The J. Paul Getty Trust, the foundation which manages the Getty Museum, published on 14 February a document summarising the earnings of the executive officers and most notably that of its future director, Timothy Potts.  He is to assume his new position 1 September 2012.

Potts will earn an annual base salary of $690,000, in addition to a $150,000 signing bonus.

Among the current executives of the J. Paul Getty Trust, the earnings for 2011 will be raised to:

• $1,040,822.22 in total compensation, of which $167,105.98 includes Compensation for ERISA legislation relative to retirement dues for James Williams, Vice President, Chief Investment Officer & Treasurer;
• $795,497.26, of which $100,000 includes a housing allowance for James Cuno, CEO ; this figure only pertains to his starting date of 1 August 2011 , but includes a signing bonus of $250,000, a relocation allowance of $150,000, a housing allowance of $20,000 per month; the base salary for James Cuno for 2012 raised to $728,000, plus the housing allowance;
• $617,590.30 of which $43,915.18 includes an ERISA compensation and $37,501.98 including housing fees for Patricia Woodworth, Vice Presidente, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer;
• $385,853.64 of which $29,334.88 includes ERISA compensation for Stephen Clark, Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary ;
• $372,359.64 salary, of which $23,416.37 includes ERISA compensation for Myron Hartwig, Vice President, Communications and Corperate Relations.

An article on the Los Angeles Times website dated 21 February 2012 recalls statistics placing the officers of the Getty Museum slightly under the highest wages of all New York institutions.  As a comparison, the total earnings of Glenn Lowry, Director of MoMA, raised to $1.32 million per year and that of Thomas Campbell, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to $929,375.  Michael Govan, Artistic Director of LA’s County Museum of Art, rests at $915,000 per year, the highest paid director in the Los Angeles region.

Jessica Chastain was arguably the breakout actress of 2011, appearing in six films and receiving a supporting actress Oscar nomination for "The Help." She has already lined up a number of projects, including the new Kathryn Bigelow movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. In the fall, she is scheduled to head to Broadway to star in a revival of "The Heiress," in which she will play the rather plain-looking daughter of a successful New York doctor.

"The Heiress" will be Chastain's Broadway debut, but the actress is no stranger to the stage, having performed at the Public Theater and Playwrights Horizons in New York. She also appeared opposite Al Pacino in an L.A. stage production of Oscar Wilde's "Salome" in 2006.

Demián Bichir surprised many this year by receiving a lead actor Oscar nomination for the indie film "A Better Life," in which he plays an undocumented gardener working in L.A. For the last few weeks, the actor has been starring in a stage production of "Swimming With Sharks" at the Teatro de los Insurgentes in Mexico City.

The company said on its website that the show will break temporarily starting this week  -- coinciding with the Oscars ceremony -- and is expected to resume on March 1.

In 2008, Bichir appeared at the Geffen Playhouse in "By the Waters of Babylon" by Robert Schenkkan, in which he played a gardener (again) who falls into a relationship with a wealthy widow.

Christopher Plummer, who is nominated for supporting actor in "Beginners," is widely expected to take home his first Oscar statuette on Sunday. The 82-year-old actor has been on a cinematic roll in recent years -- he's also in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" -- but he has regularly returned to the stage in his native Canada.

In July, Plummer will star in his autobiographical one-man play "A Word or Two" at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Directed by Des McAnuff, the show will explore Plummer's love of literature, including works by Ben Jonson, A.A. Milne and even the Bible.

After Sunday's ceremony, George Clooney will head almost immediately into the play "8," which is having its L.A. debut on March 3 in a one-night benefit reading at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. Clooney received two Oscar nominations this year -- for lead actor in "The Descendants" and for co-writing the adapted screenplay for "The Ides of March."

The play "8," by Dustin Lance Black, is based on the court trial Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, which sought to overturn Prop. 8, the California ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage. Clooney will play the role of David Boies, an attorney for the plaintiffs seeking to overturn the measure.

Writer John Logan is up for an Oscar this year for his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's "Hugo," adapted from the Brian Selznick book. In August, Logan's "Red" will make its L.A. debut at the Mark Taper Forum. The play, about artist Mark Rothko (Alfred Molina), has already been performed in London and New York, winning the Tony Award for best play in 2010.

Fans of "The Artist" -- the favorite for the best-picture award -- can catch actor James Cromwell in a revival of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" at the Taper starting in March. The actor plays the loyal chauffeur to the Jean Dujardin character in "The Artist." Cromwell didn't receive a nomination for his role, but he did in 1996 for "Babe."

RELATED:

George Clooney joins L.A. cast of Prop. 8 play

Jessica Chastain heading to Broadway in 'The Heiress'

Oscar nominee Christopher Plummer, 'Beginners' and LACMA

-- David Ng

Photos, clockwise from top left: Christopher Plummer, left, with Ewan McGregor in "Beginners," credit: Andrew Tepper / Focus Features; George Clooney in "The Descendants"/Fox Searchlight; Jessica Chastain in "The Help"/Dale Robinette / EPA; Demián Bichir in "A Better Life"/Merrick Morton / Summit Entertainment.

Christo’s “Over the Rain” project, which entails covering the Arkansas River with a total of 6-miles of silvery fabric panels, has been delayed by a year.

The installation should be ready by August 2014, but an environmental study hoping to prove the project’s pollution-free nature has slowed down construction.  According to Le Journal des Arts, Christo, the American artist who created the project, prefers to postpone the exhibition.  He justifies this choice in his release published on 21 February 2012: “The general public will have more time to understand how traffic and security problems will be resolved.”

The fabric covered in pieces of aluminum will be divided into eight sections.  The different parts will be hung from 6.5 to 26 feet above the Arkansas River, stretching across 42 miles of the river.  Visitors can admire the inside of  the installation and will also be able to kayak down the river.  This installation, which should take place along the Arkansas River in Colorado, has been in the works for two years.  The Interior Bureau of Land Management approved the project conceived by Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude, who died in November 2009.  It will remain on display for two weeks in August 2015.  The artist has assumed total responsibility of the $50 million required to finance the project.

