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One word is on the lips of every broker in NYC, and they’ve all got an opinion.

“The elections always bring uncertainty into the equation,” says Douglas Elliman star Fredrik Eklund. Agrees fellow Elliman broker Steven Cohen, “The real estate market is averse to volatility and historically slows down as we approach the elections.

“I think activity will remain low until at least later this year, after the election,” concurs Nobel Black, also of Elliman. But says Compass’ Matt Breitenbach, “The Hamptons real estate market will be fine despite macroeconomic pressure and presidential elections.”

But no matter what’s in the crystal ball for the remainder of 2024, one thing is clear: New York’s power sellers again made their marks over the past year. Despite high interest rates, inflation and competition with South Florida, Manhattan continued to see jaw-dropping sales at buildings the Central Park Tower, where Elliman’s...

Lady Gaga and producer Bruce Cohen (American Beauty, Silver Linings Playbook) on Thursday were appointed co-chairs of President Joe Biden’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a board featuring top names across the arts tasked with advising the president on cultural issues.

The committee is making its return after a five-year hiatus, when the board disbanded under the Trump administration in protest of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, in which Trump had said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the clash that left one dead. At the time, the 17-member committee sent a letter to then President Trump to decry his “hateful rhetoric” and denounced his efforts to eliminate or severely reduce budgets dedicated to the arts and humanities.

“We cannot sit idly by, the way that your West Wing advisors have, without speaking out against your words and actions,” the letter said,...

Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday to relaunch the President’s Committee on The Arts and the Humanities, an advisory group that has been dormant since a highly publicized standoff between its members and Donald Trump.

The purpose of the committee will be “to inform and support the national engagement with Americans necessary to advance the arts, the humanities, and museum and library services,” according to the text of the order. (Read it here).

The committee will include the chairs of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, as well as 25 non-government members appointed by the president. A chair or two co-chairs will be designated among the non-government members.

Among the duties of the committee will be to enhance the federal support of the arts. The Institute of Museum and Library Services...

Charity Novella The Despicable Fantasies of Quentin Sergenov Wins Independent Publisher’s Gold Medal for Horror: "The Despicable Fantasies of Quentin Sergenov, Preston Fassel’s 2021 horror-comedy novella released to help raise funds for The Trevor Project, has won the Independent Publisher’s Gold Medal for Horror.

Set between the mid-90s and early-2000s, the John Waters-inspired story documents the exploits of Quentin Sergenov, a closeted pro-wrestler whose affair with a fellow athlete causes him to be blacklisted from the industry and subsequently transformed into a dinosaur by a collective of mad scientists. After escaping his captors, he decides to try and reintegrate into society in his new form, with disastrous results. The book was released during Pride Month 2021, with 35 of all proceeds going to benefit The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that provides suicide prevention services to LGBT+ youth.

Founded in 1996, the Independent Publisher’s Book Award—also...

Chuck Close, a painter, photographer and printmaker best known for his monumental grid portraits and photo-based paintings of family and famous friends, has died. He was 81.

His attorney, John Silberman, said Close died Thursday at a hospital in Oceanside, New York. He did not give a cause of death.

Close, whose professional highlights include a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1973, was known for using a grid structure for the representation of an image in nearly all of his works, which he said helped him break the face down into “incremental ...

Chuck Close, a painter, photographer and printmaker best known for his monumental grid portraits and photo-based paintings of family and famous friends, has died. He was 81.

His attorney, John Silberman, said Close died Thursday at a hospital in Oceanside, New York. He did not give a cause of death.

Close, whose professional highlights include a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1973, was known for using a grid structure for the representation of an image in nearly all of his works, which he said helped him break the face down into “incremental ...

“People always ask why,” Michael Metelits admits at the start of this meticulously composed, emotionally haunting documentary about his mother, Marion Stokes.

“Why did she do it?”

The “it” is simple: over the course of 30 years, Stokes recorded TV news around the clock on multiple channels, in multiple rooms, until she amassed an archive of 70,000 VHS tapes. But the “why”? That’s not so easy. There will be as many opinions as there were people who observed her life — and now, with “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project,” that includes us.

Also Read: How Tegna Is Finding a Second Life for Old News Coverage With Podcasts Like 'Bomber'

In fact, it was mutability itself that first inspired Stokes. As a fiercely private black woman in politics in the mid-20th century, she brought perspectives that were rarely shared by anyone she met, let alone the white men with whom she most often worked.

Artists for Peace and Justice (Apj), an organization whose mission is to alleviate poverty around the world, with immediate efforts serving the poorest communities in Haiti, wishes to pay thanks to strategic partner Bovet 1822, Swiss Manufacturer of luxury timepieces, for their six-year contribution of over $5 Million.

Artists for Peace and Justice Thanks Bovet 1822 for $5M+ Donation

Thanks to Bovet 1822 and the visionary guidance of Owner Mr. Pascal Raffy, Apj has been able to give 100% of every dollar towards meeting the organization’s mission, and has raised over $31M to support programs in education and training in creative industries.

“It is a privilege to be able to thank Mr. Raffy for all that he has done to help break the cycle of endemic poverty in Haiti,” says Susan Sarandon, Co-Chair, Artists for Peace and Justice. “It is thanks to generous sponsors like Bovet 1822 that we are able to incite real change,...

“Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” is a proverb whose simple existence proves the fact impressionable souls will do so without fail. This monthly column focuses on the film industry’s willingness to capitalize on this truth, releasing one-sheets to serve as not representations of what audiences are to expect, but as propaganda to fill seats. Oftentimes they fail miserably.

August spells the end of summer and start of awards season with a couple “prestige” openings from the likes of Kathryn Bigelow and Destin Daniel Cretton in wide release (from Annapurna Pictures and Lionsgate respectively). It’s nice to see big-ish studios showing independent voices some love in 2017 (although Bigelow is obviously no stranger to Hollywood budgets) alongside bigger sibling Sony’s partnership with Edgar Wright and Baby Driver.

It’s not all highbrow, though. Fans of Annabelle have a prequel to its prequel (Annabelle: Creation hits August...

Playfully divided into “Lots,” Barry Avrich’s sweeping and enlightening Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World investigates the entire ecosystem that comprises the art market: the auction house, the brokers, the secondary and primary markets, mega art fairs, and multiple institutions, from the Bfa and Mfa granting institutions that matter (hint: they’re mostly in New York) to great museums and collections of the world. Blurred Lines condenses a semester’s long seminar into a lively documentary with too many talking heads to name, representing established and emerging artists, buyers, tastemakers, curators, dealers, gallerists, journalists and critics. They all attempt to connect the dots as a work of art becomes a commodity worth protecting while lesser works by an artist are bid-up at auctions to preserve the value of an existing collection.

At times Blurred Lines may seem like an oversimplification of a broader, more interesting story; it does what...

Clay Tweel, Kief Davidson, Richard Ladkani, Dawn Porter, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg with Thom Powers Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In 2013, Sigourney Weaver, Chuck Close, Iman, Joel Ehrenkranz, James Franco, Agnes Gund, and Uma Thurman hosted a screening of Simon Trevor's White Gold, narrated by Hillary Clinton, produced by Arne Glimcher, on the organised poaching of elephant tusks, at the Museum of Modern Art with Albert Maysles, Barbara Kopple, Meredith Vieira, Christie Brinkley, and #Horror's Tara Subkoff in support.

The Ivory Game cinematographer/co-director Richard Ladkani Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In 2014, Kathryn Bigelow’s Last Days (Annapurna Pictures) screened at the New York Film Festival before The Crisis In Elephant Poaching panel discussion.

Following the Doc NYC Unfolding Stories panel with the directors of Gleason, Trapped, Weiner, and The Ivory Game (Leonardo DiCaprio executive producer), moderated by Thom Powers, I spoke with Richard Ladkani at the Vulcan Productions reception - two...

The ABC Arts channel has launched on iview, featuring original, hand-picked, high quality arts content.

This month ABC Arts will showcase more than 70 titles and 35 hours of arts programming with new content added regularly.

Rebecca Heap, head of ABC TV strategy and digital products said: .The most exciting aspect is the opportunity to commission new, unique content specifically for the channel, adding to the overall conversation and making arts programming more accessible, exploring new stories and shorter form content..

Original Australian video series for ABC Arts includes:

.#OnAssignment hosted by Australian photographer James Simmons; .The Imitation Game: Marina Abramovic, inside an art-world experiment with the matriarch of performance art; .Thrill and the Fury, an antidote to the effusive celebration of street art; .Fashpack Freetown, celebrating the irrepressible forces of creativity in a town known more as a civil war battleground than a fashion hotspot; and .The Critics with Zan Rowe,...

