OLD NEWS

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ASIA’S BIENNIALS?
We Want to Know _artnet

>>>

QUINTESSENTIAL’ FRANK FRAZETTA PAINTING
<https://tinyurl.com/4vuu2pwn>
Frank Frazetta is back. Amid a surge in demand for his fantasy artworks, the late artist’s cover painting for an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel is coming
Titled Captive Princess, the composition was conceived for the 1973 paperback release of The People That Time Forgot (1918). The second book in Burroughs’s Caspak trilogy follows an expedition into the lost island of Caprona, populated by ancient tribes and prehistoric creatures. This primacy is captured in Frazetta’s cover work, which depicts the abduction of a scantily clad female by two ape-men; a large tree, its branches coiled and its surfaces mossy, stands forebodingly in the background.
It’s a “quintessential example of what makes Frazetta’s work so enduring,” The work even contains additional detail, such as on the trees and the ape on the left, that Frazetta added after it had gone to print.
“With Captive Princess, Frazetta demonstrates that he was not just a painter of dramatic figures, but a true architect of imagined worlds,” “That interplay between muscular dynamism and immersive world-building is classic Frazetta—and it’s why works like this continue to command such attention from collectors today.” _artnet

>>>

LIKE
<https://tinyurl.com/bdfth5jb> _DavidShrigley

>>>

40. MAN O’ WAR HORSESHOE by Rainey Knudson
<https://tinyurl.com/j5wzzb6e>
From the start, the horse was different. He was a tall and gangly colt, headstrong and difficult. His grandsire was the ill-tempered champion Hastings, who was known to violently bite and ram other horses during races.
At the Saratoga Springs yearling sale in 1918, Man o’ War was recovering from distemper, underweight and anxious. Despite his promising build, potential buyers were put off by the thin, rough-coated colt who had nervously pawed a deep trench beneath his stall door. Sam Riddle, pushed by his wife Elizabeth, purchased him for $5,000, far less than the $14,000 top colt in the sale.
Fortunately for Man o’ War, his trainer Lou Feustel had handled Hastings and knew the fierce, sensitive bloodline. Man o’ War fought the bridle, fought the saddle. It was not clear that he would even accept a rider. Feustel gently persevered.
By the end of his short racing career, there was nobody left to race, nothing left to prove. He won 20 of 21 races, yet never ran freely an entire race, always held under wraps. He shattered world records, carrying heavier weights than rivals and winning the Belmont by 20 lengths.
Recent biographies of Seabiscuit and Secretariat have overshadowed him, but measured by racing dominance, no horse has surpassed Man o’ War. He doesn’t have a heartwarming underdog story because he was never an underdog. Newspapers covered his workouts like prizefights; tens of thousands of spectators turned out when he raced. Whenever he ran, the day bent around him.
<https://tinyurl.com/42ubjky2> _TheImpatientReader

>>>

THE MOUNT WASHINGTON POST
<https://tinyurl.com/3yhkaa59> _LisaAnneAuerbach

>>>

WARHOL TRADED THIS PAINTING FOR A MASSAGE by greg
<https://tinyurl.com/4kdntk86>
On his pre-blizzard gallery run, greg.org hero and advance scout Jack got curious about why this small, unassuming Warhol was dedicated to Dr. Linda Li. Turns out she was the first to treat him when he started having gallbladder pain in January 1987.
Unfortunately for Warhol, Dr. Li was a chiropractor, and her massage only made Warhol’s pain worse. It took him three more weeks to see an actual specialist. He got promptly admitted to the hospital undercover, had surgery, and then died in recovery on February 22nd, 39 years ago last Sunday.
If only we didn’t have a healthcare system where even rich, famous somebodies with bodies had to barter paintings for unhelpful medical care, Warhol might still be with us. He’d be 98, and New York Magazine would be asking him what he thought of Heated Rivalry.
[later in the day update]
After someone mentioned The Warhol Diaries, I looked, and Dr. Li is all over them; Warhol went to her all the time for vitamins, massage/alignment/chiro and crystals, and so did a bunch of other famous people. So I imagine this painting, dated 1985, is more likely to have been a gift at some point, not a straight-up attempt to get out of paying for treatment. Hilariously, Warhol was wary of doctors especially who wanted to take art for payment. One guy asked, and he said, “maybe a print,” and the dr. was like, “No, I mean a portrait for me, and one for my mother,” and Warhol was all, “He wants $50,000 worth of art? What do I do?” _greg.org

>>>

A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR INSPECTS THE ARTIST'S HANDIWORK
in Dutch painter Anthony Oberman's 1820 "The Painter in His Studio."
Also note the iron stove nearby, a clue the scene takes place during winter months
<https://tinyurl.com/mr2zzsrx> _MichaelLobel

