– Martin Scorsese Gets Chelsea Show: This week Bold Hype Gallery, an art space in Chelsea, will open "Scorsese: An Art Show Tribute," an exhibition commemorating the life and work of one of New York City's most beloved filmmakers. The show, which includes Scott Campbell's rendering of "Gangs of New York," a Scorsese portrait by Jayson Weidel, Rhys Cooper's homage to "Taxi Driver," and more, opens on April 19 and continues through April 21. [/Film]
– Art Critic Gets Pulitzer: The Washington Post's art and architecture critic Philip Kennicott is among this year's Pulitzer Prize recipients, singled out for major recent pieces like his reviews of a photography show at the Corcoran Gallery and an architecture exhibition at the National Building Museum, and his essay on violent imagery in photos, among other articles. He had been shortlisted last year. "It makes me especially happy to win at a time when arts criticism is not doing well," Kennicott said. "Sometimes you have an inkling about these things, but I absolutely had no clue I had made the final rung this time." [Washington Post]
– Baldessari's Corpse Art Concept Could Come True: A 1970 proposal by John Baldessari to exhibit a real human corpse in a gallery in a manner evocative of Mantegna's 1480 painting of Christ's body came closest to being realized in 2011, when super-curators Hans Ulrich Obrist and Klaus Biesenbach combined forces to make it happen but failed. In that case, Baldessari ended up displaying the 11 rooms of paperwork that came out of the process as "11 Rooms." "It’s not excluded that one day it will happen," said Obrist on the occasion of the installation's latest iteration, in Sydney. "You need the consent of the person obviously before they die. At the same time you need the consent of the family as well as legal authorisation." [TAN]
– LACMA Lands Major African Sculpture: At Friday's Collectors Committee event, LACMA announced the acquisition of a three-foot-tall "Gwan" wooden sculpture of a mother and her infant child dated from between the 15th and 17th centuries for $1 million. Another eight objects were acquired in the past year, including works by James Turrell and Thomas Demand, and in all the museum shelled out $3.2 million on new art. As for "Gwan," LACMA African art curator Polly Nooter Roberts said, "It's a very symbolic acquisition for the museum, as LACMA is conceiving and giving birth to a new area of collecting and display." [LAT]
– Sale to Save Paris's Haring Mural: Tomorrow Sotheby's Paris will sell 32 works including pieces by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Shepard Fairey, and others in an effort to raise the funds needed to restore a massive mural Keith Haring created on the exterior of a fire stairwell at the Necker Children's Hospital in 1987. The auction house has waived all fees and commissions for the sale. [Libération]
– Obama's Arts Budget Boost: President Barack Obama's budget proposal for 2013-14 includes a 10 percent increase in federal arts funding, bringing the total sum up to $1.58 billion, more than making up for the reductions caused by the recent sequester setbacks for most institutions. The National Endowments for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities would see their federal funding surpass pre-sequester levels, boosted from $146 million to $154.5 million. The National Gallery of Art, meanwhile, would get an 11 percent boost to its pre-sequester funding, with $144 million for the next fiscal year. [LAT]
– Bette Midler Sells Scottish Painting: Star of stage and screen Bette Midler has sent a George Henry painting that she bought in Scotland for £45,000 in 2001 to Bonhams in Edinburgh, where it's expected to fetch between £60,000 and £80,000 when it hits the auction block on Wednesday. Though the cause for the sale is not known — cashing in an art investment or charity case? — Midler most recently auctioned selections from her collection of jewelry and costumes last year to benefit her organization, the New York Restoration Project. [Telegraph]
– Moscow's Innovation Prizes Awarded: The National Center for Contemporary Arts in Moscow announced the winners of the eighth annual Innovation Prizes, an award funded by the state and with prizes totaling some $100,000 given out to Russian artists and curators of exhibitions with Russian themes, with the director of Bulgaria's Institute of Contemproary Art Sofia, Iara Boubhova, taking the top curatorial honor for curating the second edition of the Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art last year. Some observers, however, were underwhelmed by the nominees and winners. "There is not enough healthy competition in the Russian art scene," said Red October Gallery director Elena Strygina. [AiA]
– Art Investments Pay Small, Steady Returns: According to data from Mei Moses Fine Art Indexes's analysis of figures from 2012, investing in art generally brings relatively modest profits, though works below $50,000 tended to generate higher returns (7.48 percent) than works between $500,000 and $1 million (5.51 percent). The tradeoff is that the more expensive works are a surer bet, with a standard deviation of 10.93 percent on works between $500,000 and $1 million, while returns on the works under $50,000 art subject to a standard deviation of 17.23 percent, making them a much riskier investment. [AdvisorOne]
VIDEO OF THE DAY
Philip Kennicott discusses his Pulizter Prize win
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