David Simon, creator of The Wire, has spent the night engaged in an online conversation about Baltimore. Also in today's roundup: Tilda Swinton and Chuck Close in conversation, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Mark Rappaport, David Bordwell on David Koepp, Harun Farocki on Michael Klier, interviews with Lech Majewski, Roy Andersson, Daniel Clowes and Ennio Morricone, essays on Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face, Laura Mulvey, Orson Welles and Citizen Kane and John Schlesinger’s Darling, remembering cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, plus news of an unseen film by Manoel de Oliveira and more. » - David Hudson...

David Simon, creator of The Wire, has spent the night engaged in an online conversation about Baltimore. Also in today's roundup: Tilda Swinton and Chuck Close in conversation, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Mark Rappaport, David Bordwell on David Koepp, Harun Farocki on Michael Klier, interviews with Lech Majewski, Roy Andersson, Daniel Clowes and Ennio Morricone, essays on Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face, Laura Mulvey, Orson Welles and Citizen Kane and John Schlesinger’s Darling, remembering cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, plus news of an unseen film by Manoel de Oliveira and more. » - David Hudson...

Last night the annual Fall Studio Gala and Studio Party gave blue-chip collectors and artists the opportunity to bid a tearless adieu to cramped Museum Mile and wax poetic about the, uh, Meatpacking District. No one mentions starchitect Renzo Piano, who is responsible for building the fourth home for the Whitney Museum, a blobby mass on a stretch of Hudson waterfront that New Yorkers know from vodka commercials in which fully grown women can’t suppress the urge to hook arms before sliding out of a taxi. I suppose the neighborhood is getting the building it deserves, but the Whitney certainly isn’t.“You don’t give up your flagship,” says Chuck Close, dismissively flicking his wrist. Close wants the Whitney to have the Breuer Building display its permanent collection without rotation, since that’s “all anybody wants to see.” For the time being, the Whitney is keeping what we...

Annette Bening is fine to pose without a stitch of makeup. The 55-year-old actress stopped by Live! With Kelly and Michael to dish about her recent natural and fresh-faced photograph featured in Vanity Fair. "We did one show when Kelly Ripa lost a bet to me and had to do the show without makeup," co-host Michael Strahan said. "And I know you posed for Vanity Fair magazine with no makeup." American painter and photographer Chuck Close took the "raw portraits" with "a rare and impressive 20-by-24-inch Polaroid camera". Kate Winslet, Scarlett Johansson, Oprah Winfrey and more are featured in the magazine's spread. "He's one of the greatest artists in...

Magazine chief takes 1,500 words to explain his decision on Gwyneth Paltrow story, saying he doesn't publish 'takedowns'

Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, has written an article in his magazine, running to more than 1,500 words, to tell readers why he has not published an article about Gwyneth Paltrow.

His editor's letter, which gets cover billing as "Goop, gossip & Gwyneth", is part explanation and part excuse for his spiking of a story he commissioned about the London-based film actor.

After his opening line, "Not to bore you with the details", he goes on to do just that. Well, up to a point. It also amounts to a revealing insight into the way in which a magazine that depends on celebrity content can be held hostage by celebrities.

In effect, after considerable pressure and months of dithering, Carter sounded the retreat.

The dispute began almost a year ago. Paltrow had been named by one Us magazine,...

Scarlett Johansson and Kate Winslet are the latest A-listers to show their true skin. The actresses are featured in Vanity Fair‘s annual Hollywood Issue, photographed makeup-free by famed painter and photographer, Chuck Close.

View Photo Gallery

From Brad Pitt to Oprah Winfrey, Close shot his famous subjects with “a rare and impressive 20-by-24-inch Polaroid camera” to create raw and intimate portraits inside the mag. Among the celebrities featured on the cover of the award season bible are Fruitvale Station star Michael B. Jordan, red carpet style maven Lupita Nyong’o and her 12 Years A Slave costar, Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Scarlett and Kate are far from the first female celebrities to pose without makeup. Take a look at our gallery above for a complete guide to stars who’ve gone make-up free, including Heidi Klum, Emma Stone, Lady Gaga and more.

[Photo Credit: Vanity Fair]...

They both make their living in front of the camera, so Kate Winslet and Scarlett Johansson are quite accustomed to being plastered with various cosmetics.

However, Vanity Fair is featuring both beauties in their March 2014 Hollywood Issue without a smidge of makeup and they both look fabulous.

Shot by award-winning lensman Chuck Close, Scarlett and Kate’s close-ups prove that they don’t rely on fancy tricks to achieve their gorgeousness.

