©STERLING RUBY STUDIO/COURTESY GAGOSIAN GALLERY/ROBERT WEDEMEYER
News in Briefs
Sterling Ruby is working in a spectacularly commercial fashion thanks to what gets called “patronage” from Calvin Klein. On top of a big advertising campaign, the artist has redesigned the style company’s office building—complete with work enlisting his own skivvies—and its flagship store. [The New York Times]
Power of Art
A rousing case in favor of the NEA and art’s beautiful uselessness. “A government that reaffirms the value of the arts,” it suggests, “is one that might just yet believe in the dignity of the governed.” [The Forward]
Dana Schutz talks with David Salle in a Q&A conducted before the controversy caused by a certain painting in a certain biennial. [Modern Painters]
The editorial board of the New York Post used its writing foot to pen an editorial against protests of Schutz’s painting of Emmett Till. [New York Post]
The sale of a single Homage to the Square at Christie’s provided seed money for the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation’s community-minded cultural hub in Africa, which is now two years old. [The Art Newspaper]
Museums
In its first six months, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. has drawn 1.2 million visitors—positioning it among the most-popular Smithsonian sites. [The Washington Post]
On Miguel Falomir, incoming director of the Prado in Madrid. [The Economist]
Shows
From the Met Breuer, Jason Farago praises Lygia Pape’s newly opened survey show—an apt answer to that vexing question: “What do you do when your government cracks, and when dreams for the future die?” [The New York Times]
“The Exhibit That Transformed Photography” (and/or “Arbus, Friedlander, and Winogrand sounded more like the name of a law firm”). [The New Yorker]
For its springtime soiree “Art in Bloom,” the Milwaukee Art Museum brings in 30-plus flower arrangements and displays them with and among the art.
Fox 6 Now
Misc.
Tabitha Soren, decades after stardom via MTV News, takes great baseball pictures. [The Washington Post]
Nobel laureate Bob Dylan endured a rare interview in advance of a triple album including takes on standards such as “Stormy Weather.” [The Boston Globe]