AMERICAN ART AS WEAPON
Was Robert Rauschenberg’s Venice Biennale Victory Rigged? New documentary explores the scandals surrounding the 1964 show, illuminating the US government’s obsession with its international image
VIDEO
'Taking Venice' Trailer SIFF 2024; Cultural Weaponization; Rauschenberg and the First American to Win the Golden Lion International Grand Prize for Painting
Modern Art was CIA 'Weapon'; Revealed: How The Spy Agency Used Unwitting Artists Such As Pollock and De Kooning In A Cultural Cold War
NYT Review: America's Secret Weapon; A study of how the C.I.A. sponsored modern art exhibitions and literary journals during the cold war; "The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters" (2000)
Excerpt: Chapter One: Exquisite Corpse "The Cultural Cold War; The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters" By Frances Stonor Saunders
Podcast 'Theory of Everything': Not All Propaganda is Art
CONTRETEMPS AT AMERICAN RIVIERA
Julia Friedman: On Amada Cruz’s Cancellation of “Three American Painters: Then and Now” Art history got cancelled at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Artists Protest Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Cancellation of Michael Fried-Inspired Show; In a letter to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s board, eight artists included in the nixed exhibition denounce the “outrageous” termination of the show’s curator, Eik Kahng
What Will Meghan Markle's New Brand 'American Riviera Orchard' Sell?
'Inside Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s Art Empire'; With their envy-inducing holdings, the Dean Collection, the music-industry power couple have helped lead the way for a generation of collectors of Black art. The rest of the world is finally catching up
The Tragic, Poetic, and Ironic Ways in Which Artists Die; New book by former Met Museum archivist Jim Moske assembles a haunting and hilarious revue of artist obituaries from 1906 to 1929
Gossip Makes this Art World; The Ugly Usefulness, and Worthlessness, Of Gossip
The Artful Magic of Tony DeLap Now on Display at The Honarkar Foundation in Laguna Beach
LAWRENCE WESCHLER
a) Si Lewen, Curated by Art Spiegelman, Including His Stunning Anti-War Epic Suite Of Stark Monochromatic Drawings; b) First Movement Of Composer Ernst Toch’s Pulitizer Prize Winning Third Symphony
Kim Fay in Detroit: Laura Whitesides Host at Lawrence Street Gallery; Patterns Patterns Everywhere
Jane Corrigan 'The Noise Upstairs' at Sea View
SAMO BY THE SEA
Backstory: How Gagosian’s Blockbuster LA Basquiat Show Happened; Stars and billionaire lenders had to align for the mega-gallery’s museum-quality show of the late artist’s work, currently on display in Los Angeles
Hear What Happens When Basquiat’s Sisters Met with Filmmaker Tamra Davis, Art Dealer Larry Gagosian, and Author and Curator Fred Hoffman
When MOCA Said "No Thanks!" to This Basquiat; Curator Paul Schimmel Turned it Down
Hunter Drohojowska-Philp: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s LA-made Work Goes on Show at Gagosian
[Hollywood Reporter Exclusive] Hilde Lynn Helphenstein Signs With UTA (United Talent Agency); The visual artist and digital content creator is the force behind the popular Instagram meme account @jerrygogosian
How Galleries Are Increasingly Funding Museum Shows; Museums need support from galleries, but is it only blue-chips landing the best partnerships?
Big Trouble, Two Ways: Jamian Juliano-Villani and Jordan Wolfson Interview Each Other
Jordan Wolfson’s Top 18, UBU, June 2011
Revisiting Jean-Michel Basquiat's Los Angeles Breakthroughs; New show, co-curated by Larry Gagosian, includes works Basquiat made with dismantled fenceposts from the property in Venice that he used as a studio
Taylor Swift's Boyfriend (Travis Kelce) Is Producing the Jean-Michel Basquiat documentary ‘King Pleasure’
Access To Abstraction; Anne Libby and Anna Rosen Find Freedom in Collaboration
When Feminism Ruled CalArts
The Mask Dancers; Costumes are More Sculpture Than Clothing; Early 20th Century
American Painter 'Dorothy Fratt: Color Mirage' at SMoCA, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Sharing The Burden; Selling Chris Burden
NEW ARTS COMEDY 'DAAAAAALÍ!'
