C-MONSTER.net

For the homegirls: Old Chola in L.A. (Photo by C-M.)

Better late than never.

• Tree art.
• Provocatively-titled guerilla art show, that riffed on the idea of the assassinations of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, is shut down in NYC.
• The Whitney has a few pix of the Mapplethorpe Polaroids exhibit up on its Flickr page.
• New guidelines for museums for antiquities acquisitions. Rule #1: Never buy anything outta the back of a truck.
• Detroit cops raid the Contemporary Art Institute for after-hours drinking. Because, clearly, there is no crime in Detroit so the police have nothing better to do than to go after a bunch of white-wine sipping art nerds.
• Malcolm McLaren is blogging about Basel. Thus far: He’s had lunch at Trois Rois, been invited to dinner by Sam Keller, unveiled his “musical paintings” (???) and dropped a whole lotta names. In related stories: Super rich Russian guy shows up at Basel, meriting numerous column inches in the Art Newspaper. Also spotted: Brad Pitt.
• Plus, the art industrial average is still strong: Americans may not be buying, but apparently European collectors are happy to wield their Euros.
• Photo Essay: Cy Twombly at the Tate Modern.
• Yesterday was the 40^th Anniversary of Valerie Solanas’ assassination attempt on Andy Warhol.
• The Chanel art pod hits Japan. In a related story: The Guardian analyzes the growing confluence of art and retail. (Silly question: Isn’t an art gallery a retail shop of sorts?)
• The 10 Most Worthless College Majors, according to Holy Taco. Art History comes in at #10: “With an art history degree you could maybe curate an art gallery or work at a museum or….yeah, that’s it. That’s all you can do. And seeing as how every art gallery and museum I’ve ever been to has exactly one dude sitting quietly at a desk reading a New Yorker and eating a food that requires chopsticks, I’m going to go ahead and assume there’s not a lot of positions open in the field.” (Via WBE.)
• The Sahara-ization of Spain.
• Rudolph Schindler-designed home in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon is donated to the MAK Center for Art and Architecture.
• A McCain/Viagra billboard jam by Ron English.
• Graff of the Day: Keske and Kaze in Russia.
• Graffiti writer Cope2 does a commercial piece for a new website by Barnes & Noble.
• A video Q&A with Space Invader. (Via Ekosystem.)
• Your moment of Monty Python meets Star Trek.