Our most-talked-about stories in Art, Design & Fashion, and Performing Arts, May 28-June 1, 2012:

ART

— After a 10-month lockout that galvanized the artists and labor activists alike, Sotheby's and its unionized art handlers finally reached an agreement that will see all 42 employees heading back to work at the Upper East Side auction house in the coming weeks. Julia Halperin broke down the specific terms of the agreement, asking if it was really a win for the union, while Shane Ferro wondered where Mayor Bloomberg was in the whole thing.

— Julia Halperin looked into the case of a Sol LeWitt wall drawing that became worthless after a gallery lost its certificate of authenticity, prompting its owner to sue.

— To mark the Viennese artist's 150th birthday, the Neue Galerie opened a Gustav Klimt retrospective highlighting his landscape paintings and golden portraits of women.

— Timed to coincide with its new Land Art exhibition, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art launched an online atlas letting users explore enormous earthworks on their computers.

— In time for the monarch's Diamond Jubilee, faux-papparazzo artist Alison Jackson unveiled new photographs that seem to depict candid moments with Queen Elizabeth II.

DESIGN & FASHION

— Hot-shot photographer Tyler Shields responded to criticism of an image featuring a $100,000 Hermès Birkin bag engulfed in flames. Our own Ann Binlot got him to promise to give $100,000 to a needy family to make amends.

— Dasha Zhukova enlisted Japanese architect Shigeru Ban to design a temporary pavilion in Moscow's Gorky Park made of paper tubes to house her Garage Center while it awaits the construction of its new OMA-designed home.

— Surrealist director David Lynch premiered a new custom-designed room he created at Paris's Hotel Lutetia.

— Soccer star David Beckham became the first man to be featured in a solo shoot on the cover of Elle U.K. in the magazine's 26-year-history.

— A new anti-counterfeiting ad campaign in France threatened jail time for anyone buying or selling fake luxury goods.

PERFORMING ARTS

— J. Hoberman tackled Palestinian photographer Emad Burnat and Israeli activist Guy Davidi's intensely subjective first-person documentary "5 Broken Cameras."

— Jay-Z and Kanye West released the riotous Romain Gavras-directed music video for their track "No Church in the Wild."

— Graham Fuller looked at Film Forum's new Spaghetti Western series, which includes the Sergio Corbucci classic that inspired Quentin Tarantino's forthcoming "Django Unchained."

— Following news that the unlikely hit "Hands on a Hardbody" will come to Broadway next season, Patrick Pacheco noted the growing number of musicals with pop music sensibilities.

— Tony-winner Scott Wittman discussed his new musical about the life and work of Warhol superstar and drag legend Jackie Curtis.

Folk and bluegrass pioneer Doc Watson died Tuesday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was 89.

SYDNEY — Now in its fourth year, Vivid Sydney is once again lighting up the harbor city and transforming iconic venues into spectacular canvases for light, music, and ideas. A major celebration of the creative industries and the biggest festival of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, Vivid Sydney — which continues through June 11 — is coming off a wildly successful 2011 edition, which attracted over 400,000 and was ranked one of the world's best ideas festivals by the Guardian.

For Vivid Sydney 2012, the German large-scale projectionists URBANSCREEN were commissioned to create a new artwork transforming the distinctive rooftop "sails" of Jørn Utzon's iconic Sydney Opera House. The amazing work explores both the unique sculptural form of the Opera House, and its role as a home for music, dance, and drama, resulting in a projection that is both sophisticated and spectacular. From gravity-defying figures that dance their way around the roof of the building to a beautiful transformation of its trademark sails into ephemeral, fluttering materials, URBANSCREEN surpassed all expectations with this amazing project.

The German group has taken light projection, video mapping, and motion graphics to extraordinary heights in their many large-scale installations, including commissions from major art galleries, international festivals and opera companies. Recent works showcase their versatile and sensitive engagement with architecture, from the dream-themed "555 Kubik" at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and a production of Mozart’s "Idomeneo" at Theatre Bremen, to the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Museums Quartier in Vienna — highlighting Creative Director Thorsten Bauer’s musical approach to institutions.

