.’ (Image from Secrets of the Living Dolls)
AFC’s offices are a buzz this morning, as art news just keeps pouring in!
- Jerry Saltz has written a letter to MoMA’s Trustees imploring them not to proceed with Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s design, which he believes won’t be conducive to viewing art. Good luck with that Jerry. This isn’t a problem with the architects, but with their clients. [Vulture]
- It looks like the Baltimore Museum of Art has retrieved its stolen Renoir from Baltimore resident Marcia Fuqua, who’d bought the painting at a flea market for $7. Since the work was stolen, the court ruled that Fuqua doesn’t have a right to it. The work was estimated in value at between $75,000-$100,000. [TAN]
- Jeffrey Deitch gets a profile in New York Magazine, which washes over curator Paul Schimmel’s dismissal in favor of a creating an image of a “swashbuckling” badboy whose sensational shows were too New York for LA to handle. This is in part true, since L.A. residents didn’t seem to want a celebrity focus in their museums. But Deitch was never supposed to be the museum’s curator, he was its director, and he failed in that department when he lost the support of the board and didn’t raise the necessary funds. He’s a better curator, he’s going back to that, and is looking into space in Red Hook and the so-called SuperPier on the Hudson at 14th Street. [Vulture]
- Looks like Occupy may be re-emerging? After Anonymous holds a Bush protest today at Grand Central the Whitney Museum will host an “officially sanctioned” Occupy network at the museum tomorrow night. [twitter]
- Former New York Times Editor Bill Keller is upsetting people again. This time, following his wife’s lead in The Guardian, he ruminates on whether Lisa Bonchek Adams, a cancer patient suffering from 4th stage breast cancer, tweets too much. Can’t wait for the New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan to weigh in on this one. [The New York Times]
- The Globe and Mail’s Artists of the Year are predictably conservative. Painter Kim Dorland is dubbed “artist of the wild”, and why is Vince Gilligan, an American, the recipient of awards given to Canadians? [The Globe and Mail]
- The BBC may be bringing outside TV to North Korea. A senior diplomatic Brit is quoted as saying “I have always believed what brought down the Berlin Wall was not highbrow diplomacy but Dallas and Dynasty.” [TIME]
- Artist, filmmaker, and now generally popular person Steve McQueen took home the Golden Globe for Best Picture for 12 Years a Slave at last night’s ceremony. [Gawker]
- In case you missed it last week, Amanda Hess really stirred the pot with her Pacific Standard cover story “Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet.” She details death threats that have come her way for writing frankly about sex, and notes statistics that show that this kind of abuse happens far more often to women than men. Times op-ed columnist Ross Douthat responds and suggests that ridding the Internet of male-on-female comment wars is “ultimately a task for men” and involves finding “a more compelling vision of masculine goals,” neither of which is going to help out female writers who’re dealing with trolls right this second. [The New York Times]
- The people who dress as blow-up dolls are coming out, and have done so through the documentary “Secrets of the Living Dolls”. We can’t watch the whole thing because we’re not in the area, but maybe our UK readers will have more luck with it. [laughing squid]
- And because we’re constantly thinking about butt plugs in preparation for our upcoming benefit auction, I found the “baby Jesus butt plug” who may have been birthed by an alien. [The Slaughter House]
Read the full article →