Both Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born in 1935.  They emphasised in an interview held by L’œil magazine in 1999 that what’s been most difficult is, “obtaining construction permits.”  It took ten year to get permission to work on the Pont-neuf in Paris and twenty-four years for the Reichstag in Berlin.

The musée d’art et d’industrie André Diligent, commonly referred to as la Piscine de Roubaix, is presenting from 18 February to 20 May 2012 an exhibition dedicated to Pablo Picasso and David Douglas Duncan. The exhibition will be entitled “ Picasso à l’œuvre, dans l’objectif de David Douglas Ducan” and has been conceived as a dialogue between the two artists.

The show is a celebration of two exceptional creative minds: Catalan Picasso and American David Douglas Duncan. 100 of Picasso’s paintings, sculptures, ceramics and drawings will be presented alongside some 157 of Duncan’s photo’s, revealing the intimacies of the artist’s life. Works such as Nature morte aux cerises (1943), Madame Z (1954) and Musicien assis (1956) have been put into a creative contexte by David Douglas Duncan photos.

The two artists first met in 1956, when Duncan visited Picasso’s villa in Cannes. The photographer took photos of the everyday life of the artist, including intimate photos of him at work in his studio. The painter particularly enjoyed the subject, as demonstrated by a photo in the series showing Picasso roaring with laughter in the bath. Over the course of twenty years – until 1973 – the photographer would go on to share in the artistic and family life of Picasso, becoming his official portrait photographer.

This exhibition is not the first time that Picasso’s work has been displayed at the museum. An exhibition dedicated to him took place there when Lille was the the European capital of culture in 2004. The exhibition is a collaborative effort between the musée de Roubaix, the Malaga Picasso Museum, and the Junstmuseum Pablo Picasso de Münster.

According to an article published on the Washington Post‘s website, Iowa’s Republican Senator Charles Grassley requested an investigation to be launched about the travels of the secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, G.Wayne Clough. This request came after the publication of a search, tracking the movements of American civil servants on junketsluth.com, which revealed that Clough had charged more than $112,000 worth of travel expenses to the instution since 2011, and spent 191 days travelling (two months per year).

Junketsleuth reports that these trips included nine days in the Antarctic and New Zealand at $12,821, a week in Kenya at $10,279, as well as trips to France and Alaska which together cost $18,700.

As it is not a federal agency, the Smithsonian was not obligated to take part in the Junketsleuth enquiry, but took part of its own volition, providing it with information about the travel expenses of all of its employees. The Smithsonian is 70% financed by the American taxpayer, and this is why its staff is expected to respect the same rules as those that apply to other employees of the state.

Patty Stonesifer, the former president and current vice-president of the institute’s board has assured the press that she personally verified Clough’s trips. She has stated that, taking into account the difficulties in finding private  donations, the Smithsonian was relying more on state funding.

The Smithsonian runs 19 museums of art and science in Washington, including the African Art Museum, the American Art Museum, the Art and Industry Building, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Portrait Gallery and the National Zoological park. It finances research and exploration programmes in more than 100 countries all over the world.

in 2007, an enquiry into the excessive expenses claims at the institution lead to the resignation of then secretary Lawrence M. Small, who Clough succeeded. The annual salary of the secretary of the Smithsonian is $500,000.

Internet auction site Artnet.com is presenting a sale entitled “d’Art moderne et contemporain indien et pakistanais” from 29 February 2012. The sale will include works by Francis Newton Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Sedequain, Jamil Naqsh, Chila Kumari Burman, Debanjan Roy, as well as T.V. Santhosh and Baiju Parthan.

The sale will include 75 lots overall, with estimates ranging from $1,800 to $500,000. The upper estimate for the whole sale is more than $2 million. Lots to look out for include:

• Untitled (Pieta) by Francis Newtin Souza (1924-2002), estimate $330,000 – 500,000;
• Head 4 by Ravinder Reddy (1956), estimate $ 150,000 – 175,000;
• Peace Protest by T.V Santhosh (1968), estimate $ 85,000 – 95,000;
• Portrait of a Man by Akbar Padamsee (1928), estimate $ 65,000 – 75,000;
• Covering Letter #5 by Jitish Kallat (1974), estimate $ 50,000 – 60,000.

The organising committee of ARCO Madrid 2012 was glad to announce the results recorded at the fair which took place from 15 to 19 February in the Spanish capital. The number of visitors and the number of transactions made were both positive indications as to the health of the market for Spanish and Latin American art.

Despite the climate of financial crisis which hangs over Spain, both the country’s public and private institutions carried on supporting Spain’s artist through new purchases. According to figures published by Australian art critic and writer Nic Forrest on the Art Market Blog, the two biggest spenders at the fair were the Reina Sofia National Museum, which made €800,000 worth of aquisitions, and the Juan Manuel Sainz de Vicuna Coca-Cola foundation.

The Reina Sofia purchased seventeen works by fifteen different artists:

