Amazon.com Art


No matter if you applaud, condemn, or shrug off the commodification of art, there's no longer any use denying that art has become a commodity: it's got an Amazon.com store. It launched in beta form about a week ago. Happy shopping!

Burning Down the (replica) House


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I'm not sure what to make of this. Artist Chris Larson built a replica of an iconic mid-century house...so he could burn it down in public.

UMoCA

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Highlights of yesterday's visit to the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City:

1. You may have seen this contemporary painting on the web, but I got to see
the glorious original, along with some counterparts.

2. Seeing Chris Burden's television commercials from the 1970s. Why was I never made aware of these before?  "Leonardo Da Vinci. Michelangelo. Rembrandt. Vincent Van Gogh. Pablo Picasso. Chris Burden." Brilliant!

I'll bet the Whitney has very fancy ketchup


The Whitney Museum has a new logo, and you won't be the first person to say it looks familiar.

Kinda related: for years and years I have wanted a t-shirt with the message "When I am empty please dispose of me properly," taken from the Whataburger drink cups. If you run across one please get it for me--I'll pay you back.

Follow-up on Picasso attack

The Houston artist vandal who spray-painted a work by Picasso at the Menil Collection was sentenced to two years in prison. He's already served five months, and expects to get parole soon and go back to UH to finish his degree. Put in context of college antics and not art or vandalism, this is actually pretty good.
  "Duuuude, I went to Florida and got so wasted! What did you do?"
  "I made a criminal and misguided artistic statement that resulted in damage to a Picasso. I was in the national news. I then fled to Mexico, turned myself in through international diplomacy, and sat in jail for a bit before getting a BA. That's what I did."

Paintings and T-shirts

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When we talk about the ways that art influences us, we usually have emotional and lofty ideas in mind. But take a few moments to listen to this podcast from Planet Money to hear how a Frank Stella painting and an un-finished museum in the Middle East have made a huge impact on...t-shirts. And other clothing, too.

Unwoven Light


Spending some time at the Rice Gallery is always one of the highlights of my summer, and this year looks to be just as good. Unwoven Light is made of sections of twisted, suspended chain-link fence with the negative space filled in with colored glass. It shimmers and shines. I'm looking forward to this!

The Making of Cite

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You know the cool hand-made issue of Cite that y'all grabbed so enthusiastically this week? Here's a video on the process they used to make it.

On Bush and Degas


In The Smart Set, Morgan Meis writes a short and astute commentary on the paintings by George W. Bush--and compares Bush to Degas.