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Slideshow: Pebble Beach's Antique and Vintage Car Auction

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Once the Pride of Cape Cod, a Local Museum Sinks as Donors Abandon Ship

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Once the Pride of Cape Cod, a Local Museum Sinks as Donors Abandon Ship
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Last year, the Cape Cod Museum of Art (CCMA) celebrated its 30th anniversary with no shortage of fanfare. The small museum has a historic connection with the storied art colonies of the New England coast, and is something to be proud of. Now, however, the consensus this week is that the museum in Dennis, Massachusetts is in a tight spot, and is being forced to make some painful decisions in order to remain financially sustainable. “When [former executive director Elizabeth Ives Hunter] retired, we took a good hard look at our finances and found we are not bringing in the funding that we need to fill our obligations,” current CCMA board president Hrant Russian told the Barnstable, Massachusetts-based Register. “People are hesitant to part with money in this economy,” he added, citing plunging donations in recent years as a significant cause for worry. 

The description offered by Russian contrasts unnervingly from the reputation Cape Cod has held since the 1960s as an exceedingly supportive home for the arts. Many art lovers know nearby Provincetown for the Fine Arts Work Center, a non-profit co-founded by painters Robert Motherwell and Jack Tworkov, which continues to offer fellowships to writers and visual artists in addition to readings and public exhibitions year round. Cape Cod is also where Lee KrasnerHelen FrankenthalerLarry Rivers, and Robert de Niro, Sr. studied under the Abstract Expressionist giant Hans Hoffman, whose famous work hangs in the Dennis museum alongside the likes of Robert Henry and Edwin Dickinson.

Per capita, it's hard to think of a place that has been more generous to writers and artists than this tiny corner of the country, but the past few months have not been kind to the CCMA. Over the summer, the museum reduced its opening hours to Wednesdays through Saturdays, and laid off six members of its paid staff, leaving curator Michael Giaquinto and business manager Lilly O'Brien as the their only full-time employees. Local management consultant Ernie Oliviera, a former member of the Friends of the CMMA, has expressed particiular disquiet over the leadership of Russian and his administration. “They aren’t paying bills, they’re not planning classes and they have nobody doing public relations or advertising,” he told the Register. “They have no activities going on to bring in revenue.”

by Reid Singer,Museums,Museums

Twitter Founder's San Francisco Eco-House Scheme Has Angry Preservationists Atwitter

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Twitter Founder's San Francisco Eco-House Scheme Has Angry Preservationists Atwitter
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Now here’s an unusual case of NIMBYism: Evan Williams, co-founder of the social media outlet Twitter, has plans to construct a 7,700-square-foot property in a wealthy San Francisco suburb with enough solar panels and green roofs to qualify as a net zero energy building. His riled-up neighbors have more than 140 characters to say about that. In fact, more than 240 opposition letters have been sent to the city’s Planning Department. Why? Because Williams plans to tear down and replace his current home, a 1911 relic of the Arts and Crafts movement designed by American architect Louis Christian Mullgardt.

While preservationist agendas are usually streaked with moral purpose, sometimes the urge to preserve stems from a simple fear of change. This may be the case in Parnassus Heights, the affluent Bay Area neighborhood where the over 100-year-old Mullgardt home sits. Williams purchased the home in January 2011 and had it evaluated for a potential renovation, according to Cnet. The resulting report, issued by Carey & Co Inc. Architecture, concluded that the damage was done over 40 years ago, when the building underwent a renovation that “destroyed historic fabric and transformed two of the facades, including the primary façade, beyond recognition.”

Meanwhile, plans for Williams’ new home actually show an attempt by local firm Lundberg Design to construct a discreet replacement instead of a flashy statement for the Twitter multi-millionaire. Though the square footage of the house would increase, the architects intend to lower its height by a full 18 feet so as not to obstruct views of the San Francisco skyline.

Yet some neighbors have not warmed up to the idea. “This is such a unique property and it adds diversity of architectural interest to the neighborhood,” said one neighbor, Elizabeth Wang, to the San Francisco Examiner. One can easily sympathize with Wang, as the renovated Mullgardt home still reflects the streamlined sensibilities of pre-modern design.

But the general concern seems to be not for the architecture itself but for the precedent the building would set were it to be razed. Neighbors fear that the demolition will precipitate a sea change in the character of the neighborhood. For some, defending a building that is a “potential historic resource” has justified threatening behavior toward Williams, who is not the first Bay Area tech entrepreneur to face such hostility. While Williams could have picked a less contentious spot to build his eco-home, he also has the right to stand up to proponents of dogmatic preservation.