• Temps blanc, Pablo Palazuelo, oil on canvas, 1959, from the Elvira González gallery ;
• Arrangez vous, Esteban Francés, oil on canvas, 1939, from the Oriol gallery ;
• Qué grande sos, Alberto Greco, 1961/2012, edition 1/12, photograph by Sameer Makarius, from the Henrique Faria gallery ;
• Structure, Sanja Ivekovic, 1976-2011, collage made up of 100 photographies and texts, from the Espai gallery ;
• Series, James Welling, photographs : B98 The Wanderer for Ella Grasso (1980) ; B3 (1980) ; B17 2-29 II (1980) ; 46 (1984) and 50 (1984), from the Martta Cervera gallery ;
• Masacre de Puerto Montt, Luis Camnitzer, photocopy on adhesive vinyl, 1969, from the Parra Romero gallery ;
• Exercises on abstraction, Erlea Maneros, eight drawings in Indian ink on offset paper, 2009, from the Mugica Racing gallery ;
• Installation : Marcus Spring Cottage, Adrià Julià, video installation 16 mm, 3 mn, 2008, from the Soledad Lorenzo gallery ;
• Colts Neck township residents look over the wreckage of the 123-year-old Phalanx House which was burned yesterday morning, Adrià Julià, jet ink on paper, 2009, from the Soledad Lorenzo gallery ;
• A piece of History, Adrià Julià,jet ink on paper, 2009, from the Soledad Lorenzo gallery ;
• Discrepancies with T.P., Leonor Antunes, installation, 2012, from the Isabella Bortolozzi gallery ;
• Salomania, Renate Lorenz et Pauline Boudry, installation composed of a 17 mn film and 11 photos, 2009, from the EDB Proyects gallery ;
• Meditation Piece, Irene Kopelman, 30 illustrations, 1959, from the galerie Motive gallery ;
• Untitled (Félix Candela), José Dávila, piezography on photo paper, 2011, from Travesia Cuatro gallery;
• My Frontier is an Endless Wall of Points (Aferter the Mescaline Drawings of Henri Michaux), Joachim Koester, 16 mm film, 10mn et 24 sec., edition 1/5, 2007, from the Elvira González gallery ;
• Distància Zero, Pep Agut, acrylic on canvas, 1994, from the Galeria dels Angels ;
• Rescue attemp. Nonsense, Pep Agut, photosensitive wood, 1994, from the Galeria dels Angels ;
• FX Archive: input: the house, Pedro G. Romero, 21 mn video; edition n°7, 1999-2007, from the Casa sin fin gallery.

The Coca-Cola foundation acquired some 12 works, meaning that it now owns some 350 pieces.

Sotheby’s is due to present an auction dedicated to design at its New York location on 7 March 2012. The estimated values of lots range from $1,500 to $200,000.

The sale is to largely focus on 20^th century design. The first section of the sale will include 80 design and ceramic pieces from the middle of the century from the private collection of Larry Weinberg. The collection includes many high quality pieces by various artists ranging from Axel Salto to Lea Halpern. As for furniture, the sale will include works by designers George Nakashima, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charlotte Perriand, amongst others.

Pieces to look for include;

• lot 243 : Elaborate Peony lampe by Tiffany Studios, estimate $ 150,000 – 200,000;
• lot 124 : a bookcase by Charlotte Perriand, estimate $ 80,000 – 120,000;
• lot 205 : Danseurs Russes by Demeter Chiparus, estimate $ 80,000 – 120,000;
• lot 88 : Monumental Moloch lamp by Gaetano Pesce, estimate $ 80,000 – 120,000;
• lot 127 : Les Grand Signal lamp bySerge Mouille, estimate $ 75,000 – 100,000.

The Institut du monde arabe (IMA) in Paris will celebrate its 25^th anniversary with a complete renovation.

The museum, which has not been renovated since it opened in 1987, has experienced a drop in attendance over recent years. The museum used to attract around 50,000 visitors a year, but after three years of works – at an estimated cost of €5 million, a reorientation, and becoming a Musée de France, l’IMA hopes to attract somewhere in the region of 300,000 visitors annually.

According to Marie Foissy, the curator of the museum, in le Monde “until now the museum had been founded upon the Islamic world, starting in the 7^th century, and covered a huge georgraphic area”. After the revamp, the museum will focus more on the diversity of Arab culture.

Around 380 works are on public display across the four floors of the museum, which has been open since 21 February 2012. The museum is arranged around five major themes including ”The sacred and divine figures,” ”Arabs, the cradle of a shared heritage.” Donations from various French institutions, various private collections and even from churches and convents in Syria and Lebanon have all contributed towards the realisation of the project.

College Art Association Conference 2012 Logo. Courtesy College Art Association.

This week the College Art Association descends on Los Angeles for its annual conference and illustrious centennial celebration.  The annual event brings together thousands of visual arts professionals in an unholy union of glorified job fair and academic conference. Surrounded by aesthetics, it might appear very pure and civilized, but under the surface we’re dealing with the sordid world of “networking.”

It can be easy to find yourself adrift in a sea of countless academic sessions, workshops, and interviews.  But following the 2009 CAA Conference, I managed to land a part-time lecturing position (“Adjunct Pro” is actually a stretch).  So listen closely, Grasshopper, as I parse my infinite CAA wisdom into some key points.

"The CAA Book and Trade Fair hosts more than 130 publishers of art books, journals and magazines, manufacturer and distributor of materials for artists, and providers of digital images and resources, among other companies and organizations." Courtesy College Art Association.

• Stakeout: While the list of activities may seem endless, skim for interesting session titles and familiar names.  Chances are, the number of events that apply to your interests will be highly manageable.  If you are looking for a teaching position, frequent the interview hall, even if you do not have any appointments set up ahead of time.  Most institutions send at least two faculty representatives that conduct informal interviews.  If you are genuinely interested in pursuing a position at a specific college or university, try to speak with every faculty member present.  But save the sweet talk for quiet moments–if the table seems busy, return during one of the frequent lulls to chat with other faculty.

"ARTexchange is an annual event showcasing the art of CAA members, who can exhibit their paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and digital works using the space on, above, and beneath a six-foot folding table." Courtesy College Art Association.

• If you play your business cards right…you will meet and reconnect with lots of potential colleagues.  Unless you’ve been burned by one too many Nigerian aristocrats, most of us look forward to receiving pleasant new emails–even if we dread writing them. Following up after the feeding frenzy can make a big difference.  After the conference three years ago, I even attended some on-campus events and openings to chat with the faculty further.  At the time, my friends thought I was borderline stalking, but I think it helped me land my aforementioned gig.

Tobias Fünke enlists Maeby to send out resumes and headshots, "S.O.B.s," Arrested Development, 2006. Courtesy Hulu.com.

