After many years of false starts, a film of Martin Amis’s 1989 novel “London Fields” has entered production, Deadline reported yesterday. It marks the feature debut of the prolific American commercial and music video director Matthew Cullen, who replaced Shekhar Kapur. Filmmakers previously attached to the project before Kapur included David Cronenberg and Michael Winterbottom.

Roberta Hanley’s screenplay for the fatalistic millenarian comedy thriller, which can be read online, is dated 2001. Amis apparently contributed to it.

The casting will trouble many fans of the book. Billy Bob Thornton is a canny choice to play the doomed protagonist, Samson Young (“I failed, in art and love”), but Amber Heard— though a capably seductive actress — won’t have been many people’s first choice to play Nicola Six, the 34-year-old femme fatale who is one of Amis’s most complex (and some say sexist) constructs. It screamed out for an actress capable of being both plausible and taunting — Eva Green or Lena Headey, say. Maybe Heard’s enigmatic smile will work.

The English actors Jim Sturgess and Theo James are playing Keith Talent and Guy Clinch, the men whom Nicola sexually beguiles. Keith is the darts-playing lout, and husband with an abused infant and many mistresses, whom Nicola nominates as her murderer; Guy is the repressed toff who nurtures the illusion that she is chaste: lust brings both classes to their knees. Back in 1989, Ray Winstone (as Keith) and Charles Dance could have excelled in these roles — perhaps opposite Frances Barber or Joanne Whalley. It wasn’t to be, nor, alas, was Cronenberg’s involvement.

There’s no news yet on casting for Chick Purchase, Keith’s fellow darts-man and nemesis. Although the script shows that Sam stays in the London flat of Mark Asprey, Amis’s off-the-page surrogate and the most potent of Nicola’s many lovers, he will stay off-screen, too.

News of the film’s emergence (under the auspices of Muse Productions, Hero Entertainment, and Media Talent Group) prompted me to revisit my April 1990 Village Voice book review of “London Fields.” It began:

“Named not after the eponymous district of East London but after the force fields where we lure and wreck one another, Martin Amis’s sixth novel is a mordant fin de millénaire entropy in the post-Thatcherite toilet that Britain has become by 1999. Having excoriated the 20^th century’s addictive vices in ‘Money’ and sweated about nuclear holocaust in ‘Einstein’s Monsters,’ Amis merges these themes in a slim, contrived plot modeled on Nabokov’s ‘Despair’ and narrated by a Bellovian American writer, Samson Young. Dying of an undisclosed disease, Sam has chanced upon beautiful Nicola Six, and is racing to novelize the infernal triangle she has created before time runs out – for her, for him, for the moribund plane itself.”

“It’s a lingering chronicle of death foretold,” the review continued. “Nicola knows she is destined to die on her 35^th birthday, a few hours after Guy Fawkes night, and – a victim of men – she has decided to incinerate two guys in the process: here elected murderer Keith Talent, a streetunwise proletarian cheat; and her foil, Guy Clinch, a nice, titled, unhappily married dreamer.”

“She bewitches Guy with the myth that she is a virgin dedicated to finding the Lost Son, Little Boy, of her friend Enola Gay. She patronizes Keith’s dream of fame as a TV darts champion, encouraging him by performing sex videos in lewd underwear bought with Guy’s money. After some 400 pages of playing these dupes against each other, Nicola girds herself up as the ultimate slut and heads across London like a cruise missile, a sex dart, to annihilate them.”

It wasn’t an inaccurate plot description. But can a movie based on a novel published 24 years ago get away with this kind of thing in 2013? Will the Cold War allegory get lost in translation to the screen? Will there finally be a successful Amis feature film following the disappointments of “The Rachel Papers” (1989) and “Dead Babies” (2000), and the migration of “Money” — without Gary Oldman, Amis’s choice for its star— to television in 2010? As Amis wrote on the first page of London Fields, “Oh, the pregnant agitation.”

Tommy Hilfiger is readying his Californian girl for a day at the beach with a Spring/Summer 2014 collection filled with scuba, surfing and skating references.

Hilfiger celebrated endless summer for his Spring/Summer 2014 collection on Monday presented at an off-site venue of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (MBFW) in New York.

Staying true to his theme, his California-inspired collection was presented on a makeshift beach complete with a boardwalk runway that cut through large sand dunes.

For spring, the designer known as the King of Prep took his cues from the active lifestyle of the West Coast.

His color palette ranged from saturated brights to sun-washed pastels.

Wetsuit-style mini dresses opened his show that reimagined American classics such as the polo, the barracuda jacket, sports jersey, and bowling shirt.

Tommy Hilfiger, says: "We have done nautical, we have done rock star, we have done all sorts of different things but really never nailed the modern California influence."

His favorite fabric for the season is neoprene, a stretchy synthetic material favored for workout clothes and outerwear that he used throughout his collection.

Hilfiger is among over 100 designers showcasing at MBFW that will run until September 12.

Watch more videos from New York Fashion Week HERE.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art rolled out the red carpet for a private screening of the third season premiere of the TV hit “Homeland.” The cast was sworn to secrecy about the plot, but they spoke in general about what viewers can expect. 

Claire Danes discusses her character roll as the other castmates disscus the upcoming season that will air on Showtime, September 29. 

First, we noticed the grassy knolls around the defunct gas pumps at the Getty station at 24th Street and 10th Avenue yesterday. By Thursday, we’re told — one of the biggest nights of art openings of the year in Chelsea — there will be sheep meandering around the grass. Not real sheep, of course, but sculptures by the late Francois-Xavier Lalanne. “Sheep Station,” a public program which officially opens on September 17, will feature 25 of Lalanne’s Moutons and will be the largest flock ever shown together en plein air.

The installation is backed by 41-year-old multi-millionaire, real estate developer, and art collector Michael Shvo, whom New York magazine once called both the “most successful” and “most loathed” broker in New York. Earlier this year, Shvo purchased the filling station with Victor Homes and is in the process of building a luxury residence on the site. During the construction, the Getty station will feature a series of exhibitions, and the finished residency promises the same.

For the event, Shvo has teamed up with art dealer Paul Kasmin, who handles Lalanne’s estate. Many of Lalanne’s Moutons will be derived from the private collection of Shvo, who apparently owns a comprehensive collection of Lalanne's work. (Check out his wife Seren's Instagram feed for images of “Moutons de Laine” — a different Lalanne's series of sheep — in action).

This isn’t the first time Shvo has tried his hand at blending the arts with his real estate acumen. There was the time in 2008 that Shvo invited art dealer Jack Shainman to embed an art gallery in his condominium at 650 Sixth Avenue. Then in the winter of 2011, Shvo funded “Documents of Desire & Disaster,” an exhibition by David LaChapelle that kicked off Paul Kasmin's space in Istanbul. This last initiative was part of a larger endeavor to help a partner of his who owns the W hotel there, and the district in which it resides, in an attempt to transform the area into the arts district of Istanbul. “He asked me to oversee the launch of that,” Shvo told ARTINFO over the phone. “Being at that time a real estate guy, producing a show that would bring attention to that area was something that I was very interested in.”

Shvo and his wife Seren are also avid collectors, and divide their art into “three subcollections.” In his Pop Art collection he counts numerous Warhols and works by Robert Indiana. In the Hamptons, he amasses works by color-field painters such as Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Tom Downing. 

The third segment of his collection is devoted to the work of Lalanne. “Our life is very much embedded with Lalanne sculptures,” he said. “I enjoy them in my office, in our different homes, in our garden. The sheep are only a small portion of what we own. Crocodiles, monkeys...” Though he had never met the artist, he says he did meet Francois's widow Claude Lalanne, who is still active and with whom he collaborated as a duo called Les Lalannes, also represented by Kasmin.

“There’s no other artist that does what they do. Art in their mind was not there to be taken seriously,” Shvo explained. For him the Getty station project is an extension of that ethos. “There’s nothing more surreal than a sheep meadow in the middle with the gas station rising out of the middle of Chelsea.”

Will opera disappear from New York City? Not quite, but the New York City Opera, one of the two major institutions based in Manhattan — the other being the Metropolitan Opera — is in trouble. According to a recent report in the New York Times, the company “will be forced to cancel most of its current season and all of its next season if it fails to raise $20 million by year’s end.”

