THE BIG STORY
When
Mitt Romney
accepted his nomination in Tampa last night as the Republican Party's contender in the coming election, the political press dissected every element of the proceedings for meaning. But was there an art angle to the evening (aside from the nice impasto on
Marco Rubio
's grapefruit-pink makeup job)? You betcha.
According to ultra-right blog the American Thinker
-sample headline: "Obama Versus Jesus: Black Christians Must Decide"—
Clint Eastwood
's rambling, borderline-profane introductory speech was a work of "true artistic genius" and "one of the greatest pieces of performance art ever seen," demonstrating that the grizzled actor "was out-thinking everyone and was intellectually miles ahead of all of you." That empty chair was a nice
Joseph Beuys
reference, actually.
Meanwhile, the company behind the
Etch A Sketch—
which received a major sales bump earlier this year when a Romney aid gaffe-ishly compared his boss's easily modified core beliefs to the beloved erasable art toy—is trying to further profit from its new political fame
by selling limited-edition election models in Republican red and Democrat blue
. San Francisco muralist
Jason Mecier
is also aiming to cash in on the election
, using 100 bags of beef jerky to create a pair of portraits of "Barack Obameat" and "Meat Romney" as part of a campaign titled "Vote for Your Favorite Meathead." Oh, and then the Huffington Post used the occasion to helpfully remind everyone that, if elected, Romney
will defund the
National Endowment for the Arts
. Barack Obameat would never that.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Mark said he wanted to be in the same room with all his engineers. I told him we could put the building up on stilts, park cars underneath and create a room as large as he wanted." - Architect
Frank Gehry
on the extraordinary 10-acre-large, single-room office building he's designing for
Facebook
's campus in Menlo Park, California. (
Bloomberg
)
MUST READ
Art That Gives One Paws - The
Walker Art Center
—the Minneapolis bastion of cutting-edge art that has groomed so many museum leaders—kicked off its first "Internet Cat Video Film Festival" last night, drawing thousands of submissions from tabby-addled ailurophiles whose clips of furry tomfoolery could be the subject of
Arthur Danto
's next end-of-art book. (
AP
)
Ai Weiwei
& Paul Revere - In the
Nation
,
Danielle Allen
compares Ai's dissident art activities in China—which famously led to his 80-day detention and continued pinioning by the Chinese government—to the tactics of America's original revolutionaries. (
The Nation
)
Global Fall Art Preview! -
Modern Painters
magazine has released its picks for 100 of the season's must-see shows in art capitals around the world, from
Gerhard Richter
at
Marian Goodman
in New York this September to
Fischli/Weiss
at
Sprüth Magers
. (
Modern Painters
)
Venice Architecture Biennial
Highlights - Take a virtual tour of the most adventurous designs on view in the world-class exhibition, from
Zaha Hadid
's futuristic tower to the pop-up Venezuelan eatery by this year's Golden Lion winners,
Urban-Think Tank
. (
Guardian
)
Fall Art Book Picks - See ten learned tomes to read try to get through this coming season, from
Nato Thompson
's
Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Age of Cultural Production
to the rip-roaringly titled
Neoludica Art and Videogames 1966-2011
. (
Artinfo
)
ART MARKET
His Favorite Color Is Red - The most interesting part of this fairly boilerplate intro to the Chinese market (courtesy of
China Guardian
VP
Hu Yanyan
) is the mention of
Zhang Zhenyu
, a partisan megacollector who recently paid $20 million to buy a painting of Mao's birthplace to ad to his collection of hundreds of Communist-themed paintings. (
Forbes
)
Was China's Bubble Inflating the Global Art Market, Too? - As the Chinese economy tumbles, a report from ArtTactic showing a 43 percent drop-off between the fall and spring auctions (with most of the loss attributable to the apex of the market, which had been rife with Chinese buyers) suggests that the success of this fall's auctions might rest on Western spending … meaning the market could be in for a rude awakening. (
CNBC
)
Moving on Up -
Waterhouse & Dodd
and
Peter Blum Gallery
are both departing their SoHo locations to focus their attention closer to the art-commerce action uptown, in a new Madison Avenue space for the former and at the latter gallery's 29th Street location in Chelsea. (
Artinfo
)
Twice as Nice - Chelsea's
Alexander Gray Associates
is doubling its second-story space by expanding next door. (
Gallerist NY
)
Another Chelsea Expansion? -
303 Gallery
owner
Lisa Spellman
is considering opening a second space under the High Line on 24th Street and growing her roster of artists if she does. (
Gallerist NY
)
Adam Gopnik
on the Art Market "Bubble" - The Newsbeast critic throws some shade on the rampaging art market in a video on Beast TV, and points out that the new Chelsea megaexpansions in the works—by
Zwirner
,
Hauser & Wirth
, and
Sean Kelly
—are each far bigger than your average supermarket. (
Beast TV
)
Paula Cooper
Gets a New Rising Star - Two years after snagging
Tauba Auerbach
, the Chelsea veteran has scooped up another buzzy young talent in the form of
Justin Matherly
, whose stark sculptures of hospital walkers embedded in concrete drew attention at the Lower East Side's Bureau gallery. (
Gallerist NY
)
IN & OUT
Vera Neykov
has joined
Marlborough Chelsea
as associate director, coming from
L&M
in Los Angeles to work under director
Pascal Spengemann
. (
Gallerist NY
)
The artist
Guido van der Werve
is reprising his intensely cardiovascular
Running to Rachmaninoff
performance next month, inviting hale classical music lovers to join him at 9 a.m. on Saturday, September 8, outside
Luhring Augustine
in Chelsea for a 30-some-mile jog to legendary composer
Sergei Rachmaninoff
's grave in upstate New York. (
Luhring Augustine
)
SANAA
's
Kazuyo Sejima
has been selected as the first architect to take part in the
Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative
, which this year also features the artist
William Kentridge
and author
Margaret Atwood
, among other luminaries. (Press Release)
VIDEO
Piss Christ
artist
Andres Serrano
bristles at the "complete misunderstanding" that he's anti-Christian-in fact, he's so pro-Christian that he's transformed his East Village apartment into a shrine for 15th and 16th century religious artworks. See it here:
