COURTESY METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
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Vividness
After removing its frame and studying how it had faded, conservators at Tate Britain discovered that a Vincent van Gogh watercolor was once “not as dreary as it looks.” To wit: “The true color of Van Gogh’s sky and river in The Oise at Auvers is not a coffee-stain brown but a vivid pink.” [The Guardian]
The New Yorker went to see the Guggenheim Museum’s current Robert Mapplethorpe with Matt Smith and Ondi Timoner, the star and director, respectively, of a new biopic about the famed photographer. “If he were making these pictures today, with the modern conversation about what it means to be a man, and be a woman, he’d be lauded as being right on point,” Smith said. [The New Yorker]
News
The Art Newspaper published its list of the “most visited shows and museums.” Two exhibitions at the Met in New York topped the tally. [The Art Newspaper]
Blake Byrne, a TV executive and storied art collector in Los Angeles, died at the age of 83. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Art
Vogue profiled German artist Anne Imhof on the occasion of her new installation and performance work titled Sex. “I don’t want to project an experience, it’s more that I want people to visit and come away with these images of what they have seen,” Imhof said. [Vogue]
A writer for Reason took issue with Jerry Saltz’s recent essay on purported homophobic resonances in The Herrin Massacre, a Paul Cadmus painting in the “Young and Evil” group show at David Zwirner gallery in New York. “The Herrin massacre had nothing to do with homophobia; it was a labor dispute that ended with union workers massacring a bunch of people who had been hired to replace them.” [Reason]
The University of Michigan Museum of Art has a new show of recently donated Inuit art under the title “Tillirnanngittuq.” (That is pronounced tid-ee-nang-ee-took, and the museum says it translates as “unexpected.”) [The Star Tribune]
Heel-Digging
“New York’s Appellate Division has granted Linda Macklowe’s motion to stay the court ruling that required her to sell her art collection as part of her divorce with billionaire developer Harry Macklowe.” [The Real Deal]
For their column in Dazed, the duo known as the White Pube answer a question as to “how to make your voice heard as an art student.” Sample advice: “If something is in your way, there’s a scale to consider when it comes to kicking off, from lil foot taps to drop kicks with heels on.” [Dazed]
Music
Rolling Stone has a story about Roscoe Mitchell and Moor Mother working together under the aegis of the free-jazz group Art Ensemble of Chicago. [Rolling Stone]
In case you missed it, ARTnews covered a great exhibition and performance program devoted to Moor Mother last year. [ARTnews]
The supremely moody and moving British musician Scott Walker died at the age of 76. [The Guardian]
Here’s one of his best songs, “It’s Raining Today,” from 1969. [YouTube]