Founded in 1943 under its first director, Laszlo Halasz, the original goal of the City Opera was to make the art form accessible to the masses (mayor Fiorello La Guardia famously called it the “people’s opera”). The last few years have been rough for the organization: In 2008, Gérard Mortier, former director of the Paris Opera, was scheduled to take the reigns of the company before abruptly resigning due to unforeseen budget cuts. A year later, as they were forced out of their home at Lincoln Center due to renovations, and drop in donations, it was reported that the company had incurred a $11 million deficit.

And the future is not looking good. According to reports, the $20 million the company is hoping to raise is double what they raised last year, and more than they have raised in better financial climates. “You can’t run the opera on a hope and a prayer,” said Charles R. Wall, the opera’s chairman. “You’ve got to pay bills. And you’ve got to raise the money to pay them. That’s the simplest way I can put it. And you cannot spend what you do not have.”

Not surprisingly, in a move that, according to the Times, “harks back to the company’s populist roots,” the City Opera is using Kickstarter to help raise funds (as of this writing, they’ve raised just north of $53,000). This may not be their best option. A quick look at some of the most popular projects funded through the site proves that it will be extremely difficult to raise $20 million. Spike Lee raised around $1.5 million for his vampire film, while the “Veronica Mars” movie raised just over $5 million. Both of these projects were considered massive success stories in crowdfunding.

Reaching out to the people to help keep the City Opera alive will prove one thing, though. Do people actually care about saving the opera of the people? The company may not like the answer.

To get a better sense of how museums and art organizations are adapting to and embracing the increasing centrality of social media to their missions, we spoke to the experts: The people behind some of the art world’s richest and most rewarding social media accounts.

For this third and final installment in our three-part series (read part one here and part two here) we put some questions the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s indefatigable Kathryn Jaller; art PR firm FITZ & CO’s Susi Kenna, who presides over one of the most active social media portfolios among art PR companies; Bret Nicely and Emma Reeves, who head up the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s social media and YouTube channel, respectively; and Creative Time’s social media czar Todd Florio; and Victor Samra, who has the daunting task of overseeing the Museum of Modern Art’s many, many, many social media activities.

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KATHRYN JALLER (@Kholler)
New Media Manager, Contemporary Jewish Museum (@Jewseum)
What are your duties? What does a typical day of your job involve?

As the possibilities of digital have evolved in the nearly five years I’ve been working at the museum, so has my job. There are daily community maintenance tasks, such as responding to any incoming messages. Any opportunities to have non-templated one-on-one interactions are really important to me.

And then there’s content. It’s a word that means a bit too much, anything from the microcopy that goes on to graphic design to video production, and overseeing or producing these projects has become part of my job as well. I find it useful to think of it as “creative” instead of content, which focuses on the final product (which can be of quite diverse scope and quality), instead of the digital box that it fits in. For example, in the same week I recently worked on a short documentary about how a Barnett Newman sculpture was moved from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to our lobby, and photo-edited a blog on cats as Beat Generation poets. Pretty different. I just want to make sure I’m working from a perspective of making something new and of value, and not just feeding our publishing channels.

And oy the reporting! There are a lot of tools for measuring the resonance of our social efforts, so the labor becomes determining what data is meaningful, and collecting and interpreting it. It’s nearly impossible to find one tool that presents all the data that would be useful, as each organization is different. So translating stats into information about how our goals are being met becomes an important and time-consuming task. So you see, we’re not just goofing off on Twitter all day (or when we are, it’s goofing off effectively).

Did you set out to become an art social media professional? How did you end up in this position?

The position didn't exist when I started at the CJM, in my institution or museums at large as far as I know. I founded much of our social media presence, and as this created more responsibilities, the job followed; first as a part-time split with graphic design, and then as a full-time position. I’ve grown the position as social media has become a more important communication tool.

My background is in studio art and art history, and I’ve always had a blend of pride and bashfulness about being a generalist. Before working at a museum I worked in other kinds of arts nonprofits, did two years of AmeriCorps, and spent some time doing web development and Silicon Valley recruiting. My role has helped me make some sense of myself professionally, since every day I write, design, manage relationships, and think both big picture and small implementation. It’s a diverse set of responsibilities, and it really suits my brain.

Do you have any advice for other institutions?

Museums and social media move at different paces, and have different languages and even aesthetics. This can cause friction, but the more you can tie your actions back to shared goals, and build trust around those shared goals, the better. But there’s also a utility to a social media team having an outsider approach, as a user advocate within the museum.

Also, I’ve found myself occasionally struggling with the inclination to retweet and repost and otherwise celebrate every visitor voice, and the instinct to chose more carefully which visitor voices to include. It’s another one of those healthy struggles, and at the moment with the question is that I think there is a way to make everyone feel heard and appreciated, but more carefully selecting what gets shared respects user submissions because the goal is to make them look great. And if they look great, others may feel more inspired to share.

And social media managers, please take vacations! I’m sure I’m not alone in checking and updating while I’m supposed to be relaxing. Or at least spend thinking about what's keeping you on the clock, and if it’s a good enough reason.

Does your job ever interfere with your social life? Are you on call, via smartphone, 24/7?

This took some time to figure out. While I am not required to be on call all the time, that hasn't mattered as much as figuring out a good workflow for when I am on duty, since communications come in all the time. I’ve had to learn to be very careful with my alerts, being selective of when they are allowed on my personal devices. Mindfulness has been useful for making me pause and consider if pings are worth my time, instead of reacting to every prompt to action. It’s amazing how similarly urgent they all can feel, from a donor email to a like on an Instagram photo. And it’s Jewish tradition to unplug on the Sabbath, so that’s always a good content-sensitive excuse, and just a really good idea.

Although recently John Barrowman from Dr. Who came into the museum on a weekend, and if I know anything about the Internet, it's that one had better post such news IMMEDIATELY.

And a shout-out to fellow introverted social media types. We're out there, and some of really need to unplug to recharge.

What are the most important social media platforms for your museum?

Facebook and Twitter definitely lead, but our Instagram community is also quite strong. Google Plus, and Tumblr also have potential, though we aren’t focusing on them at the moment. Sometimes I daydream about what it would be like to just manage a single platform and go really deep. One of the most challenging things about this job is deciding where to put my attention, and how long to hold it there.

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SUSI KENNA (@susikenna)
Social Media Strategist, FITZ & CO (@fitzandco)
What are your duties? What does a typical day of your job involve?

I’m the (first ever) Social Media Strategist at FITZ & CO, and for the past year I’ve focused on building the division, growing our platforms, developing our voice, forging relationships, and discovering the most authentic ways to share who we are as a company, and the results we achieve for our clients.

Being that FITZ & CO is the link between so many leading museums, art fairs, galleries, and cultural organizations, and the media, one aspect of my job is sharing client “news” from the minute it’s “released” through the completion of every project. Another aspect is absorbing all client coverage — from articles, to television segments to Twitter and Instagram mentions — and creatively adapting it into content crafted specifically for our platforms.

I also consult with clients about their social media strategies on topics ranging from “How to Master Instagram” to “Live Event Coverage” to “Social Media Analytics” and organize/participate in panel discussions on the topic of art and social media, such as “Art World 2.0: A Conversation Among Art World Influencers” presented at Internet Week New York 2013.

In addition, I work on developing special projects; such as the collaboration we’re launching with Tumblr and Pixel Union later this month (stay tuned!), and mixing in the real-time happenings on the art world, which I cover through the @fitzandco Instagram and Twitter channels.

Did you set out to become an art social media professional? How did you end up in this position?

Long story short, no, but mainly because of timing. Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr all launched around the time I graduated, and art social media positions were in their infancy.

My path to becoming an art social media professional was perhaps a little untraditional. I started as an artist, earned a business degree from Parsons the New School for Design, worked at a design firm, a Chelsea gallery and Christie's New York up until 2010 when I founded a creative agency. From 2010 to 2012, I produced and curated art exhibitions, built websites, lectured on social media, and started maintaining a dedicated art-focused online presence. Then, everything aligned last year! While in the pursuit of an art/social media position, FITZ & CO launched their social media division in the fall of 2012.

Do you have any advice for other institutions or organizations?

Do you (or the person who’s in charge of your social) think in 140 characters? Know the pixel size difference between a Facebook Cover Photo and a Twitter Avatar? How to customize a Tumblr page or read Google Analytics? Do you know how to track what’s being said about your brand on social media? Or the meaning of the words: hashtag, handle, and hangout? If you answered yes, you’re in great shape! If not, investing in social media expertise and education (having an intern run your social doesn’t qualify!) will provide your organization with the tools to successfully participate in the evolving media landscape.

