Category: visual

“Shepard Fairey, the artist whose ‘Hope’ image of President Barack Obama was added to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, sued the Associated Press over the news company’s copyright challenge to the artwork. Fairey seeks to ‘vindicate’ himself after the AP earlier accused him of copying the AP photograph on which the artist’s red-white-and-blue image of Obama is based, according to a complaint filed today in federal court in New York.”

” The building, a luxury hotel and cultural complex designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, is part of China Central Television’s new headquarters, an angular two-legged behemoth built to coincide with the Beijing Olympics last year.”

“After a week of rumor and speculation, the National Gallery of Art in Washington confirmed that it was the buyer of Bagpipe Player in Profile, a 1624 painting by the Dutch master Hendrick ter Brugghen. Richard Feigen, a New York dealer, purchased the painting at Sotheby’s New York sale on Jan. 29 for $10.2 million.”

A campaign has been “mounted” to get rid of a giant sculpture of a mustang at the entrance to Denver’s airport. “But uprooting public art turns out to be quite tricky. Especially a piece as emotionally freighted — and as critically acclaimed — as Mustang.”

“Longtime pop artist Peter Max has done Obama times 44, in honor of the 44th president. This large installation – 15 feet wide and 6 feet tall – incorporates two Obama photos painted 44 ways by Max in his familiar brightly colored, neo-impressionistic style.”

No, it’s not over that copyright claim by the AP. Shepard Fairey was taken to jail Friday  on his way to the kick-off party for his first solo exhibition – on charges “that he had tagged property in two locations with his street art campaign featuring Andre the Giant and the word ‘obey.'”

The museum’s board of overseers issued a statement objecting to the closing, saying it would be “a breach of faith” with its founders and with supporters who have “sustained the museum for almost 50 years based on agreements and understandings that the Rose Art Museum would be maintained on the Brandeis campus in perpetuity.”

After being laid off twice in a year, John Morefield decided to set-up a booth at a Seattle farmers’ market, where he offers architectural advice for five cents. But “it’s not about the nickels in his tin can. It’s about meeting potential clients and contracts in a time when work is hard to come by.”

Witold Rybczynski: “Architects are unbending in their judgments. My Modernist friends hold multipaned windows, ogee moldings, and wallpaper beneath contempt; my Classicist friends deride bare walls, uncomfortable furniture, and pipe railings… Why are architects so dogmatic? Partly, it’s because architecture is a zero-sum game.”

“Two weeks ago, columnists across the land were rhapsodizing about the glories of the National Mall, where about a million people had just witnessed Barack Obama’s inauguration. … But that was then. Last Wednesday, when the House of Representatives passed the $819 billion economic stimulus bill, Democrats caved in to Republican critics and stripped $200 million for restoring the Mall out of the measure.”