Close told Vanity Fair, “I don’t do glamour shots, and they’re not airbrushed or whatever. So they can be, um…they can be rough. So I need to talk people through it. They have to give up a great deal of vanity in order to do it. And it takes a real act of generosity and faith on the part of the subject to go with it and to give me their image without having any control over what’s gonna happen.

Kate Winslet and Scarlett Johansson are natural beauties. The actresses posed without makeup for Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue. The "raw portraits" were taken with "a rare and impressive 20-by-24-inch Polaroid camera" by American painter and photographer Chuck Close. The up close and personal headshots feature Johansson and Winslet in front of a simple gray background. Their wardrobe is casual and understated: the Don Jon starlet is wearing a gray top, while the Labor Day actress opted for a black scoop neck sweater. They are both sporting simple pendant necklaces. Both women are staring straight into the lens; Johansson is flashing a big grin, while Winslet 's mouth is shut and she...

African Elephants in White Gold: "This time around it's much more serious because there's less elephants and more demand."

White Gold, Sydney's Pollack's Out Of Africa, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, along with Michael Apted's Gorillas In The Mist starring Sigourney Weaver have one man in common, Simon Trevor, the director of White Gold.

On the red carpet at MoMA for the film's premiere he told me - "We couldn't sit by and watch all those elephants being killed without trying to make everybody aware of this."

Sigourney Weaver, Albert Maysles, Barbara Kopple, Meredith Vieira, Iman, Christie Brinkley, Stacy Bendet, Hanneli Mustaparta, Tara Subkoff, Kyleigh Kuhn, Mia Moretti with Cleo Wade, Cynthia Rowley, David Schwimmer with Zoe Buckman, among others, walked the red carpet with Chuck Close and producer Arne Glimcher in support of the cause.

Simon Trevor on the red carpet at MoMA: "We couldn't sit by...

White Gold producer Arne Glimcher and director Simon Trevor Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze Documentarian Albert Maysles in support of White Gold Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze Sigourney Weaver, Chuck Close, Iman, Joel Ehrenkranz, James Franco, Agnes Gund, and Uma Thurman hosted an advance screening of Simon Trevor's forceful documentary White Gold on the organised poaching of elephant tusks, narrated by former Us Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Museum of Modern Art on the evening of Wednesday, November 12. Albert Maysles, Barbara Kopple, Meredith Vieira, Christie Brinkley, Stacy Bendet, Hanneli Mustaparta, Tara Subkoff, Kyleigh Kuhn, Mia Moretti, Cynthia Rowley, David Schwimmer with Zoe Buckman, among others, walked the red carpet in support of the cause.

Arne Glimcher, founder of Pace gallery and the producer of White Gold, Simon Trevor and Sigourney Weaver spoke with me before the screening on the importance a film can make by bringing awareness for the protection of wildlife.

Fans of Kate Moss might get to see a whole lot of the supermodel—again. New reports are fueling rumors that started back in March that the Brit babe is slated to pose nude and grace the cover of Playboy. Last week celebrity hairstylist Oribe Canales essentially confirmed the buzz about Moss when he told Refinery29 that he'd styled the photogenic gal's hair for the Playboy shoot. Photos: Kate Moss models bikinis in St. Barts Now, the New York Post reports that the spread, which will supposedly come out in January in time for the mag's 60th anniversary and Moss' 40th birthday, was shot by photogs Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, and that Moss has tapped artist Chuck Close to...

1. There is a general perception that the Playstation 3 was not the winner in the dying videogame generation. This is not to say that it lost. The Playstation 3 produced some of the most beautiful games ever created. It is a high-powered machine. The freaking Air Force used it to create a freaking supercomputer. But it didn’t have the mass appeal of the Wii or the swagger of the Xbox 360. It was merely excellent. The Playstation 2 was excellent, also, but it utterly defined its generation. In a weird way, even if the sales tell a different story, Sony is coming into this E3 as an underdog.

New York -- Michael Chabon had long been mystified by that Bob Dylan lyric about "midnight's broken toe."

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, the keynote speaker Wednesday at the annual induction ceremony of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, was explaining his undiminished passion for rock music and confiding that he had become obsessed by the opening line to Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom."

"Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toe."

The answer was both simple and embarrassing; Dylan was singing about "midnight's broken toll," not toe.

"How many hours I had devoted to (the idea) ... that midnight had toes, and that one of them, the big one, had been broken," Chabon said.