Does your job ever interfere with your social life? Are you on call, via smartphone, 24/7?

Yes and no. In a lot of ways my job is very social, but because I do the social media, there are times when it does interfere. It’s ironic; I can’t socialize if there’s social media to be done. In order to capture what’s happening, and share significant moments in real-time, I have to stay glued to my phone and completely focused on the experience at hand.

I’m on call, via smartphone, more like, 24/5.

What are the most important social media platforms for your organization?

Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr (coming soon), and Facebook.

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BRET NICELY (@nicebretly)
Associate Director of Digital Media, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (@MOCAlosangeles)

EMMA REEVES
Creative Director, MOCAtv
What are your duties? What does a typical day of your job involve?

EMMA: MOCAtv doesn’t really exist on its own. We work very closely with Bret and a little team of people for every single film. Essentially we're a production company. There are two of us, and our mission is to create content around the actual programming of MOCA itself. So we will analyze and talk to people about making content, we will make a range of content about those shows, some of it we make as accessible as possible and some of it is more esoteric. For example for the Urs Fischer show we had everything from an over 10 minute introduction from the curator Jessica Morgan all the way through to a sort of lyrical little film that showed members of the public coming in to make the clay sculptures, and that was very accessible filmmaking. We post three or four films a week, so we're constantly in production.

We can’t do any of this without them. Every time we post something there’s enormous analysis about how we can get people to see this film. We don't sit and expect people to tap into MOCA.org on a daily basis, or our MOCAtv Tumblr, because we’re not an editorial site. We constantly reach out to many different people, and each film has its own different ecosystem, so we'll analyze it and just not stop — the pressure’s on. If anyone makes a film with us or does a film about someone we would really expect them to help promote it. Obviously that’s not the easiest thing in the art world. If you compare it to the music industry or other industries, which are totally naturally happy to promote themselves, the art world has a certain resistance, a certain reticence about that side of things.

BRET: What I do at the museum, I’m the Associate Director of Digital Media, and I’ve been here for about eight years. When I log in at my desk really I am the one who fires up Sprout Social and is thinking about the overall editorial calendar — what MOCA’s going to be posting about that day, that week, and that month. MOCAtv takes a very central place in what MOCA, the institution, is doing online because the bandwidth that they take up within our overall programming is great, and it's such high-quality content that we’re putting out multiple tweets, multiple Tumblr posts, multiple Facebook posts that link straight to the channel, to the video content. That is balanced with the typical and I think best practices in museum activity on social, which are supporting events happening at the museum, being aware of what your audience is talking about, responding to what your audience is doing online, and just acting as much as you can like an actual person on social.

EMMA: We’re also really interested in the democratic approach in the sense that we create content that will appeal to a really broad audience, and hopefully that audience who comes in for a music video, which is created by an artist, will also then naturally stick around, they’ll have a recognition that, essentially, the brand that is MOCAtv will always deliver something interesting of quality. And that way you’re not just preaching to the converted, the people who would naturally come to the museum, you’re actually reaching a much broader audience. Yes, it’s a global audience that might never actually visit the museum, but we also make huge efforts to actually have events and reward our MOCAtv subscribers where we do premieres of our content, we do panel discussions, we do all sorts of things so it is important that it goes all the way, that it goes the 360, that it has this voice. But we’re also aware that we want to create more activities around our audience and bring them into the museum.

BRET: I think that MOCA’s overall social and online core values are really about being generous with the content and with the art that we support, and that’s part of our mission. And really MOCAtv multiplies that belief by 100 because it’s putting out so much high-quality content all the time, so we’re not left with posting .jpegs of our paintings and linking to some blog post. What MOCAtv enables is a rich, truly incredible experience with art, and that is a unique thing.

EMMA: And it’s also a generous engagement with artists. We don’t have formulas, our programming is very wide-ranging and very experimental, so often I’ll be thinking with artists in the initial stages of talking about doing a film, and there is a resistance. A lot of artists don’t want to be on the camera themselves, and a lot of artists don’t necessarily want to talk about their process, so every different artist has a different approach. I’m really sensitive to that and often form relationships: I’ll introduce an artist to a filmmaker and the filmmaker will create something absolutely exquisite, a narrative piece — if you look at the Chris Johanson piece, that’s a five-minute narrative musical love poem. Is it also a film about an artist’s work? Yes it is, it’s an artist film, but it’s certainly a much more cinematic, exquisite experience, which was really collaborative. Chris Johanson and his wife Jo put so much work into that and it’s there now in perpetuity. That’s a really beautiful thing. And often it’s really just in response to what artists want to do. It’s not dictatorial. There’s no set formula. We do as much as we can with and in collaboration with artists and the institution.

Did you set out to become an art social media professional? How did you end up in this position?

BRET: My job description has not changed in all the time I’ve been here, and I’ve been here since MOCA first got on MySpace and we were thinking, boy, what is this going to be about? And you’re just bringing art to audiences online. Over the years social media is where our audiences are. Those are the platforms you need to bring the art to, so it’s kind of by default. If the internet and digital culture had evolved to take on some other form, that would be what I do now. It began with that simple mission of bringing art to our online audience.

EMMA: I’ve been involved in the creation of content for a long time; I used to be in print media — I worked for several magazines in London — and then moved to New York and worked in branding. But prior to that, way back in the day, I used to work in advertising and documentary, so I’ve ticked a lot of boxes. And I think it’s very important to know the art world and have relationships in the art world. So I’ve touched upon many things, and I came here from New York to run the MOCAtv YouTube channel. It was a startup, if you like, it was a funded startup funded by Google, so it had a certain remit, it had to come out of the gate and it had to produce a certain amount of content. We’ve got a pace which is two or three or four films per week just because we can do that. Other YouTube channels only do one posting a week, but we choose to have this slightly frenetic pace because it breathes life into things. It’s not necessarily the entire institution — how could it be? — but we enjoy it. We’ve got a great little team of people. Every week is some new thing we have to engage in or consider whether we’re going to engage in it. But it’s a great dialogue, it’s really interesting.

Los Angeles is changing a lot, there are a lot of young creative people coming here, so I think MOCAtv is the perfect thing to have as part of the museum because we will be able to evolve with the new waves of creative communities coming to Los Angeles. We have so many contributors, there are so many people in the MOCAtv family now. Ninety percent of the content on there — obviously the most important is the content that reflects what’s going on at the museum — but all the things we do beyond that, the music videos, the events, the broader spectrum, that’s all made here, that's all in dialogue with people here in L.A., so it becomes a kind of club that people belong to.

BRET: I want to echo what Emma said about MOCAtv being this amazing catalyst in Los Angeles that creates conversations and relationships, and generates all this goodwill and great content for our audiences. That activity is absolutely paralleled online. When a video’s going into production we're planning the launch, we’re thinking about who and what are that contributor’s social media audiences. You’ve probably seen this on Twitter, when everybody’s talking about the same thing, when there’s a shared conversation among institutions and individuals about something, that’s really a great time. I think MOCAtv has given us the ability to speak to people on social media and share ideas and exchange our beliefs in ways that weren’t possible before the channel.

EMMA: But I would hate to convey that we’ve got it all locked down. We are just figuring this out. On a daily basis we’ll all come up with some other hairbrained scheme to reach a wider audience. It’s actually fascinating in terms of promoting the channel. We don’t have a million-dollar promotional budget, so we’ll do everything we can to get people to know about MOCAtv, even down to me going to give a talk to students at UCLA. Whatever it takes, every single thing is relevant to get more audiences, it’s not just in the digital realm. It has to be also face-to-face conversations. Most recently I’ve realized that the only way to really harness audiences at art colleges here — and the academic ecosystem here is very, very important — I’ve been to a lot of the colleges now and I’ve realized that the only way to actually get them to know about MOCAtv is to put printed posters up in these universities, which is absurd to me in the 21st century, but there isn’t otherwise a way of getting a collective audience to see what you’ve got to promote. So we’re now going to go old-school and create some posters, and get students to put them up for us and represent the channel. To me it’s hilarious; there’s no standard approach to any of this.

BRET: We’ll probably Instagram the poster too, which is a ridiculous thing to think about. I think that’s a lesson that everyone you’re speaking to will likely say: Social media is a place to take risks. There’s very little downside to just trying something.

Do you have any advice for other institutions?

EMMA: I don’t think we're in a position to give any advice really. It’s just the beginning of all of this.

BRET: We should be less afraid to retweet one another. Just more shared goodwill is always a great thing; it’s happened in the past and it’s always wonderful. The numbers really change; the demographics are really interesting. We have almost two million followers on Google Plus, which is just amazing. When Google or Tumblr, the companies that actually run these platforms, reach out to museums for collaborations, that’s one of the most special things too. So it’s wonderful that the social media giants themselves see the value of what museums do in the space. We’ve collaborated on things from  Google Art Talks to Google Maps projects to projects with Tumblr.

Does your job ever interfere with your social life? Are you on call, via smartphone, 24/7?

EMMA: It’s just constant. All of us are working all the time, whether it’s on a social front representing MOCAtv and MOCA, you just can’t sleep on it. It’s relentless, but great!

What are the most important social media platforms for your museum?

EMMA: It’s like a crazy hodgepodge of things. Some things do better on some platforms; it’s like plates in a room, you just have to keep spinning all 25 of them.

BRET: If we have an amazing opening happening at MOCA, Twitter is the best because you can live cover it. If you want to put incredible assets up — images, animations, videos — Tumblr’s incredible because it supports a broad set of things. In terms of raw numbers, you know where the biggest number of people are, Facebook and Google Plus.

EMMA: But it’s also about engagement. Numbers are one thing but it’s also about how many people are really engaging with it. Another thing we really need to be proactive about, we’re tentatively moving in this direction, is much more audience interaction, is actually having a dialogue. Once you engage in that you really have to keep it up. We’re taking baby steps with that kind of thing. We’ve had content on MOCAtv that is user-generated submissions, so we do have a dialogue, but that’s definitely something we need to think about more thoroughly and be confident that we can keep up because there’s not much point running with something and then dropping it.

And you know, some of these social media platforms will fall off. We’re already wondering about Pinterest. Plus we have to consider that we’re taking care of an audience that ranges from youths all the way through to engage the older generation, so we can’t only focus on the next Snapchat. We’ve got to be generous and make it accessible to all, but also try to stay apace with the latest thing.

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TODD FLORIO (@ToddFlorio)
Social Media and Digital Communications Director, Creative Time (@CreativeTimeNYC)
What are your duties? What does a typical day of your job involve?

Posting to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, and Foursquare for both Creative Time and Creative Time Reports represents a much smaller portion of my time than you might expect. I’m very lucky to have some face time with the artists we work with. One of the most rewarding things I ever did was grab a beer with Trevor Paglen and try to convince him that social media didn't have to be just marketing BS. I don’t know if I can take any credit, but he's since gotten about 1,500 Twitter followers and started a brilliant Instagram account. Creative Time can be super exciting. Meeting Werner Herzog was pretty amazing, as was getting Kanye West to tweet about Tom Sachs MARS, but a huge slice of my time pie is less glorious: emails and meetings.

Did you set out to become an art social media professional? How did you end up in this position?

Not at all. I was doing it on the side at Brooklyn Historical Society. Started their Twitter feed and built it up to be the second most followed historical society in the U.S. Also started a great secondary feed of intern researched fun facts about Brooklyn for teachers and students and really anyone who's into Brooklyn history. I loved museum education, but was itching for a way to reach a larger audience, share knowledge with more people, and make more change. I did some consulting in social media for the likes of crocheting savant Olek, the un-fair SEVENmiami (Winkleman, Postmasters, Pierogi, etc.), and the great 20x200. That set me up with enough experience to apply for my current job at Creative Time which was a major career sidestep and has been an exceptionally rich and rewarding learning experience.

Do you have any advice for other institutions?

Social media shouldn’t be overwhelming. Take on what you can and give a platform to someone who’s already good at it and excited about doing it. Twitter should be just one person. Facebook can be several. Don’t tweet and post solely asking for things, like “Come to this...” “Buy tickets for this...” “Come to our gift shop for 3% off this Sunday!!!” Give things like art, knowledge, and genuinely useful stuff! Try to use social media to directly fulfill your mission. Educate people about what your museum is all about. That way you have huge fans and advocates around the world who’ve never even visited. Eventually funders will see the value of this and sponsor it.

Does your job ever interfere with your social life? Are you on call, via smartphone, 24/7?

Let’s not talk about it.

What are the most important social media platforms for your museum?

Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook are the BIG three, but Creative Time’s Instagram, managed by a single specially trained intern at a time, is growing by leaps and bounds. Currently Dylan Stilin has been killin’ it on CT's IG!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Shortly after responding to our questionnaire, Todd Florio left his position at Creative Time, but his answers — written just days before — remain valid and invaluable.]

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VICTOR SAMRA (@vsamra3)
Digital Marketing Manager, Museum of Modern Art (@MuseumModernArt)
What are your duties? What does a typical day of your job involve?

I oversee various digital marketing efforts at MoMA, including our e-newsletters and social media, as well as our search engine marketing, site analytics, and other projects. My day is a mix of developing strategy, managing, and implementing, be it with our e-news, which can include everything from coding and testing, gathering content and writing posts for social media, analyzing digital metrics, and attending meetings. Recently, I have been working on getting MoMA’s main Tumblr ready for launch.

Did you set out to become an art social media professional? How did you end up in this position?

Not at all. I started working on the web in 1998 in front-end production. I went back to school for a masters in arts administration, and found this position at MoMA after school ended, right as social media was really beginning to emerge. The position is a great mix of what I studied at school and the work I was doing before going back to school.

Do you have any advice for other institutions?

In terms of social media, I think it’s important to realize that people “follow” your organization not solely due to their interest in it, but because they are passionate about its content, be it photography, film, painting, or literature. Because of this, we're all in a great position to be a real resource for our communities, in that we should not only offer information about our organizations but also about what’s happening in our fields outside of our organizations. I think that someone might follow MoMA not just because of what’s in our collection, but because he or she is passionate about design or sculpture in general. I think people really appreciate it when you recognize that your content doesn’t live solely within the walls of your organization. Because it doesn’t!

I think finding the right “voice” for your institution is very important. People can see through a voice that is too driven by internal agendas. It's also important to recognize that social media is more about quality than quantity. It doesn’t matter if you have thousands of followers if they are not engaging with you.

Does your job ever interfere with your social life? Are you on call, via smartphone, 24/7?

I try to plan ahead as best I can so that it doesn’t. I do check in when I’m not at work, but I try to make sure it doesn’t take me away from what I’m doing at the time.

What are the most important social media platforms for your museum?

They are all important for different reasons. Facebook and Twitter do stand out at the moment, particularly Facebook for people who are outside the New York area and may not have the opportunity to visit the Museum.

Who would have guessed that the pro-Assad hackers with the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) might have an artful bent? Well, the sprawling art-sharing site DeviantART has become mixed up in the quest to track down the identities of those behind the cyber-warfare outfit.

SEA, of course, is the hacker group responsible for the August attacks on the New York Times website and Twitter in support of Syria’s ruthless president. Security reporter Brian Krebs analyzed data from the SEA website, claiming that he could connect the attacks to 23-year-old Mohammad Osman, employed as a web designer with the Damascus-based firm Flex Solutions — and also a member of the DeviantART community for three years.

For his part Osman later replied to Krebs's article in a personal email denying any such connection: “I am not a member in 'Syrian Electronic Army', and if I were, would I mention where I work, post my personal photo as declaring my political views? ”

Does his DeviantART offer any help in getting to the bottom of the mystery? Unlike most other artist profiles on the site, though, where member pages are filled with colorful illustrations, nature photographs, and tattoo designs, Osman’s personal page — under the account name “Medothelost” — doesn’t have any of his artwork displayed, or any artistic images at all. What is instantly visible instead are his “Favourites” — images of the flag of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, along with images of the Great Syrian Army, a missile launch, and quotes — in Arabic — by Syrian president Bashar Al Assad.

Click over to his “Gallery” and again, there are no works of digital art, drawings, or other graphic design work. There are pictures, covered in Arab text, of American soldiers with prisoners at Abu Graib and anti-American commentary. You can also purchase a print titled “Terrorists of the Revolution,” “SSNP Flag,” or “Bashar AlAssad Quotes” in a 10-by-10-inch size, with a “lustre” finish. According to Krebs’s translation, the Arabic text on the page says that Osman is a member of the Free Syrian National Rally, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and a founding member of the Syrian Civil Youth Movement.

