– Eddie Izzard Conceives "Italian Job" Performance: Eddie Izzard has something special planned for the upcoming 2012 London Olympics. And we mean special as in "strange," "bizaare," or "out of the ordinary." The comedian has announced that he is paying an artist £70,000 to recreate the final scene of the 1969 film "The Italian Job" by balancing a coach off the roof of the De La Warr Pavilion in East Sussex. Make no mistake, this is a patriotic gesture: The vehicle used in the exhibition will be painted in British team colors. "By the end of 2012 I hope the word goes out from our country that not only do we run excellent world events, but also balance coaches on the edges of buildings like no one else ever could," said Izzard. (The happening is also funded by Arts Council England and the Henry Moore Foundation.) [Telegraph]
– Tate Acquires Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds: London's Tate has acquired 10 tons of Ai Weiwei's famous porcelain sunflower seeds, which filled the museum's Turbine Hall in 2010, for an undisclosed price. Don't expect a full-scale recreation anytime soon though: The amount the Tate has purchased represents less than a tenth of the 100 million seeds, all individually sculpted and painted by Chinese craft works, used for the original installation. [Guardian]
– Rembrandt Headed to London Auction Block: The Rembrandt panel painting "A Bust of a Man in a Gorget and Cap" (1626-27) will lead an auction of works from Pieter Dreesmann's private collection of Dutch Old Masters at Christie's in July. The entire collection of 19 works is expected to fetch over $30 million, and the Rembrandt portrait's high estimate is $19 million. [Bloomberg]
– Sotheby's Stock Tanks After Quarterly Income Announced: Shares of the publicly traded auction house fell nine percent after it announced that quarterly net income fell 26 percent from a year earlier, to $71.5 million. Though Sotheby's reported annual profit of $171.4 million, its best year since 2007, it believes European economic turmoil spooked some potential sellers in the last quarter. [Bloomberg]
– Vermeer's Woman in Blue Shines Anew Thanks to Japanese Tour: The Rijksmuseum's "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" (1663-64) has been fully restored thanks to a hefty fee paid by Japanese museums to exhibit the piece last year. During the conservation process, carried out at the Rijksmuseum before the tour, several layers of yellow varnish and discolored retouching were removed, revealing the original shape of a chair in the right-hand corner as well as a row of brass nails beneath the seat. The piece will be unveiled in Amsterdam on March 30. [TAN]
– Viral Art Hits Learn New Tricks: Los Angeles-based photographer Seth Casteel's series of vivid underwater photographs of dogs became an Internet sensation last month. But unlike many viral phenomena, Casteel (with the help of a publicity firm) has managed to parlay his online popularity into financial success — and more exposure for his non-profit, which trains animal shelter workers to take better adoption photos. [Wired]
– Slick Art Fair Expands to Brussels: Paris's intimate Slick Art Fair art fair, founded in 2006, will launch its first edition in the Belgian capital from April 20 to 22, during Art Brussels. It will take place at the Wild Gallery and is expecting 10,000 visitors. [AMA]
– Prince Harry Visits South American Artists: On an official tour of Belize, the red-headed prince toured an art exhibition on the border of Guatemala and spoke with children at work in a local art studio. He went on to visit Xuanantunich, a centuries-old Mayan site with a pyramid and former royal palace. [Examiner]
– A New Prize for Arts Journalism: The British Sunday paper the Observer has teamed up with the Anthony Burgess Foundation to lauch a prize for arts journalism. To enter the competition, which celebrates the work of the "A Clockwork Orange" author, applicants must write an essay on "brand new work in the arts." The winning entry will be announced next November and published in the Observer. [Guardian]
– Rolling Stone Gathers Moss: The 340-boulder that will become Michael Heizer's "Levitated Mass" once its 11-day, 105-mile journey from a quarry east of Los Angeles to the LACMA campus is back on schedule. After coming up two miles short on Thursday night, the 100-person crew guiding the rock towards its resting place pulled a double-shift Sunday morning to get the stone up to speed. It's due to arrive at LACMA on March 10. [LAT]
– '70s Bohemians Versus Millennial Careerists: Painters Deborah Kass — who moved to New York in 1974 — and Amy Lincoln — who arrived in 2006 — discuss their different expectations and experiences of the art world in the Wall Street Journal. "We're definitely very career-oriented," says Lincoln. "Art wasn't a career, I just wanted to paint," retorts Kass. "I moved to New York to become a famous waitress." [WSJ]
– Meet the Latest Museum Director Darling: The tiny Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver is quickly becoming one of the most successful experimental exhibition spaces in America with the help of director Adam Lerner. (His trademark lecture series pairs a highbrow topic with a lowbrow one, tackling subjects like "Wittgenstein and Hula Dancing.") Lerner says his unorthodox approach comes out of a desire "to capture the spirit of art, which may be more important than art itself." [NYT]
– Spanish Architect Rafael Moneo Recieves Thomas Jefferson Award: Moneo will be presented the medal in architecture by the University of Virginia on Jefferson's birthday. His best-known works in the U.S. include the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College and the Northwest Corner Building at Columbia University. [Press Release]
– RIP "Star Wars" Artist Ralph McQuarrie: The artist who designed some of the most iconic "Star Wars" characters, including Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and R2-D2, has died at 82. "His genial contribution, in the form of unequalled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy," said director George Lucas in a statement. "When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph's fabulous illustrations and say, 'do it like this'." [BBC]
VIDEO OF THE DAY
Go behind the scenes of singer Santigold's shoot for her new album cover, which features specially commissioned artwork by painter Kehinde Wiley.
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