The Tavi Timeline: See Gevinson's Journey From 11-Year-Old Blogger to Big Screen Star

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The Tavi Timeline: See Gevinson's Journey From 11-Year-Old Blogger to Big Screen Star
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What’s left to accomplish when you’ve already launched your own must-bookmark teen website and cemented your fashion icon status before you’re old enough to drive? If you’re 16-year-old blogging star Tavi Gevinson, you make it your goal to conquer every creative medium, including film. The Rookie editor landed an acting role in an upcoming drama by Nicole Holofcener of “Friends With Money” fame, the Hollywood Reporter noted last week. Tavi is set to play Chloe, “an only child who never received much attention from her parents, forcing her to grow up faster than her peers,” in the unnamed feature. She’ll be joined by acting pros James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. So how, exactly, did the 10th grader go from suburban middle schooler with a blog to media-mogul-turned-big-screen-star? Our Tavi Timeline details Gevinson’s journey from tween blogging sensation to leading lady.

Click on the slide show to see our Tavi Timeline.

Visit Artinfo.com/fashion for more fashion and style news.

ARTINFO Fashion is now on Twitter. Follow us @ARTINFOFashion.

One-Line Reviews: Our Staff's Pithy Takes on "The Double Dirty Dozen (& Friends)," "HiJack!," and Other Gallery Shows

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Painter Meleko Mokgosi Wins Hammer Museum's Inaugural "American Idol"-Style Mohn Award

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Painter Meleko Mokgosi Wins Hammer Museum's Inaugural "American Idol"-Style Mohn Award
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The Botswana-born painter Meleko Mokgosi, whose large-scale, multi-panel compositions grapple with conditions in postcolonial Africa through jarringly combined imagery of village life, European rule, and contemporary conditions, has won the Hammer Museum's inaugural Mohn Award, a $100,000, the institution announced this afternoon. The prize will be given every two years to a participant in the museum's "Made in L.A." biennial.

Mokgosi emerged from a group of five finalists — the others were Simone FortiLiz GlynnErika Vogt, and Slanguage, the duo of Karla Diaz and Mario Ybarra — based on voting by visitors to the Hammer, who chose among a jury-selected shortlist. He will receive the $100,000 prize, which is funded by L.A. collectors and philanthropists Jarl and Pamela Mohn, over the course of the next two years. A monograph of his work will also be published. Not bad for an artist who just earned his MFA from UCLA last year.

His works in the biennial exhibition, which will remain on view through September 2, reference a 1856-57 cattle killing that was intended to drive colonizers out of southeast Africa. His figurative and often-visceral work was shortlisted by a jury that featured High Line Art curator Cecilia AlemaniMoMA associate curator Doryun ChongLACMA contemporary art curator Rita Gonzalez, and independent curator Anthony Huberman. Voting was then opened to visitors to the biennial, who determined the winner between June 28 and August 12, when the polls closed both online and on-site.  (In an interview with ARTINFO, Hammer director Ann Philbin said that the museum was embracing the "American Idol syndrome.") The crowd-sourced approach to determining the winner of the prize, one of the richest in the art world, caused no small amount of concern over the process's rigor.

Mokgosi, who was born in Gaborone, Botswana, in 1981, lives and works in Culver City. Last year he was an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and in 2007-08 he participated in the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program.

 

Slow Art Day Fights Visual Grazing With a Deep Dive Into Museums

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Slow Art Day Fights Visual Grazing With a Deep Dive Into Museums
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A 2001 study showed that visitors to the Metropolitan Museum looked at individual works of art for an average of just 17 seconds at a time, a visual habit called “grazing.” Even the most iconic artworks in the world can’t seem to hold our attention: The Louvre discovered that visitors look at the Mona Lisa for just 15 seconds on average. In the age of the moving image and endlessly updated World Wide Web, works of art in more traditional media don’t get the focus they deserve. Slow Art Day, a three-year-old initiative currently ramping up for its 2013 event, is looking to change all that with an orchestrated long art-viewing session at museums around the world.

Once a year, Slow Art Day asks museumgoers to look at five works of art for 10 minutes each, practicing the kind of visual analysis more often taught in art history programs than art museums. After the viewing, Slow Art Day participants will meet to talk about their experiences over lunch. “The goal is to focus on the art and the art of seeing,” explains their mission statement.

The organization began after founder Phil Terry spent half an hour looking at Hans Hoffmann’s 1943 painting “Fantasia” at the Jewish Museum’s 2008 exhibition “Action/Abstraction.” Terry had no particular interest in art, but the experience sparked an idea to help those outside the art world better appreciate museums’ offerings. “People usually go to a museum, see as much as they can, get exhausted, and don’t return,” Terry told ARTnews. “Slow Art Day energizes people.”

Volunteers lead Slow Art Day events at participating art institutions all over the world. The 2013 Slow Art Day, scheduled for April 27, includes venues ranging from Brooklyn’s 440 Gallery to Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales, Florence’s Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, and Warsaw’s National Gallery of Art. More venues will be added as the date approaches.

Like the burgeoning slow food movement’s call to think more about where our meals come from and the emerging “slow web” desire to make us more thoughtful in our consumption of media online, Slow Art Day is about being more considerate of artists and work. It forces viewers to think through a single piece rather than zoom by, fighting the desire to graze and instead diving deep.

