Miscellany. 02.01.13.
Free Weed, 2012, by Gary Panter. Part of the artist’s solo exhibit, The Magnetic Lady, at Fredericks & Freiser in Chelsea, on view through February 23. (Image courtesy of the artist and Fredericks & Freiser.)
- The Play Generated Map & Document Archive. Think: hand-drawn Dungeons & Dragons maps.
- The Met just launched a damn interesting online project called 82nd & 5th, in which the museum’s curators talk about the works in the collection that most inspire them. Production qualities are good and not artspeak-y.
- The art market as Potemkin Village: the Larry Gagosian pile-on continues…in New York Mag.
- And because too much art market is never enough: the market says it can totally regulate its fake auction bidding and lack of transparent pricing on its own, thank you very much. (The quotes in this NYT story are priceless, btw — totally good for a snort-laugh.)
- Would love to lock George Baselitz in a dim room with Lee Bontecou and some power tools. More here.
- Big profile of Catherine Opie in the LA Times, in which she talks plenty about her work — and why she left MOCA’s board.
- The women of Mexico’s drug war.
- Color photography’s racist legacy. (Via @ebogjohnson.)
- New Jersey state of mind.
- An interesting critique of the work of Jared Diamond: Jackson Lears discusses his neoliberal assumptions — or how he fails to account for imperialism.
- You didn’t build that: American infrastructure ranks 25th in the world, behind most advanced countries and even some developing nations. (@paulgoldberger.)
- The New Yorker has an interesting story on the history of income tax and how anti-tax sentiment in the U.S. has its roots in slavery. Grotesque, essential reading. (Subscription required.)
- A wild piece in Smithsonian Magazine about a family lost in time in the Siberian wilderness.
- 10 Things to Know About Taking the Bus in Los Angeles. Number 11: It’s a great place to be lit.