Category: visual

“Ask the proverbial person on the street to name a famous painting, and chances are you’ll get an answer, whether it’s Andy’s Marilyn or Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. Yet ask that person to name an important photograph, and silence is all you’ll receive.” Most of us barely remember Larry Sultan, yet “the ‘accidental,’ anti-masterpiece nature of his best work, which has acted to muffle his renown, may ultimately guarantee it.”

“The twin artists Mike and Doug Starn will be creating a site-specific installation that is part sculpture, part architecture and part performance on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art [this summer].”

“More than 1,200 works from Polaroid’s corporate collection, chronicling decades of artistic experimentation by Andy Warhol, Chuck Close and others who pushed the aesthetic boundaries of the instant-film process, will be hammered away by order of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota.”

Tribeca restaurant Chanterelle, which closed last fall, “asked artists to design about 65 menu covers” during its three-decade run. “Now, the [owners] have put dozens of the covers up for sale to help pay their creditors. Among the artists were Robert Indiana, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Eric Fischl, Ellsworth Kelly and Cy Twombly.”

“The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles spent much of 2009 getting its financial house in order after coming perilously close to collapse due to budgetary mismanagement. But the museum’s near-death experience apparently didn’t stop it from adding major works of art to its permanent collection last year.”

Patrick Skoff’s M.O. is simple: He abandons his paintings, one by one, in public places. “He tools around Chicago for a few hours and leaves hundreds of dollars worth of his art in random spots. He drops hints about the locations via Twitter and texts. Then he goes home.”

“The winning bidder on a Qing Dynasty cloisonne censer and cover failed to pay ‘despite repeated requests and demands,’ Sotheby’s said in a copy of its Jan. 30 filing to [Hong Kong]’s High Court…. The U.S.- based auction house is also pursuing another buyer who won five antique paintings and wouldn’t pay.”

“The 124th-floor viewing platform, the only part of the 828-metre structure previously open to the public, has closed. And the date of its reopening is unknown.” The building’s developer is blaming unexpectedly heavy visitor traffic and “technical issues with the power supply”; the tower had problems with its elevators last week.

“The Judith Rothschild Foundation has paid at least some of the grant money that it had neglected to award to 17 arts groups last year, according to one recipient.”

“Until now, [Dartmouth College mathematics department Chairman Daniel] Rockmore has only tested his program on Bruegel drawings, but he says there is no reason it could not be used for other artists. While it can identify suspicious works, it cannot definitively prove that they are fake.”