Cronicas

Tomorrow an exhibit of contemporary Mexican art centered around the drug war opens at FotoFest. If you go, please please bring me back a brochure and any other materials you can get. I don't know anything about FotoFest, but I would like to.

Book recommendation

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For those of you out there aspiring to be globally gifted art and math nerds, here's the book for you: the new edition and reprinting of The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art. Have fun with that.

(Another) Road Trip to Dallas?

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When I was at the Prado exhibit Friday afternoon, I was reminded of the Meadows Museum in Dallas.

Mr. Meadows visited the Prado in Madrid, and was so impressed with the art that he began his own collection of Spanish art (Mr. Meadows was kind of a super-rich guy). He donated the art, and millions of dollars to make a museum for the art, to Southern Methodist University in the '60s. A new building was constructed about 10 years ago.

The Meadows is one of the world's largest collections of Spanish art outside of Spain, and is considered by many to be the highest-quality Spanish collection other than the Prado. The Meadows is one of Dallas's secret gems. From their web site:

The Meadows Museum collection includes masterpieces by some of the world’s greatest painters: El Greco, Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, Miró and Picasso. Highlights of the collection include Renaissance altarpieces, monumental Baroque canvases, exquisite Rococo oil sketches, poly-chrome wood sculptures, Impressionist landscapes, modernist abstractions, a comprehensive collection of the graphic works of Goya, and a select group of sculptures by major 20th-century masters, including Auguste Rodin, Jacques Lipchitz, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, David Smith and Fritz Wotruba. At the base of the plaza is a 40-by-90 foot moving sculpture, Wave, designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Teenagers are so funny

Or at least people pretending to talk like teenagers are. Thanks to Travis for passing along Classic Art Interpreted by the Modern Teenager. Enjoy.

In case you're ready to move into IAE

Here's an article on some people who made a serious--though sometimes mocking--study of the dense and often ridiculous language written about art. The authors call it International Art English. It's often referred to simply as Art Speak. As much fun as it is to make fun of IAE, you may actually want to work on your fluency.

Path of Beauty

Here's the way we like to imagine our trips to the museum. Here's the actual trip.

The Forger

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Here  (and here and here) are some links to the story of Mark Landis, an art forger who passed fakes off to dozens of museums, sometimes posing as a Jesuit Priest. But Landis has not been charged with any crime, because he never received any money for his forgeries. He just gave the (fake) art away. Apparently he feels philanthropy is the greatest feeling.

I don't know if this is a case of the truth being stranger than fiction, but it's surely a case where the truth feels like it came right out of fiction. Landis's story would make a great novel or film.

Escape from Tomorrow

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I'm going to make two (safe and unoriginal) predictions about this movie: lots of people are going to talk about it; almost nobody will be able to see it. It was shot almost entirely at Disney parks, without Disney's permission or even knowledge.

On trees and divorce and museums and vandalism and...

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What happens when two guys marry a tree, and the tree is taken on as a work of art at a museum, and then the museum removes the tree? Find out the full story, which is still developing this week, about the Art Guys and the Menil.

On food and faith

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There's more and more talk lately about the Art of Food, and whether it is the next major medium for art, or whether that's all a lot of silliness. If you're just now beginning to think about Culinary Arts as a real thing and not just a fancy name for cookin', then this article may be a great place to start.

Update

The alleged Menil Picasso vandal surrendered yesterday at the Mexican border.

More really old things discovered in England

1. A Titian painting that somehow got lost and forgotten in the National Gallery.

2. A Roman amphitheater.

I don't know about you, but I'm imagining some sort of Antiques Roadshow where giant giant things--like the amphitheater and the church where Richard III is buried--are brought to appraisers by stunned local farmers.

Finally

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December has been a quiet month for the art blogs. I've been reading daily, but finding little to share. And then the Winter Break happened. But when I started looking through my reader today, I found a refreshingly interesting headline: "Where Painting and Photography Blur." This short essay looks at a number of artists currently showing in New York who keep up the rivalry and confusion between the two media. Enjoy!