A1 News Roundup: Antonio Banderas to Star as Picasso (and Gwyneth Paltrow Plays Dora Maar?), Confessions of Jeff Koons's Studio Assistant, and More Art News

- THE BIG STORY -

As anyone who has dipped into John Richardson's rollicking A Life of Picasso knows, the Cubist rebel led a torrid, action-packed existence, carrying on legendary affairs, associating with the most outsize artists of his time, and even delving into politics as a fierce advocate of peace. Now two episodes in his life are being made into new Spanish movies, with director Carlos Saura focusing 33 Dí­as on the making of the antiwar painting Guernica and Fernando Colomo shooting La Banda Picasso to dramatize Picasso's notorious embroilment with a string of thefts from the Louvre (including that of the Mona Lisa, which he didn't steal, and several African totems, which he did). The most cubistic aspect of the news may be Saura's cast, led by Antonio Banderas in the role of the artist and… Gwyneth Paltrow as Dora Maar, Picasso's famous dark-haired mistress who could not have looked less like the blond actress—a quibble the director dismissed by saying that "far fewer people actually know what Dora Maar looked like" than Picasso. (NYT)

- QUOTE OF THE WEEK -

"I like to say that when I started writing criticism—as a complete ignoramus and yahoo young poet in the '60s—I discovered very quickly that the one thing in which I am the world's leading expert is my point of view." - New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl, whom the Sydney Morning Herald piquantly termed a "former sports reporter in the whorehouse of art," discussing his approach to his work (ABC)

- MUST READ -

The Road to Hell Is Paved... - An 80-something Spanish woman has earned international attention this week for defacing an devotional fresco of Jesus by Elí­as Garcí­a Martí­nez in Borja's Santuario de la Misericordia church when she took it upon herself to restore the work using, shall we say, sub-part painterly abilities. (Gawker)

Jerry Saltz's Fall Art Picks - The prominent New York magazine art critic has fueled anticipation for what is shaping up to be an exciting fall art season by revealing the shows he's most excited for including the Mickalene Thomas and Wade Guyton surveys coming up at the Brooklyn Museum and the Whitney, respectively. (NYM)

Bravo Cancels Work of Art Show - Saltz will have more time to enjoy his favorite fall exhibitions thanks to the cancelation of the high-profile art reality show, where he and fellow judges Simon de Pury and Jeanne Greenberg-Rohatyn tried to mentor young artists as they competed to become "The Next Great Artist." (Gallerist NY)

No One Said Art Thieves Have Taste - Burglars who broke into a Fresno property to steal copper wiring made off instead with what is said to be $300,000 worth of art by Thomas Kinkade, the late kitschmeister and "Painter of Light" whose estate is not being sued by former sellers for ripping them off, so it comes full circle. (Huffington Post)

The Rembrandt That Got Lost in the Mail - A red-faced Norwegian art dealer has confessed to losing an etching by the Dutch master when he tried to cut shipping and insurance costs by sending the artwork via the country's regular old postal service. (Reuters)

An "Art School Survival Guide" - The Huffington Post has surveyed a range of art-school students, alums, and teachers for advice on how best to navigate the rigorous, high-stress world of "the crit" and other art-training ordeals. (Huffington Post)

Charles Saatchi Can't Give His Art Away - The London ad man and megacollector whose avid purchases (and quick resales) adrenalized the city's art scene during the YBA era, making stars of Damien Hirst and his coterie, still hasn't been able to find a home for a 200-work distillation of his collection that he's been trying to give to the British government-with the stipulation that all of the works remain together, including a few of questionable taste. (Telegraph)

"I Was Jeff Koons's Studio Serf" - Read the somewhat bizarre tale of John Powers, who as a 21-year-old art student took a job at the famous artist's factory-like studio in the mid-'90s working on Celebration series paintings for $14 per hour, only to suffer a setback, exhibit anger-management issues, and abandon an art career to become a private detective. (NYT)

- ART MARKET -

Frieze Masters Talks Revealed - This fall's much buzzed new London fair, featuring contemporary works intermingled with Old Masters and other historical works, will features a gold-plated roster of artist talks by the likes of Luc Tuymans, Glenn Brown, and Cecily Brown. (ARTINFO)

There Was an Art Fair in Melbourne - You can read all about it in exhaustive coverage here. (ARTINFO)

- IN & OUT -

The photographer Richard Mosse, whose large-scale, visually lush images from conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East transmute war photography for the gallery space, has been selected to represent his native Ireland in the 2013 Venice Biennale with an eight-channel video installation filmed amid the fighting in eastern Congo. (Guardian)

The ever-busy starchitect and go-to museum designer Jean Nouvel has reportedly bested Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid to win the commission for Beijing's planned 1.3 million-square-foot building for its National Art Museum of China. (Architectural Record)

James Franco is filming a gay art-house film based on 40 minutes that were cut from Wiliam Friedkin's gritty hustler movie Cruising (which starred Al Pacino), and it will involve real sex while also being "an examination of people trying to make sense of Franco as a star figure," according to Travis Mathews, who Franco tapped to direct. (Indiewire)

German art provocateur Jonathan Meese, best-known for his over-the-top work uncomfortably flirting with Nazi propaganda, is set to direct a staging of Wagner's Parsifal at the 2016 Bayreuth Festival that may not prove to be a model of restraint and decorum. (Art Review)

The Elmhurst Art Museum has hired Staci Boris, former executive director of the now-defunct Art Chicago fair and before that a curator at MCA Chicago, as its new chief curator. (My Suburban Life)

The Portland Art Museum has named Dawson W. Carr as its first full-time curator of European art, hiring him from his post as Spanish and Italian art curator at London's National Gallery. (Oregoian)

Hotshot young Grey Area co-founder and art collector Kyle DeWoody was counted among Forbes's "Up-and-Comers." (Forbes)