Krebs goes on to suggest that Osman recently changed his name to Mohamad Abd AlKarem, and that Osman used his personal account to register mohamadstudio.com, a website of Mohamad Abd AlKarem, a young man born in Ajman, UAE who moved to Syria in 2005, but, as per the site, recently relocated to Turkey.

Fran Berkman, a reporter with Mashable, pushed the story further claiming that based on “considerable evidence,” he could say that Osman and AlKarem (neither of whom have been proven to be with the SEA) are not, as Krebs claimed, the same person. Berkman even held a Skype interview with a man named AlKarem, in which the latter allegedly said, “I'm not the one who's from the Electronic Syrian Army. I am not Mohammed Osman; I am Mohamad Abd AlKarem, an artist.”

AlKarem told Berkman that Osman had emailed him and asked him to design some logos. From that point forward, they started working together. Later, AlKarem says he asked Osman to build him a website, which Osman did. He claims he has never met Osman in person.

AlKarem’s portfolio on another art site, Behance, is credible as the work of a graphic designer. It contains images of pieces he’s apparently done for the carpet company “Mody,” a coffee company called “Smart Coffee,” and another company called “Hanif Export & Import” — as well as a poster design that says in English, “Syria Burning: Help Your Syrian Brother.”

In the parlance of some who should know better, it’s known as the flyover zone. But powerhouse collectors Ron and Ann Pizzuti summarily disproved that notion with the opening of their Pizzuti Collection (or the "PC" as it’s coming to be known), which drew artists from Cuba, dealers from Berlin, and curators and auction heads from New York to Columbus, Ohio, for a gala opening on September 5. Seatbelts were fastened for the raucous party that ensued.    

To see photos from the opening of the Pizzuti Collection, click on the slideshow.

After a less-than-promising start — “Let It Be,” “First Date,” “Soul Doctor” — the fall Broadway season is gathering steam with one of the most promising slates in recent memory. It is unusually starry and high brow, from the blinding wattage of Daniel Craig and his wife, Rachel Weisz, in Mike Nichols’s revival of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” to four productions that will be playing in repertory: two-time Tony-winner Mark Rylance leads an all-male British company in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “Richard III”; and Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart star in revivals of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” As you read through this analysis, be mindful that the theatrical gods can be fickle and take special delight in upending expectations. 

“Betrayal”

While there is no such thing as “sure fire” in the theater, the conflagration around this revival of Pinter’s most accessible play started with the announcement that Craig and Weisz would star in this bitter ménage a trois with Rafe Spall. The advance for the show has already reached $10 million and scalpers are sharpening their knives. While this will mark the Broadway debut of Weisz and Spall, Craig previously proved his stage prowess in his 2009 Broadway debut as a conscience-stricken cop opposite Hugh Jackman in “Steady Rain.” Here he plays a mordant publisher who is betrayed by his wife with his best friend. The cancellation line will probably start in the wee hours on each day of performances. Previews begin on October 1, opening on November 3.

“Big Fish”

As the only original book musical opening in fall, “Big Fish” has the pond to itself. Already in previews, the show is receiving mixed-to-good response among the chatterati. Having had a tryout in Chicago earlier this year where it received respectful if conditional reviews, the musical has a top shelf Tony-winning creative team: director-choreographer Susan Stroman, actors Norbert Leo Butz and Kate Baldwin, songwriter Andrew Lippa, and librettist John August, adapting his own screenplay of Tim Burton’s 2003 film.  Butz plays a garrulous Southerner spinning fantastical tales about how he saved a giant, had a circus werewolf as a mate, and planted a field of daffodils to win the heart of his beloved. The son isn’t snowed and thus the profligate father must make amends before its too late.  The show opens on October 1.

“After Midnight”

The only other musical this fall has the potential to be sleeper: a revue featuring the songs of the Jazz Age and the infectious spirit of the Cotton Club, the fabled Harlem nightspot, as interpreted by a cast led by “American Idol” star Fantasia Barrino and the Jazz at Lincoln Center All Stars led by Wynton Marsalis. Under the title of   “Cotton Club Parade,” the show was presented in the fall of 2011 at New York City Center where it was a hothouse hit. It’s hard to see how it can miss with such classics as “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “Black-and-Tan Fantasy,” “Creole Love Call,” and “Stormy Weather,” and other songs from the Duke Ellington and Harold Arlen songbook set to the moves of director-choreographer Warren Carlyle. Another bonus: the lavish costumes are designed by Ruben and Isabel Toledo, the fashionistas who dress First Lady Michelle Obama. Previews begin on October 18, opening on November 3.

“The Glass Menagerie”

While almost all the dramas this season have “snob appeal,” the hottest ticket in that regard may be this revival of the Tennessee Williams classic, starring Cherry Jones as the imperious Amanda, Zachary Quinton as her poetic son Tom, Celia Keenan-Bolger as her cripplingly shy daughter Laura, and Brian J. Smith as the Gentleman Caller, the character who sets the tragedy in motion. The production, directed by John Tiffany (“Once,” “Black Watch”) began previews recently and raked in impressive box-office sales, helped by the strong critical notices the production received when it premiered at Boston’s American Repertory Theater, especially for Jones. “A magnificently human performance,” raved Ben Brantley in the New York Times review, in which he also noted that Quinton was the best Tom he’d ever seen. The show opens on September 26.

“The Snow Geese”

There are three good reasons to book tickets for “The Snow Geese”: star Mary-Louise Parker, veteran director Daniel Sullivan, and playwright Sharr White. White made an impressive Broadway debut last season with his highly under-valued “The Other Place,” starring Laurie Metcalf in one of the greatest performances in recent years. If the writing is as good in this drama set in World War I, then you can expect Parker to be among the Tony nominees. She plays Elizabeth Gaesling, a widow who is left with a mountain of debt and a son who is about to be deployed to the war that is raging in Europe. Previews begin on October 1, opening on October 24.

“A Time To Kill”

John Grisham has never before allowed any of his bestsellers to be adapted to the stage, but he gave the OK for this play about a young idealistic lawyer called upon to defend a black man accused of a vigilante crime in a small Mississippi town. But Grisham insisted on one condition: the play had to be first staged in a regional theater whereupon he could veto it. The production at Baltimore’s Arena Stage, directed by Ethan McSweeney and adapted by Rupert Holmes, got a thumbs-up from the novelist. Sebastian Arcelus stars as Jake Brigance, who goes mano-a-mano with Patrick Page’s Rufus Buckley in this courtroom drama. Previews begin on September 28, opening on October 20.

“The Winslow Boy”

The plays of Terence Rattigan, once among Britain’s most honored playwrights in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, were swept aside by the new wave of angry young men playwrights of the 1950s. The effort to rehabilitate his reputation, including Frank Langella in “Man and Boy” a couple of years ago, continues apace with The Roundabout Theatre’s production of “The Winslow Boy,” starring Roger Rees and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. In this 1946 classic, which Rattigan based on a real incident, a father fights a valiant court battle to clear his son’s name after he is expelled from Osborne Naval College for stealing a five-shilling postal order. To do so, he succeeds in engaging the shrewdest barrister in London. This courtroom drama begins previews on September 20 and opens on October 17.

The Bard on Broadway

“Romeo and Juliet”

Will Shakespeare has a lot to offer this fall, with each production looming with promise and idiosyncratic appeal. First up at bat is “Romeo and Juliet,” now previewing. Directed by David Leveaux, the production plays the race card with Orlando Bloom (“Lord of the Rings,” “Pirates of the Caribbean”) leading the house of Montague and Condola Rashad, his starry-eyed Juliet, as belonging to the house of Capulet. While Bloom is no doubt a worthy Romeo, the one to keep your eye on is Rashad, who comes from the accomplished house of Rashad, as in actress Phyllicia Rashad and sports star Ahman Rashad. The play opens on September 19.

“Macbeth”

Lost in the flurry of publicity over Kenneth Branagh’s Broadway debut as the Scottish thane next year was the fact that Ethan Hawke will get there first in a production directed by Jack O’ Brien and co-starring Anne-Marie Duff for Lincoln Center Theater. I wouldn’t underestimate its potential power. A slough of Tony nominations and awards honored “Henry IV,” the last Shakespearean collaboration between O’Brien and Hawke. It won’t surprise you to learn that Hawke played Hotspur and he will likely bring that same intensity and rage to the tortured Thane who keeps attracting actors. (Alan Cumming played him last season.) Previews begin October 24, opening on November 21.

