by Paddy Johnson and Rea McNamara on February 26, 2016
- Newfoundland finally has its own “Pigasso”: Izzy, a two year old pig who plays the piano, dabbles in ring toss and paints. She uses her head and snout, and already has a Facebook page selling her works for under $20. Paddy thinks Warhol’s piss paintings are better, but with the Canadian dollar just three quarters of the American, it’s at the very least an easy way to build that animal art collection.) [CBC News]
- Sotheby’s CEO confirms their most recent sales period is lower than in the 2013 and 2014 periods. On top of that, even though overtures are made that they’re focusing on retaining talent, two of their top dealmakers have bounced: Alex Rotter, co-head of their contemporary art department and David Norman, co-chairman of their Impressionist and modern art world-wide. The exits follow the November exodus of senior experts following a management shake-up. [Bloomberg News]
- Jim Windolf, the New York Times’ Men’s Style editor, is live-tweeting the late delivery of a Will Forte profile from writer George Gurley. Trigger warning: any writer who has pushed back at a deadline might suffer PTSD flare ups in reading the despairing communiqués from Gurley. [@jimwindolf]
- Related: turns out writers and spies have a lot in common — isolation, loss of perspective, a willingness to disappear, alcoholism. [Lapham’s Quarterly]
- Barry Schwabsky punctures the mythic balloon of Black Mountain College, the subject of a touring exhibition that’s been at Boston’s ICA and is now at the Hammer until May. “Why the recurring preoccupation with a short-lived, unaccredited school at the back of beyond, which never had enough students to pay its way?” he asks. While Schwabsky acknowledges its creative optimism and “infectious sense of possibility”, he points out its illusions: the school’s impossible internal politics, and “an education philosophy based on ‘the whole person’ gave no indication of how to square the conflicting goals of community and individuality.” [The Nation]
- The digital age has flooded us with images and reproductions of everything and anything. That has its ups and downs, but certainly one “up” is that this iconic Gordon Parks photograph of Ella Watson is available for anyone to purchase and put up in their homes thanks to 20×200. The image shows Watson, an African American, with a broom and a mop standing in front of an American flag. Parks once called the photograph an indictment of America. [20×200]
- Artprize has announced its partnership with Independent Curators International (ICI). ICI will develop three curatorial mentorship programs intended to pump up the experience of curators and partner institutions participating in the ArtPrize Fellowship for Emerging Curators. [Artprize]
- There is an editor asleep at the wheel over the Observer. Ryan Steadman interviews NewHive curator Lindsay Howard about online art, and begins his questions with the following outdated cliche “The Internet Art is still so new to the art world that it feels a bit like the Wild West”. Later he tells Howard she “legitimized” digital art by organizing the first auction of digital art at Phillips. Howard, in her answer, not only doesn’t challenge the assumption that only the sale of culture legitimizes it, but fails to mention the collaborators who approached her with the idea to do the auction in the first place: Megan Newcome and Annie Werner. Other than that, a great interview. [The Observer]
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