URBANSCREEN's projection is also part of Vivid LIVE (through June 3), an artist-driven festival featuring special commissions, one-off events, and Australian premieres. Legendary, influential, and emerging artists are encouraged to make the performance spaces, foyers, rehearsal rooms, and recording studios of the Sydney Opera House their own — to create something as momentous and innovative as the architecture itself.

Watch URBANSCREEN's projection on the Sydney Opera House:

This article originally appeared on ARTINFO Australia.

REIMS — "Soft Work," Sterling Ruby's first solo show in France, opened last week at the Champagne-Ardenne FRAC in Reims. It focuses on several new pieces in an ensemble first conceived in 2005, and marks a departure for the artist, who previously worked primarily with more solid materials. Here, as the title indicates, softness predominates through the use of stuffed fabric — but the ideas are hard-hitting.

The exhibition was curated by FRAC director Florence Derieux — a different version of it was presented at the Geneva Contemporary Art Center earlier this year. It includes works resembling vampire mouths that hang from the rafters, red dripping from their teeth like cushy metaphors for consumerism. The series "Husband & Child" consists of beanbags shaped like buttocks and was inspired by the beanbag chairs found in typical American TV rooms of the 1980s. Other pieces are more vertical, like a set of thin, intertwined sausages that recall the bars of a prison. "This generation of artists, especially in the United States but not only there, has stopped believing in this opposition between abstraction and formalism," Derieux told ARTINFO France. "There is a sort of reusing of these strategies."

The sculptures in "Soft Work" — which is on view through August 26 — have been sewn with various stuffed and colorful fabrics, some of which are recycled, while others were purchased. Certain pieces are covered with dripped paint à la Jackson Pollock, while others feature recognizable patterns, like the American flag. At first glance the installation is fun and funny — a big cushiony playground. But there's really nothing so soft about this show; its thinking is quite radical. Erotic but not vulgar, political but peaceful, the installation touches on four major subjects: the United States, feminism, economic liberalism, and the penal system.

"'Soft Work' is only a didactic term. It's not hard, it's not solid, it's malleable," Ruby told ARTINFO France. "This term refers to what the installation is. It's a fiber sculpture but it's also in reference to several centuries of art using textiles, to art therapy, and to feminism, especially. In America, there is a domesticity that is not associated with masculinity — or if it is, it's usually associated with a difference, a contradiction." Ruby, who studied French theory in college, cites the incluence of Foucault's writings on the penal system, heterotopias or spaces on the margins of society, sexual norms, domesticity, and societal constraints on the individual.

Born in 1972 to a Dutch mother and an American father, Ruby chose to work in Los Angeles, where he was an assistant to the late Mike Kelley, who became a close friend. Derieux said that some of the works are an homage to Kelley, who committed suicide earlier this year. "The universe of 'Husband & Child' is quite close to that of Mike Kelley," she said. "Why certain practices, certain human activities are ascribed to women, for example, sewing, etc. — they had talked about this a lot."

To see works from Sterling Ruby's show at the Champagne-Ardenne FRAC, click the slide show.

This article also appears on ARTINFO France.

PARIS — On June 21, Paris's Palais de Tokyo will launch its new series "Alerte" ("Alarm"), with a show titled "The Case of the Pussy Riot Artists," organized by Russian curator Andrei Erofeev. The exhibition will include two comic strips, a documentary film, and a video of a Pussy Riot performance. The series seeks to highlight "hot topic in the news," and the all-female punk collective is certainly in a heated situation at the moment, with three of its members — Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina, and Ekaterina Samutsevich — currently jailed in Russia on charges of hooliganism and blasphemy after a controversial performance in March.