>>>

JUDY BACA DENIES MISUSING $5M GRANT FOR ICONIC LA MURAL
<https://tinyurl.com/4neeps56>
Activist and painter Judy Baca, best known for her half-mile-long mural “The Great Wall of Los Angeles” (1983), has been accused of using a grant awarded to her nonprofit organization for her personal art business. The artist, however, denies any such wrongdoing.
According to a new report from the Los Angeles Times, 10 former employees of Baca’s nonprofit, the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), allege that she misused funds from a $5 million Mellon Foundation grant in 2021. The funding was specifically to be administered over three years for the expansion of “The Great Wall” mural, a portion of which went on view at Jeffrey Deitch gallery in Los Angeles last Saturday, February 20. However, employees whose salaries were partially covered by the grant said Baca asked them to perform personal work for her.
The report also highlighted that Baca’s salary rose from about $50,000 to between $211,000 and $236,000 in the years after the organization won the grant, though it noted that SPARC was attempting to match the prior salary she earned as a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she taught for over two decades.
Baca and SPARC Board Chair Zojeila Flores vehemently denied all reported allegations of funding misuse to the LA Times. Baca attributed the allegations to disgruntled former employees and said she hoped SPARC could complete the mural “without more of this sort of rage and hostility and anger and hate” by its projected 2028 completion date.
<https://tinyurl.com/4r57rdxp>
SPARC and a representative of Baca have not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s requests for comment.
Baca began work on the mural in 1974 as a monument to California’s long multi-ethnic and queer history along the concrete walls lining the San Fernando Valley’s Tujunga Wash flood control channel. The project was completed over several summers with the help of over 400 young people from the local community and their families. She founded SPARC in 1976 as a public arts nonprofit. From 1983 until a 2011 restoration project, she and the organization jointly held the mural’s copyright. Now, Baca retains the rights to the work.
According to a 2021 press release from SPARC, the Mellon Foundation grant was intended to be used specifically for the “preservation, activation, and expansion of one of the country’s largest monuments to interracial harmony through civic engagement and muralist training.” The funds were also granted for the purposes of “developing digital techniques and resources for future artists and enhancing community engagement.”
But the former employees interviewed by the LA Times said that they were asked to perform unrelated jobs. One of the employees named in the report, Pete Galindo, said that Baca asked him to assist in selling her personal work and to address a termite infestation in her archives while he was directing the mural expansion project. Galindo alleges that he was terminated in 2022, less than a year after assuming the post, because he raised concerns about Baca’s use of the grant money.
Carmen Garcia, who briefly served as the organization’s director until 2023, resigned after accusing Baca of misappropriating the Mellon funds. Other employees said they believed that Baca had benefited from the community project unfairly, including from her sale of the mural’s archival materials to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in 2021 for a rumored $1.5 million. Flores told the LA Times that Baca donated more than half a million dollars from the sale to SPARC. _Isa Farfan_Hyperallergic

>>>

🚨 SPECIAL URBAN REPORT 🚨
Yumbo Centrum Shopping Maspalomas, Spain
<https://tinyurl.com/ycckj2jx> _RuralIndexingProject

>>>

CHICAGO’S DEPAUL ART MUSEUM TO CLOSE AFTER 40 YEARS
The DePaul Art Museum in Chicago, founded in 1985 and part of DePaul University, will close at the end of its current fiscal year, on June 30. The school, which faces considerable financial challenges, announced the closure in an announcement to the community Thursday morning.
In December, the school laid off 114 out of 1,493 staffers, a greater than 7 percent cut, due to what it called a significant drop in international enrollment, Yhe school had sought to cut some $27.4 million in spending. A report published this month by progressive think tank New America revealed that more than three dozen universities, including DePaul, had steered lower-income students to take out “hefty student loans while offering big tuition breaks to students from wealthier families,” Founded in 1898, the private school was established by the Vincentian order and offers over 300 degree-granting programs. _ARTnews

>>>

-----
<https://tinyurl.com/39ks76sn> _JesseLocker

>>>

IRELAND LAUNCHES WORLD FIRST SCHEME TO PROVIDE BASIC INCOME FOR ARTISTS
<https://tinyurl.com/58rnkeyh>
Artists based in the Republic of Ireland could be paid €325 (£283) a week by the Irish government as part of a scheme to support them in their work.
The Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) project is believed to be the first permanent one of its kind in the world and Ireland's Culture Minister Patrick O'Donovan says it makes Ireland a "global leader in the area of artist support".
Some 2,000 eligible artists will be selected after applications open in May and will receive the weekly payment for three years.
The permanent scheme follows a pilot which was launched in 2022 to help the arts and culture sector recover after Covid-19.
O'Donovan said that every €1 (£0.87) invested in the pilot had generated €1.39 (£1.21) in return while allowing artists to devote more time to their work and improving their quality of life.
He said the permanent project was a "major milestone" that would "sustain the careers" of the artists selected and help "retain their talent in the arts sector".
"The pilot research has consistently demonstrated both the positive impact it has had on those in receipt of it and how difficult it is to work as an artist in Ireland given the income precarity prevalent in the sector", he added.
"I encourage artists from all over the country to apply to ensure that those selected for the scheme represent the broadest range of artists practicing in Ireland today." _BBC