Playing in Repertory

“Twelfth Night” and “Richard III”

Two-time Tony Award-winner Mark Rylance, arguably the greatest actor in the English-speaking world, will lead an all-male ensemble in these two productions, starring in the former as the love-struck noblewoman Olivia and in the latter as the Bard’s most spell-binding villain. Directed by Tim Carroll, the productions originated at London’s Globe Theatre before transferring to the West End, where they were met with critical hosannas. Also in the cast will be Stephen Fry (“Wilde”) as the priggish Malvolio and Samuel Barnett (Tony-nominated for “History Boys”), who will alternate in the roles of Viola in “Twelfth Night” and Queen Elizabeth in “Richard III.” Hewing to a cheap-ticket tradition at the Globe, the producers announced that 250 seats at each performance will be sold for $25, including ones onstage. Previews begin on October 15, opening on November 10.

“Waiting for Godot” and “No Man’s Land”

If any two actors can make these difficult and provocative plays come alive it is Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart. While McKellan, playing Estragon/Spooner, and Stewart (Vladimir/Hirst) are getting all the attention, the two supporting actors in the rep are no slouches: Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley. Here’s an opportunity to see the two plays that are among the most influential of the 20th century, even though they were hardly welcomed by the critics at first glance.  The 1956 American premiere in Florida famously bombed. No problem with that here. The only question is whether audiences are ready to be challenged by the surrealistic vagrants who argue, sleep, sing, philosophize, and consider suicide while waiting the arrival  of  Godot. There’s a little more action — and far more menace and alcohol — in Pinter’s work about two writers who may, or may not, know each other. Previews begin on October 26, opening on November 24.

One-Person Shows

I mean no disrespect by lumping together the three productions which may well prove that a majority of one is just that. In fact, in 2004, Jefferson Mays won a Tony Award, as did his one-person vehicle, Douglas Wright’s “I Am My Own Wife.” The protean actor is now back in “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.” Directed by Darko Tresnjak, the dark musical comedy set in the Edwardian Era involves the murderous mayhem that ensues when black sheep Monty Navarro, ninth in line to inherit a dukedom, decides to murder his way to the title. Previews begin on October 22, opening on November 17. Prior to that, Mary Bridge Davies takes on the daunting task of incarnating one of the 20th century’s greatest rock ’n’ roll icons in “A Night with Janis Joplin.” The Southern Comfort starts flowing on September 20, with an opening set for October 10. And finally, Billy Crystal returns in his autobiographical tale, “700 Sundays,” which won him a Tony Award in 2005. His stories about growing up on Long Island inspired Ben Brantley to write in the New York Times that the show had been “carefully set up to suggest a night of home movies, screened by a buddy from your high school days who is equal parts attention-grabbing show-off and soft-hearted sweetie pie.” Previews begin November 5, opening on November 13.

Though he’s been making work since the 1960s, Whitten is in the midst of a well-deserved renaissance. His pivotal experiments in process-driven abstraction were revisited in a major show on view through March at the SCAD Museum of Art, in Savannah, and also included in “NYC: 1993” at the New Museum this past spring. This month new paintings go on view at New York’s Alexander Gray Associates, and pieces from 1971 to 1973 will be shown at Brandeis University’s RoseArt Museum from September 17. In 2014, the Museum of Contemporary Art in
 San Diego will give Whitten his first major retrospective. Scott Indrisek met with the artist at his studio in Sunnyside, Queens, to talk about his experimentations with paint.

How do you work with paint as collage, exactly?

Collage has been sort 
of the keystone of modernist thought. With Picasso, with Matisse. What I have done is remove the paint from the canvas, which makes it physical. I can pick it up and hold it in my hand, I can cut it and I can reapply it. This is the essence of the notion of making a painting as opposed to painting a painting.

Some of the most recent works involve 
the shape of a loop. How’d that come about?

I was having an interview with a German fellow in the studio, and he was asking me the same question. I took a sheet of paper and I tried to explain to him. I
 drew a line coming out of Africa to America, and I said, when I started learning about painting and art history, I had to move from America, I had to go up to Europe. I had 
to go way over to the Far East, to Japan and China, all the way over to Australia. I’m going back and forth globally. It’s a map—
an autobiographical map. That’s where 
the loop started, but as I got into it, it became something more mystical. André Malraux had a theory he called Museum Without Walls, that one should be able 
to travel mentally through all the world’s cultures, the whole repository of human knowledge. Major museums now, their holdings are listed online. You can go and you can punch into the Louvre and walk through the whole collection. Go up to the Tate, come back through the Prado, go through the Metropolitan.


Can we talk a bit about your rather unique technical process?

I make these strips of acrylic beforehand, all in different shapes. And then when I
 put the strips into the wet field of paint,
they relax. It’s very conceptual. Everything comes together with the last step. This is
 not an overlay, that’s an inlay; it’s inlaid into a field of wet acrylic, and when that happens, you get a strange spatial juxtaposition. For painting, that’s a new space. I first saw 
a glimpse of that space in the ’70s, and
I’ve been chasing it ever since. But now I’ve chased it up to a point where I can force it into a corner.


Can you tell me about the painting Remote Control, which will be in the show at Alexander Gray?

That whole surface is poured; it’s not a painted surface. It’s about five layers. It’s like pouring concrete. You build a form, it has to be absolutely 
level and then you start
 pouring. Then the paint
 moves where it wants to.
 It’s contained; in Greek 
that’s what is called
 kaloupi, which means
 “a parameter, form.”


Jack Whitten, "Remote Control," 2013 / Courtesy Alexander Gray Associates, New York

Are you ever actually
 applying a brush 
to the canvas?

Not so much. 
Sometimes, if I’m looking 
for a thin glaze, I might
 resort to some types of 
brushes. But to actually 
sit down and paint with
 a brush, no. I cut paint, 
I laminate paint, I grind 
paint, I freeze paint,
 I boil paint. I just gave 
a talk at Yale University
 and some kids were
 asking about the process,
 and I said, “Well, it’s like 
Chinese cooking.” You’ve
 got to select everything,
find the best quality you 
can, wash it, clean it, cut
 it to the desired amounts, and you have all these component parts laid out to do a stir-fry. And then there is step one, step two, step three, right? And at the last moment, all these ingredients come together and the whole thing takes place 
in four minutes at the most.

And what are the other 3-D forms that are inlaid into the paint?

They come from all over. They are made from molds. One is from my orange 
juice bottle, Simply Orange. My wife and I went to the supermarket and bought a whole shopping cart full of it, $150 worth of orange juice, when all I was after was the bottles. The computer mouse died yesterday. We had to go to Staples to get a new mouse, and the container it came in—that’s a mold. I bought a lot of clams and took the shells and used them as molds. I call this stuff ready-now. Duchamp called his found objects readymades; I make these and I call them ready-nows. All
 of these plastics are different. I have to experiment to find a release that will allow me, once the acrylic is set, to be able to pull it out of the mold. My dealer in Antwerp wears 
a hearing aid. The last time I was in Antwerp, his wife had saved all the containers for his hearing aids and gave them to me. So I brought them back 
to New York and got a very 
good painting out of it, which of course I gave to her. The cooking industry is making a 
lot of nonstick products, and they’re fantastic.

And how do you get the color into 
the molds?


I’m mostly using an acrylic medium 
that is transparent, and the ratio of pigment to the medium is less than 1 percent. It’s important that I keep working with the theme of transparency. I wanted it see-through.


Have you ever worked with oil paint?

In the 1960s. But when I started being more experimental in the ’70s, acrylic was 
the way to go. Oil paint does not allow you 
to experiment to this extent. You can’t do it. I’ll be waiting for it to dry for months. And now that different manufacturers are coming up with different mediums within the acrylic polymer, the range is incredible.

You have a house in Crete where you spend the summers. Do you work while you’re there?

I carve wood. I don’t paint in the summer much. In wood carving you use chisels, axes, saws, hatchets, grinders; you are cutting, laminating, shaping. It’s a very physical process. All of these processes now have gotten into the painting. So the greatest influence on my painting is my wood carving.

What are those airplane models hanging from the ceiling?