Known for their unauthorized punk performances, colorful costumes, and neon ski masks, the group, which branched off from the Russian art collective Voina, performed a song called "Holy Shit" in March on the altar of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The song's lyrics asked the Virgin Mary to become a feminist and to kick Vladimir Putin out of Russia. In addition to the president, another target of the performance was Kirill I, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has been a staunch supporter of Putin and has recently had to defend himself from critics denouncing his lavish lifestyle.

The case of Pussy Riot has attracted international attention. On the Web site Free Pussy Riot!, a lawyer representing the three women has sent a letter of complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, and Amnesty International has recognized them as prisoners of conscience. Erofeev told ARTINFO France that he expects the three to be tried in August, when most Russians are on vacation, and to be found guilty. He thinks it likely that they will be sentenced to two years in prison. "Their performance is considered by a minority of the population as a diabolical attack on patriotic values by foreign contemporary art, in an atmosphere of anti-foreign and anti-modern hysteria," he said.

Erofeev is no stranger to controversy and arrest himself: he was convicted of inciting religious hatred for organizing a 2006 exhibition of provocative artworks that had been banned from other institutions. He avoided prison time but was fined about $5,000 in 2010. Erofeev described Pussy Riot's case to ARTINFO France as an exceptional situation: no Russian artist has been imprisoned since Leonid Lamm was charged with producing pornography in 1984, under Brezhnev. "It's interesting to see what the principle is, why officials are afraid of artworks," Erofeev said. "Laughter and culture-jamming is what scares them."

WHAT: Lawrence Schiller’s “Marilyn & Me”

WHEN: Through June 30, Tuesday-Saturday 11am-6pm.

WHERE: Steven Kasher Gallery, 521 West 23rd Street, New York.

WHY THIS SHOW MATTERS: The timing for this show of photographer Lawrence Schiller’s behind-the-scenes shots of the late Marilyn Monroe couldn’t be better, and the early attention is evidence that even 50 years after the starlet’s death America is still in love with the gentle, blue-eyed blonde who graced the silver screen. In Schiller’s first solo exhibition in the United States more than 50 photographs of the actress are on view at Steven Kasher Gallery, from original proof sheets with Monroe’s notes and edits, to rare images from photo shoots long forgotten.

The 2011 British drama, “My Week With Marilyn,” starring Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh, bears a strikingly similar narrative to Schiller’s exhibition. The film is based on the writings of filmmaker Colin Clark about his first job in film, working as an assistant director on Lawrence Olivier’s 1957 comedy “The Prince and the Showgirl.” Both are narratives about young men aspiring to success, and their interactions, as intimate outsiders, with Monroe. “You’re already famous, now you’re going to make me famous,” states Schiller in a quote from the exhibition press release, recalling a conversation he had with the actress in 1962. While Schiller’s promise that she would make him famous seems to have panned out (he went on to photograph figures such as Robert F. Kennedy and Barbara Streisand, among others), the importance of his work stems from its subtle portrayal of the complex icon he photographed. Like Clark in his story, Schiller was able to access a side of Monroe that she gave carefully but willingly to those she trusted. Her vulnerability is exposed and palpable through his lens, and the story he tells reveals an important side of Monroe that it has taken half a century to discover.  

To see photographs from the exhibition click the slide show. 

– Jeff Koons Goes Back to School: The sculptor swung by an East Harlem second grade classroom on Monday as part of Visual Arts Appreciation Week. Koons taught students how to make moveable animal puppets using paper and fasteners, and also explained to the youngsters how the reflectivity of his famous "Balloon Dog" sculptures alters the viewer's perception. One student had a simpler description for what makes the work exciting: "Looks like it's going to pop." [WNYC]

– Corcoran Proceeds With Move: The Corcoran Gallery of Art is heading for greener pastures. The board of the DC institution has unanimously authorized putting its Beaux Arts building, which it has inhabited for over 100 years, on the market to seek an alternative location. Corcoran officials say a move would allow them to expand both their permanent collection galleries and the Corcoran College of Art & Design. "We need to accept financial and physical realities," the leadership said in a statement. [AP, City Paper]

