In the last few weeks, Paul McCarthy has catapulted into the public imagination as the infamous artist firmly behind Paris’s ill-fated “Tree” (aka #pluggate).
Cat Weaver
Independent curator, Cat Weaver is the Brooklyn-based writer and editor of The Art Machine, a blog that covers the art market in all of its gossipy glory. Formerly Cat wrote How To Talk About Art for Sugarzine, a New York culture and review magazine. She is currently a contributing blogger to the Huffington Post.
Posted inArt
How To Talk About Paul McCarthy
What, I ask you, should one expect if one asks artist Paul McCarthy to create a Christmas tree for the place of honor at a renowned, must-attend art fair? Well, it’s Paul McCarthy, so there are only two possible outcomes: a turd or a butt plug.
Posted inArt
MoMA’s Postconceptual Curators
Ever since 2009, when the Museum of Modern Art expanded its Department of Media to include performance art (it is now the Department of Media and Performance Art), it has been both praised and criticized for its focus on acquiring transdisciplinary and postconceptual work that is often ephemeral, like sets of instructions passed on by word of mouth — things that belong to everyone.
Posted inArt
How to Talk About Norman Rockwell
You must, and shall, begin every single conversation about Norman Rockwell by addressing the question: “Is it art?” And then you must, and shall, say: “It is illustration.”
Posted inArt
How to Talk About Oscar Murillo
I know what you’re thinking. There can’t be a ‘how to talk about Oscar Murillo’ because we don’t have a decade or so of commentary, he’s too new to have talking points. He’s 28 for God’s sake, you protest.
Posted inArt
At the Armory Show, Dealer’s Delight
On the penultimate day of the Armory Show, galleries were reporting sold out booths, sales pushed from in-house inventory, new connections and clients discovered, and not one bit of weariness.
Posted inArt
How to Talk About Art: Christopher Wool Edition (#H2TAA)
Even though Wool has been blue-chip long enough (since 2010) to make him a staple on a newbie collector’s wish list and the likely star of many a speculator’s wet dream, post-auction media rhapsodizing about the “record price” “achieved” by his 1988 painting “Apocalypse Now” has become the gateway to any conversation about him, at least for the next week or so — or until the show at the Guggenheim ends.
Posted inArt
How to Talk About Art: Banksy’s 3 Ps (#H2TAA)
The best way to begin talking about Banksy, right now, following his October New York Residency, would be to NOT talk about Banksy. Not just because of the press overload, but because there’s something big that the media has been ignoring … and that’s context.
Posted inUncategorized
How to Talk About Art: Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud Edition (#H2TAA)
As Christie’s preps to sell off Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” for a possible record price of $100 million, it may be a good time to bone up on your talking points for both of these canonized artists.
Posted inArt
How to Talk About Art: Brevity Is Not Sol LeWitt Edition (#H2TAA)
Did I hear you sigh with half relief/half regret thinking you would never have to talk about Sol LeWitt again? Poor fool, that time will never come!
Posted inOpinion
Will the Art Market Ever Regulate Itself?
Regulation in the world of art commerce is a troublesome word.
Posted inOpinion
Mr. Brainwash’s Brain-dead Copyright Defense
Warhol settled three times, and then played by the rules. Jeff Koons settled four times and then won. Sherry Levine avoids intellectual property pitfalls by agreeing not to sell. The Shep lost a big one to AP, but has otherwise ducked controversy. And Richard Prince currently rules the co-opting cadre with his recent appeals court trouncing of photographer Patrick Cariou. In each case, the defendants seemed to have learned some lessons, done their homework, and wrestled the law to the ground.