These are the airplanes the Tuskegee airmen flew. I went to Tuskegee, you know. My first years in college were there, where I was a premed student. What happened was that one particular early morning in our ROTC class, the base colonel was leading the class 
on weaponry. All I remember is standing up from my seat—now, you wouldn’t do that. ROTC in Tuskegee is some serious shit. I stood and I mumbled, “What the fuck am I doing here?” My buddy grabbed me, but I just repeated it: “What am I doing here?” We were getting ready to take a big test, and I just realized this was not for me. I knew that I had to leave Tuskegee. Before going
 to Tuskegee, my thing was art and music. Tuskegee didn’t have an art program, and I went further south to Baton Rouge. Southern University, they had an art program. State school, segregated. I started studying art and got involved in the civil rights demonstrations. My class closed down Southern University, shut it down. We organized a march. It started off as a protest against the state because we didn’t think that the state was funding our school to the degree that they were funding the white school. This was the first time anyone had protested against it. The damned thing started off as a campus thing, but then it enlarged into a whole civil rights thing. The local clergy became involved, and people 
in the community, and we organized a march downtown to the state capital of Baton Rouge, and that turned nasty. That’s what forced me out of the South. At Tuskegee a professor of architecture had told me about Cooper Union. That it was tuition free. They accepted me for the fall semester. It’s a hell of a story because now you know the problems at Cooper Union. They have destroyed their legacy. They fucked up. Now for somebody like myself, with the need that I had, it’s no longer an option. It’s a pity.

To see images, click on the slideshow.

PARIS – To celebrate King Louis XIV’s famous garner André Le Nôtre's 400th birthday, essayist and curator Patrick Amine has organized an ambitious project to recreate a contemporary "new follies" in the National Domain of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris.

Soliciting 27 renowned international artists, including Hervé di Rosa, Bob Verschueren, Jan Fabre, Bae Lee, and Loris Cecchini, the gardens have become a stage for ephemeral works and natural sculptures around the garden, its avenues and terraces, andinside the Château. This exhibition-in-motion was built as a multifaceted and infinite garden theatre.

Le Nôtre will be on display at Domaine de Saint-Germain-en-Laye until October 14. 

Near a busy intersection in the urban center of Gwangju, South Korea, architect Rem Koolhaas and novelist Ingo Niermann have split the pavement into three pedestrian lanes marked, “Yes,” “No,” and “None of the Above.” Each month, a banner installed overhead will present commuters with a different question the public has chosen from an online polling site — the first suggestion being, “Do you support democracy?” An on-site camera will tally the responses, and the results will be posted to the website.

Koolhaas and Niermann were drawn to Gwangju by the unique opportunity to work together, the political approaches they each apply to their respective fields making them ideal collaborators. “They’re fascinated by each other,” said architect and curator Nikolaus Hirsch, the director who commissioned the installation as part of the 2013 Gwangju Folly project. “The Vote,” as the meta-democratic exercise is titled, directly references Gwangju’s political identity. The city’s tragic 1980 military uprising and massacre is what parked the democratization of South Korea, the formation of Gwangju’s robustly funded art biennale program, and UNESCO’s recognition of the city’s historical archives as documents of human rights.

“The Vote” is also emblematic of Hirsch’s heightened ambition for the newly purpose-driven second installment of the Gwangju Follies, initially launched by architect Seung H-Sang during his role as the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale co-director. H-Sang introduced the term “folly” — an architectural term for functionless structures that has no equivelant Korean word — to the city by commissioning 10 architectural firms, including the likes of Peter Eisenman and Dominique Perrault, to dot historic Gwangju sites destroyed during early 20th-century Japanese colonization with whimsical towers, stages, and installations.

"The Vote" project by Rem Koolhaas & Ingo Niermann

“It was perceived as something a bit like drop sculpture,” Hirsch told ARTINFO of the previous follies, presented to the public as landmarks that citizens could put to use as “meeting places.” “I don’t want to criticize the first edition; it had its own logic of urban morphologies. But I think that building upon the experience of the first edition, it was also possible to be much more experimental and more complex in terms of conversation.”

Under Hirsch’s direction and new independence from Gwangju’s alternating art and design biennale programs, the eight new follies are site-specific in their focus on themes of democracy. This second round has also expanded beyond architecture with its inclusion of artists — Raqs Media Collective, Do Ho Suh, and Superflex — and authors alongside architect intellectuals like Ai Weiwei, Eyal Weizman and Samaneh Moafi, following the logic that public space isn’t exclusively used by a single profession. The headlining architects were paired with writers: Like Koolhaas, David Adjaye was drawn to the project by the opportunity to collaborate with a like-minded novelist. With Taiye Selasi — a Rome-based author who shares Adjaye’s Ghanian descent, London upbringing, Ivy League education, and transatlantic lifestyle — he designed the “Gwangju River Reading Room,” a library pavilion that promises to hold “200 books from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ to Emile Zola’s ‘Germinal’.”

The city’s new follies stretch the word’s definition by offering a tailored purpose, interacting directly with Gwangju society at large. Ai will contribute a politicized traditional food cart; emerging architects Seok-hong Go and Mihee Kim a transparent civic storage system. The most notable interaction arguably comes from Suh, in collaboration with his brother Euloh Suh’s Seoul-based Suh Architects: “In-Between Hotel” expands the artist’s oeuvre of ephemeral domestic spaces as a roving inn mounted on the back of a truck. Slated to park in the fire safety code-mandated gaps between Gwangju homes, “It has a very distinct urban agenda,” said Hirsch. “The morphology, the gap, the geometry is one thing. The other one is that this in-between space of course belongs to two neighbors, so how do you ask permission? He made this spatial construct that implies the concept of sharing, negotiations that maybe in the morning someone bring tea.”

This idea of asking citizens’ permission is reflected on a grander scale by Hirsch’s collaboration with local NGOs and preservation groups (“In the gallery you don’t need permission for anything,” he said. “In public space, you need much more legal frame, defined by society, by political systems, et cetera.”), recasting the public as collaborators in, rather than recipients of, the project. By accepting these constraints, the project eschews the arbitrary impressions left by its large-scale sculpture 2011 predecessors. Their thematic exploration of notions of public space, the arena for Korea’s uprising, make up for those shortcomings.

Gwangju Folly II officially opens November 10. Reservations for the “In-Between Hotel” can be made through the Gwangju Ramada Plaza. 

– Sting To Play LACMA: LACMA has just announced that British pop star Sting will entertain attendees at this year’s Art + Film gala. Co-chaired by Leonardo DiCaprio and museum trustee Eva Chow, this year’s fundraiser is in honor of David Hockney, who has an installation at the museum, and filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who directed DiCaprio’s latest film "The Wolf of Wall Street." [LAT]

– Lawyer Fleeced Twombly Foundation: On Wednesday prominent New York art lawyer Ralph E. Lerner was accused of taking some $750,000 in fraudulent fees from the Cy Twombly Foundation in an ongoing court case in Delaware. According to new papers filed in the suit, Lerner secretly charged the late artist's foundation fees while serving as its secretary and a director of its board. According to court papers, Lerner "even charged legal fees for merely attending board meetings as a director," even though "no other board member received (or was entitled to receive) compensation (much less at the significant rate of $950 an hour) for attending board meetings or reviewing and editing the board meeting minutes." [NYT]

– Male Nudes Hit Paris: After "Masculin/Masculin," an exhibition composed entirely of male nudes, ruffled feathers with racy ads in Vienna last year, the show is now traveling to the Musée D’Orsay in Paris. While the Paris show was inspired by the exhibition at Vienna's Leopold Museum, Guy Cogeval, the Orsay's president is quick to emphasize that the Paris show only contains 20 of the same artworks. "I've wanted to explore this theme for a long time, since I was director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Montreal 15 years ago," Cogeval said. "I suggested doing it but it was explained to me that it would be frowned upon." [AFP]

– Knoedler President Sues for Defamation: Ann Freedman, the former president of the Knoedler & Co. gallery until it closed in 2011, is suing Manhattan dealer Marco Grassi for defamation over a comment he made to a New York magazine reporter questioning the thoroughness of her research into a series of alleged works by canonical American modernists that turned out to be forgeries. More charges in that forgery case, implicating Freedman, Long Island dealer Glafira Rosales, and others, are expected soon. [WSJ, TAN]

– Louvre Flooded With Fake Tickets From China: Since mid-August staff at the most-visited museum in the world has been noticing an influx of thousands of fake admission tickets, most of them from Chinese guides and tourists. Belgian customs officials recently intercepted a package from China containing some 3,600 fake tickets to the Louvre. [Le Monde]

– Warhol's BFF Declined Marilyn Gift: The recently deceased TV set designer Charles Lisanby was a lifelong friend of Andy Warhol, but when the Pop artist offered to give his buddy one of his then-new print portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Lisanby declined, claiming he didn't have room for it. [LAT]

– The Guggenheim Collection in Venice has released a limited edition (and kind of creepy) toy Lhasa Apso puppy named Cappucino — after Peggy Guggenheim’s first dog — because the breed was her favorite. [ArtDaily]

– The Wall Street Journal visits Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Chelsea studio where he keeps his "obsessive collection of Stone Age artifacts." [WSJ]

– The ArtInternational Istanbul art fair, which is taking place later this month, has been forced to change its name to just ArtInternational after a legal battle with the company behind Contemporary Istanbul. [TAN]

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Check our blog IN THE AIR for breaking news throughout the day.