– Las Vegas Mulls Public Art Tax: That bag of chips from the mini bar at your Las Vegas hotel might just fund a new public sculpture. Las Vegas County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani wants to build a $1.25 million-per-year public art program through taxes on hotel rooms and capital projects. "There could be art along our corridors,” Giunchigliani said. “It would be an absolute jewel to complement what other jurisdictions like the city of Las Vegas are doing.” [Las Vegas Sun]

– Michael Werner Donates to Paris Museum: The art dealer and collector has donated 130 works from his collection, including pieces by Marcel Broodthaers, André Derain, and Jörg Immendorff, to the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, an institution Werner said "profoundly changed my understanding of and relationship to art." The museum is planning an exhibition of the Werner gift from October 5 through March 3, 2013. [Press Release]

– Tracey Emin Teaches Rolling Stone's Son: Jerry Hall, ex-wife of Mick Jagger, has hired the outspoken artist to give their youngest child, 14-year-old Gabriel, art lessons. The teenage protegé is learning fast: last year he won a prize from the Saatchi Gallery for having submitted the best painting in all of England in the 11-13 age group. Next stop, the Turner Prize? [Daily Mail]

– Another Record Set for Chinese Artist at Poly: Despite reports of a rocky spring auction season, Poly International set a record for artist Li Keran, whose 1964 landscape fetched $46 million on Sunday. Just in case you needed a reminder that domestic Chinese buyers are continuing to spend inordinate amounts of money on artists unfamiliar to the West. [China Daily]

– Street Artist Makes L.A.'s Unseen Workers Visible: Since last fall, Ramiro Gomez has been installing cardboard cut-out paintings of Los Angeles's invisible immigrant workforce — including janitors, nannies, delivery drivers, gardeners, and housekeepers — in wealthy neighborhoods. "The hedges are trimmed, the gardens are perfect, the children are cared for," said Gomez. "We've come to expect it to be this way. But who maintains all this?" [LAT]

– Bailouts for Artists: A little-known set of funds, charitable organizations, and micro-donation services specializes in providing grants and low-interest loans for artists in periods of personal crisis. From the Craft Emergency Relief Fund and the Writers Emergency Fund to Stephen King's Haven Foundation, such groups provide crucial cash to artists following accidents and medical emergencies, but also if they simply fall on exceptionally hard times or face "imminent homelessness." [NYT]

– Isn't a Forged Masterpiece Worth Something?: Despite the art world's revulsion, many master forgers enjoy admiration from the wider public, a phenomenon experienced by expert Vermeer copycat Han van Meegeren in the 1940s, and contemporary forger John Myatt, whose clearly labeled fakes sell for up to £45,000 ($69,000). "There can be quite a lot of demand from people who can't afford a Van Gogh but are looking for the same aesthetic experience for a fraction of the price," Myatt said. [BBC]

– Accolades for Nan Goldin: The MacDowell Colony, a prestigious artists' retreat in New Hampshire, awarded photographer Nan Goldin its Edwin Macdowell Medal for lifetime achievement in the arts. The chairman of the selection committee praised Goldin, 58, for creating a medium "halfway between still photography and cinema." [NYT]

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Street artist Ramiro Gomez talks about his work about immigrant labor in Beverly Hills:

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For more breaking art news throughout the day,
check ARTINFO's In the Air blog.

“When we started MadridFOTO,” says Giulietta Speranza, artistic director of its fourth edition, “80 percent of the galleries showing were from Spain. Now around 50 percent are from abroad.” For this outing, running from June 7 through 10 at Feria de Madrid, Speranza expects about 40 exhibitors, including such international visitors as Carlos Carvalho, of Lisbon; Young Gallery, of Brussels; Duncan Miller, of Los Angeles; and Photographer.RU, of Moscow. Boosting the still-evolving fair’s profile and attendance is the PhotoEspaña festival, now in its 15th edition, in multiple venues in Madrid and Lisbon from May 30 through the third weekend in July. Focused this year on the theme of contextual meaning in the increasing global circulation of artistic ideas, the festival exhibitions provide context for the fair. As Speranza says, “A wealth of photography-related events only makes this a more interesting prospect for collectors coming to Madrid.”

