While the price of gasoline continues to climb, it doesn’t have to hinder your daily commute. Celebrated French carmaker Peugeot has developed up an alternative: the DL 122, an urban bicycle designed to carry your laptop, briefcase, or other similarly rectangular objects in its central frame. The bike, which is made of wood and aluminum, holds your gear between your legs, fascillitating better balance. The 20-inch wheels and 8-speed hub will have you speeding through traffic rather than filling up at the pump. You aren't a nerd if you carry a laptop on your bike, but you are a nerd if you ride this bike.

NEW YORK — To thrive for 30 years in the fashion industry is a milestone for many, but for designer Ralph Rucci, it is only the beginning. The insiders who are aware of Rucci know that in 2001 he became the second of only two American designers to be invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture to show a collection in Paris. (The other, Main Bocher, had lived in Paris for more than a dozen years and served as editor-in-chief of Paris Vogue before he was invited in the 1930s.) While most luxury labels are backed by behemoths like LVMH and PPR, Rucci’s remains independent. He signs all the checks; his company has no CFO.

Rucci, 54, has a penchant for exquisite materials like Mongolian lamb, silk gazar, and paper taffeta. His talent rivals that of Halston, who he worked for briefly in the late-’70s after conniving his way into a job interview; Madame Grès, whose fashion show he snuck into to snag an interview in 1978 (she told him to come back to her after he had 20 years of experience); and even the great Cristobal Balenciaga. But for some reason, much like Madame Grès, Rucci has so far failed to become a household name.  

“He is very much respected by people who know fashion,” said Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Steele, who wrote the catalogue and curated the museum’s 2007 Rucci exhibit, told ARTINFO that “it’s really kind of a puzzle” that he hasn’t gotten more attention during his career.

Yet Rucci’s celebrity admirers include intelligent women who have a strong sense of their personal style, like Sandra Bernhard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Martha Stewart, and Whoopi Goldberg. “Wearing Ralph for me is lush,” Goldberg told ARTINFO via email. “You feel you look smart and elegant and it doesn’t matter if you’re rail thin or have a butt – the clothing makes you feel fantastic.”



Last month, during New York Fashion Week, Rucci cancelled his February 12 runway show, holding showroom appointments instead to save on costs. “It was disappointing, but after it happened I said, ‘next!’ because I had to finish the collection,” Rucci told ARTINFO at his Soho office, where photographs of artist Joseph Beuys hang on his inspiration wall, along with a prized 1970s Joe Eula sketch of Halston fitting Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Then ugly rumors started to surface. A New York Post article last month reported that Rucci was considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. “He doesn’t have a diffusion line or a fragrance deal — he doesn’t seem to be interested in the commercial side of this,” Catherine Moellering, executive vice president of the trend-forecasting group the Tobe Report, told the Post. Rucci insists that Moellering is entirely wrong. While he did consult with experts to learn more about what Chapter 11 meant, he said that he isn’t looking to file for bankruptcy.

In fact, Rucci said that he couldn’t be more interested in the commercial side of fashion. His turning point came last summer when he was honored with a star on New York’s fashion walk of fame. “It’s time to brand,” Rucci said. “It’s time to share.” The designer wants to shed his reputation of catering to women of a certain age and income bracket, and plans to expand into luxury sportswear over the next year with a $75 to $250 price point, far below that of his ready-to-wear, which retails in the four-figure range. Rucci also intends to use materials that fit lower price points and to restructure the company and instill a CFO. “We’re working on an infrastructure here that would allow me to take a lot of the financial pressure off of my plate and focus on more of the design end, and hopefully allow me more time, or some time to concentrate on painting,” said Rucci, referring to his hobby — he’s had several solo gallery shows and his paintings are priced up to $110,000.

With the unflattering Post article came an outpouring of support — and financial backing. “It’s almost like I want to send that journalist a thank you because everyone came forth with support and literally that article turned my business around,” said Rucci. “Serious money came to me and said, ‘do you want to play?’”


To mark Rucci’s 30th anniversary in the fashion industry, “Autobiography of a Fashion Designer: Ralph Rucci,” a limited edition, $195 coffee table book, was published by Bauer and Dean last December. With text by Rucci and photographs by Baldomero Fernandez, the tome presents a portrait of Rucci’s business and home. It includes images of his immaculate Upper East Side apartment, which houses a Cy Twombly suite, an erotic piece by Beuys, Elsa Peretti sculptures, and statuary from the Hung and Tang Dynasties.

The designer is also the subject of a new documentary film, “A Quiet American: Ralph Rucci & Paris,” by disgraced former curator Christian Leigh, whose unpaid bills during the 1993 Venice Biennale cause works by Roy Lichtenstein and others to be held by creditors. The film, reportedly near its final version, was screened last Saturday at the Scandinavia House. “I wanted to make a film about fashion unlike any other that I know of,” Leigh told ARTINFO. The movie, which was far from seamless, showed a series of interviews with people who know Rucci, including his client socialite Lee Radziwill, fashion personality André Leon Talley, Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa, and the late François Lesage, whose embroidery atelier Rucci used in Paris. While the film was poignant and funny at times, the narrative could have been better constructed. Cuts during interviews were rough, and rather than weave the subjects’ remarks throughout to illustrate Rucci’s story, the filmmaker chose to stack the interviews side-by-side.  

The reason Rucci has kept such a quiet presence over the years? “What I witnessed happening in fashion was enormous egos growing at the expense of product,” he said. “I’ve always felt that humility was the most aspirational quality to develop within your soul.” But now Rucci is working to make sure that the world knows his name and that the brand will survive past his lifetime. “We’ve accomplished too much for this métier for it not to be,” he said.



Click on the slide show to see highlights from “Autobiography of a Fashion Designer: Ralph Rucci,” published by Bauer and Dean.

The Aspen Art Museum (AAM) will soon begin construction on its new Shigeru Ban-designed building in the city’s downtown, expanding from 10,000 to 30,000 square feet. As the building’s footprint expands, the institution’s public presence is expanding as well — the AAM has just scored a $1.5 million gift from Allen and Kelli Questrom to establish the Questrom Education Fund.

The new funding will bolster support for the AAM’s existing programs as well as expand the institution’s educational offerings, including reaching out to underserved populations, working with local schools, and providing free museum tours for students and educators. “Art museums are essential environments for learning… not just painting and drawing but, more importantly, how to think creatively and to apply one's latent talent to any vocation or occupation,” Kelli Questrom said in a statement.

The Questroms are among the AAM's key supporters. Back in 2008, the couple — he is a corporate executive with a long history of turning around retailers like Barneys and J.C. Pennys — donated $1 million to AAM to establish the Questrom Lecture Series, which gives the public an opportunity to interact with the international group of visiting artists, scholars, curators, and critics that the museum brings to Colorado. Recent lectures have included appearances by artists Slater Bradley, Huma Bhabha, and Mark Grotjahn.