• Don’t put all your jpegs in one basket. This one goes out to my visual artist compatriots.  Put together packets with DVD/CD versions of your portfolio, your CV and even copies of your teaching philosophy, letters of reference, and student evaluations (hold the headshots and glitter).  In addition, assemble an album or packet of printed photos of your work.  If you simply hand over a CD of images, then your would-be colleagues may never end up seeing your art.  But going through a series of video stills or printed photographs as you converse gives a face to the art.  Moreover, it gives you substance for conversation, beyond the awkward first-date-like chatter that usually dominates informal interviews.

2009 College Art Association Conference. Courtesy College Art Association.

• Ballin’ on a Budget: If you have yet to come up with the cash for registration fees, check out the list of free academic sessions and career development events.  In addition, you can pay-to-play with single-day or single-time slot tickets.  And you only need to be a CAA member to enter the interview hall.  Meanwhile, if you do register for the conference, there are plenty of ways to get your money’s worth around town.  This week, about a dozen museums, including MOCA, LACMA, and the Norton Simon Museum offer free admission to CAA Conference attendees.

• Gettin’ Blazered: CAA is populated primarily by curators and art historians, so the bar for looking chic-but-nerdy is woefully high. I find it especially difficult to appear professorial given that my bone structure (or lack thereof) could best be described as toddleresque, and my fashion sense (or lack thereof) is chiefly inspired by Pretty Woman pre-transformation.  But after a couple rounds of CAA under my belt, I can now identify the conference dress code as thoroughly “biz cas.”  Beyond that, you’re on your own.

"Looking at Los Angeles | CAA #ProTips from an Adjunct Pro" originally appeared on the Art21 Blog

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The American International Fine Art Fair took place between the 3 and 12 February 2012 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

This large air fair brings together collectors and exhibitors of contemporary and modern art, as well as of ancient art and jewellery. This year, the organisers introduced new stands dedicated to musical instruments and classic cars. This sixth edition of the fair, attracted 28,000 visitors over its ten day run, almost 15,000 less than it attracted in 2011. Nonetheless, the organized proclaimed the fair to be ”the best of the past fourteen years.”

A large number of galleries helped to market themselves out at this year by making some impressive sales, some even in the early hours of the fair. It was modern and contemporary artists that made the best sales at this 2012 edition. The Richard green gallery from London sold a work by French artist Alfred Sisley for $2 million, a Le Sidaner for $1.2 million, and also sold Montague Dawson’s Battle of Trafalgar at the event. Munich’s Terminus gallery sold a Tom Wesselman work for $485,000, whilst Palm Beach’s very own Holden Luntz gallery sold a work by Ormond Gigli titled Girls in the Window for $30,000. Works by contemporary Chinese artists, as well as by recognised masters such as Calder and Picasso also found buyers over the course of the fair. Moving onto ancient art, Imperial Fine Books sold a collection of very rare books attributed to the signatories of the United States constitution for $160,000.

Among the galleries that made significant sales at the event were the Alexander Gallery, Arcature Fine Art, Art link, Avant Gallery, Christopher Kaufmann, Faberge, Garrido Gallery, Gladwell & Co., Guarisco Gallery, Jewels by Viggi, KM Fine Arts, Mark Helliar 20th century Design, Rehs Galleries, Richter’s, Rosenberg Diamonds, The Silver Fund, Stern Pissarro, Thomas Colville, and Yvel.

The 2013 edition of the AIFAF is set to take place between 5 and 10 February, again at the Palm Beach County Convention center in West Palm Beach. An invitation-only private viewing will take place on 5 February from 7:30pm.

Following the San Francisco  Museum of Art and the Grand Palais in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will take its turn in hosting an exhibition for the Stein family’s collection.  Entitled, “Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso…L’aventure des Stein” in Paris, the MET has re-baptized the exhibition under the name, “The Steins Collect- Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avant-Garde,” which will be held from 28 February to 3 June.

Originally from the US, the Steins came to Paris at the start of the Twentieth century: Gertrude, avant-garde writer with her brother Leo on the rue de Fleurus and Michael, the eldest, with his wife Sarah on rue Madame.  As the first to buy works by Matisse and Picasso, the family welcomed into their homes all the avant-garde artists and thus ended up possessing one of the most extensive collections of modern art: Renoir, Cézanne, Picasso, Matisse, Manguin, Bonnard, Vallotton, Laurencin, Gris, Masson, Picabia…over 200 works are on display.

The exhibition depicts the life story of this untraditional family who not only helped the careers of these artists, but also established “a new standard of taste in modern art.”

While Pace Gallery claims in its press release concerning the “Mythology” exhibition, to be “honoured to work with the Arshile Gorky family,” the website GalleristNY.com wonders if a new “gallery war” has been launched.

The Arshile Gorky Foundation had up until then been used to working with the Gagosian Gallery.  While exhibitions of the artist’s work have succeeded one another in different Gagosian galleries for years and while Matthew Spender, a member of the foundation’s board of directors, often wrote for the catalogs – on Gorky and his work- published by Gagosian, a representative of Pace stated, according to GalleristNY, that the gallery planned to work with the foundation.  Projects include: the “Mythology,” exhibition which will feature works from various artists, such as Arshile Gorky, and the publication of a catalog in which Marc Glimch, the President of Pace, interviews Matthew Spender.

As for the representatives of the Gagosian Gallery, they were unable to comment on the topic.

This is not the first time an issue like this has arisen.  After the death of sculptor John Chamberlain in 2011, the two galleries had a disagreement over which of the two had established a more privileged relationship with the artist.

The London Lisson Gallery will display illustrations from the artist Jorinde Voigt from 21 March to 28 April 2012.  The monographic exhibition will be the German artist’s first exhibition to be shown in the UK.

Currently living in Berlin, Voigt is best known for her large drawings composed of lines, symbols, text, and colours.  Her approach is to create a new way of looking at the world in all its complexity, diversity, and simultaneity.  To achieve this idea, she uses concepts depicting various subjects like music, philosophy, and mathematics.

