Jeff Melanson’s career is cooked. The high profile arts administrator has been served a 34-page court application filed by his estranged wife Eleanor McCain. The application is packed with allegations of behind-the-scenes abuses and misconduct at three major arts organizations where Mr. Melanson has worked in the past decade – the National Ballet School, the Banff Centre and the TSO. Yikes. [The Globe and Mail]
If you’re looking for your Monday morning courtroom drama, Gawker’s got you covered: they have conveniently provided a live feed of the Hulk Hogan v. Gawker trial. [Gawker]
Blake Gopnik clearly has a Google alert for Warhol. (Makes sense, since his Twitter bio confirms he’s been working on a “giant bio” on the pop artist since, well, the amount of time you’ve seen him on panels or at lectures discussing the artist.) Nonetheless, sad news: Warhol’s surgeon, whose operation on Warhol after he was nearly killed by Valerie Solanas in 1968 was called “one of the great saves in surgical history” — died today. [artnet News]
“What was once reserved for the best, the most awe-inspiring and the wondrous is now routinely deployed for the mundane, the banal and the taste of fro-yo.” On the sad and nebulous overuse of the adverb “super”. [New York Times]
An artist’s rendering of presidential candidate Donald Trump, naked and with a pencil-sized dick, has gotten her banned from Facebook—perhaps indefinitely. Illma Gore says “The idea was to take a man who prides his image and reputation and confront him with it,” [Hyperallergic]
Curator Daniel Palmer observes that while the rise of speculative collecting has buoyed the professionalization of the emerging artist, the market has recalibrated goals as well. Artists now, build a practice geared towards short-lived commercial success rather than a career. [Artnews]