The annual event also brings to mind curator Hans Ulrich Obrist’s recently founded art movement “Posthastism,” a “collective impetus to go beyond haste… To de-accelerate.” We wonder, however, if Obrist himself has ever stayed in one place long enough to look at a work for 10 minutes straight. 

by Kyle Chayka,Museums,Museums

Jackie Kennedy, Oswald's Brother, and Zapruder to Feature in Tom Hanks's JFK Assassination Drama

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Jackie Kennedy, Oswald's Brother, and Zapruder to Feature in Tom Hanks's JFK Assassination Drama
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Although it’s unlikely to be presented as a corrective to Oliver Stone’s much-criticized conspiracy-theory thriller “JFK” (1991), a Tom Hanks-produced drama about President Kennedy’s assassination can be expected to bring a level of sobriety to the subject, especially given the likely orbit of its timing.

It’s not known yet if the film, “Parkland,” will be completed by November 22, 2013 – the 50th anniversary of the president’s death – or if Hanks will appear in it. It is named for the Dallas hospital where Kennedy, his alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (on November 24, 1963), and Oswald’s murderer Jack Ruby (in 1967) all died.

Variety reported yesterday that Hanks and Gary Goetzman will produce the movie through their Playtone company. It will be written by Peter Landesman, who will also make his directorial debut on the picture.

Landesman is the author of “The Girls Next Door,” a controversial New York Times article about sex trafficking that became the 2007 Kevin Kline movie “Trade.” He has also written a screenplay about FBI agent Mark Felt, who in 2005 admitted to being “Deep Throat,” supplier of the crucial information that led to Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s exposure of the Watergate burglary; that project is with Playtone at Universal. In addition, Landesman wrote the hostage thriller “The Mission” and adapted Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer detective mystery “The Galton Case,” both for Warner Bros.

The Variety article intimates that “Parkland” will be an ensemble film similar to Emilio Estevez’s 2006 “Bobby,” which depicted the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and events surrounding it. Among the characters will be “an FBI agent, a young doctor, a reporter, several Secret Service agents, Kennedy’s staff, Oswald’s older brother, Jackie Kennedy, and [AbrahamZapruder.”

It was Zapruder who, on his 8mm Bell & Howard Zoomatic Director Series Model 414 PD camera, filmed the 26.6 seconds footage that caught Kennedy’s shooting – the most famous and complex home movie in history. Stone paid approximately $85,000 to use the footage in “JFK,” but whether Landesman will incorporate it or simply render Zapruder’s experience on the day hasn’t been disclosed.


Underneath Her Clothes: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s Lingerie Line

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Underneath Her Clothes: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s Lingerie Line
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Whether it’s modeling it or designing it, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley knows her lingerie. She was the face of Monsoon’s first underwear line, starred in a sexy Agent Provocateur commercial and got her Victoria’s Secret Angel wings in 2006. Now, the British model is trying her hand at designing her own lingerie line in partnership with Marks and Spencer, whose campaigns she’s fronted since 2011.

Rosie for Autograph is Huntington-Whiteley’s first foray into designing. In an interview with Elle, she said her inspiration came from the Hollywood’s golden age and from her friends and family, who offered up their wish list of what they looked for when shopping for undergarments. The result is a 33-piece collection adorned with rose-print motifs in muted tones and deco-inspired detailing. The silk lingerie sets, kimono robes, French knicker sets and delicate camisoles are romantic and incredibly feminine.

"We are so pleased to have Rosie on board to design her first collection for us - she really understands beautiful lingerie and what works on the body," said M&S executive director of clothing Kate Bostock. "With all her modeling experience she has great eye for colour and style which, coupled with our extensive knowledge in lingerie design and technique, is a winning formula that we can't wait to share with our customers."

In a video of her being shot for the campaign, Huntington-Whiteley looks coy in her Bardot-inspired hair and make up. She tells us, “I think we’ve struck a really great balance between it being young and modern while still being classic and sexy”.

Huntington-Whiteley isn’t the first model to design a lingerie line. Elle MacPherson, nicknamed “The Body”, made the successful transition from swimsuit model to a designer/business woman. In 1990, Elle MacPherson Intimates was created and has since grown to be the best-selling lingerie line in the U.K. Gisele Bundchen also collaborated with Hope lingerie last year. The collection showed in Sao Paulo to an exclusive 500-person guest list and a second collection launched earlier this year.

