Stories of the week:

  • The Village Voice visits Chuck Close on occasion of his upcoming Pace Gallery show.
  • Original cover for Amazing Spiderman no. 328 by Todd McFarlane sells for record $675,250.
  • RIP – Franz West, who has been sick for quite some time, dies at age 65.
  • RIP – Herbert Vogel dies at the age of 89.
  • Judd Tully looks back on the life of Herbert Vogel.
  • RIP – Karl Benjamin, who died at the age of 86.
  • Roberta Smith finally comments on the MOCA situation and proposes her solutions to its problems.
  • Lee Rosenbaum responds to Roberta Smith’s MOCA plan, calling it “a kind of mission impossible.”
  • Former MOCA chief executive Charles Young writes to Eli Broad, demanding dismissal of Jeffrey Deitch.
  • Robert Storr (former MoMA curator) blasts MOCA and Jeffrey Deitch.
  • Jason Edward Kaufman criticizes Deitch’s MOCA run & thinks he needs to step down before things get better.
  • Staff member Leigh Silverton writes about why she is quitting MOCA.
  • MOCA Mobilization issues press release and list of demands.
  • MOCA pulls out of Richard Hamilton retrospective.  Paul Schimmel is one of the exhibition’s curators.
  • A look into the financial picture of the nation’s major museums.
  • Financially struggling Memphis College of Art selling off much of its art collection in order to raise funds.
  • IRS values Robert Rauschenberg combine at $65 mil.- however it can not ever be sold due to stuffed eagle.
  • Alexander Schaefer, Burning Banks artist, arrested for chalk drawings outside Chase Bank in LA.
  • Arrest warrant issued to NY dealer for receiving items stolen from religious sites in India and elsewhere.
  • Russian collector wins £1.7m refund from Christie’s after auction house sold him fake painting.
  • India requests Beijing gallery to censor artwork shown at Hans Ulrich Obrist-curated exhibition.
  • Architectural Digest revisits Georgia O’Keefe’s New Mexico home on occasion of her 125th birthday.
  • Big Ben to chime 40 times in three min. as part of Martin Creed’s bell-ringing event marking start of Olympics.
  • Ai Weiwei provides his thoughts about the Olympics.
  • Overshadowed – ten artistic relatives of famous artists.
  • Zurich brings public art by artists such as Ai Weiwei and Subodh Gupta to the city’s streets.
  • Gagosian Gallery will stage a major sculpture exhibition in warehouse in Rio de Janeiro as part of ArtRio fair.
  • Nate Lowman, Hanna Liden and Leo Fitzpatrick curate new TriBeCa project space called Home Alone.
  • Profile of Mark Flood on occasion of his solo exhibition at Luxembourg and Dayan.
  • An article about Instagram/Hipstamatic, photography, and context.
  • First in a series of articles about the anti-graffiti industry in cities by Kurt Iveson.
  • A sneak peek at Eric Haze’s latest mural, part of a major installation based on the 2012 Olympics.
  • Something new from Melissa Cooke.
  • Kickstarter for the Wall Writers project.
  • Dan May has posted up an image of his latest painting, a commission piece.
  • Another new painting from the visually intriguing Matthew Palladino.
  • Looks like Dave Kinsey has designed the new album cover for Tommy Guerrero.