- These might just be my favorite photographs ever. Laurent Kronental’s series “Souvenir d’un Futur” captures the senior citizens who have lived in Paris’s utopian modernist (and totally surreal postmodernist) public housing estates for decades. His human and architectural subjects seem to recall fading, more optimistic, stately times. [Dezeen]
- Babacar M’Bow was hired for his position as director of the MoCA North Miami with a protracted, dramatic battle involving pretty outrageous and inappropriate language. Now, he’s been swiftly fired for pretty outrageous and inappropriate language. The circle of life. Imagine a boss asking [of the education curator] “Where’s Adrienne? She’s out here looking for Haitian dick!” [artnet News]
- A few months ago, Paddy, Whitney, and myself had the pleasure of visiting the 21C Museum Hotel in Durham, North Carolina. The chain is an interesting for-profit model with the heart of a nonprofit—one that successfully delivers contemporary art to cities which might not otherwise be able to support a contemporary art museum. Now, 21C gets some love from The Guardian. [The Guardian]
- With The Four Seasons restaurant leaving its landmark location in the Seagram Building in Midtown Manhattan many are wondering what its regular power lunchers will do. (Probably just go to its slated replacement by Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi, and Jeff Zalaznick.) On a recent Friday, The Times interviewed a number of its more famous diners, including Klaus Biesenbach and Agnes Gund. When asked what jacket he was wearing, Biesenbach replied, “H&M. [Pointing to his overcoat, blazer and pants] It’s H&M, Levi’s, Zara. It’s very, very $2.” Well played Mr. Biesenbach, well played. [The New York Times]
- What is it about art forgery that makes every story seem so juicy and readable? Convicted forger Shaun Greenhalgh has a new memoir out that spills all the beans about everything from faking a Da Vinci to mixing the wrong white oil paints. Chemistry was never so sexy. [New Republic]
- Artist Ellie Harrison and funders Creative Scotland have found themselves at the center of a public controversy over a project titled ‘The Glasgow Effect”. The term apparently refers to adverse health conditions and shorter life expectancy experienced by low income residents of the Scottish city. Creative Scotland gave Harrison a grant of £15,000 to spend an entire year within the Glasgow’s city limits, which she claims is to explore the idea of localism as a strategy for lowering her carbon footprint. It sounds like a very simple idea that is inexplicably complicated. Mostly, I’m jealous it didn’t occur to me to apply for a roughly $22,000 “not travelling” grant. [BBC News]
- Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro has been eyeing some of the city’s local treasures as loot to be sold to fill budget gaps. And since it’s not like the city depends on the tourism industry, a plan like that should work out swimmingly. [The Wall Street Journal (paywall), artnet News]
- Cecily Brown says she’s getting sick of only seeing female nudes so she’s painting more men. The artist left Gagosian and will open a show of small paintings at Maccarone in May. [Vulture]
- New York state is going after art collectors who have avoided paying sales tax on their art purchases — and even those who have simply been intermediaries (that can be fought). This article names a few loopholes for collectors, but we also like that they warn tax-dodgers that they can be charged a penalty of up to 30% on the price of their purchased art in addition to the overdue sales tax. The lesson: don’t fuck with the New York State tax department. [Penta Daily]
- Over 50,000 New York apartments will return to their rent regulated status by order of governor Andrew Cuomo. The governor lead an investigation that found that several landlords in the city were violating rent regulation laws. [Curbed]
