Topic: Art

The Bea Arthur Naked Portrait (Only) Went for $1.9 Million at Christie's

John Currin/Christie's

Sorry, Internet: Your new favorite painting isn't quite as golden as its bare-breasted Golden Girl of a subject.

By Adam Clark Estes

Apr 9, 2013

Highlights from the Met's New Billion Dollar Donation

Leonard Lauder, the heir to cosmetics mogul Estée Lauder's massive fortune, just donated 78 Cubist paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. That adds up to a lot of Picassos: 33 to be exact.

Comments | 2,753 Views

By Connor Simpson

Mar 23, 2013

People Seem Really Excited About Tilda Swinton Sleeping in a Box at MoMA

That Tilda Swinton is a little strange should not come as a surprise. But we bet you didn't know she occasionally does a performance art piece where she occasionally sleeps in a glass box at a museum over the course of a month. 

Comments | 19,441 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Mar 20, 2013

Artist David Hockney's Assistant Died, and, Yes, There's a British Mystery

Dominic Elliott, the 23-year-old personal assistant to David Hockney — arguably Britain's greatest living artist — is dead. Authorities have suddenly out natural causes, and so this is the stuff of British tabloid fodder, to be sure.

Comments | 863 Views

By Jen Doll

Feb 8, 2013

Y.A. for Grownups

If the Wakefield Twins Could Draw: The Art of Y.A.

What do Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, the ladies of the Baby-Sitters Club, Nancy Drew, and R.L. Stine’s various goosebumps-inducing cohort have in common? They were art for your childhood bookshelves, and also, now, art for your grownup walls.

Comments | 1,465 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Jan 30, 2013

Desperate Artist Hides Life Savings in a Gallery in an Attempt to Attract Attention

Art's all about creativity, so you can't really knock Tomas Georgeson for his latest project: hiding a check for £8,000 -- about $12,6000 -- in a British gallery. Whomever finds it gets to keep it.

Comments | 517 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Nov 29, 2012

Video Games: Art-Tested, MoMA-Approved

Citing a palpable "aesthetic experience" in classic games while eschewing others, the Museum of Modern Art announced Thursday that it has assembled a new collection of video games. But the selections aren't necessarily what you'd expect.

Comments | 772 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Nov 28, 2012

Glenn Beck Has Re-opened Bidding for an Obama Doll Drenched in His Fake Urine

People were willing to spend more than $11,000 for a jar containing what they and eBay thought was Glenn Beck's bodily fluid — until the auction site removed the listing today. Bids are still being taken via Beck's website.

Comments | 2,716 Views

By Jen Doll

Oct 19, 2012

The Double Standard Against Naked Men in Art

Lady nudes are all over the art world, but there are few naked men (Michelangelo's "David" being a notable exception) on display in museums and galleries, as Mary M. Lane writes in a Wall Street Journal piece about "Nude Men," an exhibit opening at Vienna's Leopold Museum on Friday.

Comments | 5,000 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Oct 16, 2012

The Kunsthal Museum Needs a Better Security System

Thieves with impeccable taste in art raided the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam early Tuesday morning and came away with a Picasso, a Matisse, and two Monets along with masterpieces from Freud, Gauguin, and de Haan—enough for the thieves to start their own gallery if they weren't going to be selling those works of art on the black market. 

Comments | 819 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Oct 9, 2012

Trimming the Times

Pills, South African 'Idol,' and Art.sy

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Comments | 117 Views

By Connor Simpson

Oct 7, 2012

Rogue Graffiti Artist Defaces a Rothko in London

A rogue graffiti artist casually took out a marker and wrote on a Rothko painting at the Tate Modern gallery in London today. 

Comments | 3,887 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Oct 4, 2012

Hunting for the Bones of 'Mona Lisa'

The hunt for Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the inspiration for Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," has brought archaeologists to a basement of a Tuscan convent, where they hope to find a human skull that matches Mona Lisa's face. 

Comments | 1,041 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Sep 27, 2012

At 507 Years Old, 'Mona Lisa' Never Looked Younger

Paging Dan Brown. After 35 years of research, a Swiss group is presenting what they say to be is an original version of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece.

Comments | 3,380 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Sep 24, 2012

The Queen's New Andy Warhol Paintings Were a Bargain

With the recent purchase of four famous Andy Warhol portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, it would seem like Buckingham Palace is getting pretty edgy.