Illustrated Review: The Bombastic, Paranoid World of Salvador Dalí; Quentin Dupieux’s new comedy 'Daaaaaalí!' is about an artist trolling the media — and how the media deserves it
VIDEO
Daaaaaalí! (2024) Trailer
HIRST CAUGHT BACKDATING
Damien Hirst Formaldehyde Animal Works Dated To 1990s Were Made In 2017; Three sculptures exhibited in galleries around world were artificially aged, sources claim
Damien Hirst’s Shark Changed My Life. Now He Has Taken A Chainsaw To His Glorious Past; In creating sculptures backdated to the days when his art electrified the world, the former YBA has cast doubt on his youthful legacy and destroyed our belief in his creative future
THE ELUSIVE CADY NOLAND
Cady Noland’s Ultra-Mysterious L.A. Show; Rumor and Innuendo ... ... Update: Artist was not contacted about the show in advance, did not give consent for it, and did not travel to Los Angeles to install it or see it
Absolutely Would Tanya; Artist Cady Noland, Patty Hearst as Bandit
LA, IN ONE WORK OF ART
The Affidavit, a Quarterly Publication, Asks Theodora Allen, Sebastian Gladstone, Glenn Kaino, Patrick Martinez, BJ Panda Bear and Tif Sigfrids to Select a Work of Art that Epitomizes Los Angeles; See Their Choices
Art Report Today, Without Any Doubt, Selects Artist Sandow Birk's 'Los Angeles County Museum on Fire (after Ed Ruscha)' from His Track 16 Show 'Los Angeles and Her Surroundings' [See the Show Here] This seminal work reflects the past and the future of the great city, as well as the sense of humor and social-mindedness of the artist
"Loops" An Essay on Los Angeles by Eliza Barry Callahan; ‘Los Angeles gives me this feeling that I am perpetually on the edge of town. Never arriving’
‘Frida’ Documentary Animated Kahlo’s Paintings. Deal with It; Director Carla Gutierrez on intentionally crafting a documentary about the artist that engages with her writing and her art in revelatory ways
VIDEO
Clip: Painted A Little 'Frida'
Kim Fay in Detroit: Brach Tiller at Louis Buhl & Co.
LAWRENCE WESCHLER
A Special Issue Devoted To James Baldwin at The Centennial Year of His Birth; Discussing James Baldwin With Scholar and Author Rich Blint
VIDEO
Baldwin Readings: Jimmy at High Noon, Part 1
Artist Jennifer West Weaves 'Quilts' Made From Sewn-Together Strips of Film Stock; 'Space Webs' at Gattopardo Gallery
Art Report Today: Michael Delgado: Jason Rhoades at Hauser and Wirth; Cars: Scene and Be Seen; Someone said that People in LA Wear their Cars like People in NY Wear Coats
Abel Guzmán “serás más macho” at la BEAST Gallery
Gray Wielebinski 'Fraticide' at Anat Ebgi
Dan Herschlein 'The Long-Fingered Hand' at Matthew Brown
See Inside the Revelatory Retrospective for Filipino American Artist Pacita Abad
Stromberg: With the Help of LA, a Las Vegas Art Museum Forges Ahead; Of the 30 largest US cities, Las Vegas is the only one without a standalone art museum
Stephen Wong on His Technicolor Landscapes, Where David Hockney Meets Anime
STELLAR SAAR
Betye Saar’s Stellar Installation; A look back on the evolution of the artist’s shapeshifting Celestial Universe
Influences: Betye Saar; The US artist reflects on the art and events that have shaped a career spanning almost seven decades
Valley Guy, Part 3: Kenny Schachter on Fake Kusamas, an Illicit Photo Sale, and Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Star Turn; And our columnist is mulling a move to Los Angeles, despite some fender-benders
MONSIEUR NOUAR
Dans la Cuisine
CHARLIE JAMES GALLERY
Lorena Ochoa 'Ruegos Y Desiertos' at Charlie James Gallery; See the Show
noé olivas 'Gilded Dreams' at Charlie James
Charlie James Gallery at the Recent Felix Art Fair 2024
Will Hutnick 'Sattelite' at Geary Contemporary
SMITHSON'S HOTEL PALENQUE
Non-Sensical Non-Site Non-Art?: Robert Smithson’s “Hotel Palenque”
Bootleg Film of Robert Smithson's Hotel Palenque, Lecture
Chris Burden, The TV Commercials, 1973-77
Matt Stromberg: Major Collection of California Narrative Art Reopens in Orange County; New Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University holds over 5,000 works that plumb the rich history of the Golden State
Rodney Graham 'Paintings and Lightboxes' at Lisson Gallery
That Time Carl Andre Wrote Me a Letter; He copyrighted the letter and ended it with “for your eyes only,” as if to say, don’t even think of showing this to anybody; Whatever happened on that terrible night, Andre felt guilty and lived with that guilt for the rest of his life
Carl Andre Mail Art
Dutch Artist Is Delving Into the Murky Attribution of Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’; Barbara Visser's new film, "Alreadymade," Invites Audiences To Contemplate The Boundaries Between Authenticity And Imitation
This Honolulu Exhibition of David Hockney Prints Trades One Paradise for Another; Show, which brings together sixty year's worth of drawings, collages, photographic works and iPad sketches, is worth the trip to the Aloha State
VIDEO
Reflections on David Hockney
"Art for the People" at the Huntington
The Other Side of Rothko: 5 Intimate, Must-See ‘Paintings on Paper’
Kim Fay in Detroit: Tead One at Janice Charach Gallery; Group SHow of Street Artists
George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” Turns 100; Champion of the great American songbook reveals how Gershwin’s brother, Ira, shaped a musical masterpiece
BEST OF THE WEEK with JERRY GOGOSIAN
New Yorker Cartoons for the Week!