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frida kahlo

Friday Links: Inside the Pigment War

by Michael Anthony Farley on June 23, 2017

Stuart Semple’s Black 2.0 pigment accomplishes some of the optical trickery of Vantablack.

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know (or not) about the beef between British artists Anish Kapoor and Stuart Semple over Kapoor’s exclusive rights to Vantablack. The story basically ends with Semple making his own ultra-black pigment that’s available for everyone and far more affordable. [Wired]
The Tate Britain has placed work from Khadija Saye on view in their memorial gallery. Saye died in the Grenfell Tower fire last week. [BuzzFeed]
Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery is expanding, following last year’s huge donation of $42.5 million from billionaire Jeffrey Gundlach. The plan, from OMA’s Shohei Shigematsu, will allow the museum to display more of its collection while maintaining the Olmstead parkland in which it sits. They’ll accomplish this by expanding underground and burying the existing parking lot. [WIVB 4]
As skyrocketing rents make expansion in major art capitals impossible, many mid-tier galleries are opening locations in smaller cities or vacation towns. Or giving up permanent brick-and-mortar locations altogether and just doing pop-ups and art fairs. [Financial Times]
Head to the Oculus at the World Trade Center sometime in the next month. Up Close: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel features nearly-life-sized reproductions of the famous frescoes in great detail. [artnet News]
Stop plucking now: the Dallas Museum of Art is hoping to set a world record for most Frida Kahlo impersonators gathered in the same place. The event will take place on July 6th, what would have been the artist’s 110th birthday. [Star Telegram]
Some of the brains behind the Highline have created a website, Highline Network, to share ideas with other similar park projects. A lot of the impetus actually seems to be a cautionary tale—most don’t want to replicate the out-of-control gentrification that accompanied the park’s arrival. [Dezeen]

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Monday Links: Be This Dog’s Neighbor

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on March 27, 2017

Gallerist Lydia Petit with her dog Ruby. By J.M. Giordano for City Paper.

Gallerist Lydia Pettit with her dog Ruby. By J.M. Giordano for City Paper.

City Paper asked some of their writers and friends to pose for awkward portraits with their pets, by photographer J.M. Giordano. These are amazing. We would do this, but sadly no one at AFC has time for a puppy. [City Paper]
Baltimore: if you’re interested in responding to an RFP for vacant buildings along Howard Street in the Bromo arts district, there are open houses and assistance available to artists and organizations. This area is full of artist-owned buildings (including Platform Gallery, where you can hang out with Ruby and Lydia, the awesome dog and human pictured above). Let’s keep it that way! [Bromo Arts and Entertainment]
Do we give too much media attention to art vandals? That’s one of several motives Noah Charney hypothesizes in his fascinating look at why people attack artworks. So far we have no clue why a man slashed a Thomas Gainsborough painting at London’s National Gallery, but motives for past attacks have included religion (from Islamic fundamentalism to believing one is Jesus Christ reincarnated) and the desire for a media spotlight. [Salon]
Robert Walsh is convinced the Met has been displaying a knockoff French medieval sculpture the museum acquired in the 1930s. The piece in question is a head, purportedly from a doorway at Notre Dame, but arrived in New York via a dealer notorious for trafficking in fakes. [New York Post]
Whatever happened to Frida Kahlo’s “The Wounded Table”? The painting hasn’t been seen since an exhibition in Warsaw in 1955. Kahlo painted it during her brief divorce from Diego Rivera, after she found out he slept with her younger sister. When she exhibited it at Mexico City’s International Exhibition of Surrealism in 1940 she was concerned it wasn’t well-received. She ended up gifting it to a Russian ambassador six years later. Following the Warsaw show a decade later, the painting’s whereabouts remain a mystery. [The Daily Beast]
Not to do with art, but in news from our dystopic country, as reported in Canada, Daniel Dale finds that Trump voters in Ohio are not bothered by the president’s lies. On the subject of Trump’s claim that Obama illegally wiretapped him, James Cassidy, an out of work construction worker said that they were obviously lies, but he liked that. “He’s ruffling every feather in Washington that he can ruffle. These guys are scrambling. So: yeah! I like it. I think it’s a good thing. I want to see them jump around a little bit.” [The Toronto Star]
Brad Pitt has taken up sculpting to help him deal with his divorce woes. Word has it, he’s a quick learner. [Page Six]
We’re having a hard time identifying the point of this article about gallery closures in artnet News. As far as we can tell, it’s an attempt to connect the closure of two middle tier art galleries in London to Andrea Rosen’s closure earlier this month. But are the two comparable? Rosen ran an upper tier gallery with two outlets in Chelsea and described what mostly seemed like personal reasons for closing. The other closures have to do with the effect art fairs have had on brick and morter locations. Speaking of which, did anyone else notice Nicole Klagsbrun at NADA this year? She closed up shop in New York a couple years ago, penning a fire-y letter about throwing the towel in on this business, and is now operating as a private dealer out of Chelsea. [artnet News]
Hyun-Gi Kim has created a chair that moves fake blood around tubes, depending where you sit on it. This looks so gross. [Dezeen]
“Fearless Girl,” a statue by Kristen Visbal that’s situated facing “Charging Bull” in the financial district will remain on view through February 18th, 2018. The new city permit extends the statue’s stay. The old permit was originally slated to expire April 2nd. The statue has been a lightening rod for critics, some of whom believe the piece represents a strong feminist statement, and others who believe it is a PR stunt rather than a “true” feminist statement. People will fight about anything. [Curbed]