Voigt works the truth behind the concepts of objectivity and subjectivity.  A photographer in her youth, she soon became frustrated by this art form because of the medium’s much too close resemblance with reality.  This is why, according to NinguneArt, she gave up photography to focus on the structure of objects and not their visual impression.

Her work is very much influenced by her studies of philosophy and literature, which she followed before taking up the Fine Arts.  Since she was a child, she has played the violin, which reflects music as another strong source of inspiration for her current works.

Fourteen paintings from Kehdine Wiley’s newest series — The World Stage: Israel — will be on display at the Jewish Museum in New York in his self-titled exhibition from 9 March to 29 July 2012.  In addition, eleven works from the museum’s collection, chosen by the artist, will also be part of the exhibition.

The exhibition is a series of portraits of young Israeli men from various religious and ethnic upbringings who  are all connected by a common homeland.  The backgrounds of the portraits are reminiscent of traditional Jewish art.  As close to two-thirds of his paintings portray Ethiopian Jews, Wiley likes to focus on  young anonymous and powerless men as his subjects.  Justifying his vision, he explains that he “knows what it feels like to exist on the ‘periphery’.” To emphasize the contrast, the painter juxtaposes the men against large-scale canvases as they strike saint-like and royal poses, all the while sporting modern, “urban”, often hip-hop style outfits.

Born in 1977, Wiley graduated from San Francisco Art Institute and Yale University receiving an MA in Fine Arts in 2001.  At the young age of 34, his works are already spread throughout forty-some museum collections, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hammer Museum, the High Museum, and the Walker Art Center.

Don't mess with Texas? How about, don't mess with Texan artists? A public sculpture planned for the city of Fort Worth will proceed as planned despite some controversy about the gun imagery contained in the design.

The Fort-Worth Star Telegram reported Tuesday the City Council gave its unanimous support for the artists' design for the sculpture titled "Vaquero de Fort Worth." Work on the sculpture stopped last year when some people objected to including the image of a gun in the sculpture.

The artwork depicts the "vaqueros," or Mexican cowboys, who played a prominent role in Texas history. The statue, which will stand 10 feet and be made of bronze, will feature a vaquero riding horseback.

Artist Tomas Bustos, who worked with David Newton on the sculpture, told the newspaper the inclusion of the gun "was accurate to the period. I'm hoping this will vindicate our actions." The depicted weapon in question is a Remington .44-caliber revolver.

Among those who objected to the design was Manuel Valdez, chairman of the Vaquero Project Core Committee, and other members of the committee who found no historic illustrations showing vaqueros with guns, according to the report. The committee was formed in 2004 to oversee the project.

The newspaper reported that statue is expected to be installed by May or June near Fort Worth's Marine Park.

RELATED:

Sarah Palin's hometown in debate over public sculpture

Mark Grotjahn's snowmen hit the slopes in Aspen

Suzanne Lacy: One artist, three weeks, 40 events

-- David Ng

Photo: A vaquero in the 1917 movie "How the Cowboy Makes His Lariat." Credit: Bray Studios Inc.

"Kinky Boots," a new musical based on the 2005 British movie and featuring a score by '80s rock icon Cyndi Lauper, is expected to open on Broadway next year. But before it does, producers are taking it to Chicago for an out-of-town tryout.

Producers have announced that the musical is set to open in October at Chicago's Bank of America Theatre. No cast has been announced yet but a recent workshop production in New York featured actors Billy Porter and Stark Sands who played, respectively, a drag queen and the inheritor of a shoe factory that has fallen on hard times.

The 2005 comedy featured Chiwetel Ejiofor in the role of Lola, the drag queen, and Joel Edgerton as Charlie, the shoe-factory owner. In the movie, Lola helps keep the factory stay afloat by transforming it into a maker of footwear for transvestites.

"Kinky Boots" would be Lauper's first attempt as a Broadway songwriter. The musician is the latest pop star to attempt to write songs for a musical. Other crossover talents include Duncan Sheik ("Spring Awakening") and U2's Bono and the Edge ("Spider-Man").

The musical is being assembled by some of the same talent from the Tony-winning "Hairspray." Harvey Fierstein has penned the book, based on the screenplay by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth. Jerry Mitchell, who directed "Hairspray," will both direct and choreograph the new show.

The Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday that the musical will be among the first to take advantage of the new Illinois tax incentives designed to attract pre-Broadway tryouts and long-running shows.

RELATED:

Pasadena Playhouse postpones 'Sleepless in Seattle' musical

Julie Taymor reaches partial settlement on 'Spider-Man' musical

Reprise Theatre Company goes on hiatus, cites financial hardship

-- David Ng

Photo: A scene from the 2005 movie "Kinky Boots," with Chiwetel Ejiofor, left, Sarah Jane Potts and Joel Edgerton. Credit: Laurie Sparham / Miramax Films

White Fungus in The Wire

There will also be an article about White Fungus in the Autumn issue of Art News New Zealand which comes out in March.

You can purchase a copy of the 12th issue of White Fungus here.

My first year of grad school at San Francisco Art Institute happened to be Renee Green’s last year as Dean of Graduate Studies.  One day while I was waiting for a class that Renee was teaching to start, she and I got to talking about the press surrounding her exhibition at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.  I remember she started laughing when I mentioned I saw her headshot in the paper.  She said that back in the day, artists weren’t required to provide an image of their face to accompany the artwork.  I slumped in my chair for the rest of that class thinking about whether artists today had any new responsibilities like that to deal with.

After class ended, I remember walking to my studio and texting a friend, “damn, we’re so lucky that we can just focus on our artwork and not worry about anything else.”  He texted back, “hell yeah, oh hey, check out this new watercolor I’m working on.”  He sent me an iPhone pic and I texted back, “it’s awesome,” but I thought it looked too purple, so I added, “maybe some more green or black.”  He texted back, “oh yeah, good tip.”

