Friday, December 10, 2010

Recommended Reading

Jacob Jordaens, The-Four-Evangelists, ca. 1625-30, oil on canvas, Louvre
ARTINFO.com has a couple of informative posts today.
More Picassos discovered -- it's become even more complicated:
MOUANS-SARTOUX, France— As a French art crime squad continues to investigate the provenance of the 271 works by Picasso that Pierre Le Guennec, the artist's former electrician, has claimed were gifts, another trove of Picassos has also made the news. The artist is said to have given several works to his chauffeur, Maurice Bresnu, who in 1991 bequeathed the collection to his widow, Jacqueline Bresnu. Following her death in 2009, the works were scheduled to be auctioned by Drouot today, but the heirs unexpectedly decided to postpone the sale without explaining why. Now, Pierre Le Guennec has revealed that Jacqueline Bresnu is a cousin and that he and his wife Danièle are among those who will inherit this new cache of Picassos.
They also have an excellent up-to-date summary of the Wojnarowicz video censorship controversy at the National Portrait Gallery.

Steven Colbert defends the removal of the video, saying that the decision was "based on the finest aesthetic criteria — Republicans threatened their funding." And while you're at it, watch his show with Steve Martin, Frank Stella, Shepard Fairey and Andres Serrano.
 
Blu’s MOCA mural being whitewashed (via Unurth, images by Casey Caplowe)

Another potential censorship controversy MAY be taking place at Jeffrey Deitch's Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Deitch commissioned street artist Blu to paint a mural on the walls of the museum and on December 9th it was whitewashed over. Some think it's a Deitch publicity stunt -- a definitely possibility. For current information on this, go to  MSN's Good Magazine.

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