Fig. 3 The first panel of the “beach” strip drawn by Ernie Bushmiller, also in response to Samuel Beckett’s first letter. (c.f. EB letter of Sept. 11, 1952; SB letter of Sept. 18, 1952.)
- Howard Halle brilliantly captures Joe Bradley’s strengths and weaknesses as a painter while responding to his latest show at Gavin Brown Enterprises. It’s impossible to sum up in a two line distillation of a review, so you’re just going to have to read it all. [Time Out]
- Mark Tribe will now be chairing the MFA program in Fine Arts at SVA. [ArtInfo]
- Pretty funny: Playwright Samuel Beckett (best known for Waiting for Godot) and cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller (best known for the comic strip Nancy) enjoyed extended correspondence in the 50s. Bushmiller worked up a few ideas Beckett had for his strip, Beckett self-deprecated. It’s so surreal you’d think they’d have to have been fabricated…hey, wait a minute. [The American Reader via: Giovanni Garcia-Fenech]
- The Russian corruption police are up in arms again. This time, they’re investigating Russian art magnate Marat Guelman for corruption and showing work by artists involved with “extremism”. In addition, he has been fired from his post as Director of the Perm Museum of Art, a seaside museum he founded in 2008. [The Art Newspaper]
- We really don’t understand this: Basel police raided an outlaw party that had occupied Tadashi Kawamata’s Art Basel Favela, firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the small crowd of dancing partiers. Why? Because they were without a permit? According to Greg Allen, it seems an event organizer had erected a favela DJ booth of their own. An offense surely meriting violence. [Greg Allen]
- Bloomberg grants $15 million to museums including MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Art Institute of Chicago to update their mobile apps. This sucks for smaller museums, since they’ll have to make do with their stick-and-mud walkie talkies. [Artforum]
