In contrast to the decades-long court battle fought by a Pasadena museum with the heir of an art dealer to keep a pair of $24 million, 400-year-old paintings which had been seized by a Nazi leader during World War II, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art Board voted last week to return a valuable painting it had acquired under similar circumstances.
The masterpieces in both cases had been taken in forced sales from Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker in 1940 by Hermann Göring, Hitler’s henchman who created the Gestapo, the feared Nazi secret police.
Glenn Zucman's Business Cards
Over the weekend, I attended WordCamp Los Angeles and ran into my friend and fellow educator Glenn Zucman. Though I suspect we both know where to find each other (online via our many websites), we traded business cards and chatted about business cards and art for a bit.
Because Glenn is such a creative genius, I wanted to take a moment to share his brilliant business card idea which I loved. Since he does some painting in his work, he’s using variously colored paint chips (choose your favorite color, natch) as business cards over which he’s using a stamp and ink to add on his contact details. What a great mixed-media idea using “found art” for an artists’ business cards.
What I loved even more is that he not only found some nice sized paint chips, which are about twice the size of a typical business card, but he found chips for a paint brand which he actually likes and endorses.
Elvis Presley returned from his years in the army to record one of his biggest hits, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” But he could never quite get the lyrics right. Why? Revisionist History puts the King of Rock and Roll on the couch.
I expected Gladwell to circle back around to the opening song about beating the dog, but he left us hanging…
"It is no secret that David Lynch, the writer-director-composer-painter, has an unusual relationship with Bob's Big Boy," begins a 1999 Los Angeles Times article on the auteur of films like Eraserhead and Blue Velvet. "For seven years in the 1980s he ate lunch there every day, ordering cup after cup of over-sweetened coffee and a single chocolate milkshake while scribbling notes on Bob's little square napkins." He took pains, notes reporter Amy Wallace, "to arrive at Bob's at precisely 2:30 p.m. each day. The reason: It increased the odds that he would encounter perfection."
The Royal Academy in London turned down a work by “Bryan S. Gaakman” for an exhibition, then asked Banksy — who had made it — if he had a submission.
This reminds me a bit of episode one of Revisionist History, though the way it is presented is much more cutsey with a soupcon of aw-shucks. They really should do more blind screening of artwork the way that orchestras in the US are typically doing blind auditions these days.
Birmingham, 1963. The image of a police dog viciously attacking a young black protester shocks the nation. The picture, taken in the midst of one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous marches, might be the most iconic photograph of the civil rights movement. But few have ever bothered to ask the people in the famous photograph what they think happened that day. It’s more complicated than it looks.
CREDIT - Bill Hudson, AP“The Foot Soldier” by Ronald S. McDowell
What a stunning and unexpected story. I do so love this podcast.
In 1984, Elvis Costello released what he would say later was his worst record: Goodbye Cruel World. Among the most discordant songs on the album was the forgettable “The Deportees Club.” But then, years later, Costello went back and re-recorded it as “Deportee,” and today it stands as one of his most sublime achievements.
“Hallelujah” is about the role that time and iteration play in the production of genius, and how some of the most memorable works of art had modest and undistinguished births.
And here I thought I knew a lot about the story of Hallelujah. I haven’t read any of the books on its history, nor written any myself, but this short story does have a good bit I’ve not heard before in the past. I did read quite a bit when Cohen passed away, and even spent some time making a Spotify playlist with over five hours of covers.
The bigger idea here of immediate genius versus “slow cooked” genius is the fun one to contemplate. I’ve previously heard stories about Mozart’s composing involved his working things out in his head and then later putting them on paper much the same way that a “cow pees” (i.e. all in one quick go or a fast flood.)
Another interesting thing I find here is the insanely small probability that the chain of events that makes the song popular actually happens. It seems worthwhile to look at the statistical mechanics of the production of genius. Perhaps applying Ridley’s concepts of “Ideas having sex” and Dawkin’s “meme theory” (aka selfish gene) could be interestingly useful. What does the state space of genius look like?
Since its creation in 1499, Michelangelo's Pietà has inspired emotion, faith, and imitation through its elegant depiction of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. Yet few know the secrets that are still being uncovered about this centuries-old statue.
We just wrapped up development on Lightwalk, an interactive art installation living at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. For a number of reasons, this has been one of the most interesting projects I've ever worked on. There is the obvious wow factor of the installation itself, but we also developed a whole suite of dev tools running behind the scenes that not only keep the installation running, but also enable engagement from ACU students in multiple ways. It's this tie between hardware and software that makes the project truly shine, it's taking art and making it sm-art, it's the internet of things but it's actually interesting, and it's what I'm going to be talking about today.
This is a cool art installation! I’d like to have one please… It’s like a miniature version of the installation at Los Angeles International Airport, but small enough to fit in my front yard. If only the LAX version was controllable like this one!
Ian Bremmer, the president of the Eurasia Group, and Michael Hanna, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, on Donald Trump's first foreign trip of his presidency. A discussion of Robert Mueller's special counsel appointment with John Carlin, the former assistant Attorney General for national security and Chief of Staff to Robert Mueller. Gabe Sherman and Jim Rutenberg reflect on the legacy of the late media titan Roger Ailes, known for launching Fox News in 1996. Adam Lindemann, an art collector and gallery owner who held the previous auction record for a Jean Michel Basquiat painting with his sale of Untitled (Devil) for $57.3 million last year.
I haven’t been following the deeper analysis of Trump’s Middle East trip, but Ian Bremmer’s pre-analysis here which I’ll synopsize as Trump is taking a cheese-puff trip to areas where he’s likely to be loved, adored, and appreciated (surprise!!) and which the US won’t really benefit from in the coming decades seems sadly correct. I suppose it’s better for him to focus on his vanity rather than destroying value.
I could have appreciated another 20 minutes on Ailes and analysis on his ongoing influence, but then again, it’s just as well to relegate him to the dustbin of history.
Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History
