C-MONSTER.net » Massachusetts

The Digest. 07.12.10.

c-monster — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:20:41 +0000

Pennsylvania Excavation, 1907, by George Wesley Bellows, recently acquired by the Smith College Museum of Art. Sorta related, in a dystopic-industrial way: WNYC has added audio to the slideshow and essay I did on my father’s mining images. Please give it a read/listen if you can. (Image courtesy of the Smith College Museum of Art.)

Herman Melville, on surfing.
There are 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf of Mexico. (BLDGBLOG.)
Newsweek has a fascinating story on the decline of American creativity. (@juliaxgulia.)
Infinite Judd. (16 Miles.)
Is Louise Blouin Media stiffing its freelancers?
Brandeis to pimp out lease its art collection through Sotheby’s to raise money.
Stories that make me snort-laugh: Pot smoke seeping into the VAG. What’s more amazing here? The fact that a museum reputedly wants to move because of a bunch of potheads or that the Vancouver Art Gallery is casually referred to as “the VAG?” (Arts Journal.)
Found: One possible Veláquez, in a closet at Yale. Now where oh where did I put that El Greco?
At the Getty: Conserving the Ghent altarpiece.
England’s National Gallery is trying to buy the first known European portrait of a named African sitter. (Arts Journal.)
El Saltzino says that the Whitney’s new downtown building design needs to dedicate more room to the art.
Sorta related: Artist Jennifer Dalton talks about charting El Saltzino’s Facebook page.
Work of Art guest judge Richard Phillips gives Work of Art a thumbs up.
From the Department of Socialite Affairs: W Magazine has a story on the art patrons of Dallas. Unfortunately, the text is not available online, but this slideshow should give you a visual taste. Makes me want to get a blowout.
Andrew Russeth is digging Justin Lowe’s faux CBGB’s bathroom at Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum.
Frame, a trippy-geometric installation by Jordan Tull.
Japanese constructivist posters from the ’30s.
Today’s Graff: Getting geometric with Zedz, Graphic Surgery and Late, in Amsterdam.
On the Detroit ruins-porn aesthetic. (@artnetdotcom.)
Speedos.

The Digest. 02.26.09.

c-monster — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:16:38 +0000

Simon Starling at MassMOCA, on display through Oct. 31, 2009. (Photo by Hargo.)

Ways to be cool.
The Oscar-nominated short I Met the Walrus. (Thanks, Bucker!)
Illuminating nature. (Eyebeam reBlog.)
Painting suburbia: An interview with Sarah McKenzie (whose paintings will be on view at Jen Bekman in NYC through April 4).
The Day in Museum Cutbacks: The High Museum in Atlanta, the Walters, in Baltimore, and the Henry in Seattle.
S.F. city officials still want former Gap head’s museum somewhere in the city, even if plans in the Presidio are not approved.
Museum attendance figures in England. The British Museum, Tate Modern and the National Gallery take spots one through three.
Gone fishing.
Better than gummy worms: Sugar boogars.
A rare, pristine copy of the 1938 Action Comics that launched Superman into the world is coming up for auction.
Legalizing pot would help California generate more than $1 billion annually. (Coudal.)
Today’s Graff: Roa in Belgium.
Shepard Fairey and Mannie Garcia, the AP photographer who took the famous Obama image Fairey borrowed for his iconic poster, to go on NPR’s Fresh Air to talk about the fair-use brouhaha.
Architectural billings index hits an all-time low.
Ada Louise Huxtable on brutalism, Boston and New Haven editions. (Arts Journal.)
A letter from Latin America: Wallpaper has a photo essay on architecture happenings in the lower half of our land mass.
Monster stamps. (NotCot.)
Your moment of Star Trek, claymation Italian opera edition. (Sound Taste.)

Flashback: Cai Guo-Qiang at MassMoCA.

c-monster — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:17:06 +0000

Inopportune Moments by Cai Guo-Qiang at MassMoCA, in 2005. See other shots here and here. Read about Cai’s current show at the Guggenheim here. (Photos by C-M.)

Posted by C-Monster.

Photos: Works from the collection at the Smith College Museum of Art.

c-monster — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:14:52 +0000

Abbé Barthélémy, Jean-Antoine Houdon, 1793-94.

Cue the elevator music: Yahoo is allegedly still trying to figure out what the hell happened to four days worth of C-Monster. (I blame Cheney.) My sorry technological state of affairs, combined with the fact that I’m currently on the road for work, means there will be no Digest today. (In fact, the Digest likely won’t come back until Monday…)

In the meantime, enjoy some pics from the Smith College Museum of Art. The modern and contemporary galleries were closed for re-hanging when I visited, so this photo essay will lean towards the old-school.

Click on images to see ‘em large. Money shots after the jump.

Personification of the River Pyramos, artist unknown, Greco-Roman; Syria; 2nd Century CE.

Rapha Maître, Pierre Auguste Renoir, 1870-71.

Detail: The Death of Leonardo Da Vinci, Jean-August-Dominique Ingres, c. 1851.

Field of poppies, Claude Monet, 1890.

Diptych with St. George, Gäbrä Mänfäs Qeddus, and Seqrates (left); Virgin and Child, Archangels and Three Saints (right); unknown Ethiopian artist, late 17th Century.

Detail: Lady Constance, Arthur and Salisbury, Henry Fuseli, 1783.

Seated Nude, Pablo Picasso, 1922.

Woman with a Monkey, study for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jette, Georges Seurat, 1884.

A cup of tea, Charles Sprague Pearce, 1883.

Death of Rossini, Gustav Doré, 1869.

Marguerite de Conflans, Edouard Manet, 1873.

Detail: The Drinker, Jan Steen, c. 1660-65.

For more on the museum, click here.

Posted by C-Monster.

Photos: Artist bathrooms at the Smith College Museum of Art.

c-monster — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:30:56 +0000

Liquid Origins/Fluid Dreams at the Smith College Museum of Art, aka the men’s bathroom in the museum basement, by Sandy Skoglund.

Who needs the newspaper when you’ve got art? This past weekend, in addition to making a refreshing pilgrimage to the Beer Can Museum, I went to see what was happening at the Smith College Museum of Art. Unfortunately, the modern and contemporary galleries were closed for rejiggering, but I had a great time hanging out in the artist-designed bathrooms in the basement. The men’s and women’s WCs have been done up by artists Sandy Skoglund and Ellen Driscoll, respectively, and look pretty bad-ass.

Click on images to view them large.

The above three images are details from Liquid Origins/Fluid Dreams by Sandy Skoglund (which reminded me of a recent wallpaper installation by Paul Noble at MoMA). Below, photos of Catching the Drift, in the women’s restroom, by Ellen Driscoll.

Driscoll had some trippy poopers.

Happy flushing!

Posted by C-Monster.