Our most-talked-about stories in Art, Design & Fashion, and Performing Arts, July 2-6, 2012:
ART
— Steven Henry Madoff visited curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev's Documenta 13 and deemed it "the most important exhibition to date of the 21st century."
— Kyle Chayka spoke to Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra on the occasion of her new mid-career retrospective at the Guggenheim.
— Pace Gallery president Marc Glimcher explained the logic behind the gallery's decision to open a new London space inside the Royal Academy.
— ARTINFO marked America's national holiday on July 4 with a collection of the best U.S. flag-themed art, featuring works by Barbara Kruger, Nam June Paik, Faith Ringgold, and more.
— Shane Ferro perused the 245 seized artworks being auctioned by the U.S. Marshal Service, and picked the nine best deals.
DESIGN & FASHION
— Ann Binlot and Nate Freeman perused the highlights from Paris's Spring 2013 men's fashion week, from man-skirts to safari shorts.
— Renzo Piano's London skyscraper the Shard debuted with negative reviews and a lackluster laser show.
— Kelly Chan cautioned bargain hunters that buying Mies van der Rohe's dirt-cheap Detroit towers comes with a catch.
— Janelle Zara looked into the recent trend towards vintage-looking gadgets and geek accessories, and picked the eight best objects with a low-tech look.
— Ann Binlot and Nate Freeman perused the highlights from Paris's Spring 2013 men's fashion week, from man-skirts to safari shorts.
— Grégory Picard visited fashion designer Henrik Vibskov's elaborate, inflated, and polka-dotted Paris installation for his spring/summer collection.
PERFORMING ARTS
— Graham Fuller looked back on the career of Hollywood's current sweetheart, Michelle Williams, on the occasion of her latest star turn the new Sarah Polley film "Take This Waltz."
—Eric Bryant gave director Alan Gilbert credit for the New York Philharmonic's imaginative in-the-round concert at the Park Avenue Armory, despite an ill-conceived Mozart excerpt.
— Helen Mirren will star in "Hitchcock," one of two upcoming backlot films examining Alfred Hitchcock's personal and professional with his wife, editor, and screenwriting collaborator Alma Reville.
— The singer Frank Ocean, a member of horrorcore hip-hop collective Odd Future, came out in a message he posted on Tumblr.
— Movie-going monarchists got their first look at Naomi Watts as Princess Diana, while a conspiracy theory doc about her death was shelved indefinitely.