Comments | 367 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Sep 20, 2012

Trimming the Times

Endeavour, Rory McIlroy, and the Louvre

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Comments | 345 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Aug 24, 2012

Fresco-Defacing Octogenarian Is Officially an Internet Hero

We've totally forgiven Cecilia Gimenez for ruining Elias Garcia Martinez's Ecce Homo, and judging by the numerous remixes of her work, it looks like you guys have too. 

Comments | 15,190 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Aug 24, 2012

Trimming the Times

Lance Armstrong, The 'Steroid Era,' and Public Art

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Comments | 702 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Aug 13, 2012

Trimming the Times

Paul Ryan, NBC, and Ancient Artifacts

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Comments | 690 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Jul 27, 2012

Trimming the Times

Drug Trafficking, Vermont on Twitter, and India's Oprah

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Comments | 862 Views

By Serena Dai

Jul 24, 2012

Chart of the Day

For Art Auctions, It Pays to Be a Man (and Dead)

Great art doesn't come cheap, and with this interactive graphic, you can see which ones took the highest price in auctions from 2008-2011. How do you fetch a high price? Be a man—and be dead.

Comments | 548 Views

By Adam Martin

Jul 23, 2012

Will London Really Erase Banksy's New Olympics Art?

In cleaning up London's graffiti for the Olympics city authorities threaten to squelch the work one of its biggest celebrities, the street artist Banksy, but on Monday the secretive graffiti artist showed he wouldn't be deterred from creating Olympics-related art.

Comments | 48,161 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Jul 23, 2012

Trimming the Times

Spying at the Olympics, The Virgin Mary in Jersey, and 'Uncle Vanya'

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Comments | 750 Views

By Connor Simpson

Jul 19, 2012

A Matisse Painting, Stolen Thomas Crown-Style, Recovered in Miami

F.B.I. agents arrested two people in Miami on Tuesday in connection with an art heist that sounds exactly like it was executed by Thomas Crown. 

Comments | 5,218 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Jul 19, 2012

Trimming the Times

Cuomo in the Hamptons, Children's TV, and Forgeries

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Comments | 690 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Jul 10, 2012

China Turned Michelangelo's David into Porn

In one of the more amusing and intriguing stories of Chinese censorship, it appears state-run China Central Television just couldn't decide whether or not Michelangelo's David was classified as porn, so they decided to pixelate the statue's famous junk.

Comments | 3,511 Views

By Esther Zuckerman

Jul 6, 2012

Trimming the Times

Haiti, No Child Left Behind, and Lance Armstrong

A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.

Comments | 803 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Jun 22, 2012

Stealing a $150,000 Dalí Is a Lot Easier Than You Think

Anyone who's ever seen The Thomas Crown Affair knows that pulling off an art heist is best handled by experts, but that's not what happened on the Upper East Side where some balding man grabbed a six-figure Salvador Dalí painting on a Tuesday afternoon and walked off with it.

Comments | 819 Views

By Jen Doll

Jun 19, 2012

What If You Knew Exactly When Your Biological Clock Would Stop?

An artist is counting down the years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds left of her biological clock in hopes of inspiring discussions about fertility for everyone.

Comments | 5,866 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Jun 6, 2012

The National Portrait Gallery Found the 'Patron Saint of Transvestites'

Here's a first: Thanks to some sleuthing and a five-o'clock shadow, London's National Portrait Gallery is now the proud owner of the first painted portrait of a crossdresser. 

Comments | 1,207 Views

By Adam Martin

Jun 4, 2012

The Keepsakes of a Hollywood Legend

Given the choice between a visit to the Hollywood Museum or the chance to rummage around in the attic of longtime Hollywood "superagent" Sue Mengers, we'd take her attic any day.

Comments | 860 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

May 30, 2012

Rich People Buy Art to Show You How Rich They Are

Some rich people invest to get richer, but as The New York Times Magazine's Adam Davidson points out, sometimes buying that $120 million piece of art is just the simplest and bluntest way to tell people you have $120 million to blow.

Comments | 1,011 Views

By Adam Martin

May 23, 2012

Painting of South African President's Penis Defaced

Everyone's a critic, apparently. Displeased by South African artist Brett Murray's controversial semi-nude portrait of President Jacob Zuma, two men, a middle aged white man and a young black man, defaced it with paint Tuesday.