>>>

JENNY SAVILLE - THE BRIDE - 1992
<https://tinyurl.com/2j2k7p25> _RabihAlameddine

>>>

SOCAL’S BUNNY MUSEUM RECEIVES GIFT OF RABBIT SCULPTURE
<https://tinyurl.com/3mezpspz>
Once dubbed “one of the weirdest, wildest, places you can visit” by SFGate, the Bunny Museum in Altadena, California, burned to the ground in 2025’s Greater Los Angeles Wildfires. Founded by Candace Frazee and her husband Steve Lubanski and dedicated to all things bunny, the beloved SoCal institution had been open to the public since 1998. During those years, it had gained a cult following and appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records three times.
Prior to its destruction, the Bunny Museum housed at least 45,000 pieces of rabbit memorabilia, including antiquities such as an Egyptian amulet, vintage toys, ceramic figurines, books, Rose Parade float bunnies, Bugs Bunny collectibles, framed magazine covers featuring Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, and even live rabbits. (These last were saved from the fire, along with the couple’s cats.)
Not all the museum’s displays were for the faint-hearted; in addition to themed rooms explaining the role of rabbits in pop culture, science, and superstition, it boasted a restricted section dedicated to bunny exploitation throughout histor
Now, a 14-foot-tall, 1,100-pound stainless steel bunny sculpture joins the 60,000 or so rabbit-related items that fans have donated to Frazee and Lubanski since the fire. The sculpture, which has been named “Scanner,” was created by Jesse Zhao of Shijiazhuang, China, and given to the museum by Monrovia, California, resident Wesley Zucco. A public unveiling was held February 20.
“We hope Scanner will lift the community’s spirit after such a devastating fire,” Frazee told Pasadena Weekly. “And it will let the neighbors know the Bunny Museum is going to hop back up out of the ashes.” _ARTnews