To see works from MadridFOTO, click the slide show.

Fashion industry luminaries and style savvy celebrities arrived at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center last night decked out in their best to attend the Oscars of the fashion world as the Council of Fashion Designers of America handed out the 2012 CFDA Awards. But that wasn’t the only cause for celebration – the event also marked the organization’s 50th anniversary.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen beat out Marc Jacobs and Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez for Womenswear Designer of the Year for their minimally chic designs for The Row. For menswear, southerner Billy Reid edged out Patrik Ervell and Simon Spurr for the top prize with his finely tailored suits. Coach creative director Reed Krakoff won the accolades for Accessory Designer of the Year over Alexander Wang and Hernandez and McCollough.

Actress Lily Collins handed out the Swarovski Awards, which honors burgeoning designers with financial support and exposure, to Joseph Altuzarra for womenswear, Phillip Lim for menswear, and Tabitha Simmons for accessory design.

Filmmaker John Waters presented awards to two notable honorees who weren’t able to attend the glittery awards ceremony: the International Award recipient, the notoriously media-shy Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo, who was preparing for her June 29 Paris men’s show; and Fashion Icon winner Johnny Depp, who was on location filming “The Lone Ranger” in the Navajo Nation.

The undoubtedly funniest moment of the night was when Seth Meyers, the evening’s host and “Saturday Night Live” head writer and anchor, showed up on stage wearing the same revealing see-through lace Comme des Garçons dress and boxers that Jacobs wore to the Costume Institute Gala.

For those who were unable to attend the 2012 CFDA Awards in person, the entire ceremony will be replayed on style.com at noon EST today.

Click on the slide show to see photographs from the 2012 CFDA Awards. For the rest of the winners, see the list below:

WOMENSWEAR DESIGNER OF THE YEAR
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for The Row

MENSWEAR DESIGNER OF THE YEAR
Billy Reid

ACCESSORY DESIGNER OF THE YEAR
Reed Krakoff

SWAROVSKI AWARD FOR WOMENSWEAR
Joseph Altuzarra

SWAROVSKI AWARD FOR MENSWEAR
Phillip Lim

SWAROVSKI AWARD FOR ACCESSORY DESIGN
Tabitha Simmons

GEOFFREY BEENE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Tommy Hilfiger

INTERNATIONAL AWARD
Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons

MEDIA AWARD
Scott Schuman and Garance Doré

FOUNDERS AWARD
Andrew Rosen

FASHION ICON AWARD
Johnny Depp

See more ARTINFO fashion and style coverage on our blog Silhouettes.

A body artist who used photography as her medium and committed suicide at 22, Francesca Woodman (1958-81) created an oeuvre cannot be easily separated from her life. C. Scott Willis’s 2010 documentary “The Woodmans,” released on DVD by Lorber Films to coincide with the Guggenheim retrospective that closes June 13, makes no attempt to try.

In a way, “The Woodmans” is a tragic version of Lena Dunham’s art world self-dramatization “Tiny Furniture.” Raised in Colorado, the precocious, ambitious, and deeply disturbed second child of Betty Woodman and George Woodman, a strong-willed ceramicist and a stubbornly unfashionable abstract painter, Francesca and her older brother, Charles Woodman, himself a video artist, were brought up by true believers in the church of art. Their parents’ faith was absolute. To hear Betty state that she’d “hate” anyone who didn’t take art as seriously as she, or George complain bitterly about his lack of recognition, is to appreciate the pressure on their daughter — indeed, when Francesca moved to New York in 1979, her parents followed her. Read the full review on Movie Journal.

