- Within a 48 hour news cycle, Los Angeles-based band/romantic duo YACHT announced a private sex tape they made was leaked, then said they were going to take ownership and release the tape on their own website, and now it appears the whole situation was just an elaborate X-Files-esque alien sex hoax to promote their new music video. We have a lot of respect for singer Claire Evans — she contributed a great reading list to our Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies show — and the band has a history of trolling clickbait journalism. But given how prevalent revenge porn is online, was it gross for them to pose as victims and prey on our sympathies? Or was this fictionalized narrative no different from what’s seen on the Kardashians? [Pitchfork, Jezebel]
- Last night’s results of Christie’s contemporary auction was a reassuring one for the New York art market. The sale totalled $318 million, with over 87% of the lots sold. Reserves were kept low, gaining praise from the auctioneer for being “tight, curated and profitable.” A highlight of the auction records set for artists like Mike Kelley and Agnes Martin was a Basquiat top lot (the 1982 work, “Untitled”) selling for $57.3 million (it was originally estimated at more than $40 million). [The Baer Faxt, The Art Newspaper]
- The Trustees, Massachusetts’ conservation nonprofit, has announced a two-year public art initiative that will kick off this summer with commissioned outdoor installations by Jeppe Hein and Sam Durant. [Boston Globe]
- Intersectional feminist dialogues went into overload over bell hook’s gripes with Beyonce’s Lemonade. There’s a smart critique in here about Beyonce’s visual album being a commodification of the black female experience. But that’s kind of a “well, duh” point, and I [Rea] can’t help but feel as if hook is kind of Camille Paglia in her second wave dismissal of pop culture, not to mention low-key transphobic in judging black femme feminists. [bell hooks institute, Janet Mock’s Facebook]
- The New Museum will be expanding its Bowery footprint. The museum announced yesterday it has raised $43 million towards a $80 capital campaign to renovate it 231 Bowery neighbor and connect it to its current building at 235 Bowery. [New York Times]
- Carolina A. Miranda thinks the new Eva Hesse documentary is the full-blown biography the ambitious artist has long deserved. [Los Angeles Times]
- An art loving mechanic in France has scored a Renoir for $700. [artnet News]
- On the occasion of their pop-up show of cheap multiples at Printed Matter, members of Colab reflect back on their groundbreaking artist-led projects from the 1980s, including the Times Square Show. [Hyperallergic]
