The Digest. 01.15.08.

Batcave, with Gore-B. Photo by f. trainer.

• Keeping art conservators employed: Jeff Koons on the unstable materials sometimes used in his works: “A lot of my work has a maintenance aspect. Being a collector is a responsibility. We try to educate people about their ongoing obligations.” (Via Art Observed.)
• The insufferability industrial average just went up: Julian Schnabel wins a Golden Globe for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
• “What does it mean to be an artist in this era of corporate feudalism?” A new blog, Sellout, chews on the answers. (Via Winkleman.)
• In related blogs: The Chronicle of Artistic Failure in America. (Via Art to Go.)
• From the Department of It’s About Fucking Time: The Met buys its first work by a contemporary African artist. (Via Arts Journal.)
• LACMA’s Michael Govan says nice things about Eli Broad.
• Orange County airport mangles local artist’s work.
• Bigger than Christo: Olafur Eliasson plans public art project for NYC’s East River. (Via Figure Painting.)
• The Day in Crazy: Bidder pays US$407,000 for a Banksy wall in Notting Hill. That they will then have to pay to have removed.
• Historic graffiti wall at 151 Wooster Street: Not so historic.
• Visual Nuggets: The work of Jason Hackenwerth.
• A story about Robert Rauschenberg at Pace Wildenstein. In related news: One of his montages in this show contains images of work by NYC street artists Judith Supine, Elbow Toe, Gaia and Kelly Burns.
• A list of the best bars in which to admire the architecture.
• I want, I need, I have to have: a $400 soccer ball.
• Body heat to warm office building. (Via Eyebeam reBlog.)
• Marjane Satrapi on the term graphic novel: “It’s a word that publishers created for the bourgeois to read comics without feeling bad.”
• You too can own Max Yasgur’s farm.
• Nature Break: Icebergs. What’s left of them.
• In Florence: Ericailcane in Drawing Out 1 at Biagiotti Progetto Arte, through January 18^th.
• In NYC: Mark Bradford at Sikkema Jenkins.
• Online: Aurora Robson at SQFT.
• Your moment of paint jam.