NEW YORK — Based in SoHo since the late 1970s, Turon Travel catered to the booming gallery district, and continues to serve artists and gallerists in an increasingly global and international art world. This art travel agency's extreme degree of specialization has only made it more essential with the proliferation of art fairs, biennials, and auction houses all around the globe. ARTINFO spoke to Turon president Nicholas Christopher about the agency's history, its client list of art world power players, and future developments.

When did Turon Travel open its doors and have you always been on Wooster Street in SoHo?

We opened on May 12, 1979, on the corner of Prince and Wooster Streets. Since then we spent 10 years at 111 Greene and then on to 2 Wooster Street where we have been since 1999.

Did you intentionally set out to service the art world or did it happen organically?

I was just out of Graduate School and my future wife, Penny, had just gotten her BA in the arts. We were always in SoHo gallery hopping, visiting friends, etc.

My other partner, Demetra, who is also my sister in-law, had been working for a Caribbean wholesaler. Jobs were hard to come by in the late '70s and with the help of our parents we decided that SoHo needed a travel agency. The rest is history. So yes, we always intended to work with people in the arts and when we were preparing our first space many of the local residents came in to thank us. 

Who were some of your earliest clients and where were they going?

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Paula Cooper, Ivan Karp, Richard Serra and Clara Weyergraf, Sperone Westwater, Bernar Venet — to name a few.

They traveled throughout Europe, the States, and wherever they fancied throughout the world.

When many of the galleries in SoHo migrated to Chelsea did it change things dramatically for Turon?

No, we had already established ourselves and their physical move did not impact us.

How has the proliferation of art fairs worldwide impacted business?

With all our years in this unique position we have dedicated ourselves to creating a fully accessible travel network for the art community. We are no longer a local business but now have clients from over 100 countries. For the coming calendar year, fall 2012-June 2013, we will be working with 24 arts venues on a global scale. Turon has become the travel services partner for the world’s premier art fairs and events. Our Web site is in the process of another upgrade. In the immediate future all reservations made through the site will be in "total" real time and you will be able to waitlist for upcoming events, to mention just a few of the new coming features.

With all of the many travel sites available to your clients on the web, what keeps them coming back?

Turon Travel is a specialist or niche travel management company with a specific  knowledge base. We understand the needs of our growing client base.  

Who are some of your most famous clients? 

I have already mentioned a few... here are a few more — Leo Castelli, Frank Stella, Vik Muniz, Elizabeth Murray, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer.

Can you tell me the new art world hot spots?

There are several hot spots right now. The Asian market is very hot because of the growth in art sales which is commensurate with the great increases in personal wealth and the desire to collect art as both an investment and a prestige item. Just look at all the press Art Hong Kong and Art Singapore are getting.

New York City is becoming a hotter market. With Frieze entering the arena we may see a "battle of art fair titans" take place, Frieze vs. The Armory Show, which lends itself to some interesting art marketing.

Paris — FIAC is surging as a must see venue in October and the Art Paris art fair in April has a new director who is quickly internationalizing this venue.

Expo Chicago, which is opening this September. There is speculation this move will revitalize the markets in ‘mid-America’.

L.A. — with Art Platform in September and the L.A. Art Show and Art L.A. Contemporary every January, the importance of West Coast art is being reaffirmed.

It's a case that pits an Internet titan versus an army of professional photographers. Last Thursday, a federal judge in New York ruled that the American Society of Media Photographers has the right, or legal standing, to sue Google, Inc. in a class action lawsuit on behalf of all photographers and illustrators who have had their copyrighted work scanned into the Google Books "Library Project" database. The case marks another front in the battle over what constitutes "fair use" — an issue of keen interest for artists and creative professionals of all types. 

Eugene H. Mopsik, ASMP's executive director, noted that the association is not against Google Books in general, but just wants its members to be paid for their contributions. "We don't want to stand in the way of something that has this spectacular future," he told ARTINFO, "but we are ultimately seeking a compensation scheme of some type."

