Jeff Koons

Last week the AP Art History teacher message board got on a fun digression about art superstar Jeff Koons. If you're not familiar:

Here is a Vanity Fair piece about him. Warning--this has a photo of a man's bare backside.

Here is a review of Koons's show at the Whitney. The review calls the art "thin, puerile, and derivative."

Here is a comparison of his giant sculpture in New York and Kara Walker's giant sculpture in New York.

Here is Koons explaining his Lady Gaga cover.

Looking for a new watch?

This one has a microscopic sculpture inside it, which you can see using a specially built microscope--inside the watch. There have only been a few made, and they're surely a bargain at $1.5 million.

Art teacher has missing Banksy work

An early Banksy stencil work disappeared when the house it was painted on underwent renovation. Four years later, a local art teacher reveals she's been hiding it under her bed the whole time.

Expect no such surprises from me.

80s at the Fort Worth Modern

I've been saying for at least a decade, unironically, that I hope to retire in Fort Worth, Texas. Part of it is surely nostalgic: growing up in Dallas, Ft. Worth is always the fun-house mirror, showing you yourself, but accentuating the warps and waves.

But it also has a lot to do with shows like this. The art of New York in the 80s (I can't think of much art produced in the 80s outside of New York--Los Angeles if I'm really trying hard) needs a big show, and it needs to be outside of New York. It needs to be staged outside the circus itself. And the thing about Fort Worth is that it's the perfect place for such a show. Between the Kimble, the Amon Carter, and the Fort Worth Modern, Dallas's neighbor is one of the best art museum cities in the world. It's got a sensibility that goes beyond provincial, but understands itself for what it is.

I want to see this show. I want to return to the Modern, a truly beautiful building, and I want to spend more time in Fort Worth.

Houston Fine Art Fair

Once again I will not be able to go to the Houston Fine Art Fair because of schedule conflicts. But that doesn't mean that you can't go. Please consider it, and if you go please let me know what it's like.

And suddenly there's a lot of news about Stonehenge

Underground scans have been completed, and it turns out that Stonehenge is actually part of a much bigger complex. Those aliens really did a lot of work!

The wacky-est art auction

Japanese producer and designer NIGO realized that if he waited until he was dead to have an estate sale (as is the custom), he wouldn't get to see the results. So he's selling a lot of his personal stuff in an art auction at Sotheby's. And it's quite a collection of stuff.

Old(er) Art

Cave etchings made by neanderthals around 40,000 BCE are now the oldest known art works. If they are, in fact, art.

New sculpture outside the MFAH

There's a new lightning-struck tree going up outside the MFAH. It's made of cast bronze, and it came from Italy.

Art headline of the year

"Robert Rauschenberg painting helps solve 1950s murder."

My favorite artist we don't cover in AP Art History

Here is a nice summary of Yves Klein, his short but brilliant career, and his very own color.