mirrors are cool

“Souvenir de Chine” by Larytta, directed by Körner Union.

Ex-Director of MOCA Heads to Dallas

From a New York Times article:

Just a month after Jeremy Strick resigned under pressure as director of the beleaguered Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, he has landed a new job. Starting March 2 he will be director of the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, the institution confirmed.

The appointment was in the works well before November, when it first came to light that the Museum of Contemporary Art was on the brink of financial collapse. It later negotiated a $30 million lifeline from Eli Broad, the Los Angeles philanthropist, as part of a rescue plan. That arrangement involved a restructuring of its management and Mr. Strick’s resignation. During his tenure the museum’s endowment fell to about $6 million last year from nearly $50 million in 1999.

Currently at the Norton Simon Museum

Matisse's Amours: Illustrations of Pierre de Ronsard's Love Poems
February 13-June 8, 2009

Vermeer's A Lady Writing
Through February 9

Ruth Weisberg: Guido Cagnacci and the Resonant Image
Through March 2

Under the Influence: Art-Inspired Art
Through March 2

On the Enlightened Path: Jain Art from India
Through July 13

The Norton Simon Museum is located in Pasadena at 411 W. Colorado Blvd. at the corner of Orange Grove. Parking at the Museum is free. Show your student ID for free admission.

The Museum is open Wednesday through Monday from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Friday from 12:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The Museum is closed Tuesday.

For more information, www.nortonsimon.org

Warhol and Lichtenstein Artworks Stolen

Officials say one or more thieves broke into a Swedish museum and stole work done by American pop icons Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

Police say the break-in happened at the Abergs Museum near Stockholm early Friday.

Museum officials say two Warhol and three Lichtenstein paintings were stolen as well as a Disney movie-poster.

The museum estimates the value of the stolen artwork at around $500,000.

Police had no immediate suspects in the case.

More information here.

Artist Makes Joke of EU

An artist commissioned to make a sculpture embodying the pride of the European Union (EU) decides to make a mockery of the 27 member nations instead.

EU Has "Art Attack" Over Sculpture

Czech-born artist David Cerny, 41, was reportedly paid to commission 27 artists - the number representing each member state of the EU - for a work that represented the European Union.

Instead, Mr Cerny pocketed the £350,000 and came up with an idea all by himself.

The trouble was, the sculpture did not celebrate the EU states, it insulted them, with cheekily hidden messages that have only just been discovered.

The country of Bulgaria, for example, is depicted as a toilet, while Germany is seen as a Swastika-style road map. The Netherlands is represented as embracing Islam with minarets poking out of flooded land and France, simply, as a nation of people on strike.

The 172-square-foot mosaic was unveiled on Monday in its official resting place in front of the European Council building.

Andrew Wyeth dies at 91

From the Herald Tribune obituary:

Andrew Wyeth, one of the most popular and also most lambasted artists in the history of American art, a reclusive linchpin in a colorful family dynasty of artists from tiny Chadds Ford, Penn., whose precise realist views of hardscrabble rural life became icons of national culture and sparked endless debates about the nature of modern art, has died at his home in suburban Philadelphia, The Associated Press reported.

View Prado Art Collection on Google Earth

Yesterday, Google and the Prado Museum of Madrid, Spain announced that you can now view high-resolution images of fourteen of the museum's well-known paintings through Google Earth. Google stated, “The paintings have been photographed in very high resolution and contain as many as 14,000 million pixels (14 gigapixels)... With this high level resolution you are able to see fine details such as the tiny bee on a flower in The Three Graces (by Rubens), delicate tears on the faces of the figures in The Descent from the Cross (by Roger van der Weyden) and complex figures in The Garden of Earthly Delights (by El Bosco).” The fourteen paintings also include works by Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez and Hieronymus Bosch. In addition, there is a 3D reproduction of the museum.

San Diego Road Trip

Join the Chaffey Art Organization (CAO) on Saturday, January 10, 2008 to tour the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (MCASD) and the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA). If you are interested in carpooling, meet in the Trader Joe’s parking lot near Chaffey College at 9:30 AM. Otherwise, we will meet at the MCASD at 12:00.