The case was originally brought by the ASMP against Google in 2010, after the organization failed to intervene in a similar case brought by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (which is ongoing) and decided to file their own suit. The ASMP seeks "injunctive and declaratory relief," according to the decision, which means that they aren't after money, but they want the judge to tell Google that, 1) it must stop scanning copyrighted works, and 2) scanning copyrighted works is against the law.

Google, on the other hand, believes that its project constitutes fair use in that it is making the books searchable, but not giving the whole text away for free. It's Web site states, "Google Books helps you search within and discover books, not download or read books without paying for them. So when you find a book that's still under copyright, you'll see only a small portion of the book at a time … plus links to places where you can buy or borrow it." Google essentially argues that it helps authors and illustrators by showing short previews and encouraging people to buy books that they find. 

The current decision, handed down by 2nd Circuit judge Denny Chin, clears the way for the ASMP to go forward with the lawsuit on behalf of the class of individuals whose work was scanned and published by Google, despite Google's objection to their legal standing, because "[n]either the claims asserted nor the relief requested by the associational plaintiffs require a degree of individual participation that precludes associational standing," meaning that it's unnecessary for every individual to get involved and the ASMP can represent aggrieved photographers.

"We were very pleased with the decision because it reaffirms our standing as plaintiffs in the case and establishes some precedent in the future for cases of this type," said Mopsik.

Victor Perlman, who serves as general counsel for ASMP, noted that there are about 7,000 members in the organization, but the class action would cover any photographer or illustrator whose work has been scanned by Google — he and Mopsik estimated that over 100,000 individuals fit the bill. 

NEW YORK — The works of Massimo and Lella Vignelli, the famed Italian husband-and-wife, design-and-architectural modernist duo, are the subject of a small but stunning exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute on the Upper East Side. The tiny show, displayed succinctly in a set of four modestly-sized glass cases with an accompanying slide show, spans the couple’s triumphs in industrial, home, and graphic design, from their luxury Swiss wristwatches and iconic plastic stacking mugs and plates, to the American Airlines logo and the outdated ‘70s subway map the MTA still uses on the Weekender.

The title “Timelessness” is well-suited to the aesthetic of the show, an installment of the institute’s “Slowness Project,” a response to modern day waste and frivolousness. The works on display (all made up of circles, squares, and triangles) demonstrate a geometric simplicity and straightforward design crafted to fulfill a purpose, and their usefulness and relevance has endured for decades. Massimo spoke at the Institute yesterday about the importance of lasting design, as well as his and his wife’s rejection of the “culture of obsolescence” and “cult of ephemera” they described in 2010’s “Vignelli Canon,” expressing a disdain for trends in fashion unusually high for a pair of Italians. 

“We think that if you design something that’s good today, gone tomorrow, it’s an irresponsible act,” Vignelli said. “Timelessness is not a style. It’s not only cubes, spheres, and cones. Timelessness is an entity, is a biproduct of responsibility.”

One of the couple’s most recognizable and successful products is the Compact Stacking Dinnerware line they designed for Heller in 1970, which, when stored, form rainbow columns of interlocking dinner plates, serving trays, and mugs. The design's practical lightness and compact storage explain why it has endured for several decades, and is equally at home in a contemporary household as it is in MoMA’s permanent design collection. Lella and Massimo’s intentions were always to design products to last, rather than bend to current fashions, which they deemed a “moral crime” and “commercial garbage.”

Vignelli does, however, have a paradoxical admiration for Dieter Rams and his aesthetic heir apparent, Jonathan Ive of Apple, whom Vignelli described as “terrific” and “the best one, by far.” But, we asked him, isn’t it contradictory to admire Apple’s constant innovation and refinement of its projects since it creates a rapid cycle of obsolescence? "Technology is different — it's never surface changes,” he answered. “That shows the level of integrity... the kind of design that’s going to last a long time, even beyond its functionality, just as an object."