Google image search results for "iPhone," from kottke.org.

I remembering sitting in my studio trying to come up with a plan of action for a great studio day.  I grabbed my laptop from my backpack to turn on some music and I quickly logged on to Facebook to update my status with “studio day.”  My classmate in a studio down the hall just uploaded a new picture of a drawing he was working on, so I commented “you’re almost there!” and immediately he responded, “I know!” to which I immediately responded, “are you in your studio now?” to which he immediately responded, “yeah, are you here?” to which I immediately responded, “yeah, I’ll come visit after I do some work” to which someone I didn’t know responded, “wow that looks amazing – ur so talented.”

Someone updated their status with a link to an article about Renee’s show that I hadn’t read yet, so I remember clicking on it and re-sharing it with all my Facebook friends and Twitter followers.  A prominent Bay Area arts journalist tweeted the same article so a few people that I follow were now tweeting about Renee.  I was about to jump into the conversation but I saw another tweet about an art competition for grad students so I clicked on the link to check out the call.

The call for submissions was normal, so I clicked around my laptop to gather the proper images.  I remember texting my friend to ask if he was submitting to the competition, and he texted back that he was going to as soon as he finished working on his drawing.  I e-mailed my material to the competition and I went back on to Twitter but I missed my chance to join the Renee conversation, so instead I went on my own blog to write my thoughts on Renee’s show.

Google image search results for "call for submissions," from theonlyshape.com.

While I was blogging, I remember glancing at my short bio in the right-hand column of my blog and not being happy with it.  I realized this is the same bio as the one on my website, so I surfed on to my website to change my bio.  After changing my bio, I reread my artist’s statement and realized that that, too, was weird, so I sat in my studio trying to rework my statement.  Since I was updating my statement, I decided to update my CV with the upcoming student-gallery shows I was having that semester.  After I updated my CV, I remember that I had documentation of an artwork from a previous crit that I had yet to upload to my website.  I edited the documentation pics in Photoshop and put them on my website.  I tweeted that everyone should take a look at my new work.  Then I linked to my website on Facebook and I immediately got five Likes and one comment, “whoa looks sweet.”

On my way out of the grad building, I remember that I forgot to stop by my friend’s studio, but I didn’t want to climb back up the stairs, so I texted him that I had a really long day and that I was on my way home.  He said, “cool, my drawing is totally coming along!” to which I responded, “hell yeah, can’t wait to see it, send me pics later.”  On the bus, I smiled because I had such a productive studio day and I remember thinking that I’m so happy to live in a time when I can just be in my studio and really focus on my art.

"Praxis Makes Perfect | When I Was Your Age" originally appeared on the Art21 Blog

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Photo: "American Masters" looks at Cab Calloway. Credit: Artline Films / PBS

Dublin’s Kerlin gallery will present, from 2 March to 14 April 2012, an exhibition entitled ”William McKeown”. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of the Irish painter who died on 25 October 2011 at the age of 49, who had been represented by the gallery for 16 years.

Born in the Northern Irish county of Tyrone in 1962, McKeown moved to Edinburgh after his studies in London, Glasgow and Belfast. He was known for his paintings and installations that, according to the gallery, called into question our understanding of the relationship between art and nature and also brought to our attention our relationship with the infinite.

His ”A Room” exhibition took the room in which an installation is itself set up as a theme. In choosing the type and source of light, the space itself, the objects used to decorate them (especially chairs and benches) and the works featured, he aimed to create a different atmosphere and to instigate a new form of communication between the artist and the visitor.

His paintings gradually became more monochrome over the course of his career, especially over the final decade of his life. In his 2010 ”Connemara” series, McKeown used colours and themes linked with the Irish landscape and nature.

An exhibition dedicated to William McKeown is also planned at Inverleith House in Edinburgh from 12 May to 7 July 2012.

In January 2012 Artinfo magazine reported that Yayoi Kusama, often referred to as “the little dot lady”, would be working in partnership with luxury clothing brand Louis Vuitton. The collection will come out in July, coinciding with the opening of her exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York, which is taking place from 12 July to 30 September 2012.

The artistic director of Louis Vuitton, Marc jacobs, is co-designing complete limited edition product line with the Japanese artist including clothes, jewellery and bag. This is not the first time the fashion house has worked with contemporary artists; Stephen Sprouse working with the fashion house in 2001, Takashi Murakami in 2003, and Richard Prince in 2007;

2012 is an important year for the 82 year old artist. A large retrospective dedicated to her has been invited to travel to all of the major international modern and contemporary art museums, starting at the Pompidou centre in Paris in January, followed by the Tate Modern in London from February to June, before finally exhibiting in the New York’s Whitney museum from July to September.

Kusama’s quote ”my life is a dot lost amongst thousands of others..” sums up the artist’s world perfectly. A multimedia artist, she is well known for her compulsive use of dots, and for the phallic protuberances which she has found in shells, chairs and shoes since the 1960s. Kusama’s work has met great success on the art market: her work Infinity Net No.2  (1959), sold for €4 million at a sale in Christie’s, breaking the price record for a work by a living feminist artist sold at auction.

Two members of a gang of counterfeiters have been arrested in Italy. The gang was apparently using an X-ray machine in order to falsify the results of dating tests on works of art.

According to The Art Newspaper, the ring of Italian counterfeiters has been selling fake Greek and Etruscan antiques to collectors for the past two and a half years. Massimo Bordo, an expert in ceramics, would create the false pottery using a mixture of material from genuine, broken antiques and more recently clay, while Enrico Diomedi, a nurse, would use a hospital X-ray machine to falsify the results of the dating techniques used on such works. The head of the operation was Edoardo David, a famous archaeologist, while former boxer Massimo Monaco and Mariano Caopmaggi were also involved.