Comments | 5,518 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

May 18, 2012

Surprisingly, Painting of South African President's Penis Creates Controversy

Apparently suggesting that the ruling party in South Africa is corrupt is fine as long as you don't make a mockery out of President Jacob Zuma's penis. 

Comments | 4,656 Views

By Dashiell Bennett

May 3, 2012

'The Scream' Sets a New Record with a $120 Million Sale

An unknown bidder paid $119.9 million for Edvard Munch's iconic painting last night, setting a world record for the highest price ever paid for a single work of art.

Comments | 1,242 Views

By Dino Grandoni

May 2, 2012

Stat of the Day

How a Rip in This Picasso is Worth $7.5 Million

Normally our minds would be boggled at the thought of a mere rip costing millions of dollars, but when it's in a Pablo Picasso masterpiece, it starts to make sense.

Comments | 2,069 Views

By Elspeth Reeve

Apr 3, 2012

The High (and Low) Price of Obama Art

So your wacky sitcom-ready plot to pay off your student loans — winning the lottery perhaps? — didn't work out. Here's another: start painting super literal anti-Obama art.

Comments | 2,261 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Mar 14, 2012

In Search of iPad Art

Most people think it's cliché to talk about the iPad itself as a work of art, but we've yet to see the tablet be embraced as the next artist's medium.

Comments | 795 Views

By Seth Abramovitch

Mar 10, 2012

L.A.'s Rock Scene Just Got a Whole Lot Heavier

It's big -- really big -- and it's the new centerpiece of the L.A. art world. 

Comments | 2,856 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Feb 21, 2012

Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' Could Fetch $80 Million

On May 2, the only privately-owned copy of The Scream will go on sale, where it's expected to fetch more than $80 million.

Comments | 517 Views

By Adam Martin

Jan 25, 2012

Liz Taylor's Prized Painting Just Sold For $2.1 Million

A painting that hung for decades over Elizabeth Taylor's fireplace in Southern California just sold in New York for $2.1 million, about double what it was predicted to fetch.

Comments | 1,379 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Jan 3, 2012

Spatwatch

David Hockney Reminds Damien Hirst That He Doesn't Use Assistants

The Players: David Hockney, British superstar artist revered and known by many for his swimming pool paintings; Damien Hirst, British superstar artist known for his "factory" of assistants and that $100 million platinum skull.

Comments | 2,154 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Jan 2, 2012

Barbie's Dreamhouse: Hoarder Edition

Your eyes are fooling you. This isn't the latest Hoarders episode, but rather an art project from photographer/artist Carrie M. Becker, who used 1/6 scale miniatures to envision "a more 'current' view of Barbie's lifestyle" entitled Barbie Trashes Her Dreamhouse.

Comments | 9,565 Views

By Adam Martin

Dec 14, 2011

How to Make Hand Grenades Fun: Mold Them From Jello

UK artist Kyle Bean's "harmless weapons" make no sense practically, but they're cool looking and speak to some idea about defanging violent implements that makes intuitive sense.

Comments | 1,327 Views

By Rebecca Greenfield

Oct 20, 2011

Cassette Tapes Are Great for Everything Except What They Were Made For

The Wall Street Journal claims cassette tapes are making a comeback for hard-to-believe reasons like that terrible hissing sound and the smell, but but we have a different theory for why these sub-par listening devices have seen a renaissance is actually not-music related: crafts.

Comments | 2,683 Views

By Adam Clark Estes

Oct 14, 2011

How to Move a Half-Million-Pound Monolith Across Los Angeles

Michael Heizer's latest installation requires moving a boulder 100 miles across L.A.

Comments | 2,666 Views

By Ray Gustini

Sep 9, 2011

Tracy Morgan Imitates a Robot as Only Tracy Morgan Can

Plus: A two minute history of the movie title sequence

Comments | 732 Views

By Adam Martin

Aug 24, 2011

White House Painting Puts N-Word Just Outside Oval Office

Civil rights-era Rockwell work is a quiet but stark statement on race from the first black president

Comments | 5,135 Views

By Ray Gustini

Aug 16, 2011

Stolen Rembrandt Found in Pastor's Office

'Obviously the pastor isn't a suspect," declared a spokesman for the L.A County Sheriff

Comments | 8,196 Views

By Alexander Abad-Santos

Aug 15, 2011

Spatwatch

Filmmaker and San Francisco in a Graffiti Gridlock

Life imitates art in the city's war on graffiti

Comments | 1,106 Views

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