It’s a funny response, and at odds with one given in an earlier interview, where Vignelli expressed an admitted lack of technological prowess. Roughly translated, he had said that with a pencil he can extract anything, but with a computer he could only send emails and do Google searches.

"Timelessness" is on view at the Italian Cultural Institute through July 16. To see images from the exhibition, click the slide show. 

The English display exceptional aptitude in several crucial areas: tea, punk rock, finance, forming queues, butter, theater, gardens, candy bars, and hats.

The art of millinery is of great interest to us, and the celebrations surrounding Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee provided an endless stream of truly spectacular hats – the best we’ve seen in 2012. From Kate Middleton’s nude satin fascinator (by Jane Taylor) to Princess Beatrice’s silver cloche-like ruched topper (by Stephen Jones), the women of the Royal Family – and their entourage – lived up to their national reputation as the ultimate hat aficionados.

Click on the slide show to see images of some of our favorite Diamond Jubilee hats.

See more ARTINFO fashion and style coverage on our blog Silhouettes.

A year after the January 12, 2010 earthquake ravaged the island of Haiti, fashion designer Donna Karan discovered the ironwork of Haitian artist Philippe Dodard in the lobby of the Karibe Hotel in Port-au-Prince. She told a hotel employee that she wanted to meet the person responsible for the work. Dodard, who had heard of Karan through magazines and clothing shops, went to the hotel to meet her, but she was too busy for a lengthy discussion. So he invited Karan to his house, where she discovered his other pieces — paintings and inks.

The two found that they had a lot in common, mainly yoga and spiritual healing, and became friends. Dodard accompanied her as she visited the artisans she worked with. Soon after, Karan came to Dodard with a request to use his artwork in her spring/summer 2012 collection.

“I said, ‘But of course,’” Dodard told ARTINFO. “I was really happy to see that happen.”

Karan went to Dodard’s Port-au-Prince atelier several times to select paintings and inks that she could use in her designs. Dodard also went to New York a few times during the process.

“I didn’t interfere in the design of the collection itself because it’s a creation of Donna,” said Dodard.

Through June 20, Dodard’s thick brush strokes and tribal patterns will be shown alongside the luxury garments of Karan’s spring/summer 2012 collection in the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, in an exhibition titled “Donna Karan & Philippe Dodard.”

One section of the show displays two Donna Karan looks before 14 of Dodard’s canvasses that helped influence them: a skirt bearing patterns of masks and zigzags that show up throughout Dodard’s oeuvre and an evening gown embellished in a manner that resembles the curves and dashes in his artwork.

In one corner, a video of Karan’s runway show plays repeatedly.  

MOCA, North Miami curator Bonnie Clearwater felt that the show would be an ideal celebration for Haitian Heritage month in Miami Dade County.

“I thought it would be a good way to demonstrate one such example of how international cultural philanthropy has resulted after the earthquake,” Clearwater told ARTINFO.

Immediately after the earthquake Karan felt compelled to do something to help the country and its victims. With music executive Andre Harrell, singer Mary J. Blige, entrepreneur Steve Stoute, and hotelier Andre Balazs, Karan formed Hope, Help, & Rebuild Haiti to aid in the reconstruction of the devastated Caribbean nation. The fashion designer has made numerous trips to Haiti since to contribute to the efforts.

“Every time I visit Haiti, it’s like I am seeing the world through a child’s eyes,” wrote Karan on the Huffington Post last January. “The wonder of what is possible tells the story of triumphant humanity. This is why I want everyone to experience it... not just to be inspired by the potential of Haiti, but also to remember the potential of our collective humanity.”

Karan’s project with Dodard, it seems, is very much in line with her desire to bring the richness of Haiti to a broader audience.  

Click on the slide show to see images from “Donna Karan & Philippe Dodard,” on view at MOCA, North Miami through June 20.