A cover image from Jim Linderman’s collection of VEA, a Mexican pinup magazine from the 1950s. (Dull Tool Dim Bulb.)

The MOCA Mess

Good lord, this one is a doozy. L.A.’s MOCA has canned its best curator — Paul Schimmel, the dude who pretty much put the museum on the map — in a series of telenovela-esque machinations that should be accompanied by bad organ music. After seemingly being caught totally flat-footed on the PR front, the museum said the firing (er, ‘resignation’) was the board’s decision — even though curator firings are typically the work of the museum’s director (who in this case is former gallerist Jeffrey Deitch, who is remaining mum). Then, the one non-voting member of the board, who happens to be an incredibly powerful rich guy, writes a big op-ed about it, saying the museum just needs to be more populist. (‘Cuz what L.A. really needs is more barely-thought-out, mass market entertainment.) In the meantime, as Christopher Knight points out, the museum remains in the pooper financially and is now headed into the pooper aesthetically. The biggest loser in all of this? Us.

Linkage

• Sorta related: tied to MOCA’s fascinating show on land art, William Poundstone explores the origins of the form. He says it started with Fluxus.
• Christopher Hawthorne has an interesting essay on how Michael Govan is remaking the LACMA campus at an architectural level — with very big art.
• The very thoughtful Ben Davis on the end of ArtNet Magazine: “I don’t think that the art world is particularly lovable without its odd creatures. In fact, it is quite hateable.” (@chaykak.)
• How do you lose a Sol Lewitt?
• Shredding, and other ways of interacting with public art. (A good follow-up to San Suzie’s post about sculpture preservation from yesterday.)
• Bummed I’m missing the Caribbean Crossroads series of exhibits in NYC.
• Tijuana piggy banks as a mirror of U.S. popular culture.
• Why the Higgs boson wasn’t discovered in the U.S.
• Killer interview with Junot Diaz about Oscar Wao and decolonial love.
• Josh Kun has a most excellent essay on Yo Soy 132 and the sounds of Mexico’s political movements.
• The downside of liberty: It makes us selfish.
• Your moment of trippy video: punk gymnastics meets the Miami Marine Stadium. Whoa. (Gracias, San Suzie.)