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Wednesday Links: Sean Hannity Gifts Trump Painting of White Man Being Forgotten By Obama

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on November 16, 2016

Sean Hannity just bought Donald Trump a painting by Right-wing-kitsch producer Jon McNaughton, painter of gems such as a tableau depicting Jesus delivering the constitution to the Founding Fathers and “One Nation Under Socialism,” in which Obama burns said Jesus-given constitution. The one Hannity purchased for Trump shows all the white presidents looking disappointed at Obama, because Obama is ignoring a dejected-looking white guy sitting on a bench. According to McNaughton’s Twitter, this is destined as a housewarming gift for the White House. [Wonkette]
Has a French family had a notebook full of Van Gogh sketches in their oblivious ownership for generations? Scholars are divided on the authenticity of one such claim. [The Telegraph]
The Memphis School is making an art world comeback, in the market and in exhibitions. [artnet News]
The Upper West Side’s Trump Place development will be getting a new name, after tenants petitioned that they were embarrassed to live in buildings once owned by the president elect. [Curbed]
Architect Max von Werz has renovated a 1960s concrete building into a new home for Mexico City’s OMR gallery. It’s so nice, if you’re a fan of brutalism. [Dezeen]
David Newbury a technologist speaking at the Museum Computer Network conference had this to say about art. “Art is nothing important. Where it’s important is where it connects people to people and people to events and people to things. It’s a social network of objects.” Beautiful. [Hyperallergic]
The Michelin Star winners are out. I’m (Paddy) always surprised St. Anslem isn’t on their list. [Gothamist]
Ohad Meromi’s hot pink sculpture “The Sunbather” has been installed in Queens, and some neighbors aren’t too thrilled about it. I (Michael) kinda like it. Nobody ever unanimously agrees on public art. Let’s stop pretending that every person has to personally engage with every artwork in the public sphere. [QNS]
Wow, this Apartment Therapy guide to hanging art is truly terrible. Their formula is likely to confuse everyone who hasn’t hung art before and will likely have dwellers end up with a lot of crooked art on the wall. Don’t use this guide. [Apartment Therapy]
Christie’s Contemporary Sale Auction results are $277 million with 89% of lots sold. That sale total is down from last year, which totalled $331.8 million but with 80% of the lots sold. Josh Baer, asks in his newsletter, “We wonder which had a greater effect from sales a year ago – the post election climate or the fact Loic Gouzer has been missing in action at Christie’s with his knee injury??” [The Baer Faxt]
An early self portrait by Frida Kahlo was gifted to one of her studio assistants shortly after the artist’s death. It’s remained in a private home and relatively obscure for 60 years. Now it’s heading to auction. [Huffington Post]