Rock `n roll was officially welcomed by the 115-year-old academy, an "honor society" proud to call itself elite and home to some of the country's leading writers, composers, painters and sculptors. On Wednesday, Dylan became the first rock star inducted,...

Modern art has thrived in the last couple of decades, and a few folks have made names for themselves on the international stage with works that even the uninitiated are likely to recognize if only because they walk by them in the middle of a busy city on a daily basis. People who live in big cities also benefit from a wide variety of galleries which feature the works of some of today’s premiere artists like Marina Abramovic, Ai Weiwei, El Anatsui, Tabaimo, Dean Koontz, Chuck Close, and more. Their works span the vast mediums of art, and Art:21 (Art in the Twenty-First Century) gives at-home viewers a chance to explore their works at an intimate level by going inside their studios, their gallery openings, and more to gain a deeper appreciation for their unique artistic visions and statements. PBS has recently released all six available seasons of the series in one DVD set,...

“Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” is a proverb whose simple existence proves the fact impressionable souls will do so without fail. This monthly column focuses on the film industry’s willingness to capitalize on this truth, releasing one-sheets to serve as not representations of what audiences are to expect, but as propaganda to fill seats. Oftentimes they fail miserably.

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This month may be one of the least creative in terms of movie posters ever. Between the laziness, litany of character sheets, and over-used technique, I think I only actually like two entries out of the bunch.

The small number of releases doesn’t help matters as far as diversifying—especially with so few independents to temper the summer season’s blockbuster onslaught—but you still hope to catch a couple gems from the big studios. May will be a moneymaker either way, so perhaps no one wanted...

Today the Presidents Committee on the Arts and the Humanities announced the launch of a new artseducation initiative to help turn around low-performing schools, developed in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education and the White House Domestic Policy Council. The Turnaround Arts initiative is a new public-private partnership designed to narrow the achievement gap and increase student engagement through the arts. Working in some of the nations lowest-performing elementary and middle schools, this program will test the hypothesis that high-quality and integrated arts education boosts academic achievement, motivates student learning and improves school culture in the context of overall school reform, announced the committees co-chairs, George Stevens Jr. and Margo Lion. Presidentially-appointed artists Chuck Close, Yo-Yo Ma, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington, Forest Whitaker, Damian Woetzel and Alfre Woodard to work with schools in eight states as part of the program.

Washington — Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington and Forest Whitaker are adopting some of the nation's worst-performing schools and pledging Monday to help the Obama administration turn them around by integrating arts education.

The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities will announce a new Turnaround Arts initiative as a pilot project for eight schools with officials from the White House and U.S. Department of Education. Organizers said they aim to demonstrate new research that shows the arts can help reduce behavioral problems and increase student attendance, engagement and academic success.

The two-year initiative will target eight high-poverty elementary and middle schools. The schools were among the lowest-performing schools in each of their states and had qualified for about $14 million in federal School Improvement Grants from the Obama administration. The arts initiative will bring new training for educators at the Aspen Institute, art supplies and musical instruments totaling about $1 million per year,...

Actors Sarah Jessica Parker, Forest Whitaker, Alfre Woodard, and Kerry Washington are pledging on Monday to take part in an Obama administration initiative aimed at improving arts education at eight of the nation’s poorest and worst-performing elementary and middle schools, according to a report by Brett Zongker for the Huffington Post.The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, with officials from the White House and the U.S. Department of Education, is gearing up for the new two-year program called "Turnaround Arts" by enlisting these actors, along with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, artist Chuck Close, and dancer Damian Woetzel, to "adopt" a school. The artists will present programs to students and teachers while helping to create community partnerships and raise funds to keep "Turnaround" up and running.The schools selected for the project are located in urban and rural areas in New Orleans, Denver, Boston, Washington, Des Moines,...

Sporting plaid pants and a snug long-sleeved shirt, Alan Cumming serenaded a sea of stars Wednesday night for the Lunchbox Fund's cocktail-attire (looking at you, Cumming!) auction benefiting hungry South African students. Salman Rushdie, Philip Glass and a fresh-faced Courtney Love looked on as Cumming seamlessly weaved together three of 2011's biggest pop hits -- Adele's "Someone Like You," Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory" and Katy Perry's "Firework" -- a skill that will come in handy when he's playing every character in "Macbeth."

Cumming -- whose accent happily does not disappear when he sings -- has sang for musicals before, for Lgbt rights, and now, for hungry children in South Africa.