It is believed that Italian aristocrat the Marquis oberto Bilotti Ruggi d’Aragona is among the gang’s victims. The philanthropist and collector of Roman antiquities bought 300 works – probably all fakes – from the gang for the sum of €600,000. The Marquis also exchanged a number of valuablee objects for a number of suspected fakes. After a few months, he began to find it suspicious that he should be being offered such a number of rare objects. It was the theft of one of his historic vases – which he had refused to sell on numerous occasions – which caused him to eventually contact the authorities in April 2010, and expose the network with which he had been dealing.

At the end of 2011, the police organised a raid on the houses of Edoardo David and Massimo Bordo. Officers found more than 2,000 antiques in total at the ringleader’s house and no less than 3,000 objects – apparently counterfeits ready to be sold – at the house of Massimo Bordo. Although the origins of a large number of the pieces is currently unknown, several have already been identified as the Marquis property, and stolen.

Edoardo David and his two associates – Massimo Monaco and Mariano Capomaggi – are presently in detention in the Regina Coeli prison in Rome, waiting to face trial. Their four known accoomplices – Enrico Corradi, Massmo Bordo, Massimiliano Congiu and Enrico Diomedi – are under house arrest. The police are currently looking for other victims of the gang and trying to determine if there were others involved in the case.

Edvard Munch’s masterpiece The Scream, a painting depicting a screaming man with his hands over his eyes, is to go on sale at Sotheby’s as part of an auction of impressionist and modern art to take place in New York on 2 May.

The work is one of the most well known paintings in the world, recognisable amongst art experts and the uninitiated alike, its fame surpassed maybe only by the Mona Lisa. This version of the artwork, created in pastel in 1895 as part of Munch’s celebrated Frieze of Life series of works has only once been exhibited to the public in the UK or the US, at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. An exhibition organised for 13 April by Sotheby’s London will be the first time that members of the British public will have the opportunity to admire the work. Before the launching of the sale, the work will also be put on exhibition at Sotheby’s New York premises from 27 April.

Simon Shaw, vice-president and head of department of the impressionist and modern art department at Sotheby’s in New York said that “Given how rarely true icons come to the market it is difficult to predict The Scream’s value. The recent success of masterpieces at Sotheby’s suggests that the price could exceed $80 million.” Currently, the record for the most expensive artwork sold at auction goes to Picasso’s Nu au plateau de sculpteur (1932), which sold for $106.4 million at Christie’s New York in May 2010.

There are four versions of The Scream in existence. The first, created in 1893, is a tempera which is housed at the National Gallery of Norway. A second, a pastel from the same year, and a tempera and oil work dating to 1910 are both in the possession of the Munch Museum in Oslo. The example to be sold is the third version. It is the only version of the work in private hands, its present owner being a businessman named Petter Olsen, the son of Munch’s friend, neighbour and patron, Thomas Olsen. The work sets itself apart from the other three in a number of ways. Firstly, it is the most colourful. It is also the only version wherein one of the two figures in the background is turned towards the city, and the only version to have had its frame inscribed with a poem of Munch’s own composition.

The  vibrant, blood-red sky gives the onlooker an insight into the reality of the violent angst experienced by Munch on a hill just outside of Oslo. On 22 January 1892, Munch explained the inspiration for the work : ”I was walking along a path with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.” Like his Dutch contemporary Vincent Van Gogh, Munch was aiming to depict a new form of reality, the origins of which rested in psychological experience rather than visual accuracy. Artistically, the painting was particularly innovative as it projected the spiritual inner state of the artist, the influence of which is still felt in art today. This work is an expression of existential angst and modern anxiety, which has been referenced by everyone from Andy Warhol to the Simpsons. The Scream and Munch himself have been the subject of numerous books, articles, academic studies, and films.

Born in 1863, Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch often concentrated on the themes of life, death, fear and love in his work. His art was labelled as ”degenerate” by the Nazis, and was removed from German museums during the 30s and 40s. Upon his death in 1944, Munch left around 1,000 paitings, 4,500 watercolours and drawings and six sculptures to the city of Oslo, where the Munch Museum would later be erected in his honour.

With this major work of art, Sotheby’s may well witness another world record for the sale of an artwork.

Jean-Marc Prévost has replaced Françoise Cohen as the head of Carré d’art, the contemporary art museum in Nîmes.

Jean-Marc Prévost studied at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne and at the École nationale du patrimoine where he received degrees in Art History and Philosophy.  Curator of the Direction des musées in Marseilles in 1991 and Director of Musée départemental d’art contemporain in Rochechouart  in 1992, he became Head of artistic creation at the Ministry of Culture’s Délégation of Fine Arts in 2002.

Le Journal des Arts reports that he was the Curator of visuals arts at the Paris Autumn Festival in 2005.  While assuming these various successive positions, Prévost wrote a number of works on modern art.

As for his most recent position, Prévost told a journalist at ObjectifGard that “The Carré d’art is one France’s most important museums.  It even has international fame thanks to its collaborations with foreign exhibitions.  In addition, it’s a medium-sized museum — I am a curator, not a business manager— embedded in a library, a place of creation and research that’s able to attract people to the museum.  The museum plays an important role not only in terms of public awareness, but also as a place of reference with connections that put the arts in perspective, as well as a place of information.”

The Wako Works of Art gallery in Tokyo is exhibiting James Welling’s photographs from his project entitled “Wyeth” until 10 March.  This is the seventh solo exhibition for the artist at this gallery.

This series of photographs is in homage to the American artist, Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009).  The naturalist painter depicted his home region of the North East of the U.S. in several of his canvases.  Welling visited this area of the country in search of the houses which Wyeth used as subjects for his pieces. Finding the light in Wyeth’s paintings and isolating different elements that the painter had brought together in one single painting (houses, cabins, fields, etc.), Welling portrays the reconstructive work in his photographs.

Born in Connecticut in 1951, James Welling started off in illustration, watercoloring, and sculpture before becoming known for his photographs.  In 1970, he taught himself the basics of photography.  He currently lives on both coasts of the U.S. but spends most of his time as a teacher for the Photography Department at UCLA.