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Monday Links: The British Are Coming

by Paddy Johnson and Rhett Jones on July 11, 2016

Sophie Michael, The Watershow Extravaganza, 2016 courtesy of Seventeen Gallery

London’s Seventeen Gallery will be opening a space on Bowery in what some are seeing as a migration inspired by the International Center of Photography opening near the New Museum. Seventeen has a pretty nice lineup of artists, including Paul B. Davis, Sophie Michael and Oliver Laric. [Bowery Boogie]
In what is probably not a coincidence, a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo standing on the border of the U.S. and Mexico will be coming to Philadelphia just 2 weeks before the presidential election. We’re guessing it will be viewed quite differently depending on which candidate is elected. [Art Newspaper]
LACMA is acquiring 39 major lithographs from the legendary L.A. print shop, Gemini. The acquisition includes works by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha and Frank Stella. [Los Angeles Times]
Douglas Gordon has completed a feature about the patriarch of experimental film, Jonas Mekas. It will premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. Not much is known about the piece but the festival’s director says that “Douglas Gordon offers us a truly sensorial experience, which challenges the concept of seeing, and links the idea of the present with that of memory.” Gordon’s previous feature work, “Zidane: A Self Portrait” was an extremely unique approach to portraiture and biography, so the idea of him taking on Mekas is pretty exciting. [Art News] [Opinions belong to Rhett, Paddy does not agree.]
The photograph of a weeping officer that became one of the most iconic images from the Dallas police shooting last week was by an intern at the The Dallas Morning News. [Columbia Journalism Review]
This mirrored library in Yangzhou, China looks like some sort of unholy marriage between the Starship Enterprise and Hogwarts. [Curbed]
Speaking of the Starship Enterprise, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum has opened an elaborate, interactive Star Trek exhibition. Yes, it’s basically a commercial for the new series that launches next year. But, it’s also a chance to find out what position you’d be given as a Starfleet cadet. [New York Times]
Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Art has a new CEO. Terry Nicholson, the former director of arts and culture of the City of Toronto, will replace Chantal Pontbriand, who left after only eight months on the job. This appointment seems like a step in the right direction. Nicholson has worked with the institution before and has a long history of successfully pulling projects out of the fire. [The Toronto Star]
The Brooklyn Museum’s anti-gentrification forum was rescheduled this weekend due to an air-conditioning outage that forced the museum to close. It will now take place Sunday July 26th. In the meantime, Ben Davis gives some context to the event and offers a few highlights to look forward to. [artnet News]
Making the rounds: This Warhol style screen print of Donald Trump, with the words “Vote Hillary” inscribed below. The piece is by Deborah Kass. [Facebook]
From Hugo Ball to Kanye West, The Times’ staff takes a look at the history of Dada on its 100th anniversary. [New York Times]
The best thing on the Internet right now: bearcam! We spent most of the weekend watching bears patiently wait for salmon to fly into their mouths in katmai national park, alaska Alaska river. It’s early morning, and as I write this there is only one bear on the cam and a million salmon flying through the air. A good breakfast will be had. [Explore]

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NSFW GIF of the Hump Day: Happy Birthday Frida Kahlo

by Michael Anthony Farley on July 6, 2016

Okay, this GIF shouldn’t be considered NSFW at all, but today is Frida Kahlo’s birthday and it’s the only vaguely “inappropriate” animated GIF I can find, shockingly. It’s a scene from the 2002 biopic Frida, depicting a mostly-clothed Salma Hayek in the titular role painting a topless self-portrait. Why would this possibly be NSFW? Because Facebook hates art historical nudity. Paddy knows all-too-well how annoying violating Facebook’s decency rules can be.

