Image via SodaHead
- White Castle is booking reservations for Valentine’s Day. The number is (718) 899-8404, ext. 311. [Gothamist]
- If the battle is actually on between MoMA and the Met’s contemporary collection, then according to Roberta Smith, the Met’s playing its cards right. It takes a “salad” approach to Modernism rather than separating it regionally and by period. She credits Sheena Wagstaff with this turnaround, the director of the Met’s Contemporary and Modern section since 2012. [The New York Times]
- Legendary Swiss dealer Bruno Bischofberger will close his space in the summer and New York based dealer and celebrity magnet Vito Schnabel will take over. [Artnet news]
- Private giving sustains art museums. No surprises there, but the numbers are interesting. According to the Association of Art Museum Directors, the average museum goer spends $7.93 on their visit, while the museum spends $52.17. Philanthropy accounts for 33% of a museum’s budget. [Hyperallergic]
- Lebanese artists pay tribute to #jesuischarlie. [Banana Pook]
- The Canadian Harper government has started a re-election fundraising campaign in response to the Paris terrorist attacks. This is being criticized by many on twitter for being exploitive and in poor taste. [Twitter]
- Bieber weiner news! Apparently, unretouched photos from Bieber’s Calvin Klein shoot were released by a source who found Bieber insufferable on set. [Gawker]
- Performa is organizing a tribute to Ray Johnson in November, thus prompting Randy Kennedy’s reflection on his career. “He was making work that looked like Pop in the 1950s, years before his friend and sometime rival Andy Warhol did. He was a performance artist before there was a term for such a thing….He was the father of mail art.” And in 1995 he jumped off a bridge and killed himself. No one knows why. [The New York Times]
- In Paris, several hostages have now been taken by two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo murders. We are watching. [Mother Jones]
- In Russia, a proposed law would take away transgendered people’s right to drive. Also, people with gambling addictions, shoplifters, the S&M community, foot fetishists, and necrophiles. [vocativ]
- The infamous Brooklyn cat-kicker will not be going to jail for a year, as he could have, according to the New York Daily News. He’s now being tried for a B misdemeanor, which calls for a maximum jail sentence of 90 days. [Animal New York, via New York Daily News]
