DIGITAL ADVANCES
Sree Sreenivasan, the Met’s chief digital officer, discusses the museum’s brand-new website. “People ask me: What is your biggest competition? Is it MoMA? Guggenheim? Our competition is Netflix. Candy Crush. It’s life in 2016,” he said. [Fast Company]
Google put on a show and auction in San Francisco that solely featured works made by computers. Each work was made using an algorithm that relied on artistic and mathematical values to determine quality. [Wall Street Journal]
Could online database Invaluable be a good measure of how the art market is doing? [Bloomberg]
ARTISTS ON ART
Gerhard Richter has written an open letter to protest the closure of the Museum Morsbroich in Germany. “A public art collection is not a financial investment that can be plundered depending on the cash situation. It is a piece of art history and represents the cultural memory of its trustees,” Richter writes. [Artforum]
Tony Oursler remembers David Bowie. “[S]ometimes when he thought it had gotten too highbrow he would say with a smile, ‘It’s only rock ’n’ roll,’ ” the video artist recalls. [Artforum]
MARKET MOVEMENTS
Bonhams has fired eight members of its Hong Kong staff, most notably Magnus Renfrew, the deputy chairman of the auction house’s Asia branch. [The Art Newspaper]
MUSEUM MOVEMENTS
After 20 years of being director, James Snyder will now be the Israel Museum’s international president. He assumes his new position in January 2017. [The Art Newspaper]
EXTRAS
Advisory service Art Smart is now leading private Met tours that focus on works featuring food in them. For $150, a historian can also guide you through a post-tour tasting. [Forbes]
Geta Brătescu at Barbara Weiss. [Contemporary Art Daily]