You know who else would hate Facebook’s censorship rules? Frida Kahlo, who would be 109 today. She would probably come up with some incredibly original NSFW revenge tableau to post all over their servers. Because Frida was a badass. She was such a badass that a documentary about her life and work even sparked controversy in the supposedly-ultra-liberal Portland school district earlier this year. One can only imagine how escandalosa Kahlo must have been during the first half of the 20th century. And she probably gave zero fucks about it.

Rest In Power, Frida!

“NSFW” GIF after the jump.

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Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em: “Frida Smoked” at INVISIBLE-EXPORTS

by Emily Colucci on June 1, 2016

What image is conjured by a woman smoker? Is she chain-smoking Betty Draper living in a Mad Men world defined by advertising and women’s magazines, or grungy and addled Courtney Love, tossing her lipstick-smeared cigarette butts at unsuspecting and adoring fans?

Whether exemplifying the height of ladylike femininity or illustrating the depths of a disheveled mess, there is no denying that throughout history, smoking has come to define numerous female stereotypes.

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Worst of 2015

by Michael Anthony Farley on December 30, 2015

What were the top five most scandalous stories we covered this year? The ones people read, shared, and re-tweeted the most, of course. I delved into our site stats to ask why we love bad news so much.

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Wednesday Links: Children Love Pee Spray?

by Paddy Johnson Michael Anthony Farley Corinna Kirsch on June 3, 2015

What is going on in this video of a giant puppet’s detached genitalia dancing with children and spraying audience members with pee? Apparently, this a piece entitled “Everybody” by the Australian collective [Snuff Puppets].
Adrian Chen writes a story on Russian troll farms only to find himself caught up in their web. Note to self: Never sit down with a source’s brother who looks like a neo-Nazi skin head. [The New York Times Magazine]
David Byrne on contemporary society’s obsession with all things curatorial: “Why this insistent emphasis on choices and filtering now? It’s obvious: when everything is available, within reach, accessible, the problem becomes not one of scarcity but of abundance.” [New Statesman]
Harry Beck’s original London Underground map is one of the most iconic, successful, and influential diagrams in the history of graphic design. But as London grows, has the once-elegant design gotten too cluttered? Between a mess of fare zones and the addition of new services such as light rail, the Overground, and even a cable car critics claim the map is starting to lose legibility. Londoners, if you want to fall back in love with your tube map, spend a day staring at NYC’s. [City Lab]
The New York Botanical Garden’s Frida Kahlo exhibition will soon include light projections by Jenny Holzer. What? We assume the greenery was good enough on its own. (AFC’s Michael Anthony Farley has the review of Kahlo’s show, minus the Holzer.) [Observer]
Wow, MoMA has some gall. In the midst of fundraising enormous sums of money for an atrium no one but their board members likes, they hope to cut employee health benefits. Ew. [Hyperallergic]
The Art Law Report brings a lawyer’s clarity to the Richard Prince/Suicide Girls debate on “copyright.” Guess what? Copyright is not the same as public domain. “Instagram photos are not in the public domain. The public domain applies to works over which no copyright exists. The ease with which something can be copied has nothing to do with whether it is in the public domain. If what Prince is doing is acceptable it is as a fair use under the statute, not because of a lack of copyright in the first instance.” [Art Law Report]
Did anyone else find Gawker’s post on Fusion’s traffic numbers, “More People Work at Fusion Than Are Reading Its Most Popular Post,” a bit confusing? The fact that 32 people are viewing a single post is brought up, but without saying if that’s how many people are viewing a post at a single second, minute, or hour. [Gawker]
Florida man’s conceptual art piece has his neighbors confused and angry. Piotr Janowsky has wrapped his house and several surrounding trees in aluminum foil. People are not happy about it. [Orlando Weekly via Bmore Art]

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