Rosie for Autograph will be available from 30 August

“A Millennium Park of Nature”: Architect Jeanne Gang's Vision for a Chicago Eco-Island Moves Ahead

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“A Millennium Park of Nature”: Architect Jeanne Gang's Vision for a Chicago Eco-Island Moves Ahead
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In the years following the wildly popular 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, planner and architect Daniel Burnham had a vision to build a manmade island along Chicago’s lakefront. Part of his grand “Plan of Chicago,” Northerly Island was to be a thriving park, a lush, green oasis to balance his only partially realized scheme to overhaul the city with gridded streets and regional highways. The 91-acre stretch, connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, was completed in 1925, but 10 years later, the synthetic parkscape become something its maker had never intended: an airport. Now, Burnham’s idyllic vision will return to Northerly Island, as the first phase of the Northerly Island Framework Plan, a proposal to redevelop the abandoned airplane landing strip into an ecologically diverse natural habitat, has been approved.

In 2010, MacArthur Genius Grant winner Jeanne Gang and her firm Studio Gang Architects teamed up with local landscape architecture firm JJR to develop the Framework Plan, which combines heavily researched ecological programs — including new reefs and protected lagoons and savannahs — with more familiar features of the 21st century urban park, such as an amphitheatre. The entire scheme, which functions more like a flexible road map than an exacting blueprint, anticipates 20 to 25 years of fundraising, planning, and construction.

The first phase, soon to be initiated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Chicago Park District, focuses on transforming the flat former airplane runway into a variegated topography containing six different ecosystems. Details include a 4.1-acre pond fenced in to protect its inhabitants from invasive species like Asian carp (an issue Gang tackles in her latest book “Reverse Effect.”) Surrounding the pond will be elevated dry-mesic and wet prairies, intended to attract mice, snakes, and small birds. Environmentalists hope that the habitat will provide new nesting areas for over 300 species of birds, luring the animals away from the mainland where they frequently crash into the city’s high-rises.

“To me it’s like a picture of what the city was like before the city was built,” said Jeanne Gang about the first phase in the Chicago Tribune, daring to imagine a pre-Burnham landscape. But as in Burnham’s original vision for Northerly Island, the snapshot of a more primitive past is intended to lure city dwellers as well as natural wildlife and become what Gang calls “a Millennium Park of nature.” Speculative plans for underwater observation cameras, an imported sunken ship, and a designated area for swimming, canoeing, and kayaking point to the island’s true nature, as an extension of a changing city.

Victoria's Secret Model Gives Terry Richardson a Shot in the Butt — What Does it Mean?

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Victoria's Secret Model Gives Terry Richardson a Shot in the Butt — What Does it Mean?
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It looks like incorrigible perv Terry Richardson is trying self-inoculate (literally) against feminist ire in a 46-second video of himself bending over for Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr. Kerr, who is a certified health professional, administers a Vitamin B12 shot right on Terry’s prostrate dumptruck. The fashion photographer then falls into a narcotic reverie where he and another dude dance around in citrus-colored unitards.  

Richardson is aiming at detournement, or as we say in American, the old sex politics switcharoo. Here, Terry is the vulnerable, passive object. Miranda is the active subject, armed with the phallic, penetrative apparatus. Right? Wrong. Richardson – who’s no stranger to the whole “camera-as-phallus” idea – has used ersatz feminist theory in defense of his exploitative work before. In a 2004 interview, he said, “A lot of it starts with me saying to a girl, ‘Do you want to do nudes?’ And they're like, ‘I don’t want to be naked.’ So I say, ‘I’ll be naked and you take the pictures. You can have the camera. You can have the phallus.’” I don’t think this is what quite what feminist film critic Laura Mulvey had in mind when she penned “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” On a separate note, Kerr’s bra is quite nice.  

Visit Artinfo.com/fashion for more fashion and style news.

ARTINFO Fashion is now on Twitter. Follow us @ARTINFOFashion.

Ikea Announces Plans to Build Over 100 Budget Design Hotels in Europe

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Ikea is already well known for its affordable stylish home furnishings but now the retail giant has set its sights on the budget hotel market. The world’s largest furniture retailer, based in Sweden, recently announced that it intends to build at least 1

Polka Dots and Bowties: Minnie Mouse's Style Evolution

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Polka Dots and Bowties: Minnie Mouse's Style Evolution
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Minnie Mouse will make a stylish splash this September during London Fashion Week, when a group of British designers present “Minnie Mouse Must Haves,” a runway show of clothing and accessories inspired by the famous Disney rodent. Richard Nicoll, Michael van der Ham, Piers Atkinson, Bunney, Husam el Odeh – in collaboration with Luke Hersheson, Katie Hillier, Lulu Guinness, Tatty Devine, and Terry de Havilland – will show their Minnie Mouse-influenced creations during the event. All the items will be auctioned off on eBay to raise funds for the BFC/Bazaar Fashion Arts Foundation, a British Fashion Council initiative to cultivate relationships amongst creative industries. We have to wait a few more weeks before we see the designs, so we decided to take a look back at Minnie’s fashion evolution for a hint of what we might see on the catwalk this September.

Click on the slide show to see Minnie Mouse’s fashion evolution.

Visit Artinfo.com/fashion for more fashion and style news.

ARTINFO Fashion is now on Twitter. Follow us @ARTINFOFashion.

 

 

ARTINFO Russia Reports: Pussy Riot's Guilty Verdict Sparks Fury and Arrests Outside Moscow Courthouse

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ARTINFO Russia Reports: Pussy Riot's Guilty Verdict Sparks Fury and Arrests Outside Moscow Courthouse
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MOSCOW — Despite the hopes of the many supporters of the punk band Pussy Riot, Judge Syrova's verdict came down at 6pm, Moscow time: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina, and Ekaterina Samutsevich were found guilty on charges of hooliganism (Criminal Code Article 213 [2]), and sentenced to two years in a minimum security penal colony.

About 2,000-3,000 people gathered around Khamovnichesky court. Evidently, some Orthodox believers with icons lurked among the mass, but the crowd mainly consisted of Pussy Riot supporters. Brandishing slogans like “Free Pussy Riot,” the crowd cheered the activists as the police hauled them away to paddy wagons. As judge Syrova announced the verdict, members of the cround cried out: “Shame,” “Free Pussy Riot,” “Fascism,” “Inquisition,” and “We won’t forget and we won’t forgive!”

One young woman wearing a pink balaclava scaled the fence of the Turkish Embassy, chanting “Free Pussy Riot.” She was chased by the police in a Spiderman-like pursuit. That proved to be a smart move on the young woman's part: The Turkish ambassador refused to surrender her to the police, saying the embassy was Turkish territory.

Not everybody was that lucky, however: Around 60 people were arrested in the vicinity of the court. The detainees showed no aggressive behavior before, during, or after the detention.

Pussy Riot's lawyers — Mark Feygin, Violetta Volkova, and Nikolay Polozov — intend to file a complaint about the judge's decision (they have just 10 days to do so), even though “it seems crystal clear to us that this judicial verdict will not improve,” Feygin told the assembled journalists. The lawyers are also going to appeal to the International Court of Justice.

Following the verdict, the Russian Orthodox Church attempted to distance themselves from the affair. Church speakers are now asking for a pardon for the girls, bestowing on them their tardy Christian forgiveness: “Without calling into question the validity of the verdict, we appeal to the authorities to have mercy on the convicted, hoping that in the future they will disavow any recurrence of such blasphemy.”

In his commentary to RBC, the well-known advocate and respected Russian lawyer Henri Reznik decried the decision, saying that it lacked even a shred of evidence. “It’s a shame and discredits the Russian system of justice,” he said. Most people who watched the court hearings seem to share Reznik's standpoint. Indignation was writ large on the faces of the crowd that gathered next to the court.

Federal TV channels have already aired reports showing that this case did not improve the attitude of the citizens to either the authorities or the judicial system, though their feelings seemed as though they could hardly become more acrimonious.

It is clear that the case is not over yet. Apart from the Russian Orthodox Church’s representatives, speakers from Putin's United Russia party also mentioned that the verdict was too “harsh,” suggesting the possibility of a pro-clemency scenario to improve the party's image: “Probably, the President will make a decision on the case.”

Week in Review: "Gallery Girls" Premiered, Pussy Riot Jailed, Hirst Capped Olympics, And More

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Week in Review: "Gallery Girls" Premiered, Pussy Riot Jailed, Hirst Capped Olympics, And More
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Our most-talked-about stories in Art, Design & Architecture, Fashion & Style, and Performing Arts, August 13-17, 2012:

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— After months of preparation, Bravo's "Gallery Girls" premiered; Chloe Wyma recapped the first episode of the deliciously trashy show, while actual citizens of the art world shared their disapproving reactions.

— Artist Neil Rivas called for the deportation of beloved superheroes including Thor, Superman, and Wonder Woman in a project questioning U.S. immigration policies.

Ben Davis looked at the Watermill Center's Mike Kelley tribute exhibition through the lens of the late artist's growing disillusionment with the art world in the months before his suicide.

— Shane Ferro parsed the financial statements of six American artists' foundations — including the Warhol Foundation, the Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation — to see how they spend their money.

New York Academy of Art president David Kratz spoke out against Facebook's policy of censoring nude art in an op-ed.

DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

Google unveiled its Google World Wonders Project, which lets users explore major cultural heritage sites like Stonehenge and Versailles in a Street View-style display.

— London unveiled its plans to transform the Olympic park into a booming community.

— French artist Xavier Veilhan discussed a series of new installations he created while living in Richard Neutra's famous VDL Research House.

— Janelle Zara looked at the six most brilliant lights to come out of the current designer lightbulb trend.

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams's plan to demolish his San Francisco home — a 1911 classic of the Arts and Crafts movement designed by Louis Christian Mullgardt — drew his neighbors' ire.

FASHION & STYLE

— Ann Binlot looked back on the illustrious career of influential (and 11-year-old) fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson.

Helen Gurley Brown, the powerful editor of Cosmopolitan for 32 years, died.

Lady Gaga defended her conspicuous fondness for wearing fur.

— Curator and former National Arts Club staffer Stacy Engman showed off her must-have fashion accessories.

— Ann Binlot and Caitlin Petreycik marked Coco Chanel's 129th birthday by chronicling 11 trends she spearheaded.

PERFORMING ARTS

— New York's Downtown art set organized a Pussy Riot solidarity reading the night before the three members of the group were sentenced to two years in prison, capping an absurd trial.

— The London Olympic Games closed with a lackluster musical finale featuring Madness, the Spice Girls, and a giant Union Jack spin painting by Damien Hirst.

— Danish auteur Lars von Trier took to the Internet to crowd-source his forthcoming video art project "Gesamt."

— Graham Fuller deemed the new based-on-real-events thriller "Compliance" "the most harrowing American film of the year."

Jesse Eisenberg signed on to star in Kelly Reichardt’s fortcoming eco-terrorism drama "Night Moves" alongside Dakota Fanning.


The Cutter - 14 Questions For Paper Artist Bovey Lee

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Tony Scott Dies: "Top Gun" Director's Artistic Pinnacle Was "True Romance"

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Tony Scott Dies: "Top Gun" Director's Artistic Pinnacle Was "True Romance"
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The filmmaker Tony Scott died at around 12.30 p.m. yesterday when he jumped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California. The case is being treated as a suicide. “There’s nothing to indicate it is anything else at this time,” said Lt. Joe Bale of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Scott, 68, was best known as the director of “Top Gun,” “Days of Thunder,” “True Romance,” and “Crimson Tide.” Born in Stockton-on-Tees, England, he was the younger brother (by seven years) and business partner of Sir Ridley Scott.

A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Scott had originally intended to be a painter. He was considering a career as a maker of documentaries at the BBC when Ridley invited him into his commercials company. He directed thousands of TV “ads” and oversaw the company while his brother was developing his film career. In 1985, he made his feature debut on the elegant, erotic vampire film “The Hunger,” starring Catherine DeneuveDavid Bowie, and Susan Sarandon. Although a box-office failure, it was stylistically influential and subsequently become a cult favorite.

Scott would never be so arty again. A lover of machines and speed, he resumed – after a two-and-a-half-year struggle to get a Hollywood job – with “Top Gun” (1986), the gung-ho fighter-pilot movie that made Tom Cruise an action superstar and began Scott’s successful collaboration with the producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. It returned $350 million on its $15 million budget. Extolling the power of velocity to drive box-office sales, Scott would direct Cruise again in the auto racing actioner “Days of Thunder” (1990) and the superbly crafted runaway freight train thriller “Unstoppable” (2010), his last film and easily the best of the three.

Scott’s movies tended to stylishness, implausibility, and different shades of machismo (“The Hunger” aside, he seemed uninterested in women characters). They include “Beverly Hills Cop II” (1987), “Revenge” (1990), “The Last Boy Scout” (1991), “The Fan” (1996), “Enemy of the State” (1998), “Spy Game” (2001), “Man on Fire” (2004), “Déjà Vu” (2006), and a remake of “The Taking of Pelham 123” (2009).

The Cold War submarine thriller “Crimson Tide” (1995), which drew on the prowess of Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman, was Scott’s most exciting film about professionals under duress. “Domino” (2005), the story of model-turned-bounty hunter Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley), daughter of Laurence Harvey, may have had a woman protagonist, but one who was living a traditional male fantasy.

Scott’s most likeable woman character is Alabama, the hooker played by Patricia Arquette in the drugs heist thriller “True Romance” (1993), his best film. Quentin Tarantino’s screenplay deserves much of the credit, but it was Scott who directed the great falling-in-love scene in which Alabama’s eyes roam all over the face of Christian Slater’s Clarence as he describes his favorite comic book. It was Scott, too, who oversaw Gary Oldman’s indelible turn as the Rastafarian pimp and the classic showdown between Chistopher Walken’s gangster and Dennis Hopper’s security guard, Clarence’s father. Notwithstanding his immense facility with action, “True Romance” makes one wish Scott had put more accent on character and less on hardware, though Hollywood accountants might disagree.

Scott is survived by his third wife, Donna Wilson Scott, and their twin sons, Frank and Max.

When in Los Angeles… for Made in L.A. 2012

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Downtown Los Angeles -- Courtesy of Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board

The Hammer Museum's new biennial promoting local artists, is the perfect occasion to explore the West Coast culture capital.

 

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"Made in L.A. 2012," the inaugural edition of a Los Angeles biennial showcasing new work from (mostly up-and-coming) local artists, is just the latest expression of a SoCal art scene alive with self-confidence—and the perfect occasion for a visit to the West Coast culture capital. (June 2–September 2 at the Hammer Museum; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park (LAMAG); and LAXART.)

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Hotel Bel-Air
This Old Hollywood icon vaulted back onto the A-list when it unveiled its two-year, $100-million facelift in October of last year. The design team (Alexandra Champalimaud working with the Rockwell Group) preserved the 103-room hotel's signature pink-stucco Spanish Colonial–style architecture as well as the glamorous oval swimming pool. Flashy new features include a La Prairie Spa and a restaurant from chef Wolfgang Puck (701 Stone Canyon Rd.; 310-472-1211; guest rooms from $515).

 

Mr. C Beverly Hills
The C stands for Cipriani, and this 137-room tower, opened just one year ago, marks the restaurant dynasty's first foray into the hotel business. There are design nods to both Europe and Los Angeles (Italian furniture and bedding and film stills as wall art), while service reflects the family's culinary legacy. Bellinis and baked tagliolini can be delivered to the rooms or poolside (1224 Beverwil Dr.; 310-277-2800; guest rooms from $349).

 

Palihotel Melrose Avenue
Opened in February 2012, the Palihotel hits the mark for on-the go guests seeking mod style at moderate prices. Prospective guests should note that this 32-room boutique is light on amenities, though Melrose's bustling lineup of shops and restaurants is right outside (7950 Melrose Ave.; 323-272-4588; guest rooms from $185).

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EAT
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Osteria Mozza
Is five years long enough to be considered a standby? This Nancy Silverton–Mario Batali–Joe Bastianich Italian venture was never lacking in pedigree. Now that chef Matt Molina snagged the 2012 James Beard award for best chef: Pacific (pastry chef Dahlia Narvaez made do with a nomination), Osteria Mozza has serious street cred as well (6602 Melrose Ave.; 323-297-0100).

 

The Spice Table
Chef-owner Bryant Ng literally mans the wood-burning hearth at this unpretentious Little Tokyo restaurant. Headcheese, bone marrow, and pig's tail appear on the nose-to-tail Southeast Asian–inspired menu; squeamish eaters may feel more courageous knowing Food & Wine dubbed Ng one of its best new chefs of 2012 (114 S. Central Ave.; 213-620-1840).

 

Picca
Peru gave us potatoes, tomatoes, and chef Ricardo Zarate, a Lima native who has helped create the buzz currently surrounding Peruvian cuisine. Picca's family-style menu lets diners sample ceviche, causa (a take on sushi, using potato instead of rice), anticucho (grilled kebabs), and still have room for vanilla-bean pisco flan (9575 W. Pico Blvd.; 310-277-0133).

 

Ink
While Michael Voltaggio (winner of Top Chef season six) chose the name of his restaurant to evoke permanence (as in tattoos), the food—sturgeon with mushroom oatmeal and mushroom hay or pork belly with charcoal oil, barbecue flavor, and macaroni and cheese, for example—is all about invention (8360 Melrose Ave.; 323-651-5866).

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SEE + DO
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Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Transporting a 340-ton granite megalith more than 100 miles was an impressive performance piece in its own right, but the show's not over: Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass (featuring the stone suspended over a 456-foot-long concrete slot) opened in June (5905 Wilshire Blvd.; 323-857-6000).

 

The Museum of Contemporary Art
On view at the Geffen Contemporary through September 3, "Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974," emphasizes social and political aspects of the movement's early years in the work of more than 80 artists (152 N. Central Ave.; 213-626-6222).

 

The Getty Center
"Gustav Klimt: The Magic of Line," presented by the J. Paul Getty Museum July 3 through September 23, is the first Klimt retrospective of its kind. More than 100 drawings will be assembled to celebrate the painter's draftsmanship as well as the 150th anniversary of his birth (1200 Getty Center Dr.; 310-440-7300).

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SHOP
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NK Shop
Like the interiors Todd Nickey and Amy Kehoe create for their celebrity clients, the design duo's new retail digs contain a well-edited selection of housewares, private-label furniture, and vintage finds (7221 Beverly Blvd.; 323-954-9300).

 

Kelly Wearstler
Opened last November, Wearstler's eponymous flagship (and first standalone boutique) is a one-stop shop for the multitasking designer's clothing, accessories, and home decor (8440 Melrose Ave.; 323-895-7880).

 

Just One Eye
A unique location (the former home of Howard Hughes) and an appointment-only policy add intrigue to the brick-and-mortar incarnation of the avant-garde online fashion playground of the same name (7000 Romaine St.; 888-563-6858).

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UP NEXT
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Art Platform—Los Angeles
Following its 2011 debut, this contemporary and modern art fair will return September 28 through 30 for a second engagement at a new location: Santa Monica Airport's Barker Hangar (213-763-5890).

“I Observed Them in Their Way of Working”: A Q&A With Willy Rizzo on Photographing Dali, Chanel, and Dior

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“I Observed Them in Their Way of Working”: A Q&A With Willy Rizzo on Photographing Dali, Chanel, and Dior
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In 1961, the photographer and designer Willy Rizzo traveled to Brazil to photograph his ex-wife, Elsa Martinelli, and the playboy Porfirio Rubirosa during Carnival. Some 50 years later, the Italian artist returns to the country for the exhibition “Willy Rizzo in Brazil” at MuBE, the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture in São Paulo. The installation, which is on display through September 2, showcases 100 of Rizzo’s photographs of virtually every major celebrity from the past 70 years. Salvador Dalí peers through a magnifying glass for a Surrealist portrait, Marilyn Monroe looks angelic thanks to a soft backlight (Rizzo was the last photographer to shoot the actress before her 1962 death), and a fresh-faced Brigitte Bardot crawls out of a boat on all fours. In an email to ARTINFO, Rizzo discussed the evolution of celebrity photography, his experiences photographing some of history’s boldest names, and his most memorable subject.

You traveled to Rio de Janeiro to photograph Carnival in the ’60s. How does it feel to have a major exhibition of your work in the country now?

I’m very flattered to be exposed in Brazil. It’s always a fairy celebration in Brazil. For a journalist it is the maximum when his work becomes artistic.

Tell us what it was like to shoot the first Cannes Film Festival in 1947?

It was for France Dimanche. I invented the “Club des Milliardaires,” and they liked it. I photographed in the lobby of the greatest palace and I met Princess Troubetzkoy, Errol Flynn, Porfirio Rubirosa, Freddy McEvoy, and Juan Capurro. It was that year that the talking cinema changed its look. Jacques Becker, Elia Kazan, Ingmar Bergman, and Vincente Minnelli were there.

How was your experience shooting fashion designers like Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, and Pierre Cardin? Describe them.

When I photographed them, they were already strong personalities. I observed them in their way of working and in their habits. Fashion was like the birth of a new industry. I was close with Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, and Yves Saint Laurent became a good friend. A fashion designer is at the beginning a worker who becomes the best one. There is no cheating. He has to be really good – it is mandatory. As a picture, if it is good you cannot deny it. It is a feature of art.

What were artists like Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí like?

They had a huge talent – I wanted to understand where this talent came from, and it was beautiful to see a person become famous through his work.

Who is your most memorable subject? Can you tell us an anecdote about your experience with him/her?

My most memorable subject is the Pope Pius XII. In 1950 I went to Rome to photograph the Vatican, I took a lot of pictures of the priest, places, and some of the Pope but not as I wanted. After one week of work inside the Vatican, the Pope came to ask me if I was happy with my work. I said, “Most Holy Father, no not very much, because I did not photograph you as I wanted.” His chief of protocol almost sent me out and as I was leaving with my assistant, his personal secretary came to me and told me his Highness was waiting for me in his small garden. Then I really did the photograph I expected.

Did you carry any lessons from photography into furniture design? How did it differ from photography?

Every work that necessitates talent like painting, sculpture, or cinema, it is something abstract and above in … efficacy. If you want to become good you have to be different. People should stop on your work. Design is made of materials and lines that take and reflect the light, and of cropping. In photography, the result is more or less immediate. In design I need a little more time to see a prototype finished.

How has fashion photography changed since you started shooting in the ’40s?

Everything changed: the angle, the light, the dresses changed – also the women’s personalities. The important pictures are impossible to reproduce. Many have tried. Before, they were simple photographs with a grey background, the model looking at you and we [needed] to fabric our atmosphere with our talent. Now, photographers use much more themes.

Click on the slide show to see photographs from the exhibition “Willy Rizzo in Brazil,” on display at MuBE, the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, through September 2.

Visit Artinfo.com/fashion for more fashion and style news.

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Holy Molar! Canadian Artist Creates Portrait Using John Lennon's Actual Tooth

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Holy Molar! Canadian Artist Creates Portrait Using John Lennon's Actual Tooth
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If the scientists of the future ever want material to clone Beatle John Lennon, they need look no further than the work of Canadian artist Kirsten Zuk. That’s because Zuk’s latest bust, a portrait of the rock star with his signature shaggy haircut and a cap perched on his head, contains a fragment of Lennon’s actual molar. 

The molar was originally given by Lennon to his housekeeper Dot Jarlett sometime between 1964 and 1968. In the slightly creepy fashion befitting of a global celebrity, the musician suggested that Jarlett give the tooth to her daughter, a big Beatles fan. The gift stayed in the family ever since, but Jarrett, now 90, decided that it was time to pass it on. Lennon’s fang turned out to be a good investment — it was sold by the British Omega Auction House in 2011 for $31,200 to a Canadian cosmetic dentist who happened to be Kirsten Zuk’s brother, Michael Zuk.

Kirsten Zuk — a “huge fan” of Lennon all her life, according to the Edmonton Sun — came up with the idea to turn a fragment of the tooth into an artwork. The piece will be on display during Edmonton’s Fringe Festival, where the artist hopes it will raise awareness and donations for Smile Train, a charity devoted to providing children who live in poverty with free cleft palate surgery. What might become of the sculpture afterward, as with the fate of the rest of the tooth, has yet to be seen. “This is like a time-capsule,” Zuk said. “It will contain his DNA.”

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