When it finally debuts, the Aspen Art Museum’s new building will feature a woven wooden screen façade, a glassed-in grand staircase, and a roof-deck sculpture garden. The museum is still working on the capital campaign for the new building, having raised $47 million out of a $50-million capital campaign to fund the expansion — but the new gift initiatives certainly helps it secure a place at the center of public discussion.

1. Michael Fassbender may star in “The Mountain Between Us,” as a doctor-climber who falls in love with a woman after their plane crashes and they are forced to survive in the woods. [Showblitz/Variety]

2. Mike Nichols’ revival of “Death of a Salesman,” starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Linda Emond, officially opens on Broadway tonight. [Playbill]
Related: Q&A: Linda Emonds on “Death of a Saleman,” Working With Mike Nichols, and Life Being “Temporary”
Play by Play: Straight Talk With Mike Nichols

3. Idris Elba from “The Wire” will play a dual role, as the ancient Egyptian Imhotep and an astronomer from the future, in the TV series “Acension.” [Deadline via Vulture]

4. Arguments for and against Ron Howard’s movie adaptation of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” books. [Vulture]

5. A Spotify playlist of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad’s just-discovered music purchases, including LMFAO and Chris Brown. [Gawker]

Previously: Olivia Wilde, Barbara Streisand, Tom Morello, and “Luck”

“War and Remembrance: The Films of Aleksei Guerman” (through March 20 at Lincoln Center in New York) offers a unique opportunity to savor in one place the rarely seen works of a Russian master. All four of the movies Guerman has directed in his censorship-blighted career will be screened. So, too, will his 1967 debut “The Seventh Companion,” which he co-directed with Grigori Aronov and disowns, and Ardak Amirkulov’s fantastical (and fantastically brutal) Genghis Khan epic “The Fall of Otrar” (1991), which German produced and co-wrote with Svetlana Karmalita, his wife and collaborator. The director Alexander Pozdnyakov will meanwhile personally present his 2009 documentary, “Guerman: From the Other Side of the Camera.”

Just six years older than the late Andrei Tarkovsky, Guerman (born in Leningrad in 1938, the son of a celebrated writer friendly with Stalin and Gorky) is a fellow visionary. His densely allusive, frequently mordant films depict flashpoints in Soviet history — and what it is to be a victim or onlooker of savage upheavals. They have all been shot in black and white (though 1984’s “My Friend Ivan Lapshin” has a few deliberately faded color scenes) and are characterized by serpentine tracking shots and successive set-pieces often described as hallucinatory,

“The Seventh Companion” depicts the fate of a widowed, peace-loving military academic in the Tsar’s army during the 1918 Red Terror. Held with other officers and bourgeois dignitaries by Bolshevik guards who take some off to be executed, he humbly works as a laundryman before being set free to wander pathetically around the streets with an ornamental clock – all that remains of his past life. He soon winds up fighting with a ragged Bolshevik platoon and, as ironies succeed ironies, is captured by the White Army during the Civil War. Despite the compromises Guerman had to make in working with Aronov and his reservations about the film, it is an affecting humanist drama about the depletion of old world decency, supposedly for the greater good, in a world turned upside down.

For its negative portrait of Soviet military conduct during World War II, Guerman’s “Trial on the Road” (1971), his first solo film (pictured above), was banned for 15 years. It’s the fact-based story of a Russian sergeant who defected to the Nazis and then returned to the Red Army ranks, his punishment for disloyalty being a series of increasingly dangerous missions. The movie contains Guerman’s most kinetic action sequence.

“Twenty Days Without War” (1976) is a melancholy reflection on how war damages both combatants and citizens. After German planes a strafe a beach, a ruminative war correspondent, Lopatin (played by the circus actor Yuri Nikulin, typical of Guerman’s contrapuntal casting), travels home to Tashkent to bring a dead soldier’s belongings to his widow. His train journey incorporates Guerman’s greatest monologue sequence – a tormented soldier confesses at length to Lopatin the details of his wife’s infidelity. In Tashkent, Lopatin is thrown out by the grieving widow, miserably encounters his estranged wife, who claims to be happy with her new man, and tenderly connects with a lonely seamstress. He also gives a speech encouraging the workforce of a munitions factory, a sequence for which Guerman gathered 5,000 extras, and watches the filming of a war movie based on his writings, before returning to the Eastern Front. This is the only one of Guerman’s films to have been released in a timely manner in Russia, though it is no less skeptical about the notion of wartime heroism – an offense in the eyes of Soviet authorities – than his other works.

Guerman’s next film, the first widely seen outside the USSR, was “My Friend Ivan Lapshin” (1982, released in 1985 thanks to perestroika), based on stories by his father. It is a nostalgic piece, narrated by a sixtyish man looking fondly back on the time when he lived with his father and a group of men in a provincial commune just before Stalin’s Great Purge of 1937-38: death thus hangs over all of them. The title character is a lugubrious police inspector dedicated to destroying a crime gang – a little allegory of the Little Father’s liquidation policy.

“Khrustalyov, My Car!” (1998), the last film the painstakingly meticulous Guerman has completed, is generally regarded as his masterpiece, though it was famously misunderstood and renounced by critics when it was shown at Cannes. Maximally abstruse unless one is steeped in Russian politics and literature, it’s nonetheless a mesmerizingly surreal and breathless account of the fall and resurrection in 1953 of a decadent Red Army general and brain surgeon who runs a Moscow hospital doctor and lives large with his eccentric and importunate clan. Arrested as part of an anti-Semitic purge, he is sent to a gulag and viciously raped on the way there, only to be plucked from certain oblivion and brought to Stalin’s dacha in a vain attempt to save his life. When we last see him, he has completely reinvented himself. Baffling or not to Western eyes, the spectacle is as weird and wonderful as its title, which comes from the words spoken by Lavrentiy Beria as he quits Koba’s death scene. ARTINFO’s J. Hoberman wrote an essay on the film that has been republished on Film Comment’s website.

Guerman, now 73, is currently working on a science-fiction film, “The Chronicle of the Arkanar Massacre,” which is discussed by Anton Dolin in another Film Comment article. Also invaluable is Ronald Holloway’s 1988 interview with Guerman at kinoeye.

Ryan Sullivan
Maccarone, 630 Greenwich Street, New York City
February 10–March 17

I saw Sullivan’s exhibition twice, the first time on the night it opened, and it was almost too much—too much color, depth, material gnarliness; too much weird movement, cracked surface, lump and bump and beautiful scum. The paintings, all of them 84 by 72 inches and arranged in visual trills, in twosomes and in threesomes, seem to be engineered to stick their metaphorical fingers into your brain via your eye sockets and wiggle them around until the sensation is almost unbearable. This is all meant as a compliment. The young painter is enjoying his first solo exhibition, which also includes six smaller works on battered, abused, paint-damaged paper.

