– Aphrodite Stirs Controversy in Texas: Two parallel controversies surrounding sexy museum ads throw the cultural differences between Europe and American into stark relief. While a museum advertisement for the Leopold Museum's exhibition "Naked Men," which features three nude soccer players, is causing a furor in Vienna, Texans are getting riled up over the San Antonio Museum of Art's ad for an exhibition about Aphrodite. The offending advertisement featured a picture of a 2,000-year-old statuette of the Greek goddess emerging from the sea. It was censored by three venues, including the San Antonio airport. (The "Aphrodite" show, however, has inspired area chefs to make goddess themed meals — see our VIDEO OF THE DAY, below.) [KVUE]
– Frieze Galleries Lack Gender Parity: A disgraceful 1.5 percent of galleries that participated in this year's Frieze Art Fair represent more women than men, according to a study from the ELF Great East London Art Audit, a collective that keeps track of gender parity in the arts. The London-based Guerrilla Girls-esque group also notes that 67 percent of galleries at Frieze represent less than a third female artists and only 3.7 percent represent an equal number of men and women. [HuffPo]
– Rotterdam Heist Linked to Coke Bust?: The seven major artworks stolen from Kunsthal Rotterdam earlier this month may have been used as substitute payment following a major drug bust in which eight tons of cocaine were seized at a Belgian port a few days earlier, museum security expert and former Rijksmuseum chief of security Ton Cremers said. "It hasn't been proven, it's just a theory," he said, but "there's a very big chance... In 20 years in the field I've been able to observe very close links between the worlds of art and drug trafficking." [AFP]
– Unseen Marilyn Photos Headed to Auction: A trove of 240 photographs by Milton Green that will hit the block at Warsaw's Dom Aukcyjny Desa Unicum auction house on November 8 includes never-before-seen images of Marilyn Monroe. The photos, which were given to the Polish state in the 1990s as part of a foreign debt settlement, all come with a low estimate of 300 zlotys ($100), are part of a larger set of 4,000 that sat in cardboard boxes in New York for years and includes Green's photos from the '50s and '60s including images of Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, and Marlon Brando. [AFP]
– Underneath a Picasso Painting, Another Picasso: New infrared images have given researchers a detailed picture of the portrait hidden underneath Picasso's famous "Woman Ironing," which he painted when he was just 22. (Short on cash to buy new canvases, the artist would often paint over earlier works.) John Richardson, Picasso's biographer, believes the subject of the portrait is Mateu Fernandez de Soto, a sculptor and friend of the artist. (Want to make a guess of your own? Check out the Times's nifty infographic, which allows viewers to peek under the painting's surface.) [NYT]
– Shanghai Museum Opens in Record Time: From inception to inauguration, it took less than a year for the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art to be built inside a giant former power plant, where it launched last month with the Shanghai Biennale. But observers worry that such speedily assembled institutions are not built to last. "There are more opportunities than there are qualified people," says Philip Tinari of Beijing's Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. "That’s a piece of the puzzle that will take a few more years." [Globe and Mail]
– Nazi Meteorite Buddha Could Be Fake: A sculpture of Buddha emblazoned with a swastika said to have been carved from a meteorite 1,000 years ago and stolen by a Nazi ethnologist may not be so ancient after all. Two experts who've examined the sculpture say it was likely made in the 20th century, and was likely not looted by Nazis, though it is made from space rock. "Up to date, no acknowledged authority in the field of Tibetan or Mongolian art has publicly deemed the statue authentic," said Seoul-based Buddhism expert Achim Bayer. University of Stuttgart geologist Elmar Buchner maintains: "If we are right that it was made in the Bon culture in the 11th century, it is absolutely priceless and absolutely unique worldwide." [Guardian]
– Indonesian Art Takes Center Stage at Singapore Fair: Under director Lorenzo Rudolf — who helped shift attention towards Latin American art at Art Basel Miami Beach — next year's Art Stage Singapore art fair will feature an area reserved for Indonesian galleries as well as a group exhibition of some 30 artists from Indonesia, two-thirds of whom the fair will represent itself. "We only want to show the best, but many Indonesian artists [don't work] with galleries," Rudolf said. "We have a situation where the infrastructure is not there." [WSJ]
– Can Art Help Refugees?: Artist Ahmet Ögüt is banking on it. Next month, he's launching the Silent University, an initiative hosted by the Tate Modern that is part-school, part-group therapy session, and part-performance center for asylum seekers and migrants who can no longer gainfully practice their profession. The project, which was conceived during Ögüt's Tate residency in partnership with the Delfina Foundation last year, kicks off at the museum with a performance and discussion on November 26. [Press Release]
– Dan Colen's Book Party Was Star-Studded, Weird: Artist Dan Colen hosted a party for his new artist book, "A Real Bronx Cheer," and "Work of Art" judge and gallerist Bill Powers was on hand to chronicle the whole madcap affair. Apparently, supermodel Stephanie Seymour read God jokes the artist found on the Internet while the magician David Blaine held his breath in a plastic bag onstage next to her. Isn't that what everyone does at book parties? [T Magazine]
VIDEO OF THE DAY
San Antonio chefs pay homage to a local musuem's controversial "Aphrodite" show
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