Founded in 1992 in the Hatsudai neighborhood in the center of Tokyo, Wako Works of Art relocated to Roppongi in 2011, the “American” neighborhood of the Japan’s capital.

Italian undersecretary of state for art, Roberto Cecchi, and four other public servants from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage in Rome are to go on trial from 10 May 2012. They have been accused of having bought a false cross by Michelangelo in 2008, using Italian state funds. The work was acquired for €3.2 million, although the seller had originally been asking for €18 million. It is believed that, although the crucifix is from the renaissance, that it is in fact not from Michelangelo’s studio. According to the court of enquiry, it should not, therefore, be worth more than €700,000.

The public servants have not been accused of having deliberately purchased a false work, but rather of not having followed the correct procedures for making such a purchase, and of failing to consult their superiors. Cecchi, the director of the ministry, and his colleagues  were no doubt blinded by the hype surrounding the piece, which was discovered in 2004, and which has received praise from such illustrious figures as the Pope. According the website, Journal des arts, a simple enquiry should have been able to discover that the crucifix had been bought for €10,000 in the US, where a true Michelangelo crucifix would take up to €100 million.

An article in the New York Times published in April 2009 which revealed the scandal, quoting specialists who rejected the attribution of the work to Michelangelo. The American newspaper pointed out that neither Ascanio Condivi, Giorgio Vasari nor Michelangelo’s official biographies suggest that the wooden sculpture is by the artist’s hand.

Roberto Cecchi, an architect by training, argues that he received all necessary parties were consulted before the purchase was made, and that specialists consulted at the time of buying indicated that the piece was indeed authentic. In response to these claims, head of the ministry’s high council Salvatore Settis, who sent Cecchi an e-mail stating that the purchase was an ”excellent decision”, has argued that he was not the one responsable, and that in any case he is no expert in 15^th century religious art. He also told artinfo.com that he did not in fact have the opportunity to see the object first hand.

This case is being played out in an Italy in full grip of the European crisis, and whose government under the leadership of Mario Monti has been leading a campaign against fraud and waste in the country. Since its acquisition in 2008, the crucifix, which measures 41cm has been exhibited on a number of occasions, despite protests as to its authenticity. The government has been accused of having made use of an object of questionable authenticity as propaganda, describing it as ”a cultural ambassador for Italy”, instead of supporting Italian museums and heritage.

The Italian public is highly anticipating the outcome of the case.  As for the object in question, it is curently being held in an undisclosed location.

Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery is the transcription of a handwritten recipe collection that came to Martha Washington through her first husband, Daniel Custis. By the time she received it, in 1749, its value would have been mostly sentimental, not culinary; the old family recipes date from Jacobean and even Elizabethan England. This we learn from the book’s spirited annotator, Karen Hess, whose commentary, published with the transcription in 1981 by Columbia University Press, works like salt: without it, the old recipes, filled with antiquated spelling and vocabulary, would be hard to choke down. With it, the reader—this reader—can’t get enough. (“Lady comes from Old English words meaning kneader of loaves,” Hess writes. How was I muddling along in my floury apron without this fact?)

Karen Hess, who was given access to the manuscript by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, was an instinctive cook, trained at her grandmother’s side between the two world wars in a Nebraska community where the competition to prepare the tastiest supper for the pastor was, by her own account, fierce. Her contempt for the use of flour—“demon flour”!—in sauces was the result of years of cooking and tasting. Her interest in food deepened in the sixties, when her husband, John, a reporter for The New York Times, took the family to Paris for a nine-year stint. France did its thing, and the housewife eventually transformed herself, despite her lack of formal training, into a pioneer of food scholarship. “No other aspect of human endeavor has been so neglected by historians as home cooking,” she wrote. “I cannot help but feel that this neglect is also related to the ageless depreciation of the work of women.” In her books she strove to re-create our domestic past accurately, without sentiment. After Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery, Hess published annotated editions of several more important early American cookbooks, such as Mary Randolph’s Virginia Housewife and The Carolina Rice Kitchen, a social history of rice cultivation in South Carolina, with an emphasis on the role of knowledgeable slaves. In 1985, she became one of the founding members of the Culinary Historians of New York.

The book that launched her career, however, came out in 1977, and was cowritten with John. The Taste of America was a scathing indictment of American food culture in the twentieth century. Conventional wisdom held that early Americans were too busy surviving and fearing God to bother with their appetites, but the Hesses convincingly described a “colonial Eden” in a generous new land where one couldn’t help but eat well. (Though the New Englanders had to work a little harder than the Virginians.) Back then, “local and seasonal” was not a cliché or a trend but a fact. “The Founding Fathers were as far superior to our present political leaders in the quality of their food as they were in the quality of their prose and of their intelligence,” they write, giving us as examples not only Thomas Jefferson’s Frenchified tastes and habits—a surprising proportion of his correspondence concerned the purchase of wine—but also Benjamin Franklin’s ardent defense of the tastiness of corn (“one of the most agreeable and wholesome grains in the world … a delicacy beyond expression”). By contrast, they cite a New York Times account of Gerald Ford’s habitual lunch: “a ball of cottage cheese, over which he pours a small pitcherful of A.1. Sauce, a sliced onion or a quartered tomato, and a small helping of butter-pecan ice cream.” Eating was, Ford said, “a waste of time.” Read More »

The Wall Street Journal went to the opening of the Cindy Sherman retrospective where their party reporter ran into Marilyn Minter, Terence Koh, Jenny Holzer and Chuck Close. What do artists discuss when they get together for drinks? Marilyn Minter has the answer:

Ms. Minter, known for her erotic photography, said she and Ms. Sherman have shared iced teas. “What was the last thing we talked about?” the artist asked. “Her Audi TT! Cindy’s got a really cool sports car—the same one I want. We have an A7, but I want hers.” Is the TT the official sports car of female artists? No, “it is just the cool sports car for people over 40,” Ms. Minter decided.

The Many Faces of an Artist (Wall Street Journal)