Three paintings on one wall of the main gallery are a good place to focus your attention. October 13, 2011–November 5, 2011 (Sullivan’s titles always reference the work’s dates of creation) is an abstract, made, like nearly all of these offerings, by applying layers of oil, enamel, latex, and spray paint onto canvas. Sullivan starts out with the canvas flat on the floor, then props it upright, allowing the paint to morph and move. In this first piece, the image resembles two burst lungs—victims of the droop of gravity—overlaid with streaks of yellow paint. The painting to its right, July 27, 2011–August 1, 2011, is much lighter, with a look reminiscent of fractured ice or glass (or a Marilyn Minter photorealist depiction of the same). And in December 8, 2011–December 16, 2011, most of the surface is taken up by a broken mass of deep red paint interrupted by smudges that could be sampled from a Gerhard Richter.

It’s hard to nail down a taxonomy that incorporates all of Sullivan’s methods, but there are certain types of paintings here. Cracks and sags are both vital. Cracks in the sense of damaged paint, splintered or broken and now sealed in place; sags in the sense of a vertical drag, the remnants of the paint’s struggle to slide down the canvas and onto the floor. You could sit in the gallery for a long time and free associate what images individual works bring to mind: Dried mud, degraded architectural exteriors, digitally skewed photographs. (The exhibition is accompanied by a delightful little volume of snapshots taken by the artist of “real world” things that resemble his abstracts: a car’s deteriorating paint job; masses of gunked-up snow and salt; the various ways tape can pucker and bulge.)

What’s truly weird about these paintings is how beautiful and materially grotesque they can be at the same time—the color-drenched overload of the image, the layered, broken, multifarious surface itself. The result is rough and seductive, not so much eye-pleasing as overwhelming in the most pleasurable way. 

This article will appear in the May issue of Modern Painters magazine. 

What if the Old Masters had our standards of beauty? For her "Venus" project, Italian artist Anna Utopia Giordano took classic paintings of Venus from art history and digitally altered them to reflect the kind of look prefered by the media today, making waists tinier, thighs skinnier, and breasts bigger. The results are both a form of social commentary and a kind of unintended Surrealism.

Contacted by email, Giordano told ARTINFO France that she wants to "highlight the aesthetic changes in the canon throughout the centuries, and this leads, quite spontaneously, to even talking about major issues such as anorexia and bulimia and the wide use of photo-editing software in advertising." Based in Naples and Milan, Giodano also happens to be a freelance fashion model herself, and it was this experience that led her to conceive of the "Venus" project. When asked if she's concerned about working in an industry that promotes unrealistic standards of beauty, Giordano replied that in her own personal relationship to the profession, she attempted to at least take charge of her own image: "since I work without an agency, I can choose to work for projects that are close to my sensibility and I often personally take care of the concept (styling/makeup/location)."

As for the artists own review on the project, Giordano's personal favorite of her altered artworks is the one based on Velázquez's "Rokeby Venus." "She has a mirror in front of her and I like to believe that while she looks at her 'new' body, she asks herself, 'What has happened to me?'"

To see images from Anna Utopia Giordano's "Venus" series, click on the slide show.

Although they seldom show a church or have a character call on Jesus, the brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are the worker-priests of European art cinema. Twice presented the Palm d’or at Cannes (for “Rosetta” in 1999 and “L’enfant” in 2005), the Belgian duo have perfected a sort of spiritually-infused social realism. Their movies are Robert Bresson reimagined as cinema verité — hectic, rough-hewn tales of sin, grace, and redemption typically centered on a single, problematic character (or relationship) and mainly set in their nondescript hometown, the small industrial city of Seraing.

The Dardennes have a style and set of interests as instantly recognizable as any filmmaker in the world and, although they are not what you’d call natural comedians, it is fun to imagine a gathering in which their protagonists might meet. How would the quick-thinking urchin and his harried slob of a father in “La Promesse” connect with the desperate, feral yet innocent teenage survivor, Rosetta? What could the bereft dad in “The Son” tell the feckless, baby-selling anti-hero of “L’enfant”? The heroine of the Dardennes’ last movie, “Lorna’s Silence,” was admittedly kind of a stiff, but the eponymous subject of “The Kid with a Bike,” opening Friday, is one of their greatest creations. Just try to get him to sit still.

Implacable, resourceful, and fiercely unlovable, 12-year-old Cyril (Thomas Doret) is pure drive, a child with the reflexes of a trapped animal. This pinch-faced throwaway kid, inevitably nicknamed “Pitbull,” is first shown biting, clawing, climbing, running, and dodging his way out of the juvenile home where he has been deposited — a brief moment of freedom marked by a blast of solemn Bressonian music.

Cyril is something like an escape machine, programmed to find the father who abandoned him. (That his old man is played by Dardenne axiom, Jérémie Renier, the son in “La Promesse” and the father in “L’enfant,” offers a bit of cross-reference.) Cornered in a clinic waiting room, Cyril instinctively clings to Samantha (Cécile de France) a 30-something hairdresser who simply happens to be sitting there. If he were bigger, he might have been taking her hostage but, surprisingly, she only asks that he not hug her so hard. In the world of the Dardennes, emotions, ideas, and moral crises are visceral; that panicky embrace was a connection. Samantha, who lives alone above her modest salon, felt something.

Still hoping to find his father, Cyril pleads to stay with Samantha on weekends and, granted his request, enlists her in his quest. As filmmakers, the Dardennes treat this gritty, stripped-down parable as only they can. The camera sticks close as Cyril hurtles through space on his bicycle. The movie has tremendous forward motion; it’s as single-minded as its protagonist, who repeatedly flings himself against the wall of his father’s indifference. The lesson taught over and over in cine Dardenne is that the possibility of redemption arises from the assuming of responsibility for another person. (Midway through “The Kid with a Bike,” another surrogate parent appears in the form of a youth gang leader — he is clearly the devil, yet even he has an infirm grandmother whom he looks after.)

“The Kid with a Bike” is founded on the paradox of Samantha’s apparent self-sufficiency and Cyril’s overwhelming neediness. The boy is a hard, perhaps hopeless, case; if his salvation seems miraculous, that is precisely the Dardennes’ point. Samantha may appear to be a neo-realist angel but she is also following the goodness of her heart. Such near-unconditional love is what one might reasonably expect from any parent — in the best of all possible worlds.

Read more J. Hoberman on Movie Journal

MAASTRICHT — The European Fine Art Fair, better known as TEFAF, opened just hours ago and it’s already off to a good start. Strikingly designed by Tom Postma, who also makes Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach look good, the 25-year-old art fair has long been considered the top of the art-world heap. Mixing everything from tribal art and Old Master paintings and antiquities to modern and contemporary art, photography, and design, the fair is a virtual delight for connoisseur collectors from Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, and the UK, as well as the world over.

“I’m impressed with how civilized and focused the collectors are here,” said Whitney Museum of American Art director Adam Weinberg, who was here on his first visit and making the rounds with a group of the museum’s supporters, including Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy. “There’s a physically different pace to the fair,” he added. “People are moving slowly, speaking in more hushed tones, and really looking at the objects. It’s very refreshing — especially after being at other fairs, where you feel like you’re seeing everything from a bus window.”

