– Desperate Kraftwerk Fans Go Begging on Craigslist: Weren't able to score tickets to the iconic and amazing electro-pop group's week of performances at MoMA? Perhaps Craigslist can be of help. After the tickets sold out in a flash yesterday, the Web site was abuzz with posts of this nature: "Will Pay Top $ for 1 Kraftwerk Ticket." Now we just need those scalpers to step up. [Awl]
– Christo's Arkansas Project Delayed: Fans of Christo will have to wait a bit longer for his next masterpiece of gigantism. The controversial "Over the River" project — in which the artist will cover portions of the Arkansas River with reflective fabric — has been postponed until at least 2015, a year later than the most recent schedule. The decision was a result of uncertainties involving construction and permits as well as an unending backlash from the public. The main opposition group, aptly named Rags Over the Arkansas River (ROAR), said the delay will allow it more time to build opposition. [NYT]
– Movie Museum Scores Ruby Slippers: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has purchased a pair of the famous "Wizard of Oz" ruby slippers for the film museum it is developing with LACMA. The shoes, one of four known pairs from the 1939 film, were purchased with donations provided by Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg, among others. [LAT]
– Grand Egyptian Museum to be Built in Giza: The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities has announced the construction of an $810-million museum between the modern city and the pyramids of Giza. Designed by Irish architects Heneghan Peng, it will host the Tutankhamen collection and more than 5,000 objects moved from the Cairo Egyptian Museum. [AMA]
– Hamptons Art Fair Competition Heats Up: After the successful debut of its new Florida fair Art Wynwood, the company Art Miami has decided to enter the Hamptons art fair market. Art Southampton is slated to launch July 26 through 30 with approximately 70 international contemporary and modern art galleries. (Though, lest we forget, Scope Hamptons, tried and failed to build a market in this space.) [Press Release]
– Richard Phillips Paints China Chow: The painter Richard Phillips's photorealistic painting of "Work of Art" host China Chow for the cover of Chinese Vogue resembles a real human more closely than many of the more traditional photoshopped covers we've seen. [NYM]
– Greener Pastures for Art and Agriculture Project: A groundbreaking initiative pairing artists and farmers in northern California's Yolo County, the Art & Ag Project, is gaining national attention this week with a visit from Nation Endowment for the Arts chairman Rocco Landesman. The project marks a new strategy for the NEA of partnering with other organizations to help grow local initiatives. [SacBee]
– New York's Next High Line Lays Low: A plan to build a park in an abandoned trolley station underneath a street on Manhattan's bustling Lower East Side — a project dubbed, in homage to Chelsea's High Line, "The Low Line" — has taken to artist-favored fundraising platform Kickstarter to help the subterranean green space see the light of day. [WSJ]
– New Museum for National Mall Breaks Ground: Yesterday, Barack and Michelle Obama attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, due to open in 2015. Attendees at the ceremony for the $500 million project also included Colin Powell, Al Sharpton and Laura Bush. [WaPo]
– Art Celebs to Decorate Water Tanks: The New York-based nonprofit organization Word Above the Street has corralled an impressive list of artists and musicians, including Ed Ruscha, Lawrence Weiner, Marilyn Minter, Jay-Z, and Thom Yorke, to decorate rooftop water tanks across New York City. The organization hopes the effort will raise awareness of the global water supply. [TAN]
– Daring Theft in Glasgow: A thief walked off with a bronze sculpture of a head — "Dreaming" by Gerald Liang — worth an estimated £20,000 ($31,000). The theft occurred over the weekend, while the work was on public display at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. [UKPA]
– PhD in XXX: Lynda Benglis, the septuagenarian sculptress who caused a stir when she appeared in a 1974 ad in Artforum wearing only sunglasses and brandishing a dildo, recently opened her first major UK retrospective at London's Thomas Dane Gallery. On the occasion of its opening she tells the Guardian, "I had studied pornography." (Or read ARTINFO UK's own interview with Benglis, here.) [Guardian]
– A Lofty Goal: New York artist Alex Gardega is attempting to recreate Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling in his own apartment in only a few months. "This will be an exact copy," he said. "I know my anatomy!" [NYDN]
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