Our most-talked-about stories in Art, Design & Architecture, Fashion & Style, and Performing Arts, August 6-10, 2012:
ART
— Kyle Chayka read into the diffusion and dilution of art world terminology as it has seeped into common parlance.
— We found 20 masterpieces hidden among the nude photographs and steampunk sculptures populating online art-sharing website DeviantArt.
— Shane Ferro pondered the possible influences of Christie's new think tank, the Arts Consortium, on how museums do business.
— A trio of Australian performance artists got naked and relied solely on donations from generous Berliners to survive a 10-day public performance.
— The Norton Simon Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and many other museums were implicated in arrested New York dealer Subhash Kapoor's vast ring of looted art.
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
— Janelle Zara spoke to Cathy Lang Ho, the curator of the defiantly DIY U.S. Pavilion at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale.
— The Royal Institute of British Architects joined many of its members in protesting a policy that prevents firms contributing to London Olympics projects from promoting their role in the Games.
— Kelly Chan reviewed Rio de Janeiro's masterplan for the 2016 summer Olympics, highlighting its emphasis on sustainability.
— Big box retailer Target unveiled a pair of back-to-school dorm room items that looked conspicuously similar to Jeff Koons sculptures.
— New renderings of recently-topped out Lower Manhattan tower 1 World Trade Center offered details of the building's evolving design.
FASHION & STYLE
— Ann Binlot and Nate Freeman surveyed the art world's 30 best dressed, from artists Rosson Crow and Allison Schulnik, to curator Klaus Biesenbach, auctioneer CK Swett, and, of course, Dasha Zhukova.
— Ann Binlot marked the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's death by surveying the designers behind her most famous outfits.
— Skincare giant Nivea fired pop star Rihanna as its spokesperson, setting off a heated debate about the controversy-prone company's branding.
— With the London Olympics's finish line in sight, we looked back at the standout fashion moments of the Games.
— We surveyed the most outrageous outfits of Italian fashion journalist Anna Piaggi, who died on Tuesday at age 81.
PERFORMING ARTS
— Marina Abramovic, Willem Dafoe, and "Game of Thrones" co-star Carice Van Houten made appearances in the new Antony and the Johnsons music video.
— Lars Von Trier tapped Shia LaBeouf for his psychosexual drama, "Nymphomania," in which Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Nicole Kidman have already been cast.
— J. Hoberman grew tired of Julie Delpy's chaotic culture clash comedy "2 Days in New York," a sequel of sorts to 2007's similarly manic "2 Days in Paris."
— ARTINFO Russia's Eugene Nazarov recapped the first week of the wildly unjust trial of the members of Russian anti-Putin punk rock trio Pussy Riot.
— Patrick Pacheco remembered the illustrious career of legendary Broadway composer Marvin Hamlisch, who died on Monday.
VIDEO
— Tom Chen visited the New York Botanical Gardens, where curator Paul Hayes Tucker gave a tour of a recreation of Claude Monet's famous Giverny gardens.