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– THE BIG STORY –
Jonathan Jones, the art critic for the Guardian, has long been a gleefully pugilistic force in his country’s contemporary art world, following in the combative footsteps of figures like Robert Hughes whose ex cathedra pronouncements were often delivered with the intent of drawing artistic blood. But now, in a thoughtful new essay, Jones looks back on his critical slams of artists like Ron Mueck and Mark Leckey and concludes: “What was I thinking? Criticism in the age of social media has to be much more playful and giving.” He then opens up the conversation to his readers, asking them to suggest subjects for his coming talk at the Guardian Open Weekend festival. He adds that “I find it hard to get as angry as I used to,” and suggests his new approach is going to be much more driven by an idea of “sharing.” It’s a striking position for a critic to take, especially in Britain, where the Fleet Street tradition has relied on strongly held stances, with no quarter given to dispute. But in American art criticism, actually, the kinder, gentler approach he’s proposing is pretty much par for the course.
– QUOTE OF THE DAY –
“People really don’t know what I’m doing. There’s absolutely no interest in my work in most places. You know this is the fifth show with Lisson and I’ve only sold two pieces. Anish Kapoor bought one.” – The artist Dan Graham on the difficulties he has had in getting the market to recognize his work, despite his sculptural environments and conceptual interventions being revered by artists and critics
– MUST READ –
Picasso, at Work and at Play – The Guardian has a wonderful slide show of photographs that Life magazine lensman David Douglas Duncan took of the Spanish master, including one that shows him doing his famously entertaining rendition of a traditional Catalan dance. (Guardian)
Herb Ritts, Ambassador of L.A. Style – Writing about the late fashion photographer, who has a retrospective opening at the Getty next month, Cathy Horyn says, “you cannot imagine the 1980s and ’90s in America without the photographs of Herb Ritts.” (NYT)
Due to Popular Demand? – A website called Nipples at the Met has launched, devoted to exactly that: photographs of all of the nipples that can be seen in the paintings and sculptures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Nipples at the Met, via Modern Art Notes)
The 20 Wackiest Artist Residencies – Following its roundup of prestigious artist residencies around the U.S., Artinfo now presents a list of the weirder ones, from Andrea Zittel‘s art island to the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program. (Artinfo)
Gehry-Eisenhower Memorial Feud Continues – The architect is defending his plan for the late president’s memorial, but says he is open to exploring other options as well. (LAT)
– ART MARKET –
China Confirmed as World Art Market Leader – Seconding Artprice‘s findings, The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) reports that China commanded a 30 percent share of the world’s art and antiques market in 2011, generating $60.8 billion and edging ahead of the United States, which holds a 29 percent market share. (BBC)
What’s the Difference Between Warhol and Damien Hirst? – By embracing the role of capitalist artist even more thoroughly than his predecessor, Hirst “has enjoyed far more commercial success than Warhol ever did,” writes Colin Gleadell. (Telegraph)
Is the Greek Art Market Full of Forgeries? — A lawsuit that a collector filed against Sotheby’s over allegedly fake Constantin Parthenis paintings is feared to be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Greek art, where lax scholarship and documentation have opened the door to art fraud on a grand scale. (TAN)
– IN & OUT –
The Brooklyn street artist Swoon has traveled to Kenya, where she is leading an art project for child rape victims at a rescue center devoted to taking the government to court over atrocities. (HuffPo)
The Whitney Museum has commissioned a pop-up studio for its educational programming from the firm LOT-EK, and it will open this April in the institution’s sculpture courtyard. (Press Release)
LACMA is preparing a major survey of Thomas Hart Benton, the great American painter who taught Jackson Pollock and whom the art critic Dave Hickey recently proposed, fascinatingly, as a stylistic predecessor to the more or less sui generis John Chamberlain. (LAT)
Plans for the BMW Guggenheim Lab to travel to Berlin have been called off after the project was threatened with violence by a radical left-wing faction that believed it would result in higher rents for the neighborhood. (Gallerist NY)
LACMA has launched a Tumblr… and it has an awful lot of artworks featuring cats. (LACMA)
Happy birthday to Yayoi Kusama, the zany Japanese artist who turns 83 today, according to the Internet’s most dogged scoopmeisters of celebrity birthday news. (Huffington Post)