It wasn't a coincidence that so many fashion watchers at Rachel Zoe's Spring-Summer 2014 show were snapping photos of the models' feet each time a particularly comfortable-looking shoe — a glittery metallic Birkenstock-style sandal — came by. With New York Fashion Week soon coming to a close, anyone who's been wearing stilettos between runway shows is now blistered and bandaged.

The shoe epitomized what Zoe seemed to be going for in her clothes, too: Outfits that you can travel far and wide in. Either on safari, or just out on the streets.

The designer "takes the modern jet set girl on a safari," according to her publicity material. "A traveling muse wearing her femininity with effortless confidence."

In the clothes, that translated to a mix of trendy and classic items. Leather was prominent. One suit, in a luscious chocolate brown, had a belted safari-style jacket over short shorts. There was an appealing belted leather mini-dress. There were up-to-there miniskirts but also long, lacy dresses. There were slouchy satin pants, and comfy sweaters. And there was a good deal of denim — distressed, in short shorts or baggy pants, and not distressed, as in a suit with a denim coat and high-waisted pants.

Coco Rocha appreciated the versatility of the designer's work. "Rachel definitely has pieces that you can go grocery shopping (in) as well as go out for the night in one piece. ... Especially here in New York, I think that's what you kind of look for in your designers."

Playing with her little son backstage before the show on Wednesday, Zoe, who is pregnant with her second child, described her customer as "a cool girl — she doesn't try too hard, she knows who she is, she's very confident, she's always on the go doing a hundred things, but she's got style."

Watch more videos from New York Fashion Week HERE.

More than 40 works by pop artist Andy Warhol will be displayed at an exhibition hosted by the auction house Sotheby's in Hong Kong, with the most expensive piece valued at about $1 million.

The collection, "From Warhol, With Love," focuses primarily on Warhol's early ink-on-paper work from the 1950's and is brought to Hong Kong from the auction house's gallery in New York.

Warhol travelled to Hong Kong and other places in the region in 1956, and his Asian experiences inspired some of the gold and butterfly themes that can be seen in the exhibition, according to Jacqueline Wachter, specialist on contemporary art at Sotheby's New York.

"China was important to him, and hopefully he will be important to China," Wachter said at a media briefing on Wednesday, ahead of the exhibition's opening night.

Although the early works presented by Sotheby's this week are not very well known in Asia, local connoisseurs are not strangers to Warhol, says Angelika Li, gallery director at Sotheby's Hong Kong. When it comes to art from the West, he is a household name in the region, she said.

"Our collectors here are very aware, very learned about Andy Warhol and his artistic career, and his charisma, his humour, his colours and his concepts, and how he translated his own ideas through his art," said Li.

The appetite for Warhol’s work could be felt in Hong Kong already at the beginning of the year, when about 400 of his pieces exhibited at the Hong Kong Museum of Art attracted more than 250,000 visitors over 16 weeks.

The exhibition is expected to draw not only local private collectors and galleries, but rather a mix of Asian and international enthusiasts.

Each of the 46 pieces in the collection has an estimated value of between US$10,000-1 million, and the exhibition is open to the public from September 12-24.

The most valuable work is "Ten One Dollar Bills" (1962).

From Johannes Vermeer’s masterpiece Girl with a Pearl Earring to the legendary Peregrina, found in the Gulf of Panama and passed on through the centuries among European royals before landing in Elizabeth Taylor’s fabulous jewelry collection, pearls have long pervaded popular culture and have never ceased to fascinate jewelers, historians, and naturalists.

This month, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, in collaboration with the Qatar Museums Authority, hosts “Pearls,” a look at the gem’s history and symbolism across both Eastern and Western societies.

The show begins with a primer on the natural process leading to the creation of the rare and precious commodity and on the development of pearl fishing and trade. The pearl is born inside a live mollusk, the result of a defense mechanism triggered when the animal reacts to a piece of foreign matter—often a parasite or a tiny piece of shell—by secreting nacre, a crystalline substance, and casting layers of it over the particle. The many species of pearl-bearing mollusks account for the surprising range of pearl shapes and colors on display.

But the core of the exhibition traces the evolution of the pearl as a symbol of virtue, power, wealth, and elegance throughout history, from antiquity up to its contemporary status as a favored jewel of celebrity trendsetters like Marilyn Monroe and Taylor.

“No gem in history has been as consistently fashionable and desirable as the pearl,” says jewelry historian Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, who curated the show along with Hubert Bari, director of the future pearl and jewelry museum in Doha, Qatar.

In Imperial China, pearls were thought to hold the soul of the oyster, and only immediate members of the imperial family and the First Concubine were allowed to wear them, while in Japan, some believed a princess who married against her wishes shed pearl tears.

“The cult of the Virgin Mary was dominant in the Middle Ages, and the pearl was adopted as a symbol of her purity,” Chadour-Sampson says.

After Christopher Columbus found new sources in the Caribbean, flooding the market in the early 1500s, pearls became more prevalent among European royalty as markers of power and wealth.

“By the 17th century, the use of pearls became widespread in jewelry worn by royals and aristocrats,” says Chadour-Sampson. “Improvements in stone-cutting techniques especially of diamonds made pearl-and-diamond jewelry even more fashionable.”

When Charles I of England was executed in 1649, he was wearing a single teardrop-shaped pearl earring. “It was fashionable then for men to wear pearls,” Chadour-Sampson says. “For King Charles, it was a fashion statement and a sign of vanity.”

The earring is exhibited in the show along with an authentication note handwritten by Queen Mary II, his granddaughter, that states, “This pearle was taken out of ye King my grandfather’s ear after he was beheaded & given ye Princess Royall.”

During the Victorian era, pearl jewelry took on sentimental significance. The show features a heart-shaped gold brooch given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert on their wedding anniversary in 1843. Surmounted by a crown with four Scottish freshwater pearls, it was meant as a reminder of their visit to Scotland the previous year.

No history of pearls would be complete without mention of the Japanese entrepreneur Kokichi Mikimoto, who at the turn of the last century developed a technology enabling the production of cultured pearls. “By the 1940s, the cultured pearl had transformed the entire economy of pearls,” Chadour-Sampson says. “Thanks to Mikimoto, every woman could own a pearl necklace.”

Though known for the song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” screen legend Marilyn Monroe rarely wore jewelry and owned few pieces. One of these, on display at the V&A, was a Mikimoto necklace of 44 Akoya pearls given to her in 1954 by her second husband, baseball player Joe DiMaggio, during their honeymoon in Japan. Monroe was so attached to them that she wore them often—even to court when she divorced him nine months later.

Other jewels on exhibit include pieces by Bulgari, Cartier, Chaumet, Lalique, and Tiffany, highlighting the savoir faire of these century-old houses. Equally remarkable, though, are the designs by contemporary jewelers. Striking in their creativity, they reveal a trend away from the perfect white orb toward unusually shaped or colored pearls.

Hemmerle is showing its iconic Tarantula brooch, designed with a dark brown horse-conch pearl centerpiece set against Umba sapphires and brown and white diamonds. The brown pearl, weighing over 111 carats and measuring 27.47 millimeters in size, is the world’s largest of its kind and the most intense in color. Yoko London, a specialist in colored pearls, has several pieces in the show, including the Mezze Luna necklace and earrings, a graduated palette of naturally colored South Sea Keshi pearls.

The show ends with a section exploring the mass production of freshwater pearls in China today and the impact of their abundance in the market.

Says Chadour-Sampson, “We want the visitor to think about the ever-changing value of pearls and what, over the centuries, has gone into making a perfect pearl necklace.”

“Pearls” is on view at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London through January 19, 2014.

The following appeared in BlouinLifestyle.com Magazine.