COURTESY PAULA COOPER GALLERY
Investigations
Jillian Steinhauer and Claire Voon at Hyperallergic have spoken with four more women who have accused Chuck Close of innapropriate behavior, saying that he pressured them to take their clothes off in front of him and then made shocking comments about their bodies using coarse language. The new accusations come a month after a number of women came forward to the New York Times and the Huffington Post with stories of Close’s lewd remarks during the modeling process. [Hyperallergic]
SoHo Gallery History
2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Paula Cooper Gallery, which was the first gallery in SoHo when it opened on Prince Street in 1968. Cooper says that she’s planned a number of events and special programming to mark the occasion, and for now you can go to the Instagram devoted to the gallery’s archive and check out some pretty amazing snapshots. [Paula Cooper Gallery]
Viral Art Apps
Celebrities cannot get enough of Google’s new program that uses facial recognition tech magic to find the artwork that most resembles you. TMZ notes that Kate Hudson, Vinny Guadagnino, and Sarah Silverman have all posted their matches to various social media channels. [TMZ]
Jason Brogan provides the requisite Slate take on the Google Arts & Culture App, and goes long on the psychological effect of having to make try a dozen times before finding a match that looks like you to you—or, as Brogan puts it, a match that “charms because it simultaneously appeals to and deflates our narcissism.” [Slate]
Museum Business
In the New York Review of Books, Martin Filler discusses the career of Gordon Matta-Clark, who has a retrospective at the Bronx Museum of Art. Filler threads the essay with an ongoing argument comparing the artist to the actor James Dean. [The New York Review of Books]
Eliminating the entrance fee is not bringing Charm City residents to the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Museum of Art, according to Mary Carole McCaulry in the Baltimore Sun. [The Baltimore Sun]
But the Baltimore Museum of Art does have a new board member: Alex Greenberger here at ARTnews revealed yesterday that Amy Sherald, who was named to make the official portrait of Michelle Obama that’s set to hang in the National Portrait Gallery, will sit on the museum’s board. [ARTnews]
The Boston Museum of Fine Art has hired a puppy to chase out foul smells, reports Joe Dziemianowicz at the New York Daily News. [The New York Daily News]
Online Programming
The collective Dis has launched an online video platform, reports Misty White Sidell at WWD. The founders want it to be “the PBS for Generation Z.” [WWD]
The Golden State
Catherine Bigelow at the San Francisco Chronicle takes us inside all the nighttime action during the Fog Art + Design fair, which was held last weekend. There were panels galore, gallery shows for Ryan McGinley, bowling alley parties, and a mood that Max Hollein, the Vienna-born director of the city’s Fine Arts Museum, called a “dude” vibe. Far out, man. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
Here’s a profile of Mike McCoy, who is a few months into his tenure as director of the Kent County Museum in Bakersfield, California. Kelly Ardis of the Bakersfield Californian notes that McCoy calls himself a “museum nut” who has been to at least 230 institutions around the world. [The Bakersfield Californian]
Alex Raynor at the Guardian talks to Gagosian’s Max Teicher about the show he curated at the gallery’s Beverly Hills space, “Man Ray’s L.A.” [The Guardian]