– Sarah Thornton Quits Art Market Reporting: Name-brand art reporter Sarah Thornton has pulled a Greg Smith, penning a screed for TAR Magazine entitled "Top 10 reasons NOT to write about the art market." In it, the "Seven Days in the Art World" author concludes that the subject is too corrupt to report on and therefore she will shift away from this kind of journalism. Among her complaints? Art market coverage gives "too much exposure to artists who attain high prices" and "the most interesting stories are libelous." Also — and this is our favorite — "The pay is appalling." [TAR Magazine]
– Budget Cuts Could Close Schwitters Gesamtkunstwert: The final UK studio of Kurt Schwitters could close due to budget woes brought on when Arts Council England cuts its entire £37,000 ($59,000) grant last year. The legendary German artist fled Nazism and landed in the Lake District, where his "Merz Barn" was to be a sprawling Dadaist installation but remained incomplete when he died in 1948. The barn, which served as a precursor to developments in installation art throughout the second half of the 20th century and has been an important pilgrimage site for everyone from Robert Rauschenberg to Damien Hirst, is currently being maintained by the co-directors of the Littoral Arts Trust, which bought the barn in 2006, with their personal funds. [Guardian]
– Knoedler Depended on Suspicious Art: The now-defunct Knoedler Gallery was "substantially dependent" on profits it made from selling a mysterious collection of artwork that is now under federal investigation, according to new papers filed as part of Domenico and Eleanore De Sole's civil suit against the gallery. (The couple is suing over an $8.3-million Mark Rothko painting it now believes to be fake.) Knoedler earned appoximately $60 million between 1996 and 2008 from sales of the now-suspect Rosales collection, according to court papers. [NYT]
– Anxiety About Obama's Art Collection: An article about President Obama's careful navigation of the subject of race during his first term includes an interesting aside: There was palpable nervousness about the artwork the Obamas chose for their private quarters in the White House, including some with race-specific messages. Those artworks included a painting by Glenn Ligon and a Norman Rockwell portrait of Ruby Bridges Hall, the first black child to integrate an elementary school in the South. The Rockwell painting is currently hung just outside the Oval Office. [NYT]
– MI6 Painter Hired for Bond Job: James Hart Dyke has made paintings for MI6 portraying the famed British spy agency's day-to-day activities, served as an embedded artist with U.K. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and toured with Prince Charles. But his latest subjects may be his most unruly yet: The producers of the James Bond franchise have commissioned him to create official portraits of all six actors who've portrayed the legendary fictional British spy for his 50th anniversary. "What struck me most — and I've tried to get this across in my paintings — is the intriguing interface between the mundane and the totally unexpected," Hart Dyke said. "James Bond represents the perfect union between aesthetics and action." [Guardian]
– French Soccer Community Calls for Zidane Headbutt Statue's Removal: In an open letter to retired French soccer star Zinedine Zidane, presidents of over 30 of France's soccer districts plead with the athlete to demand the removal of Adel Abdessemed's giant statue of the 1998 World Cup final's infamous headbutting incident from the plaza outside the Centre Pompidou. "By taking this firm and honorable position," the district presidents write, "you would testify to your tireless support of the educational values of our soccer, for which many of us continue to fight." [Liberation]
– National Geographic to Sell Archival Images: The National Geographic Society is auctioning off 240 works from its archive of 11.5 million photos and original illustrations at Christie's on December 6. The sale marks the first time any of the institution's collection has been sold, and is expected to bring in about $3 million. Some of National Geographic's most famous photographs will be included, such as a portrait of admiral Robert Peary at his 1908 expedition to the North Pole. [AP]
– It's Not Easy Being Jeffrey Deitch: So concludes Guy Trebay in his lengthy profile of the L.A. MOCA director published (oddly) in this weekend's Sunday Styles section of the New York Times. Described as a "kind of art-world Zelig," Deitch marvels at his current status as persona-non-grata in the L.A. art world. "I've never experienced this kind of distortion," he says, "through if I say anything to counter" the rumors, the increasingly hostile art establishment will "just kill me more." [NYT]
– Pussy Riot Supporters Tests New York Law: Two members of Russian feminist punk collective Pussy Riot still in custody were sent to two prison camps in Soviet-era penal colonies east of Moscow this weekend. Meanwhile, their influence continues to play out in New York, where arrests made during demonstrations held in support of the band may lead to the overturning of an antiquated state law prohibiting groups of more than two people from wearing masks in public. "The mask law, historically and currently, has caused people to conform to a certain way of delivering their speech," said Rachel Weldon, one of three women arrested at a Pussy Riot rally and charged with violating the loitering law. "It’s not just what you’re saying but how you’re saying it that should be protected from interference by the government." [NYT, BBC]
– Exhibition Inspires London Museum Director to Donate Her Body: Sharon Ament, the director of the Museum of London, was so taken with her institution's medical history exhibition "Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men" (see our VIDEO OF THE DAY, below) that she's decided to donate her body to science. "I now realize that my body is a valuable resource that I’ll be leaving for science," Ament said. "There is actually a greater need for bodies now than ever before." Who said art can't change your (after)life? [The Independent]
VIDEO OF THE DAY
Trailer for "Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men" at the Museum of London
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