While there has been some anxiety from dealers the fair, given the major investment involved to participate and the ongoing financial turmoil within the European community, the overall mood is positive. “The art market continues to be strong,” said Ben Brown of London-based Ben Brown Fine Arts. “We’ve had a good start to the year. There are new buyers that are pushing the market up and, therefore, the old buyers realize that they have to pay up, despite what’s going on in the real world.”

Some early sales re-enforce Brown’s positive attitude. Daniel Blau, who is featuring 25 early, unpublished Andy Warhol drawings from a cache of 200 works that he got from the Warhol estate, was upbeat. “The fair started out well,” said Blau. “We sold several drawings, priced between €20,000 and €60,000 each, before the fair had even opened to the public. People are confident and they are buying.”

Georg Laue, of Munich’s Kunstkammer Georg Laue — perennially one of the most intriguing booths at the fair — added to the upbeat vibe when stating that he had sold 10 pieces priced between €5,000 and €50,000 in the first two hours. Exhibiting a madcap array of intricate skulls, inlaid boxes, hourglasses, carved wood animals, ivory figures, and much more in a dynamic show titled “Exotica,” Laue is the ultimate explorer of the “Cabinet of Curiosity” concept at which TEFAF always seems to excell.

Taking that sophisticated but often heavy-handed idea to new heights, Belgium’s Axel Vervoordt, who has been celebrated for his jaw-dropping displays of objects from all cultures and ages at the Palazzo Fortuny in Venice during the last two Biennales, turns his diverse inventory into a poetic mix, where one thing links to the next. Explaining his philosophy for building a show, Vervoordt said, “It starts with the major pieces you want to expose. What’s the spirit of those pieces? Around that, I think architecturally, but the art is always the main thing. I like to expose multiple elements to teach people whatever they want to learn and to share the wonderful sense of living with art. It’s not a matter of mixing; it’s more about creating harmony. It has nothing to do with aesthetics; it’s about a conversation between the pieces. We can all be builders of a new society.”

With booths overflowing with treasures including Klimt’s penciled views of contorted bodies, Picasso’s lively late paintings, and important early drawings, Fontana’s sublimely punctured and sliced canvases, Richter’s colorfully smeared abstractions, and Avedon and Penn’s photographic takes on celebrity and sensuality,  the gems that money can buy become the dreams that we can freely use to build our own vision of a new society by simply strolling down the TEFAF aisles, with an eye for endless enchantment.

To see selections from TEFAF 2012 click on the slide show.

We told you this week is all about hip hop, and the highlight might just be this brand new Nas track, “The Don.” Nas hasn’t sounded this good since, well, January, when he contributed a fiercely schematic opening verse to “Triple Beam Dreams,” off the Rick Ross mixtape “Rich Forever.” But there Nas was ruminative, even regretful; here he’s all gangsta id, reeling off rhymes about putting lead in pigment, picking women to “bless the king,” and this really swag Army jacket he’s got. (Read the lyrics over at Miss Info TV, if you like.) And the beat, created (in part) by none other than the late Heavy D? Boom bap of the highest order. 

Exploring a little-known side of occupied Paris during World War II, “Free Men” is a quiet and tense film that feels like a fable wrapped in history. It’s the story of Younes, an Algerian immigrant and black market profiteer, who slowly becomes politically and ethically conscious when he comes into contact with Si Kaddour Benghabrit, the head of the Mosque of Paris, and Salim Halali, a charismatic Algerian singer who, he discovers, is actually a Jew. Director Ismaël Ferroukhi decided to make the film when he learned that Paris had a significant Muslim population before the war and that the Paris mosque sheltered Jews under the Vichy regime. He wasn’t allowed to film at the mosque, but used a Moroccan mosque by the same architect as a stand-in — a strategy that was so effective that moviegoers in the same Paris neighborhood didn’t notice the difference.

“Free Men” was shown during Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and opens in New York today. ARTINFO France sat down with Ferroukhi and star Tahar Rahim to talk about ordinary heroes, how the Algerians were treated after the war, and why the shocking ending in the original screenplay didn’t get made.

Mosque director Si Kaddour Benghabrit and singer Salim Halali were actual people, but the main character, Younes, is a composite. How did you go about developing the character?

Ismaël Ferroukhi: When we studied the history, we discovered the different fates of these men, who arrived in France, who were workers, who fought. Some of them died in the camps. Others were able to escape or were liberated at the end of the war and returned to North Africa to continue the fight there. It was interesting to symbolize this with the character of Younes, who symbolizes all these individuals.

Tahar Rahim: Which is indicated at the end of the film, actually.

Was it important to you that Younes start off as a politically indifferent person, someone who’s just trying to make money and doesn’t care about what’s going on around him?

IF: Yes, it was very important because at the beginning I wanted somebody who was not political, who only needed to live, to help his family. Because he is colonized in his country, he can’t become political quickly. He has to have a path, to meet other people, Salim, the singer, Benghabrit, Leila, the girl...

TR: Even the Gestapo.

IF: Even the Gestapo. It was very interesting for us to be very accurate, and to speak not about heroes, but about humans. Simply humans.

Tahar, how did you go about preparing for this role? Was Younes someone whose motivations were easy to understand?

TR: It’s never easy to understand the motivations of a character, and especially this one. We started talking about it together, we had meetings, well before the filming, and tried to understand what were his primary motivations and what led him to become a different person, as Ismaël was saying before. And that leads to specific questions, such as, do we give him an accent or not? Very technical things. And we said no accent, because it would have been ridiculous. And then we asked, “Who is this hero? Is he a real hero? Is he an anti-hero?” And finally we decided he was an unassuming hero, who, as the film shows, and as Ismaël said, is a composite of all those people who fought for freedom and France, and the only way was to show this unassuming character, and to make sure he didn’t seem too modern in his movements and speech.

Was it a challenge to show him developing a political conscience very gradually?

TR: I think it’s something that comes out through confidence; it must be physical. After that, the rest comes from the screenplay, which was already carefully constructed. Because if the screenplay doesn’t allow for political consciousness, I don’t know how you act it.

IF:  Yes, it’s the encounters, it’s the contact with others that lets him become aware. When he learns the story of the children [whose parents have been sent to a concentration camp], he doesn’t really want to look after for them, but it comes from something deep inside him, he can’t just let them...

TR: It’s his humanity. That’s what the film is about. You can’t let people die without doing anything.

What do you imagine Younes doing after the war? Would he go and become an Algerian freedom fighter?

TR: We don’t have to imagine it, we know. He goes to Algeria and continues the revolution.

IF: The people Younes is based on were in the streets on May 8, 1945, which was a celebration of the victory over the Germans, and during this an Algerian took out an Algerian flag, and something like 40,000 people were shot — it was a massacre. After that, the Algerians who had fought for freedom, who had fought alongside the Resistance, were ashamed to have helped people who would massacre them.

TR: It was the day Paris was liberated.

IF: So either Younes died waving the Algerian flag, which he finds at the end of the film, or he doesn’t die and he continues the fight in the Algerian War.

