– Glenn Beck's Serrano-Style Obama Homage: Though he didn't cite Andres Serrano's famous — and infamously vandalized — photograph "Piss Christ" by name, it's prtty clear where extreme-right pundit Glenn Beck got the inspiration for his artwork "Obama in Pee Pee." The work, which he plans to sell for $25,000, was conceived as a show of support for a Bostonian artist's controversial painting of the U.S. president crucified. "I support his right to do exactly that," Beck said. "I agree with him that people who are upset should not trump his right to be able to do it and be able to hang it wherever he wants — as long as its [sic] wanted there." [Gawker]
– Rauschenberg's Eagle Lands at MoMA: The Museum of Modern Art has prevailed in a contest with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to win Robert Rauschenberg's "Canyon," an iconic 1959 combine featuring a stuffed bald eagle. The children of New York art dealer Ileana Sonnabend donated the artwork to the museum as part of a $41-million settlement with the Internal Revenue Service. (The presence of the eagle — a bird protected by federal laws — means the work could not be legally sold or traded, which led to a dispute about how it should be valued on the dealer's estate tax.) The family will claim no tax deduction on the donation, which will be part of a forthcoming exhibition devoted to the artist's combines and Sonnabend's own collection. [NYT]
– Monumenta 2013 Canceled, 2014 Artists Picked: After much uncertainty over the future of the massive contemporary art commission, France's ministry of culture has opted to cancel next year's edition of Monumenta at the Grand Palais. It also announced that the Russian artist duo Ilya and Emilia Kabakov will take over the sprawling 19th-century beaux-arts palace from May 5 to June 22, 2014. The Kabakovs were rumored to be slated for next year's exhibit, and their 2014 installation "Gorod" will be curated by Jean-Hubert Martin, the man behind the Centre Pompidou's new Salvador Dalí blockbuster. [Libération]
– Demi Moore Dating Vito Schnabel: Today in art-related tabloid news, actress Demi Moore, 50, is reportedly seeing art dealer Vito Schnabel, 26. (Moore recently ended her marriage to Ashton Kutcher. Schnabel — no slouch in the dating department himself — has romanced Liv Tyler and Elle Macpherson.) Meanwhile, Schnabel's father, artist Julian, is newly engaged to former model May Anderson, now a director at New York's Hole Gallery. [Daily Mail]
– Photographers Help to Restore Damaged Family Photos: A group of New York-area photographers and studios are offering to clean, scan, and retouch photographs that were strewn through the streets or otherwise damaged during superstorm Sandy. Until the end of February, the Professional Photographers' Society of New York State will reprint up to 10 damaged photographs per person free of charge, with a reduced rate for any additional images. "I'm a father of a little three year old girl and I treasure my photos … I would want to hold on to my memories as well as I could," said freelance photographer Marc Bushelle. [WSJ]
– Employee Defrauds Atlanta Arts Center of $1.4M: An employee of Atlanta's Woodruff Arts Center — whose divisions include the High Museum of Art and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra — is suspected of embezzling some $1.44 million from the cultural institution over the course of five years by filing invoices for services that were never rendered. Larry Gellerstedt, chair of the Woodruff board, conceded that though the loss represents "a serious amount of money," it is "not a situation that puts the art or the institution at risk, other than the most important part, which is our credibility with our supporters." [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
– Is Coldplay Taking Up Street Art?: The band is auctioning off three original paintings and a graffiti wall that became the artwork for its "Mylo Xyloto" album to benefit Kids Company, a charity that serves at-risk youth in London. The musicians worked with an artistic collaborator by the name of Paris. "We built a special wall in our studio and sprayed it, wrote on it and threw things at it until it eventually became the artwork for 'Mylo Xyloto,'" said founder Chris Martin. [Independent]
– Giacometti Foundation Launches Web Presence: Paris's Alberto and Annette Giacometti Foundation recently launched a new website, which boasts an impressive online catalogue listing more than 1,000 authenticated works by Alberto Giacometti and offers details of the foundation's 5,000-piece collection. "This new website is a reference point for Giacometti," a foundation spokeswoman said. "It finally makes publicly available research conducted by the foundation team in the past nine years [in areas including] provenance, exhibition history and bibliography." [TAN]
– Oslo Readies a Munch Museum Makeover: After years of prodding, Oslo's city council is considering three proposals for an upgrade to the Munch Museum, which has been criticized for falling into disrepair. (A group of 1,000 marched to support the museum in late October, and let out a collective scream at the end.) The council is expected to announce a plan on December 12, Munch's birthday. Key local leaders, however, are opposed to spending municipal funds on the project and the announcement has been repeatedly delayed. [WSJ]
– Fourth Plinth's Second Place Finishes: A new exhibition at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, "Fourth Plinth: Contemporary Monument," includes proposals that weren't selected to grace the vacant fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of the temporary public art series there. Selections include Jeremy Deller's maquette of a bombed car, Anish Kapoor's large mirror installation "Sky Plinth," and Tracey Emin's installation of meerkat sculptures "Something for the Future." "I somehow got carried away and brought the meerkats in en masse," Emin said. "A little animal I have loved since childhood — along with the rest of the nation. But as much I loved them and loved doing the proposal, my relief in not getting the commission was a million times greater." [Independent]
VIDEO OF THE DAY
A small boy enjoys the Giacometti Foundation
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