But really, this performance is a triumph. The original piece, set to drumming, is impossible to look away from. It’s wholly compelling and suspenseful while obviously maintaining a sense of humor. It’s time people knew the true origin of “butter dance” and Suryodarmo’s brilliance.
Gene Wilder passed away yesterday at the age of 83. But, apart from his decades-long career in film, he’ll live on for digital perpetuity in countless memes and GIFs.
What made Wilder such a popular figure in internet culture? Likely his unparalleled delivery of physical comedy and ability to communicate such a full range of emotions with as little as a slight cocking of the eye. He’s become the surrogate face of many an internet user—his expressions giving wordless voice to disbelief, bemusement, or panic beyond the descriptive powers of language.
What a talented face. It will be missed, and likely never forgotten.
Joel Goodman’s photo of drunk New Years Eve revelers in Manchester has been compared to a Renaissance painting. Twitter user Roland Hughes is the man who made it go viral. This is his story. [BBC News]
Someone stole a plaster study of Abraham Lincoln’s hands by the sculptor George Grey Barnard from the Kankakee Country Museum, about an hour south of Chicago. People are really, really upset about it. [The New York Times]
Robert Irwin has been making the press rounds in anticipation of the July unveiling of his $5 million “magnus opus” permanent installation at the Chanti Foundation in Marfa, Texas. The 13,000 square foot work, coinciding with the Foundation’s 30th anniversary, will be a C-shaped building with black and white scrim walls and a courtyard with Palo Verde trees and Stonehedge-like basalt columns. According to Irwin, it’ll be “a kind of walk-in Dutch landscape painting.” [New York Times, Wall Street Journal]
Art dealer/heir Guy Wildenstein went on trial today in Paris for tax evasion. The French-American is accused of hiding assets he inherited from his father in various trusts and holdings around the globe, such as artwork, horses, and a 75,000 acre ranch in Kenya where the film “Out of Africa” was shot. [ABC News]
NYC canine owners: Laurie Anderson will be giving a concert for dogs in Times Square this evening. [New York Times]
The recent Consumer Electronics show presented yet another install strategy for video and digital artists: an 18-inch display that rolls up like a newspaper. Turns out LG has been doing a bunch of “OLED” work in bendable, curving displays. [The Verge]
Coachella will be getting its own art world counterpart in April 2017: Desert X. The biennale will run during the music festival, and is being spearheaded by a non-profit whose board include Ed Ruscha, Coachella art director Paul Clemente, and former Palm Springs Art Museum director Steve Nash. [artnet News]
The UK government has created a £30 million fund to help preserve antiquities in global conflict zones. [The Art Newspaper]
On the ephemeral nature of Josh Kline’s 3-D printed sculptures, and how it challenges the work of the Whitney’s conservation department. [The New Yorker]
Joel Wachs, president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, on how artists’ foundations offer an important funding alternative to the market or public sector. [Blouin Artinfo]
Oh no! A homecare worker has been charged with assaulting I. M. Pei last month. [Dezeen]
Brad Fiore takes a critical look at the paintings of art critic and artist Pedro Velez. He says he felt ambivalence towards the new paintings, now absent of the critical commentary he’s known for, but seems to think they’re more compelling in the context of his twitter feed. [Palliate Blog]
Artists Space redesigned their website, getting rid of their big, neon, triangular, blinking web 1.0 cursor. [Artists Space via Rhizome]After the opening of Yayoi Kusama’s current show at David Zwirner, people were waiting in line for hours to see Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Rooms.” The gallery’s solution to this ridiculous problem: 45-second-long sessions inside the rooms. [Wall Street Journal]
This profile of David Zwirner doesn’t spill too many trade secrets, but offers a clear history of Zwirner’s rise and the sheer volume of business being done in the upper tiers of the art world. [The New Yorker]
“He spoke to his paintings. They were his friends, the loyal companions that didn’t exist in his real life.” Der Spiegel profiles Cornelius Gurlitt, best known as the man responsible for hiding a recently unearthed collection of Nazi-looted artworks. [Der Spiegel]
Citing rising rents in a building owned by Cooper Union, St. Marks Bookshop is moving a few doors down in the East Village. [CBS]
Last night, members of Free Cooper Union put on dinner-theater reading at e-flux where they read aloud from documents leaked from their college’s trustees. In case you missed it, there’s a livestream. [Free Cooper Union]
Oddly, Peter Schjeldahl begins his review of Isa Genzken’s show at MoMA by painting a picture of her as a fairly unknown artist. [The New Yorker]
Memes: Take a look at miaow – Features, Gadgets & Tech – The Independent – This whole article makes me want to buy Cole Stryker’s forthcoming book, “Epic Win for Anonymous: How 4chan’s Army Conquered the Web”
Fiercely Independent. New York art news, reviews and culture commentary. Paddy Johnson, Editorial Director Michael Anthony Farley, Senior Editor Whitney Kimball, IMG MGMT Editor
Contact us at: paddyATartfcity.com