>>>

LOS ANGELES MUSEUMS ON THE CUSP OF NEW GOLDEN AGE
If museum construction is any measure to go by, the next few years are shaping up to be a boom time for the Los Angeles arts and culture scene. It all kicks off this spring, when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) opens its $835m, Peter Zumthor-designed expansion to the public. Refik Anadol’s Dataland—a temple to art created with artificial intelligence—is also due to open in the spring, inside Frank Gehry’s $1bn Grand LA mixed-use development downtown. Star Wars creator George Lucas will finally unveil his $1bn Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in an alien whale-like building by the architect Ma Yansong in Exposition Park in September. And The Broad is busy building a $100m (so far) extension by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, scheduled to open by 2028—in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, The Huntington in San Marino has announced plans to expand its library and conservation spaces, breaking ground on its $126.6m project this spring, and is also building a $40m village to house visiting scholars on its campus. Add to that another Gehry-designed $335m performing arts centre for the Colburn School, to be completed by 2027, and the city’s cultural infrastructure is swiftly evolving. But what does all this expansion and activity mean for Los Angeles’s art community—including its artists, collectors, gallerists and curators?
“Los Angeles has gone from being provincial to international in a very short time,” says the multidisciplinary artist Diana Thater, who has lived and worked in the city for decades and is the chair of the art department at Pasadena’s ArtCenter College of Design. “It was still a small and very close community up until about 2010. After that, it really exploded in terms of the number of artists moving here, and I think it’s because life in New York has become untenable for real artists.”
Thater adds that this shift to the West Coast has long been driven by the region’s many art schools, including the ArtCenter, California Institute of the Arts, Otis College of Art and Design and the art department at the University of California, Los Angeles. (The city’s art schools have so far weathered the economic storms facing higher education better than those in the Bay Area, such as the San Francisco Art Institute, which has closed, and the California College of Arts, which will close in 2027.) Like the generations before them who came to Los Angeles for school and stayed there for the community, this new crop of artists “backed the right horse”, Thater says, because the city’s cultural reputation is poised to gain wider recognition now with major projects like the Lacma expansion—for which Thater has been commissioned to create a new public video work—and the Olympics. “There are a lot of eyes on LA,” she says.
Lacma grows—or shrinks
The new Lacma building, in particular, has drawn international attention for more than a decade—not all of it positive. Soon after the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor unveiled his design for a long-discussed expansion to house Lacma’s permanent collection, critics pointed out that the new amorphic structure, raised above street level and straddling Wilshire Boulevard, would provide less gallery space than the original 1965 museum buildings designed by William Pereira. (The former Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight christened Lacma the “incredible shrinking museum”.) Lacma has said that the addition of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion (elements of an earlier, ultimately scrapped three-phase expansion plan by the architect Renzo Piano) brings up the total gallery space.
A preview of what are now officially called the David Geffen Galleries—before the art was installed—was held for museum members and the press in June 2025, and early reactions have been mixed. The veteran Los Angeles architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne described the expansion as “bold and compromised in nearly equal measure: a sort of hamstrung Gesamtkunstwerk”.
One area where the building seems to have succeeded is in connecting more directly to its neighbours. These include the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (housed in a former department store that Lacma bought in the 1990s and once considered for its own expansion plans), Lacma’s quirky Pavilion for Japanese Art and the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum—which are undergoing their own $240m renovation ahead of the Olympics.
But the true test will be how well the new Lacma building functions as a space to display the museum’s encyclopaedic collection—to be installed thematically—and how Angelenos will be served by the new museum, which has educational spaces and a theatre on its plaza-level. Major works of public art will be installed across the campus to join Chris Burden’s ultra-popular Urban Light (2008), Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass (2012) and other long-time favourites like Tony Smith’s Smoke (1967/2005), Alexander Calder’s Three Quintains (Hello Girls) (1964) and a garden of sculptures by Auguste Rodin. Among the new additions will be Jeff Koons’s living floral sculpture Split-Rocker (2000)—which the artist started planting in September—a 12-ft-tall interactive UFO by Shio Kusaka and Mariana Castillo Deball’s carved-and-scraped floor designs for the concrete plaza.
The art dealer Peter Goulds, who recently decided to close his gallery LA Louver after 50 years and donate its archives to The Huntington, sees the new Lacma building as the “first step” in a long journey the relatively young museum must take in serving its community. He hopes the long-term plan that Lacma’s director, Michael Govan, originally promoted of developing satellite outposts of the collection across the city will eventually be realised. “In the end, either Michael or his successor will hopefully pick up the mantle of the broader reach of Lacma being a city-wide museum,” Goulds says.
Goulds adds that the key to success is to think on the scale of decades rather than just the immediate future, pointing to projects like the Watts Towers, preserved from demolition through a concerted 70-year effort, and the Colburn School, whose long-term future was secured through a generous endowment (estimated at around $500m today) given in 1985 by its main benefactor, the late Richard D. Colburn. “A lot of these initiatives transcend the lifetimes of their founders,” Goulds says.
<https://tinyurl.com/3fed8hcn>
Some of the city’s other museum projects, such as the Lucas Museum, Dataland and The Broad expansion are being eyed more dubiously. “Two of them are vanity projects, and I don’t care,” Thater says bluntly.
“We have no clear idea what the Lucas Museum really is about, except self-aggrandisement,” says Goulds, echoing concerns many people have about what the term “narrative art” entails and whether there will be a unifying curatorial approach to the museum’s displays. Questions have only increased since the museum either laid off or lost a large chunk of its curatorial and educational staff­—including its former director and chief executive, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, and chief curator Pilar Tompkins Rivas—leaving Lucas himself to oversee content direction for his museum.
Others, like the philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen, who is building a new headquarters for his Berggruen Institute in the Santa Monica Mountains—designed by the architects Herzog & de Meuron and funded by a $500m endowment—see all the additions to the city’s cultural scene as clear signs of its dynamism. “Los Angeles is lucky to have an enormous pool of artists and talent,” Berggruen says. “With the new Lacma and the Lucas Museum, it will continue to grow as a cultural centre, allowing not only the creation of objects but their display and broad interaction with the public. This increases Los Angeles’s appeal as a cultural magnet.”
Any way you look at it, the city’s cultural calendar will be busy for the foreseeable future, and this could position Los Angeles as an even more important arts hub. “There’s so much going on here,” Goulds says. “This is the equivalent of how New York was a bridge to Europe at the turn of the 19th century. Los Angeles is the bridge to the Southern Hemisphere and to Asia.” _Helen Stoilas _ArtNewspaper

>>>

TODAY IN CHARTJUNK by William Poundstone
<http://tiny.cc/ogjz001>
Edward Tufte made a career railing against this kind of pop infographic. Not only does The Art Newspaper's chart perpetuate a stale stereotype (Los Angeles = palm trees!) but it distorts and obscures data behind an irrelevant picture.
Wrote Tufte: "The use of two (or three) varying dimensions to show one-dimensional data is a weak and inefficient technique… The number of information-carrying (variable) dimensions depicted should not exceed the number dimensions in the data."
Below, Tufte's most famous example of what a chart should not be ("chartjunk").
<http://tiny.cc/sgjz001> _LosAngelesCountyMuseumOnFire

>>>

MY MAIN CRITIQUE OF FRIEZE
is that they got rid of the Dobel Tequila booth. _CarolinaAMiranda