Monthly Archive for August, 2008

Detail: Portrait of Juan Torres, 1920, by Salvador Dalí at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona. (Photo by C-M.)

• Sometimes this shit just writes itself: “Giant dog turd wreaks havoc at Swiss Museum” (via A.J.). Literally. In related news: the Shit Box (via ackackack).
• The Week in Being Not Surprised: City of L.A. wants to replace Ed Ruscha’s outdoor studio with a parking lot.
• The U.S. Gummint is happy to spend bajillions on architects and engineers, but expects artists to work for free. (Via AFC.)
• Why offshore drilling won’t solve our energy problems.
• Sounds like a conceptual piece by Maurizio Cattelan: Auctioneer to sell the work of Pietro Saier, a collaborator of Warhol’s who experts say likely didn’t exist. Saier, who is quoted on the sales website as having said that he chose “not to take the limelight from Warhol,” allegedly died in the ’04 tsunami, when his body was swept away from the Sri Lankan coast.
• Italian culture minister is not a happy camper with the proposed expansion of the Uffizi in Florence, stating that architect Arata Isozaki’s contemporary design will “provoke a kind of Stendhal’s syndrome in reverse.”
• LACMA acquires 3,500 pictures, including images by Edward Steichen, Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. More here.
• Last nail in the meatpacking district’s coffin: The Whitney Museum gets its downtown plans approved by New York City’s planning commission.
• Repairing art damaged by natural disasters. Related: University of Iowa regents are exploring the idea of selling the university museum’s 1943 Pollock masterpiece Mural (for flood recovery cash flow purposes), a move the museum’s director unconditionally opposes. More here and here.
• Two lawsuits seek to establish ownership of 17 works by Martín Ramírez, the outsider artist who lived in a California state mental institution for much of his life.
• The olive loaf rug.
• Graff of the Day: Sam3 in Sicily. (Via Ekosystem.)
• Bloomberg News takes a look at how Steve Powers’ (a.k.a. Espo) Coney Island waterboard thrill ride fits into the larger Coney Island scene.
• In London: An Olympic viewing platform by the Office of Subversive Architecture.
• The first full review of Beijing’s CCTV building by OMA in the Times of London: “Its Orwellian looks and, indeed, function mean that this is no easy building to love. But you can’t deny its power.” (Via Unbeige.)
• Vintage color photos of U.S. cities. (Via Eyebeam.)
• Because nothing says “coast” like concrete: The tetrapod beaches of Japan.
• The Day in Stoner Video.
• Peanut Butter Motherfucker.
• Your moment of deconstructed sports videos.

Mare de Deu de la Llet, 1520 at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona. (Photo by C-M.)

• The best art website ever. More here.
• What the city of Denver has in the art hopper for the Democratic Convention.
• David Byrne’s New York City bicycle racks.
• Art Review of the Day: The Times of London on Tracey Emin. “What gives her work its consequence is what she unwittingly reveals of the world we inhabit. There, celebrity is more important than real achievement, self-revelation more gripping than anything created by talent and a considerable imagination. For the artist herself, the chief purpose of art is as a means of achieving fame. God help us.”
• Audio Slide Show: The Provincetown of Edward Hopper.
• ¡Culture Smackdown! Art to Go vs. Amy Tan on the subject of writerly freedoms in China.
• The Season in Striking a Pose, Leaning Tower of Pisa Edition. (Via The Moment.)
• New company to assume production of some Polaroid materials. Not that it will do most people any good, since they’ll only be producing the materials for one of their humongo-format cameras.
• How English is evolving into a language we may not understand.
• A Q&A with Buff Monster. Interesting fact: he went to USC business school.
• Graff of the Day: Jaye, Kashink and Limit in France. More from Kashink here.
• For the dedicated graffheads: Video of Barry McGee’s presentation at Carnegie International. He does a slide show of his photos of S.F. graffiti and talks, off the cuff (and quite hilariously), about them. The high art audience seems to have no idea what’s going on.
• The Graffiti Coloring Book. (Via Ekosystem.)
• The Homer Simpson Euro.
• Me, me me…on the subject of renting mid-century vacation homes in Palm Springs. Photo essay here.
• A directory of motel postcards from the ‘50s and ‘60s. (Courtesy of Mlle. Connasse, who is currently holed up at the University Motel in Ann Arbor, sipping Vodka Stingers in the company of a corn-fed young college student named Bif.)
• Tattoos of classic chairs. (Via NotCot.)
• The psychological impact of urban infrastructure.
• A fascinating story in the L.A. Times on how smog affects architecture.
• Little boxes…that look damn awesome: Carabanchel Housing by dosmasuno architects in Madrid.
• Your moment of how to draw Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium.