“Politicians nominating technocrats nominating politicans,” senator Francesco Storace indignantly tweeted on Tuesday, shortly after hearing that Giovanna Melandri, a current member of the Italian parliament with a long list of accomplishments in the culture sector, would be confirmed as the new president of the National Museum of 21st Century Art Foundation (MAXXI).

Storace was not alone in believing that the nomination was “an absolute shame.” Almost immediately after the news of Melandri’s nomination broke last week, party leaders from both ends of the political spectrum seemed adamant that Lorenzo Ornaghi, the current Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities, should take it back. Speaking to Il Messaggero, Maurizio Gasparri of the center-right People of Freedom party called Melandri’s nomination “a shameful decision.” Speaking to the Corriere della Sera, Giulia Rodano of the center-left Italy of Values party called it “an opaque nomination,” and Gian Luca Galletti of the Union of the Center coalition called it an “inappropriate choice.”

The objections, as many have put it, relate to the nomination’s timing and style. Professor Roberto Dainotto, who teaches Italian Studies at Duke University, was among those who believed until last week that the MAXXI Foundation would be taken over not by Melandri but by Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele, an accomplished Roman banker who presided over the Italian pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. “The choice, and I don’t know how symbolic it was, was to give it either to economics or to politics,” he told ARTINFO, adding that he now agrees that the culture ministry’s decision was fishy.

“The objection is to the fact that politicians have redistributed this job to a politician,” he said. “Managing the MAXXI doesn’t need to be given necessarily to a politican, and it would be very hard not to find an art historian or museum director who could do the job well. I, personally, find it very disturbing.”

Complaints from members of parliament have been stern, but also very polite, and rarely without some acknowledgement of Melandri’s past service to the culture ministry. Born in New York and educated in Italy, Melandri has been admired for years as a cosmopolitan with firm connections to the international art community. As Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities between 1998 and 2001, she inherited plans to build a new contemporary art museum in Rome from her predecessor, Walter Veltroni, and was instrumental in drawing the celebrity architect Zaha Hadid to the project.

In May 2001, Melandri was unable to oversee the opening ceremonies because she had by then been elected to the Chamber of Deputies. Now, she will be resigning from parliament to accept her new job at MAXXI. That an Italian should move back and forth between such high poles of politics and culture is rare, but not unheard of (it happens that Veltroni, her predecessor, is a prolific author, and published three novels while serving as the mayor of Rome). Citing her experience as a fundraiser, several supporters (including at least one longtime rival in parliament) have been impelled to ask what the fuss is about.

“Why shouldn’t Giovanna Melandri be at the top of a museum of contemporary art?” the critic Giancarlo Politi wrote in a statement to ARTINFO. “Melandri, who in perfect English can speak with Gagosian, Saatchi, and the director of MoMA, or maybe Soros or Bill Gates? Who among our fearful intellectuals is able to get an appointment with these people and ask for something? For a long time, both politicians and professionals should have known that the president of a museum or any cultural institution should be entrusted neither by technicians nor enthusiasts, but by people who represent them and who can find the funds to ensure their existence.”

“I don’t understand all the scandal,” senator Adriana Poli Bortone, president of the Great South party, told Prima Pagina News. “Even though we’ve always fought on opposite sides, one certainly could not say that she isn’t a capable, intelligent person.”

Luigi Zanda, a colleague of Melandri’s in the Democratic Party, seemed to agree. “This is a matter of the presidency of the foundation, not the museum,” he told ARTINFO. “Yes, the museum should be led by technicians, by art historians, but for the foundation she seems qualified.” Speaking over the phone, Zanda seemed eager to stress the distinction between questions about Melandri’s personal resume and the complaints about her having been the beneficiary of a shady inside hire. “She is a very influential, judicious, and cultured woman, with many international connections that could be useful,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Bicycle is one of Ryan Johnson’s newest free-standing sculptures, part of his exhibition “Self Storage” on view October 27 through December 15 at the Suzanne Geiss Company. At first glance it appears to be a Kokopelli-inspired figure, cruising along hands-free on a bike whose movement has been rendered in a kinetic, Cubist style. But look closer and you’ll see that there are actually three eccentric figures atop that seat: a man, a woman, and a small child. “It’s a family on a bicycle now,” says Johnson, “which is kind of what the show’s about—reflecting this mid-thirties entrance into adulthood. People getting married, divorced, starting families—or not. Bicycle has a bit of that in it—not like it’s out of your control, but you don’t know how it’s going to change your life.” Johnson, 34, has been thinking about such decisions on a very personal level. He’s married to the painter Dana Schutz; they don’t currently have children, but clearly a certain anxious curiosity is at play in the new work. Case in point: Another sculpture is inspired by a friend of Johnson’s who recently became a father and now journeys around town “with a baby strapped to his chest.” The artist’s poetic translation of this image involves a figurative sculpture of a man with a large head growing out of his stomach, “almost like he’s pregnant with it.”

To see Modern Painters studio visit with Ryan Johnson, click on the video below:

A version of this article appears in the November 2012 issue of Modern Painters.

Jewel-toned rainbow gradients, sassy leopard spots, cool zebra stripes, colorful candy sprinkles, and glitter galore. No, those aren’t the components of a Lisa Frank sticker set, but rather the elements of artist Rob Pruitt’s Nicki Minaj-inspired collaboration with luxury brand Jimmy Choo. Pruitt also emblazoned his signature panda throughout — on purses, a scarf, shoes, and a key fob.

Pruitt explained the design process to ARTINFO. “They asked me to do some sketches, like patterns and designs, and then we looked at those, and then we thought about how we could turn those designs into shoes,” he said.

The result is a playful 18-piece collection of shoes, handbags, and accessories that brings you back to your youth. It’s filled with glitter — a material often used by Pruitt and Jimmy Choo designers — as well as colorful degradée, French lace, and cartoonish angel and devil renditions of the artist’s panda.

Pruitt said that designing the collection was a breeze, thanks to Jimmy Choo’s creative directors Simon Holloway and Sandra Choi. “The chief designers of Jimmy Choo, Simon and Sandra, are so talented. That made me feel comfortable with all of my ideas,” Pruitt said. “If I were to try to design shoes on my own they would probably have been a disaster. But working with their guidance, it was just really a thrill.”

The feeling was mutual. “He’s been absolutely fantastic,” Choi told ARTINFO. “We didn’t know what to expect. We’re both creatives, so from an artist to designers. He was so accommodating on boundaries. It was wonderful.”

Click on the slideshow to see the Rob Pruitt for Jimmy Choo collection.

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

BLOUIN Fashion is now on Twitter. Follow us @BLOUINFashion.

LOS ANGELES — A purple carpet set the stage for the international art, fashion, and film royalty present at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s second-annual Gucci-sponsored “Art + Film” gala on October 27. Guests sipped Laurent-Perrier pink champagne while an orchestra played renditions of Radiohead and Bob Dylan, before actress Evan Rachel Wood serenaded the assembled notables with a performance of Billie Holiday and Ruth Brown songs. The event honored late filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and artist Ed Ruscha, and was co-chaired by actor Leonardo DiCaprio (who was, however, in New York shooting the latest Martin Scorsese film) and LACMA trustee Eva Chow, standing out in a white gown amid a sea of little black dresses.

Hollywood executives Brian Grazer, Bryan Lourd, and Casey Wasserman mingled with movie stars like Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayek-Pinault, Robert Pattinson, and Sean Penn. Despite the room’s high wattage, museum director Michael Govan was relaxed as he greeted guests. This year there was “no stress,” Govan told ARTINFO. “Last year, we didn’t have a honoree until the end. This year, with the staff, we were all hanging out in the afternoon, everybody was happy!”

With LACMA the toast of the town, its director had good reason to be pleased. “Beyond the galas, LACMA has become a real destination,” artist Catherine Opie raved. “It constantly brings everybody from the city out and excited — I’m so proud of what Michael Govan has done.”

Besides the Hollywood types, the museum attracted an artist- and collector-heavy guest list including Barbara Kruger, Doug Aitken, New York collector Beth Rudin DeWoody, and French collector François-Henri Pinault, who explained, “We share a Bruce Nauman work [the video piece “For Beginners,” 2010, was jointly acquired by LACMA and François Pinault], so it’s important for us to be here. The center of contemporary art has shifted from New York to L.A. — the city is important on a global level.”

And then there was the fashion crowd. “I don’t think we’re going to see much art here tonight,” fashion journalist Richard Buckley quipped as he chatted with Anna Wintour (the Vogue queen, for her part, declined to comment on the evening, telling ARTINFO, “We’re just visitors here!”) A few feet away, model-turned-actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley — wearing the most-talked-about dress of the evening, a voluminous bright green Gucci design, which was a bit difficult to negotiate in a crowd — caught up with supermodel Karlie Kloss. The glamazon duo elicited appreciative looks from guests, with one woman exclaiming in awe, “They’re just so tall!”

Also in attendance was W magazine’s editor in chief Stefano Tonchi and designer Hedi Slimane. Actress/model China Chow and her date, singer Josh Grobin, were tucked away in a corner, while across the room, there was a veritable art-meets-fashion powwow between Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy and legendary L.A. artists John Baldessari and Ruscha.

Still, though people-watching may have been on everyone’s mind, the glittering crowd didn’t lose sight of the evening’s purpose: The 550 guests in attendance raised over $3.5 million to support LACMA’s film initiative.

To see highlights of LACMA's "Art + Film" gala, click on the slideshow.

LONDON — Joana Vasconcelos has been busy recently. As her spectacular Château de Versailles exhibition ended, the Paris-born, Lisbon-based artist opened a large site-specific installation at London’s Haunch of Venison — before rushing back to her studio in Lisbon to prepare for the Venice Biennale, where she’ll be representing Portugal next summer.

Now best known for her extravagant fabric sculptures, Vasconcelos first came to global attention a decade ago with “La Mariée” (the Bride), a monumental chandelier composed of thousands of tampons (judged too controversial to grace Versailles’s ornate ceilings). Since then, the artist — a favourite of über collector François Pinault's — has taken her signature more-is-more aesthetics to epic proportions with nightmarish, oversized soft-toys and monumental compositions of everyday paraphernalia.

Speaking from Lisbon, Vasconcelos discussed her recent show with ARTINFO UK and shared some insights into the much-awaited Venice pavilion.

In your current exhibition at Haunch of Venison, you are showing “Full Steam Ahead (Red#1)” (all works 2012), a kinetic, flower-shaped sculpture composed of working steam irons. Could you tell me about this more mechanical strand of your practice?

I've been developing these mechanical pieces related to the domestic environment for a long time — they have to do with this idea that your house can become another world, with a different identity. These daily objects transform our daily life into an easier place to be in, but at the same time, they can trap you because you can't live without them, so there's always this ambiguity. I wanted to give these iron pressers the organic and violent look they have.

There is a clear tension between the aesthetic of the flower-like shape and the aggressiveness of the heat and steam coming out of the metal petals.

It’s aggressive, but it’s poetic too. Things can be looked at from different perspectives. You can look at your life in a very terrible way, or you can have a poetic view of it. That's exactly what I’m trying to do with that piece. In the "The Transformers" movie, it’s always trucks and cars that transform into warriors — manly objects, never feminine objects. Here, we have an object, which is more associated with women, transforming itself into something else. But instead of a warrior, it’s a flower.

Looking at your production, one can’t help thinking of a particular art historical tradition which has appropriated female crafts: Louise Bourgeois, Rosemarie Trockel, Tracey Emin. Do you feel part of this lineage?

Of course. All of them, in their own way, tried to develop this notion of looking at the world from a different angle. Being a woman offers a different perspective, so why should we have to look at things in the same way? From these women, I learnt that you could look at things differently. I try to give my own perspective, in accordance to my way of looking at the world.

On the gallery’s top floor, there’s a monumental “Valkyrie” — the largest in your series so far and the first one visitors can actually step into. Can you tell me about this body of work?

In the Finnish tradition, the Valkyries are figures that fly over the battlefield and give a new life to the bravest warriors who died fighting. All of the pieces in this series have a special identity. I did “Victoria,” in honour of Queen Victoria, “Royal Valkyrie,” “Golden Valkyrie”… This one is “Valkyrie Crown,” in honour of the Jubilee. It’s the first Valkyrie in which you can really be a part of piece. It’s a new thing I’m experimenting with: You go inside, understand how this piece is made and how it works around you, like a crown.

What interests you in the idea of excess? Everything is so over-the-top in your work.

It’s not excess. What happens is that when I see a place, a building, a room, or a museum, I try to connect with it. The architecture is what is going to define the size of my piece. I try [for the work] not to be decorative, an accessory, but to interact with the space.

You are representing Portugal at the next Venice Biennale, but there’s no building. I’ve been told you are considering doing a floating pavilion. Could you tell me more?

The floating pavilion will be a traditional, industrial boat from Lisbon, its equivalent to the Venetian vaporetto. What I want to do is connect these realities: the city of Lisbon, the city of Venice, and the working class crossing the river everyday in both cities. The boat will be transformed with my textile work, it will become a different world. There’s an historical connection between Lisbon and Venice: All the traffic between the Orient and European cities was made through Venice, but Venice ended up suspended in time because we, Portuguese, discovered a faster way to bring things from the Orient. What I want to do is not to take us back in time, but to link this history to the present.

“Joana Vasconcelos,” October 10 – November 17, 2012, Haunch of Venison, London

Name: Richard Deacon

Age: 63

Occupation: Artist

City/Neighborhood: London, UK

Current exhibition:

“Beware of the Dog” at Singapore Tyler Print Institute presenting 76 pieces by the artist from his five-week on-site residency. It includes marbled polygonal paper columns of folded paper, relief prints, woodblock on kozo paper, paper works, and shaped handmade paper collaged on screen-printed paper.

Had you worked on paper before this exhibition?

I’d made some sculptures in the early ’90s that had paper, but I’ve never worked with handmade paper before. And I’ve never used paper for such a big body of work. In fact, I’ve rarely done exhibitions that are material-based. Most of the exhibitions I’ve done have had a big mixture of materials, so this is probably unique.

What were the challenges?

Because I’ve always used paper as a dry material, and never as a wet material, I was quite cautious about putting colors into the wet surface. It took a while to get the confidence to do so. This unfamiliarity with the wet material led me to push it around a bit too much initially.

What were the overarching ideas for this body of work?

The invitation was to come here and just work and see what happened. I had some ideas about folding before I started, and a couple of days before I came here, I saw some hazard warning tapes which kind of tied in with some drawings I’d done. And in my mind there is some link between the pattern of the warning tape and folding.

With the series of 19 paper sculptures titled “Housing,” are you revising previous shapes you’ve created in ceramics and steel?

Working with these kinds of forms started about five years ago with folding cardboard, went to steel, became clay, and now have become paper. Here, both sides of the paper are marbled before they are folded so that there is a choice about which side is out and which is in, and (it’s also) about sequencing of colors.

What about the series “Konrad Witz”where you used crumpled handmade paper?

These shapes don’t really resemble any of my works. They started out with quite big pieces of paper and some ended up quite small, so there is something about compression, which I think is interesting, reducing material by compressing it. I’ve never done this before. Most of the time I stretch materials.

Is this something you would like to explore again?

Yes, I think it would be quite interesting. There is also the ambiguity at the end of the material here which I find quite interesting.

So what have you learned during this residency?

A lot about marbling (laughs).

And what did you enjoy most in the process?

It fell into two parts. The rigor and control of doing the early works (inspired by the hazard warning tape), the patience needed to do the woodblock, using such a simple technique for such a complex image made out of photocopies. And in the second part: the teamwork to get the marbling done. Over two weeks it was kind of an everyday performance.

What are you working on now?

A cornice for the St. James Gateway in Piccadilly (London), which is being put up now. It’s not a million miles from the folded columns.

So where are you finding ideas for your work these days?

In surprising places – mostly when you least expect it.

What's the most indispensable item in your studio?

A good supply of clamps.

Where’s your favorite place to see art?

The Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen.

What’s your favorite post-gallery watering hole or restaurant?

Tate Modern Restaurant.

What’s the last show that you saw?

Bronze at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Do you collect anything?

Yes, but not with any rigor – I buy a lot of junk.

What’s the last artwork you purchased?

A painting by Derek Holland from 1965 – he was my art teacher at secondary school.

What work of art do you wish you owned?

An early work of Donald Judd’s.

What would you do to get it?

What are you asking me to do?

What’s your art-world pet peeve?

Art fairs — there are too many!

What international art destination do you most want to visit?

The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

What under-appreciated artist, gallery, or work do you think people should know more about?

Olga Jevrić – a sculptor from Serbia, well known in the ’60s.

Who’s your favorite living artist?

Robert Ryman.

What are your hobbies?

Walking, bird watching.

“She’s a little bit crazy,” said eyewear designer Tracy Sedino of the Linda Farrow woman. Considering Sedino’s customer has, in the past, worn the brand’s Mickey Mouse glasses, cat-face shades, and a veritable peek-a-boo mask crafted to look like red-nailed flesh-toned hands wrapping around one’s eyes, she’s pretty spot on in her description. But if the label’s spring range is any indication, the Linda Farrow woman is cool, confident, and sophisticated, too.

Linda Farrow launched her namesake eyewear brand in 1970 and went on to create glasses for the likes of Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga. The designer closed up shop up 1980. But after stumbling upon a warehouse full of Farrow’s original designs, Sedino and her husband, Simon Jablon (who also happens to be Linda Farrow’s son), decided to relaunch the line. Now approaching their 10th anniversary, the pair not only creates their own signature styles but has collaborated with everyone from Oscar de la Renta to Raf Simmons to Alexander Wang.

At a press preview in the Standard Hotel on Friday, Sedino showcased all of Linda Farrow’s spring offerings. According to the designer, the Linda Farrow Luxe line had a tropical inspiration this season, and featured round or geometric looks in golds, aquas, and reds. Snakeskin or water snake frames came in soft tans and rosebuds, and one pair of shades with hexagonal link earpieces could be custom ordered with gemstones of one’s choice. Collaborative projects were also on display, like a range of pastel bug-inspired glasses by Erdem, round retro styles in deep orange, forest green, and marigold by The Row, and Baroque and machine-gun looks by Jeremy Scott. “Jeremy is always really fun,” said Sedino. “With him, we’re always like, ‘Oh my god, what is he gonna give us?’ But it’s always something different. And he’s got diehard fans out there.”

More subdued but no less glamorous wares included a range for Oscar de la Renta, which featured glasses with jade insets or tiger-eye beads, angular, vintage-inspired styles for Dries van Noten, and futuristic looks in pop colors by Prabal Gurung. “We only work with brands we really love,” said Sedino. Considering that, between Linda Farrow Projects and Linda Farrow Collaborations, the brand worked with 13 designers this season, it would seem Sedino and Jablon have a lot of love to give.

— "Flooded McDonald's" Sows Confusion Amid Sandy: The massive Frankenstorm that has plowed its way over the Eastern Seaboard has left in its wake plenty of chaos, and plenty of dramatic pictures of flooding. But one image of chaos making the rounds is a fake. Photos from Danish art collective Superflex's iconic "Flooded McDonald's" project started making the rounds on social media yesterday, prompting Buzzfeed to include it in its list of "11 Viral Photos That AREN'T Hurricane Sandy," and even leading one Virginia paper to issue a warning, "If you see this photo on Facebook with the caption 'Shore Drive McDonalds,' don't believe it." In fact, the paper reports, comfortingly, "both Shore Drive McDonalds are open for business today." [Buzzfeed, HamptonRoads] 

— Riley Nabs Dutch Color Prize: British painter and Op artist Bridget Riley has won this year's Sikkens prize, an award given out by the Netherlands' Sikkens Foundation for the use of color in architecture, design, art, film, and a plethora of other disciplines, including everyday life — previous winners range from Donald Judd and Le Corbusier to the sanitation workers of the city of Paris and "The Hippies" — becoming the first Brit, and the first woman, ever to receive the honor. "In my years after leaving art school, I found a way of learning about the use of use of colour in modern art by copying a Seurat," Riley said. "It was the landscape of a river and its banks in autumn. I copied it from a reproduction, because it is much easier to copy when one is not intimidated by the presence of a masterwork." [Guardian]

— Turrell Blesses Arizona Campus With Skyspace: Arizona State University's ASU Art Museum in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts is the latest Southwestern university to add a Skyspace installation by conceptual and land artist James Turrell to its amenities: The installation, "Air Apparent," was recently inaugurated on the university's Tempe campus near the new Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4. "Like much of the work that takes place here, the Skyspace is a project with roots in multiple disciplines — physics, the arts, philosophy — that transcends those categories to emerge as something unique and truly extraordinary," said ASU president Michael Crow. [ArtDaily]

— Van Gogh Masterworks Moved: While Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum is being renovated, its trove of the modern artist's paintings — the world's largest — is being shown across town at the Hermitage's Amsterdam location, a relocation that has been strikingly visualized by contemporary artist Henk Schut, who threaded a red rope through the Dutch capital's streets, squares, and intersections as part of a public installation marking the relocation. Among the works on view at Hermitage Amsterdam is a two-sided Van Gogh painting that has never been exhibited before, with one side showing a gloomy early work, and the other, painted months later, boasting a self-portrait rendered in what would become his trademark bold palette. [Guardian]

— Miami Museum Commissions Four Artists: When the Miami Art Museum reopens in December 2013 as the Pérez Art Museum Miami in its new Herzog & de Meuron-designed building, it will boast new works by Israeli video artist Yael Bartana, Moroccan video artist Bouchra Khalili, Scottish sculptor Hew Locke, and Polish conceptual artist Monika Sosnowska, which each will develop over a year-long process of exploring Miami. "We are also committed to engaging with artists, creators and thinkers from around the globe," said MAM director Thom Collins, "connecting our local experience with those across the world and solidifying Miami's role as a major cultural catalyst." [ArtDaily]

— Rome Avid for Affordable Art: The Affordable Art Fair's first outing in Rome this past weekend was deemed a success by exhibitors, who found the crowds of the Italian capital thirsty for contemproary fair to match their art history-filled surroundings. "The organisers thought that this being Rome, the people would arrive a bit late," said photographer Ruggero Rosfer, whose work was on sale at the fair between $3,300-5,180. "Instead, half an hour before opening time there was already a queue around the block... That's how huge the interest is." [Reuters]

— Cincinnati Museum's Hiring Spree: The Cincinnati Art Museum has hired a new curator for European art — to replace Benedict Leca, who left in the spring — and a new chief conservator to replace Per Knutås, who now holds that title at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Esther Bell, a former curator at the Metropolitan and Morgan museum, will take over as European art curator, and Serena Urry, most recently of the Barnes Foundation and before that the Detroit Institute of the Arts, will be the new chief conservator. [Cincinnati.com]

— Monumental Gollum Statue Graces Airport Food Court: NYC flights may be grounded, but New Zealand's Wellington Airport got a precious new mascot on Friday morning, when local prop and special effect company Weta Workshop revealed a massive, grotesque hanging sculpture of Gollum, the ring-infatuated creature of J.R.R. Tolkien legandarium, suspended over the airport's food court. As of Friday morning, the 42-foot long, 2,500-pound effigy of the creature formerly known as Sméagol hungrily snatching up fish celebrates New Zealand's involvment in the Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, while plugging the forthcoming "Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" movie. [NYT]

— National Gallery Director Piles on Plinth: Nicholas Penny, the director of London's National Gallery, is not fond of the Fourth Plinth public art program just outside the gallery's doors in Trafalgar Square — for which contemproary artists like Yinka Shonibare MBE and Elmgreen & Dragset have been commissioned to create site-specific and temporary public art projects — saying the the plinths should simply be adorned with two complimentary works of contemporary art. The current program, he said, is "antagonistic to the architectural character of the square" and turns the plinth into "a stage, which can be used ironically, farcically [and] inappropriately." [TAN]

— "Peru's Sistine Chapel" Restored: The Church of San Pedro Apóstol de Andahuaylillas in a remote Peruvian village, long deemed South America's equivalent of the Sistine Chapel, will reopen tomorrow following a four-year, $1.5 million restoration effort to undo the effects of centuries of dirt, earthquake damage, sloppy conservation, and bat droppings. "These churches are wonderful examples of Andean Baroque art during the colonial period and we are committed to their conservation," said World Monuments Fund Peru president Marcela Pérez de Cuéllar. "When you restore a building, you may think you are only helping the building, but these projects also benefit the community." [TAN]

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Superflex's "Flooded McDonald's" (2009):

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

There's something quite ironic in Bridget Riley — an artist who made a name for herself with black-and-white abstractions — picking up the Sikkens Prize for color in her work. But then again, Britain's grande dame of abstract art has a career full of experimentation behind her, and what she's best known for only represents a tiny part of her long career. Just six years after her landmark composition "Movement in Squares" (1961), Riley started to introduce vibrant hues to her canvasses. These have become one of her trademarks, almost as signature as the vibrating Op Art patterns with which she's been closely associated.

The Sikkens Prize isn't a conventional venture either. It is awarded every other year by Rotterdam's Sikkens Foundation, a philanthropic body whose objective is to "promote social, cultural and scientific developments in society in which colour plays a specific role." Past laureates include Donald Judd and Le Corbusier, as well as the hippie community, and Paris's street cleaning department "for the consistent use of the colour green," reports the Guardian's Charlotte Higgins.

Riley is the first woman in the Sikkens Prize's half-century-long history to receive the award. It was presented to the artist during a ceremony at the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague, which also marked the opening of a large exhibition of Riley's work in the museum, including a 20-by-4-meter mural drawing. At this occasion, the notoriously media-shy artist, now 81, gave a rare and lengthy interview to the Guardian. ARTINFO UK has broken out some of the great artist's key reflections from the piece (for the full interview, read Higgins' article):

On Her Early Days: 

"In my years after leaving art school, I found a way of learning about the use of use of colour in modern art by copying a Seurat. It was the landscape of a river and its banks in autumn. I copied it from a reproduction, because it is much easier to copy when one is not intimidated by the presence of a masterwork. I learned lessons about how colours behave through interaction when placed next to each other.

"And then, on a very spectacular summer day looking over a valley near Siena, sparkling and shimmering in the heat, I made my own attempt. I made studies, and later, a painting. I was quite pleased, in fact, with what I'd been able to do, but it had nothing to do with what I had actually experienced in front of this landscape. So I decided to start again to find a new beginning — to start from the themes themselves, that is to say, shapes, lines, and so on. That led to my making a black-and-white painting and seeing what it would do: and it moved."

On Abstraction Versus Figuration:

"Many people would like to know how to look at abstract painting because they may be used to looking at figurative painting. But I personally believe they are all about painting itself. The big difference is conventions of looking.

"One of the most extraordinary things to look at is a painting of heaven and the celestial hosts and the mother of God — these are themes that artists gave as an experience of spiritual matters to their audience. In its best form [abstract] painting offers a spiritual experience. It's very hard to define what that might precisely mean, and one shouldn't try."

On Contemporary Art:

"Every period has its contemporary wing. In the Renaissance the practice of painting would have been a much bigger thing. Many people would have been painting, for religious works, for festivals, for processions; painting churches, carriages, chests, boats. There would have been an extraordinary amount of brushwork and decoration. These things furnished a platform for high art, as it were, but no one set out to be a fine artist. Some individuals simply raised their bar, or got more ambitious. There will always be people born with talent, with gifts, with minds that seek new experiences, generation after generation."

"Sikkens Prize 2012: Bridget Riley," October 29, 2012 – January 6, 2013, Gemeentemseum, The Hague, The Netherlands

With all the wind and rain on the east coast in recent days due to Sandy, the last thing you want is your timepiece failing on you. Water resistant up to 10 bar — the water pressure felt at 290 feet — the Jaeger-LeCoultre Deep Sea Vintage Chronograph can withstand a torrential storm or a deep sea dive. It adds a three-counter chronograph movement to the case of the 1959 Memovox Deep Sea. Inside, a JLC caliber 758 features a 65-hour power reserve. An operating indicator lets you know if the chronograph is running, stopped, or ready to be used. So whether braving a storm or the vast ocean, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Deep Sea Vintage Chronograph is a watch you can count on.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Deep Sea Vintage Chronograph, $10,800. For more information, visit jaeger-lecoultre.com.

NEW YORK — As the storm tides begin to recede, art dealers are among the many business owners left assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. From the Lower East Side to upstate New York, dozens of art institutions that we talked to — including R 20th Century in SoHo, Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side, the New Museum on the Bowery, Postmasters Gallery in Chelsea, and Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, to name a few — are without electricity. Others, like Eyebeam and Zach Feuer in Chelsea, sustained serious flooding and have yet to determine the full extent of the damage.

One of the worst hit by the storm — at least among the select group of dealers currently talking to the press — is Feuer. At the peak of the flood, waters reached about five feet inside the gallery, he said. Almost all of the work in his current exhibition, “Kate Levant: Closure of Jaw,” has been destroyed. “So far that’s the biggest disappointment,” he told ARTINFO by phone. “The show just opened and I’d be very surprised if any of that work is restorable. They are works on paper and they got wet, beat up, and the tables they were stored in banged into walls.”

Tomorrow, Feuer and his staff will return to the gallery, located at 548 West 22nd Street, to break open the warped-shut door to the back room where much of his inventory is stored. “A lot of our storage racks are built higher than five feet, so I’m hoping they didn’t get washed away,” he said. Still, part of the wall between Feuer’s gallery and its neighbor, CRG Gallery, was torn apart during the storm. “I’m worried because if the water can wash away walls, it can also probably wash away storage racks,” he said. “But we’ll see tomorrow.”

Some other Chelsea dealers fared better. A representative from Paul Kasmin on 27th Street told ARTINFO that the gallery flooded a bit, but that all art had been taken out of harm’s way well beforehand. Leila Heller Gallery, located at the corner of 11th Avenue and 25th Street, miraculously survived the storm relatively unscathed. “We have no electricity, but thank god, there was no flooding in the gallery,” Heller said. Though the basement of the building flooded, gallery staff had moved all delicate art to the back of the gallery on the second floor, which remained dry. She said the maintenance crew slept in the building and called her every two hours.

Down in SoHo, some dealers are preparing for upcoming exhibitions in the dark. Zesty Meyers, of R 20th Century on Franklin Street, says his staff is gathering at the gallery’s warehouse in Brooklyn tomorrow to continue preparing for its exhibitions of Los Angeles-based designer David Wiseman, slated to open on November 13, and a group show opening on the 17th. “If we could get our now-iconic, first-ever Verner Panton exhibition installed during the days after September 11th, which helped bring so much joy and escapism for the people from the smell and everything else happening, I do not see why we can’t pull off the shows we have in the next two weeks,” Meyers told ARTINFO via e-mail.

Once dealers have dealt with the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, they’ll be left with another unwanted side effect: increased insurance premiums. (Over Twitter, dealer Lisa Schroeder noted that though her gallery has insurance for $500,000, many other galleries do not insure art, though most have liability and short-term travel insurance.) “If you constantly have to declare flooding, that’s going to increase your insurance,” said Heller. Feuer seconded this sentiment, “I’m sure premiums are going to go through the roof.”

Stay tuned tomorrow for further updates on the storm's effects on New York's art industry.

NEW YORK — Like many parts of the city, the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan — home to some of the art world’s best-known galleries — was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. Yestereday, ARTINFO’s Tom Chen and Terri Ciccone went to survey the damage, finding dealers focused on recovery and still cleaning out deluged spaces.

– Qatar's Royal Collector's Unpaid Art Tab: Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani, the royal collector of Qatar who allegedly spent over $1.5 billion on art, has also allegedly wracked up a $60 million debt to auction houses all over the globe and is now being sued in London for failing to pay $19.7 million for a set of Greek coins he recently bought at auction in New York. "He bids, wins and then doesn’t pay," Jeffrey Gruder, lawyer for the plaintiff trio of coin dealers, said of the Sheikh. "One can only conclude that this is a person acting dishonorably and disreputably. He is bidding when he knows he’s not going to be able to pay... Perhaps in a perverse way he enjoys the process of bidding." The Sheikh's lawyer says that he has been "trying to pay" for nine months and that the dealers have no contract of sale to produce against him. [International Business Times]

– Corcoran's Fate Rests With its Board: The future of Washington, D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery, whose recent proposal to sell its longtime home and move outside the city is just the latest in a series of desperate financial fixes, is now in the hands of the 14 men and women on its board of trustees, led by chairman Harry F. Hopper III, a collector of contemporary art and a venture capitalist. "We don’t claim to have a granular playbook on how a new leader is supposed to execute a vision," Hopper said. "We have come up with a framework within which a visionary leader can allow the institution to flourish. Exactly what shape that takes is an organic process that will be led by the new leadership that we bring in." [WaPo]

– Texas Museums Double Down on Islamic Art: Texas museums are making a serious commitment to Islamic art. The Dallas Museum of Art has appointed Sabiha Al Khemir  — the founding director of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha — as a new senior advisor, while the MFA Houston has inked an agreement with the al-Sabah Collection, one of the greatest groupings of Islamic art in the world, to borrow some 60 objects. "We have a very large Muslim community who are active supporters of the museum," said MFA Houston director Gary Tinterow. "We are thrilled to have the art and objects that reflects their culture." [NYT, Artforum]

– Money Launderers Caught With Banksy Stash: Two men serving seven years for money laundering in Southwark, England may have been dealing in more than just cash. Along with £800,000 found in their possession, police confiscated 49 urban works of art, the majority by Banksy. The artwork was valued at  £422,300. The men — Charith Abeysinghege, 29, and Richard Wheatley, 45 — were originally sentenced last April. [Yellowcard]

– Capital Gains Uncertainty Means Top Lots at Auction: New York's auction season kicks off on Wednesday with a cache of paintings by Rothko, Picasso, and Monet estimated to sell for eight figures each. Why so many blockbuster lots? A significant number of American collectors have decided to part with their art now because they are worried that capital gains taxes on fine art could rise from their current 28 percent. "That concern is what accounts for more discretionary selling this fall," said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s contemporary art department chief. [NYT] 

– Hotel Gallery to Close After Nine Years: Hotel, the contemporary art gallery in London, will close its doors after over nine years in business. Financial issues have made maintaining the space impossible, according to founders Darren Flook and Christabel Stewart. (The two were also founding participants of the Independent Fair in New York.) The gallery debuted in 2003 with a white neon sign by Peter Saville that read "Vacancies." It represents Richard Kern, Mike Bouchet, Alistair Frost, and others. [Artforum] 

– Abu Dhabi Art Fair Enlists Starchitects: Three of the world's leading architects — Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Norman Foster — will participate in a panel at next week's Abu Dhabi Art Fair in which each discusses his respective long-delayed major museum project in the city: Gehry's Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Nouvel's Louvre Abu Dhabi, and Foster's Zayed National Museum. "It’s symbolic that these three architects are speaking together in the Saadiyat Cultural District as the museums they designed are being realised around them," said Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, chairman of the state-run Abu Dhabi tourism agency that operates the fair. [TAN]

– Fitzwilliam Raises Poussin Cash: A combination of public donations and funding from Heritage Lottery has raised the £4 million ($6.4 million) that Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum needed to acquire a £14 million ($22.5 million) painting by Nicolas Poussin, "Extreme Unction," which will go on display at the museum early next month. "Now this masterpiece will be available to all," said the museum's director David Scrase, "transforming our existing collections at the Fitzwilliam." (For the Fitzwilliam's video making the case for keeping "Extreme Unction," see you VIDEO OF THE DAY, below.) [BBC]

– Royal Academy Goes Down Under: For the first time in more than a half-century, London's Royal Academy will devote a major exhibition to Australian art. (Its 2012-13 season also includes Britain's first George Bellows retrospective and the surefire blockbuster "Constable, Gainsborough, Turner and the Making of Landscape.") "Australia," which will run September 21-December 8, 2013, will boast 180 works ranging from Aboriginal art and works by European settlers to contemporary art. [Telegraph]

– Jo Longhurst Wins Grange Prize: British photographer Jo Longhurst, 50, known for her striking portraits of gymnasts and dogs, has claimed the Grange Prize, a $50,000 Canadian award for international contemporary photography. Thanks to her win, she will also join the Art Gallery of Ontario's artist-in-residence program in Toronto. Previous winners of the award include Gauri Gill of India, Canadian photographer Kristan Horton, and Marco Antonio Cruz of Mexico. [Independent]

VIDEO OF THE DAY

The case for keeping Nicolas Poussin "Extreme Unction" at the Fitzwilliam Museum

ALSO ON ARTINFO:

The Show Goes On: IFPDA Fair Opens Despite Sandy Setbacks, Testing the Waters

Kutlug Ataman on Exploring Myth, Modernity, and Mayhem at Sperone Westwater

Hurricane Sandy Leaves Greenpoint Studios Wrecked, Destroying Years of Work

PS1 Director Klaus Biesenbach Rallies Volunteers to Aid the Rockaways

Art Maven Ydessa Hendeles Shutters Current Location After 25 Years

First Gallery Dedicated to Middle East Art Opens in Singapore

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

Frankenstorm Sandy has shaken the city, from the aeries of its postmodern penthouses to the obscure reaches of its still-flooded subways. Many thousands remain without power, and the return to normalcy will be long and trying. Truth be told, the transformation of Chelsea’s sparkling gallery neighborhood into waterlogged chaos is probably a minor episode within the greater drama, but it is a highly visible one. These images — and others from inundated studios and spaces from across a blighted New York — are upsetting, representing livilihoods lost or at least transfigured. 

When, a few months ago, a pipe broke at I-20 gallery on 23rd street and flooded the space, ravaging its unprotected art, owner Paul Judelson decided that it wasn’t worth moving back in. Observers will be watching to see what effects Sandy has on the art neighborhood, which until now has tilted inexorably towards the ever-greater consolidation of the mega-galleries and the slow-motion exodus of smaller spaces, squeezed out by rising rents and decreasing audiences for anything above the street level. (Which now, ironically, proves to be precisely where you want to be.)

Over at my office, on 26th, they are still pumping out the sludge, still waiting for power. On the other side of the East River, in my dry though stuffy Brooklyn apartment, I try to think of a way that art might respond in a constructive manner to the whole mess. A few images of relevant artworks flicker through my brain, though they are mainly grim.

As Sandy churned towards the city, and the banality of local storm coverage reached a numbing crescendo, a few jokers circulated stills from Danish art collective Superflex’s “Flooded McDonald’s” video on social media, under the guise of front-line reportage. Probably more people have now seen this work and mistaken it for a real event than ever witnessed it in its initial incarnation as gallery art. But in reality, “Flooded McDonald’s” looks tame and formalistic compared to the grubby nightmare of the real deal.

In the initial hours after the storm, as stores emptied out and shuttered, and reports had it that a plague of rats was to be feared, I couldn’t help but think of Laura Ginn’s recent art show at Allegra LaViola gallery, “Tomorrow We Will Feast Again on What We Catch.” Imagining “a dystopian future in which urban survival will depend upon taking advantage of available resources,” the project invited visitors to dine on fine meals made from rat meat. If only I had snagged that Laura Ginn cookbook when I had the chance!

Apocalyptic whimsy, survivalist daydreams… Very few themes are so culturally omnipresent today as the onrushing end of civilization, which shows up everywhere from our zombie plague fascination on TV to Britney Spears anthems on the dance floor. If you want to know just how many times New York has imagined itself drowned, deluged, besieged, or evacuated, click on over to “Unclear Holocaust.” The 65-minute feature by the anarchist art collective known as the Anti-Banality Union offers a supercut of all the scenes from movies where New York is wiped out, arrayed into one long essay on the anxiety that haunts the antiseptic Bloomberg-era Big Apple.

And yet, I fear that the real message to be read within the soggy tea leaves left in the superstorm’s wake concerns art’s fragility, not its prophetic potency. Despite these endless waves of cultural anxiety (not to mention a very similar hurricane just last year), the city was still caught unprepared. It’s as if all the horrific images we consume serve to inoculate us from the reality we are living through, rather than warning us to prepare for or prevent them. That’s something for artists to ponder, when it inevitably comes time to imagine how this dreary calamity can be processed into pictures or words and turned towards something constructive.

As the pathetic and touching photos of sodden art continue to come in from Chelsea, the main thing that arrests my eye is that bathtub ring wreathing everything, marking how high the water rose. I find this mark really unsettling, and really symbolic. The white nowhere-space of an art gallery is, of course, meant to create a placeless context for art, to remove it from everyday concerns. But smudged and debris-flaked walls make the space visible; you are reminded that these are physical venues, infrastructure that has to be maintained and defended.

I suspect that this is not a particular revelation for dealers, who concern themselves with the labor of keeping a gallery, or artists, who are well familiar with the material demands of creating an artwork in a real space. But for us consumers of art shows, the materiality that underpins it all is easy to forget; the whole magic of the thing is that new art appears, month after month, deposited there in the white light as if that is what it was spun from. That illusion is deliberate: It is the mark of a civilization that likes to take its highest pleasures well removed from the daily reality of life and its labors.

Art capitals are rare things. Typically, they are thought to require two difficult-to-replicate ingredients: a large population of creative people, and gobs and gobs of disposable capital. That’s why only London and New York really fit the bill (Berlin has artists aplenty but not a robust market; Dubai has lots of money, but not the same deep bench of striving artists). Now, we have been brutally reminded that there is an invisible third ingredient: physical stability. It may be that in the age of superstorms, this factor makes the isle of Manhattan unsuited to retain its status. That’s a glum prospect.

Yet I am hopeful. We are living through a historical moment, and dramatic times shake things up. Perhaps Sandy might actually change art for the better. I am hopeful that, say, raising one’s voice against climate change — which, as Chris Williams points out, is an issue that went unaddressed in recent political debates, even as both candidates rushed to declare fervent dedication to gun rights and Predator drones — might be seen as something integral to the future of what we do. Clearly, there should be at least as much unifying interest in this as there is in, say, preventing resale royalty rights. Perhaps a new sense of the urgency of the present can sink into the whole ecosystem of art.

There is much cleaning up to do, but then there is plenty of rethinking and reimagining to be done as well.

Interventions is a column by ARTINFO executive editor Ben Davis. He can be reached at bdavis[at]artinfo.com.

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Venturing into this Russian city can at first seem like stepping into a film from the early days of Soviet cinema, with its vast factory landscape surrounded by snow-covered steppes. During this year’s recent 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial of Modern Art, which ran September 13 to October 22, that feeling was only amplified. Among the rows of historic constructivist architecture, with newer landmarks interspersed throughout older industry, the influx of contemporary art and installations added an element of creativity that, in its own way, seemed very much at home.  

The practice of using decommissioned factories as art spaces in Yekaterinburg pre-dated the first Ural biennial. But with its recent translation into an international art event, that practice is spotlighted in a way that feels relevant. Having developed as a manufacturing center relatively equidistant between Europe and Asia, much of Yekaterinburg’s 20th-century growth was based around its metal factories and machinery plants, and previously it had been void of any major contemporary art events. Today, many spaces in the city, co-opted for creative use, lend themselves as well to artists as they once did to machines and their workers. During the biennial, exhibitions and events filled spaces ranging from factories to local galleries, featuring 30 artists from 13 countries in the main show alone. 

The event held plenty of surprises, starting during the press conference. On a tour led by the main project curator Iara Boubnova, visitors were led through an exhibit in which only half the works had been mounted — an almost symbolic display of Russia’s real-life entropy. While both organizers and journalists were caught off-guard, Boubnova took the snafu as an opportunity to comment on the Biennial’s relevance not just to contemporary practice, but to the potential of what art could be, asking those assembled to imagine the art that had not been delivered.

Later that evening at the official opening, guests were presented with a nearly fully-prepared exhibition, with a mere two works missing (those being an interpretation of the Slavs and Tartars’s piece PrayWay and photographs by Boris Mikhailov). The Biennial’s main project, The Eye Never Sees Itself, was curated by Boubnova and exhibited within the Ural Worker printing house, featuring installations ranging across media from photography and interactive video to text displays.

The artists in this show included Yekaterinburg-based Timofej Radya – arguably the most interesting street artist in Russia – represented via photographs from his graffiti series that involves words written on roofs. Vladimir Seleznev covered the walls with protest song lyrics. (At a certain point during the installation the lights went out, leaving the only thing visible an inscription that read “all in vain.”) Irina Korina’s Syncretic Hut, a collation of historic objects, directed audiences back to Russia’s pagan past.

Other highlights came from the group Where Dogs Run, which created a site-specific video installation; the Malevich Brigade, with a diverting, absurd piece, Prophylactoria (2012); Anton Vidokle, who offered an enigmatic video showing the construction of a mirrored house; and Cristina Lucas, whose video tackled the dilemmas of freedom. The most political statement may have been a banner by Slovenian artists IRWIN, which read, “Time for a new state. They say you can find happiness there.”

Turkish artist Kutluğ Ataman dominated the show, however, with his piece Küba, filling one entire hall with 40 TVs with 40 armchairs placed in front of them. In the film footage, 40 residents of an Istanbul slum simultaneously talk about their life and fate.

Aside from the main exhibitions, the program boasted no less than four special projects, one of them curated by Dimitri Ozerkov, who heads the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg’s section on contemporary art. His show, "From Production to Creation," was positioned in the Ordzhonikidzevskiy Centre of Culture. While the accompanying text to this one did not explain much — the theme was ways in which “consciousness of the socium returns to a medieval condition” — the works themselves stood out.

The crowning component to Ozerkov’s project was an installation by Ivan Plyushch entitled The Process of Passing Through. Filling an entire assembly hall of the Centre, beginning at the threshold, Plyushch's spectacular work consisted of a carpet running across the ceiling, tied in a whimsical knot, and suspended above a mélange of abandoned artifacts from the hall, including chairs and metal scraps. The suggestion here was that someone must unravel the knot. Perhaps — the artists?

The Biennial's second special project, presented by Valentin Dyakonov, incorporated the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts. The main attraction in this project was the historically important Kaslinsky Pavilion, which was created for the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. A third project which received high acclaim — although this reporter wasn’t able to see it, as it was only shown once — was the experimental ballet H2O.

Indeed, despite its long run, the full Biennial would be have been impossible to fully survey. Still, the very scale of it indicates how well, in just a few short years, the event has been accepted as a vital part of the city's life. Having followed a long road of winning over local government, the organizers are now sowing the seeds for creative growth, making their efforts all the more worthwhile.

To see highlights from the 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial of Modern Art, click on the slideshow.

Diane Von Furstenberg blazed a couple of trails when designing the 2013 limited edition bottle for evian. She became the first American designer and the first female to have the privilege of creating a design for the French mineral water purveyor. Von Furstenberg wrapped the words “Water is Life is Love is Life is Water is...” in her own handwriting around the sleek bottle. She finished it with a DVF heart logo in red, created exclusively for the 100 percent recyclable container.

“I am so excited about this collaboration because I have always loved evian and I think drinking water is one of the most important things we can do to love ourselves and love is life!” said Von Furstenberg in a press release. “To me it is all about living life to the fullest and I am so proud to work with evian to spread such an important message.”

Von Furstenberg joins a line of iconic fashion designers, including Issey Miyake, Paul Smith, Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, and Courrèges, who have designed bottles for evian since 2008.

DVF limited edition evian bottle, $7.99 at shop.evian.us beginning November 5.

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There comes a time in every supermodel’s life when she must step away from her glamour shot and acknowledge the existence of the rest of the world — if only momentarily. For Kate Moss — she of waif-defining, line-snorting, hotel-wrecking notoriety — that time appears to be now. Not only is she featured on the December cover of Vanity Fair with a sufficiently revealing interview inside, she’s also “created” a hefty book of photographs, due in bookstores within days. OK, so they’re photos of her, exclusively, and the book is called “Kate Moss” (Rizzoli). Still, it’s a step toward adulthood for the hard-partying, 38-year-old gamine.

It’s OK to feel conflicted about Kate Moss, the incarnate domain of both angels and devils. On the one hand she exudes a dismissive air as she rushes into events, shielding her face and stopping for no one. Then there is the occasional quip that, innocuous though it is, gets blown out of proportion (“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”). Plus, needless to say, she’s enviably gifted in the genetics department, an impossible beauty made all the more impossible by undetectable Photoshopping. 

But we submit that she is not the horrible person she is made out to be. Are not her ignoble traits mollified by the fact that she may very well be the hardest-working mannequin in the industry? Even after all these years — two decades, to be exact — when it would be very easy to retire (Forbes has her earning roughly $15 million a year) or disappear into the plutocratic playgrounds of Russia, she still produces an astounding amount of work. What about charity work, you ask? She’ll pitch in here and there, of course, but let’s remember that in the muse business, there is no grand tradition of altruism. Models are not expected to go off and join UNICEF like they’re Angelina Jolie or something.

While diving into the Vanity Fair piece, you’ll want to raise an eyebrow and cock your head at several spurious whoppers. Learn to get past them because she knows not what she says when she recalls, for example, making the 1992 Calvin Klein campaign that launched her career and propelled her into a mythic realm: “I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18, when I had to go and work with Marky Mark and Herb Ritts. It didn’t feel like me at all. I felt really bad about straddling this buff guy. I didn’t like it. I couldn’t get out of bed for two weeks. I thought I was going to die.” Cue entire world pulling out air-violins.

Or this whopper, referring to the anorexia controversy that swirled around her: “I was thin, but that’s because I was doing shows, working really hard. At that time, I was staying at a B and B in Milan, and you’d get home from work and there was no food. You’d get to work in the morning, there was no food. Nobody took you out for lunch when I started. Carla Bruni took me out for lunch once. She was really nice. Otherwise, you don’t get fed. But I was never anorexic.” Apparently, in the ’90s, models would only eat when taken out to lunch. Aside from that bizarre comment, however, it’s simply a fact of life that teenage girls are thin, sometimes very thin. Sorry.

Even if Kate’s great opening up is the reveal that isn’t, cut her some slack. It’s not easy being an aging supe and mother of a soon-to-be-teen. Someone needs to bring home the bacon, after all. Perhaps we should just be grateful Vanity Fair hasn’t put another picture of Kennedy or Monroe or Clooney on its cover.

Lee Carter is editor-in-chief of Hint Fashion Magazine.

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