So the scene at the end where Younes takes out the Algerian flag raises these two possibilities.

IF: Exactly. I even had another ending in the screenplay with Younes taking out the flag and he gets shot and we ended the film there. That scene still exists for me, because we see him take out the flag. That’s the next fight.

And why didn’t you use that ending?

IF: I didn’t do it because there were two real figures in the film, Benghabrit and Salim Halali, whom we had to honor. And since Younes was inspired by many different people, I couldn’t tell Younes’s story — it would have been untrue to the others. So we had to keep it on the symbolic level.  

The path to a successful art career can be a twisting one, but one commonly traveled route is the artist residency. There are hundreds of residencies out there, ranging from highly prestigious programs that are invitation-only — like those of Artpace, the Walker Art Center, or UCLA’s Hammer Museum, all of which mainly invite established artists to create fully funded projects — to more open, or even experimental, retreats.

Not all residencies are created equal, and while some may help you get a leg up in the art world, you may still have to pay for the opportunity. Programs can be grouped several ways: Some are fully funded without fees; some are partially funded with fees; some offer stipends/awards; still others are project/work based. There is even a thriving "alternative" category (stay tuned for a Part 2 of this series where we’ll look at some of the funkier options out there). Despite the wealth of programs in the United States, and a plethora of funding options, there are few user-friendly guides —  though Res Artis and the Alliance of Artist Communities online directories are valuable resources. Below, we assemble information on 20 programs that cover the spectrum, offering the most important information for each, including who is eligible, important alumni, pros, and cons.

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18th Street Arts Center
Who: Local and International emerging artists
When: Visiting Residency 1-3 months; Mid-Term Residency 1 or more years; Long-term Residency varies
Where: Santa Monica, California
Notable Alums: Suzanne Lacy

The Santa Monica Center (once the headquarters of High Performance Magazine) has been in existence since 1988, and has a mission to "provoke public dialogue through contemporary ART making," offering the three options listed above for would-be participants. The Visiting Artist Residency hosts 16 to 20 emerging to mid-career artists, chosen annually, who are funded through partner organizations or self-funded. Travel costs and stipends are accomodated. Artists are given live/work studios through the center, as well as equipment and representation on the Web site.

[Fine Print]: While the Mid-Term Residencies may provide more space for a longer period of time, they are not funded and only offer live/work day studios for rent. Still, the prices are subsidized at below market value, from $1-2 per square foot, and between 400-1,000 square feet.

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Adolf Konrad Artist-in-Residence Newark Museum Arts Workshop
Who: Emerging Artists in all areas of visual art
When: Five weeks between January and February
Where: Newark, New Jersey

One of the rare institutions with an open application process, the Newark Museum offers artists a stipend of $1,300 and access to fibers, metals, and a mixed-use studio, as well as access to the museum collections, special exhibitions, educational loan collection, and library. Participating artists will may act as jurors for the next year’s selections.

[Fine Print]: For the duration of the residency, artists are considered museum staff and must abide by staff hours of 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

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Atlantic Center for the Arts
Who: Emerging to mid-career artists
When: Three weeks
Where: New Smyrna Beach, Florida

A mentoring program that pairs notable master artists with chosen associate artists to work closely for two hours a day, five days a week, with 24-hour access to studios and equipment. Since residencies are not product-driven, time can be spent on previously existing or new projects.

[Fine Print]: $850 non-refundable residency fee, $25 application fee, provided partial financial aid based on available funds.

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Bemis Center for Contemporary Art
Who: Non-student artists
When: Residencies last between six weeks and three months. 
Where: Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha might not be an internationally recognized arts destination (yet!),  but the artist-run Bemis Center Residency sweetens the pot with a generous and flexible package to artists: a palatial live/work studio housed in a refurbished warehouse, a $750 monthly stipend, and access to on-site facilities.

[Fine Print]: $40 application fee. Bemis fellows are obliged to present a 20-minute presentation or performance of their work. At the end of the residency, artists are also asked to donate an artwork that represents their experience at the center.

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Chinati Foundation
Who: Emerging to established artists of any age, background, and discipline
When:  The dates and duration of the residency are flexible, but usually last between two and three months.
Where: Marfa, Texas
Notable Alums: Christoper Wool, Rita Ackermann, Ellen Altfest, Steve Roden, Mark Flood, Adam Helms, Charline von Heyl, Matthew Day Jackson

Founded by Donald Judd in 1979, the Chinati Foundation provides resident artists a furnished apartment on the museum's grounds, a private studio in the sleepy town of Marfa, and a stipend of $1,000 to pursue their self-directed projects. Resident artists also have unlimited access to the museum’s collection and archive. A museum exhibition of the artist’s work takes place at the end of the residency.

[Fine Print]: Check under the bed for rattlesnakes and scorpions. 

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The Edward F. Albee Foundation
Who: Emerging writers, visual artists, and musicians
When: Any four and six week period between the middle of May and the middle of October
Where: Montauk, New York

Founded in 1967 by dramatist Edward Albee, the eponymous foundation maintains the William Flanagan Memorial Creative Persons Center. Commonly known as "The Barn," the center is a modest communal environment for writers, painters, sculptors, and composers. Visual artists are provided a studio space in addition to a bedroom.

[Fine Print]: The foundation offers no stipend. Residents must provide for their food, travel, and miscellaneous expenses. It’s a two-mile walk to the beach.

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Eyebeam
Who: Emerging artists with a new media focus or collectives with up to three members
When: Five-month residency;  Eleven-month fellowship residency
Where: New York, New York
Notable Alums: Cory Arcangel, Sanford Biggers, Scott Patterson, Marina Zurkow, Rashaad Newsome

Either individually or as a collective, residents participating in the five-month program are awarded a $5,000 stipend in three installments to complete projects and use the resources of Eyebeam. There are no attendance requirements, and artists are given 24/7 access to the building. Participants of the eleven-month fellowship program are awarded $30,000 and in addition to their projects will lead public seminars, exhibitions, educational programming, and are an integral part of Eyebeam's research groups. 

[Fine Print]: Artists must already have the skills necessary to complete their projects or be able to obtain them independently, as there is no technical assistance available. There are no private studios and residents share a communal lab with desks, storage cabinets and other shared facilities. Fellows are asked to spend at least four workdays at Eyebeam during business hours. 

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Fire Island Artist Residency
Who: Emerging queer artists
When: Summer
Where: Fire Island, New York
Notable Alums: A.K. Burns

In its second year this residency has already set a prestigious precedent — its inaugural selections were made by AA Bronson and Bill Arning. Visiting artists during the summer included Nayland Blake and Lyle Ashton Harris. Amenities include free live/work space in a converted beach house, a meal stipend, studio visits with renowned queer artists, and visiting artist talks. This year jurors will be Dan Cameron, senior curator of the Orange County Museum of Art, and artist Marlene McCarty.

[Fine Print]: $25 application fee

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Kansas City International Residency Program
Who: Priority given to international artists who have never work in the US, although U.S.-based artists are welcome to apply.
When: One to three months
Where: Kansas City, Missouri
Notable Alums: Alicia Candiani

A unique program for mid-career international artists for immersion in Kansas City’s burgeoning art scene, the Kansas City Artists Coalition hosts a maximum of five artists with private rooms and shared studio space for one to three months. 

[Fine Print]: While the program is mostly for international artists, you must be able to speak English. Rooms and studios are not funded by the program but are available by contracts with fees.

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Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace
Who: Emerging non-student artists working in a range of disciplines and genres. Writers are also eligible.
When: The nine-month residency lasts from September to May.
Where: Lower Manhattan, New York, New York
Notable Alums: Olek, Latoya Ruby Frazer, Simone Leigh, Mary Mattingly, Alison Ward, Rashaad Newsome, Liz Magic Laser, Kate Gilmore, “Work of Art” contestant Trong Nguyen

Workspace transforms temporarily vacant lower Manhattan office spaces into studios for visual artists. The grantees are awarded private or semi-private studios in downtown Manhattan, a one-time stipend of $1,000, and free publicity in the form of online features and open studios. Workspace residents also have the opportunity to apply for visiting artist status at SVA, NYU, and Harvestworks.

[Fine Print]: Workspace residents are responsible for their own housing. Since studio spaces are not medium specific, artists must also provide their own tools. If accepted, international participants are responsible for their own visa, travel, living, and housing expenses, and arrangements.  

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Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space
Who: Visual artists and performers with at least three years of experience in their field who wish to execute a short-term project in an unconventional space.
When: Residencies last five months. 
Where: Lower Manhattan and Governors Island, New York, New York
Notable Alums: “Work of Art” champion Kymia Nawabi

Workspace's more inclusive sister program, Swing Space provides artists and performers free space to carry out short-term projects. Visual artists are placed in studios on Governors Island for five months, while performing arts projects are given rehearsal space in Lower Manhattan for up to 250 hours.

[Fine Print]: Swing Space does not provide any production support or stipend.

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MacDowell Colony
Who: Emerging and Established Artists
When: Five to eight weeks typically
Where: Peterborough, New Hampshire
Notable Alums: Faith Ringgold, Meredith Monk, Willa Cather, Jeffrey Eugenides, E.L. Doctorow, Jonathan Franzen, Janet Fish, Studs Terkel, Michael Chabon

The first artist colony in the U.S., MacDowell has a long list of accomplished alumni from across the arts. Isolated cozy studios are spread over the grounds, and artists are greeted with hand-delivered picnic basket lunches each day. Annually, 250 artists complete residencies that are fully paid for by the not-for-profit colony, sharing space and producing work communally. Living space and studios are provided — all studios also have attached bathrooms, beds, and some boast showers.

[Fine Print]: No phone or Internet access in studios and artists must provide their own materials.

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MAK Center Artists and Architects
Who: Young international artists and architects/students of architecture
When: Early March
Where: Los Angeles, California

Awarded twice yearly to two artists and two architects, the MAK-Schindler Scholarship offers six-month residency at the historic Mackey Apartments in L.A., designed by iconic architect Rudolf Schindler. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture of the Republic of Austria alongside the MAK-Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art, Vienna, artists receive a monthly stipend, support of the museum staff, numerous networking opportunities, a public exhibition, and a place in the MAK Center archives.

[Fine Print]: The focus of independent projects is to explore the relationship between art and architecture within the city of Los Angeles.

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National Park Service Residencies
Who: Emerging and established artists
When: Varies depending on residency
Where: Parks across the United States

Who knew that the National Park Service has 42 existing artist-in-residence programs spread throughout the country, ranging from month-long live/work experiences at Weir Farm National Historic Site in Wilton, Connecticut to the former Japanese internment camps of Manzanar National Historic Site in Independence, California! The NPS has three models of A-I-R programs: "Volunteers-in-Parks" requires artists to volunteer by presenting a program or demonstration for the public; "Partnerships" require a non-for-profit and the park combine to provide the resources for the residency; and the "Paid Staff" option involves hiring artists as seasonal employees to create public works or programming.

[Fine Print]: All the programs and locations are different. Less than 10 percent of the programs provide studio space or stipend.

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Ox-Bow
Who: Emerging artists (summer residency open to arts faculty only)
When: Fall Residency is September 2-October 6, 2012 ; Summer Residency is June 3-August 18th 
Where: Saugatuck, Michigan
Notable Alums: Richard Artschwager, Nancy Spero, Jerry Saltz, Claes Oldenburg, Joan Mitchell, Nick Cave

One of the oldest and most prestigious art schools in the U.S., Ox-bow is located on an idyllic 115-acre property of farmland, marshes, and dunes. A mecca for recent BFA grads, Ox-Bow’s Residency Program offers a two-to-five week residency in the fall as well as a two-week summer residency open to arts faculty only. Evenings feature slide lectures, studio visits, and other arts programming.

[Fine Print]: The program costs $250 per week, though scholarships are awarded to 10 artists who demonstrate financial need.

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Studio Museum in Harlem
Who: Artists of African and/or Latino descent.
When: Residencies begin in late September and continue for eleven months. 
Where: New York, New York
Notable Alums: David Hammons, Alison Saar, Maren Hassinger, Stanford Biggers, Julie Mehretu, Kehinde Wiley, Mikalene Thomas, Kira Lynn Harris, Simone Leigh, Clifford Owens

Every year, the Studio Museum offers three 11-month studio residencies to emerging artists of color working in any media. Selected residents are awarded free studio space, a $20,000 fellowship, plus a $1,000 stipend for materials. Artists have 24/7 access to the Museum's third-floor studios. At the end of the residency, the artists’ work is presented in the Museum.

[Fine Print]: Artists must secure their own housing. They are expected to work in the studio a minimum of 20 hours per week and participate in open studios and public programs.

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Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture
Who: Emerging artists over the age of 21. An academic background in studio art is not required.
When: June through August, annually. The application deadline in November 
Where: Madison, Maine
Notable Alumni: Alex Katz, Eve Sussman, Dana Schutz, Kalup Linzy, Clifford Owens, Ellsworth Kelly, William King, Nancy Graves, and Janet Fish

Sixty-five participants are accepted annually to this prestigious and intensive nine-week summer residency taught by resident and visiting faculty artists. This rigorous program includes one-on-one critiques,  faculty lectures, and -- allegedly -- rigorous partying. 

[Fine Print]: Tuition is $5,500, although partial fellowships are available those who demonstrate need.

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Smack Mellon
Who: Non-student artists
When: Eleven-month residency from May to March. 
Where: Brooklyn, New York
Notable Alums: Liz Magic Laser, Jennifer Dalton, Patty Chang, Yoko Inoue, Sharon Hayes

Launched in 2000 in response to the dearth of affordable work-spaces for emerging artists in New York City, the Smack Mellon Studio Program provides visual artists working in any media a $5,000 stipend and a private studio in a renovated industrial building between Brooklyn's burgeoning haute-hipster enclave, Dumbo.

[Fine Print]: Resident artists are responsible for their own housing. The $5,000 stipend is “dependent upon funding.” Some of the studios don’t have windows.

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Vermont Studio Center
Who: Emerging to established painters, writers, sculptors, printmakers, and photographers 
When: Monthly
Where: Johnson, Vermont

The artist-run Vermont Studio Center is the largest artists' and writers' residency program in the U.S., hosting 50 international visual artists and writers per month. Artists are welcome to live and work for anywhere between four and 12 weeks on a charming 30-building campus along the Gihon River in Vermont's Green Mountains. Meals are served and prepared by an in-house chef.

[Fine Print]: Although need-based aid is available, the fee for the residency comes out to nearly $1,000 per week (a 4-week residency currently costs $3,950.)

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Woodstock A-I-R
Who: Artists of color working in photography
When: Annually
Notable Alums: Latoya Ruby Frazier, Justine Reyes, William Cordova

The program offers seven residencies for artists and one “critical studies” residency for a curator/critic. Living space is located a short distance from the Center of Photography at Woodstock and 24-hour access is given to darkrooms, as well as stipends for food and travel, staff support, and honoraria.

[Fine Print]: Keep in mind that you'll be in one of the most popular hippie havens in the country. 
 

For information on application deadlines please check the residency websites. 

Just as New Yorkers recover from Armory Show hangovers, Asia Week is hitting the city to shine a spotlight on the East with a list of dealers and exhibitions drawn from China, India, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea. Running from March 16 through 24, Asia Week 2012 features auctions at Bonham’s, Christie’s, Doyle New York, and Sotheby’s, as well as special events and shows at 17 museums and Asian cultural institutions, and more than 30 commercial galleries.

ARTINFO previewed some of the highlights of Asia Week and asked Asian art dealers and auctioneers what they’re excited to have on display. Sotheby’s has a selection of furniture and classical Chinese paintings, while the highly respected Chambers Fine Art gallery will be showing a series of paper cuts from Chinese artist Wu Jian’an that combine the traditional and the psychedelic. Pace Prints hosts a variety of items from contemporary Chinese artists like Zhang Huan and Yue Minjun, the Indian and Himalayan art-focused Kapoor Galleries highlight a magnificent miniature painting. Kaikodo gallery showcases antique Chinese bronze vessels, while Dai Ichi Arts offers a collection of contemporary Chinese and Japanese ceramics.

Asia Week New York 2012 runs from March 16 through 24

– "The Abramovic Method" Is Born: Performance art great Marina Abramovic has plans to rule the future of the genre as well as its past. In an interview to promote her upcoming segment on PBS's "Art21," the Yugoslav-born performance artist discusses the lofty vision for her forthcoming performance art museum on the Hudson: The institution will "leave as my concept what I'm going to call the Abramovic method," she said. "In theater there is the Stanislavski method, but now in performance, it's going to be the Abramovic method." Indeed, "The Abramovic Method" is also the title of the artist's latest exhibition, at the Pavilion of Contemporary Art in Milan (which even has its own Web site), the press release for which may just give a clue about the mysterious new pedagogy: "In the case of performance, I would say that public and performer are not only complementary but almost inseparable," Abramovic says. [HuffPo, Press Release]

– Getty Buys a (Probable) Watteau: Los Angeles's Getty Museum has paid an undisclosed price for a painting that only some believe to be the work of Jean-Antoine Watteau, the 18th-century painter who died at 36. A panel of experts consulted by the Getty voted 7-3 that the painting, "The Italian Comedians" (ca. 1720), was indeed Watteau's work — though others believe it was left unfinished at the time of his death an completed by his student, Jean-Baptiste Pater. [LAT]

– Art Advisor Couple Bequeaths Major Gift: Prominent New York art advisors Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner have decided to donate their collection of over 800 works of contemporary art to the Whitney Museum and the Pompidou Center in Paris. The Whitney will receive 500 works by some 70 American artists, including Christopher Wool and Cady Noland; the Pompidou will get the couple's European collection. An exhibition of the collection is planned for 2015, once the Whitney moves into its new Meatpacking District home. [NYT]

– Warhol's "Double Elvis" Hits the Block: One of 22 "Elvis" silkscreen paintings by Andy Warhol is heading to Sotheby's in May. Nine of the 22 Elvis works Warhol made are already in museum collections. Keep an eye on this one, though: It could go for well above the $30 to $50 million estimate. Another "Elvis" is said to hold the record for Warhol's work, selling for $100 million via a private sale in October 2008. [Bloomberg] 

– Art That Requires Zyrtec: Soon Rirkrit Tiravanija's curry won't be the only thing tickling your nose in MoMA's galleries. In early 2013, the museum's atrium will be filled with hazelnut pollen collected over 12 years by German artist Wolfgang Laib. The artist's largest installation to date and the first in a New York museum, this nutty project will transform the second floor space into a 21-foot-long pollen field. Our eyes are watering already. [NYT]  

– France's First Mega Mall Will Include Mega Art Gallery: "Europa City," brainchild of the supermarket chain Auchan, is to be built near Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport and will include a gallery comparable in size to the Grand Palais. [Journal des Arts]

– Benghazi Bank Heist: Interpol is monitoring the black market for antiquities from two treasure chests full of coins and jewels, some as much as 2,600 years old, stolen from the underground vault of the National Commercial Bank of Benghazi during last winter's war in Libya. The thieves likely entered through an underground passage from the adjacent building that had served as a base for dictator Muammar Qaddafi's secret police. [Wired] 

– A Blockbuster Return: The Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin has been ordered to return a collection of 4,259 movie posters that was stolen by the Gestapo in 1938 — and is worth an estimated $6 million — to the Florida-based son of Hans Sachs, a Jewish dentist who fled Germany in 1940. Sachs's collection was once the largest in the world, numbering 12,500 posters, including works by Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec and Ludwig Hohlwein. [Bloomberg]

– Taos Honors its Women: The small community of Taos, New Mexico, has launched a year-long celebration of the many women who fostered and participated in the desert pueblo's vibrant art community, from Georgia O'Keefe and Willa Cather to Helen Martin, who ran an inn that became a destination for American artists. [AJC]

– Arty "TV Graveyard" for UK Digital Switchover: Video artist David Hall has produced a huge installation comprising 1001 analogue TV sets to mark Britain's switch to digital TV. On April 18, day of the switchover, they will all stop transmitting content. "It is an event as art work," said the artist, "the demise of a cultural life-cycle shaped by corporate output, signing off at a time of seismic change." [Telegraph]

– The Chelsea Hotel's Art Is Missing: Residents of the storied Chelsea Hotel are wondering about the whereabouts of the institution's art collection, which was loaded into a truck and removed from the premises by the hotel's new owner . The move is part of an increasingly bitter dispute between the hotel residents and management. Among the missing works is a piece by Larry Rivers. [Villager]   

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In the spring of 1936 Diana Vreeland put on a white lace Chanel dress and placed a bolero over it. She weaved red roses through her jet-black hair and dramatically rouged her cheekbones. As Vreeland walked through the St. Regis hotel, her daring look caught the eye of then-Harper’s Bazaar editor Carmel Snow, who promptly hired Vreeland to work there. Vreeland eventually became a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar before going on to become editor-in-chief of Vogue and then a consultant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Now, the legendary fashion editor, who died in 1989 at 86, is the subject of an exhibition at Venice’s 15th-century Palazzo Fortuny, on view through June 25. Titled “Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland,” the show features tear sheets from Vreeland’s days at Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as some of the fashion icon’s ensembles. One case holds stacks of magazines. A group of green dresses — the color was one of Vreeland’s “obsessions” — from Yves Saint Laurent, Paco Rabanne, and Irene Galitzine, along with an 18th-century green gown are displayed in a glass box. Pieces by Chanel, Schiaparelli, Missoni, Pucci, and Balenciaga are also included. Perfumer Frédéric Malle even developed a special version of one of Vreeland’s favorite scents, sandalwood, for the exhibition.

The fashion visionary was often ahead of her time, coining the term “Youthquake” in the 1960s and bringing an Yves Saint Laurent exhibition to the Met’s Costume Institute in 1983. It’s only fitting that this time, Vreeland gets the museum spotlight. 

Click on the slide show to see highlights from “Diana Vreeland After Diana Vreeland,” on display at the Palazzo Fortuny in Venice through June 25. 

1. The new “Walking Dead” showrunner promises a bloody finale to this season and a quicker-paced season three. [EW]

2. Massive Attack are recording with Damon Albarn and Richard Russell of XL Recordings, who worked with Bobby Womack on his terrific new single, “Please Forgive My Heart.” [Prefix]

3. Napster founder Sean Parker claims that Spotify will soon earn the record industry more money than iTunes. [Tuner/VH1]

4. Gerard Depardieu will play Dominic Strauss-Kahn in a new movie precisely because he doesn’t like him. [BBC]

5. M.I.A. will release an “autobiographical monograph in collages.” [NME]

Previously: Michael Fassbender, “Death of a Salesman,” Idris Elba, “Dark Tower” series, and Bashar al-Assad

Immitation, of course, is the sincerest form of flattery. This weekend, right at the heels of the unveiling of the plans for the third portion of New York's ultra-popular High Line park, Chicago released plans for its own spin on the elevated park theme, dubbed the Bloomingdale Trail. Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a sudden $7-million corporate donation to the project, rounding out the $46 million necessary to begin construction on its first phase and complete it by 2014.

Like its architectural cousin, the "Bilbao Effect," which spawned a rash of flashy museum buildings in de-industrializing cities the world-over, the magical "High Line Effect" has entered the urban planning lexicon with a vengeance. Since the High Line debuted in 2009, the colossal drawing power of New York's elevated park, coupled with its transformation of Chelsea, has spawned so many copycat proposals that the Web site Curbed even started a “High Line Copycat Chronicles” series to track them all, from Philadelphia's planned park in the Reading Viaduct to Singapore's scheme for its Green Corridor. Several are based on derelict elevated train tracks, while one or two others creatively float on the water or rest underground. A couple are even in the works right here in New York.

While none have yet been completed, a few are coming close. Here, ARTINFO offers an overview of a few of the choicer proposals, grading them on our own assessment of the likelihood thgat they'll capture that special High Line magic. 

CHICAGO

ARUP, with Ross Barney Architects and Michael Van Valkenburgh are transforming the former rail line into a park that, at 2.7 miles, will run nearly twice the length of the completed High Line. As another bit of one-ups-manship, the park would have a path for cyclists, who are unwelcome on the Manhattan version. Landscaping includes the standard High Line-esque mix of seating, foliage, and public art. In total the cost would come to $70 million.

HIGH LIKABILITY: Solid 7. Not only does it trump the High Line in size and accessibility to cyclists, but it actually seems to have some real traction. Extra points for showing off the Chicago skyline.

LONDON

The English capital proposes the London River Park, a Gensler-designed floating walkway along the north bank of the Thames, connecting major landmarks like St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, and the Tate Modern. The kilometer-long stretch is expected to revitalize the desolate north bank of the Thames, with a few extra amenities in addition to the foliage: cafés, shops, and even a floating swimming pool.

HIGH LIKABILITY: Low 5. While it all sounds lovely — a walkway on the Thames would offer spectacular views and a unique experience for tourists — High Line architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro were adamant about never putting commercial venues on the High Line, lest it come to resemble the dreaded mark of the suburbs: a strip mall. We’re not sure when this park is going to happen, either. The London River Park was originally scheduled to open in time for the 2012 Olympics, but was delayed by the Queen’s 60th anniversary celebration (her “Diamond Jubilee” in Britspeak), which involves an immense flotilla of boats, out of "concerns for Her Majesty's safety" (some of the boats might have hit the floating platforms associated with the park). The nearby Globe Theatre has also made complaints about the noise all the tourists are going to generate, while public officials have called the look of the design scheme into question.

CHINATOWN, NYC

An unused triangle plot in Chinatown would take the standard amenities of a public park and infuse them with Asian flourishes: bamboo and weeping cherry trees, benches made of stone, and Chinese contemporary art legend Xu Bing’s signature calligraphy engraved into its grand stairway. After a Xu-related delay, the opening of the park has been pushed from mid-2013 to mid-2014.

HIGH LIKABILITY: 5. While depictions of the upcoming park are amusingly Hanna-Barbera-like in appearance, they don’t shout “High Line” at us. We dig the concept, but it will be so, so tiny; it’s likely to become a tranquil destination for locals who need a break from the erratic bustle of Chinatown rather than a powerhouse tourist throughfare.

LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC

They've already nicknamed it the "Low Line." The formula’s the same: an abandoned railway and a dream, but this time, it takes place underground with the help of fiber-optic technology that would project the sky down into the park. It’s been so well-received, its Kickstarter page surpassed its $100,000 goal in just a few days.

HIGH LIKABILITY: 9. Unlike the others, the Low Line's subterranean situation brings something new to the conversation. It would be a major draw during winter months, especially on days you miss reading a book under a tree.

MEXICO CITY

Bearing a striking resemblance to the High Line, the Mexico City version is a gray walkway lush with greenery, although built independently rather than onto an existing structure. That's right, they are actually designing a new abandoned traintrack-like structure for this one. It would function as a pathway from a metro stop to Chapultepec Forest, the largest urban park in Latin America, and feature picnic tables and recreational lawns. The time and budget it would take are relatively slim; officials estimate it would take just $4.3 million and four months to construct, but although they had aimed to begin in December or January, ground still hasn't been broken.

HIGH LIKABILITY: 4. The park would vastly improve the commute of locals, but there’s no novelty to this plan that would attract spectators from elsewhere. Also, it's completely dropped off the radar since it was originally covered in August, and to top it off, as far as we can tell, it doesn't even have a catchy or charming name! 

To see images of the planned parks mentioned in this article, click on the slide show.