Watch, but mostly listen:

Cumming followed up with a feisty, theatrical rendition of "Mein Herr," a song off "Cabaret," which he starred in during its 1993 London revival:

The performance was the talk of the evening,...

Last night the high-powered Lunchbox Fund held an auction in service of its mission to feed schoolchildren in South Africa, in a setting far far away from the cause. It happened in the basement of Mario Batali's Manhattan restaurant Del Posto (Batali is a Lunchbox board member), and the iconic names behind the items on the block were all in attendance: Chuck Close maneuvered the periphery of the crowd in his mechanized wheelchair, wearing a geometric-printed pant and shirt set and a black bowler hat. Phillip Glass stopped to take a picture with him. Michael Stipe emceed for a bit, introing Salman Rushdie, who praised the persuasive powers of Lunchbox's founder, South African-born model Topaz Page-Green.

Rushdie had put up a manuscript for sale, a copy of his 993-word story "A Globe Of Heaven," which went up in full 6 months ago on what appears to be Rushdie's very own...

“Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” is a proverb whose simple existence proves the fact impressionable souls will do so without fail. This monthly column focuses on the film industry’s willingness to capitalize on this truth, releasing one-sheets to serve as not representations of what audiences are to expect, but as propaganda to fill seats. Oftentimes they fail miserably.

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December is here and the posters are many. With studio releases being pumped through NY and La during the holidays for award consideration, the number of films coming out this month looks to match the output of a complete year during the 80s. So it’s a surprise how many are worth noting because of their quality and not lack thereof—see Blt & Associates’ attempt to equal Pulp Fiction’s flair with Young Adult and simply look tired and lazy in the process.

It was a struggle to...

Eva Hesse: Eva Hesse Spectres 1960 Brooklyn Museum Through January 8, 2012

In 1969 Eva Hesse participated in When Attitudes Become Form, a benchmark exhibition of Minimalist art. This was a watershed moment for Hesse. What the participants in this show demonstrated with their work was that experience -- that of the artist and that of the viewer -- could be given shape through language, line, color, and pre-existing shape (primary ones such as circles and squares were popular) and that experience could acquire meaning as aesthetic objects. In essence, these artists demonstrated that the recording of their process of thinking about art and making objects was the artwork. Although it is this work that Hesse is known and remembered for, we are fortunate to be able to view her lesser-known paintings from the early 60s at the Brooklyn Museum.

Hesse no doubt saw these earlier works as transitional, coming as they did between...

Opening with long meditative, carefully composed tracking shots through tunnels, passages and man-made caves, Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow is a portrait with little context of the artist Anselm Kiefer. We learn in text Kiefer moved from his native Germany to Barjac, France, the studio where this work has been filmed.

The film sheds light on an experience in a way that a TV documentary on the same subject perhaps could not. However, like all cinema this is a manipulated experience that contains as much filmmakers Sophie Fiennes hand as it does Kiefer’s. The experience of the work cannot be replicated in Fiennes’ carefully composed frames and tracking shots, all intensified with a musical score lacking subtlety.

Kiefer’s work had been previously unknown to me, an advantage in that the film invites you to do discover his work and process with little commentary, aside from an interview...

Friday, August 05

It's been 20 years since fans flocked to Chicago for the first Lollapalooza music festival to catch a glimpse of Ice-t and the Violent Femmes. After struggling in the late '90s as bands lost interest in festivals, Lolla's now stronger than ever thanks to a sturdy partnership with the city's park district. If you're one of the 225,000 fans visiting Grant Park in August to hear headliners Eminem and Coldplay, you'll need a few breaks from the crowd. Here's where to take them.

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One of former Mayor Richard Daley's crowning achievements, this park opened in 2004, replacing a rail yard and parking lot with public art and gardens. Check out Yvonne Domenge's abstract sculptures, or make...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films being made available by Netflix for instant streaming. Important Note: There may be some films that do not become available on the specified dates. This is merely a report of the most accurate release dates I can find, but is not directly confirmed by Netflix themselves.

Picasso & Braque Goes To The Movies (2008)

Streaming Available: 05/24/2011

Synopsis: Director Arne Glimcher (The Mambo Kings) and narrator-producer Martin Scorsese present this art-filled documentary that explores the connection between cinema and the Cubist paintings of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Extraordinary film clips from Georges Méliès and others offer a cinephile’s delight, as interviews with filmmakers, artists and historians, including Scorsese, Chuck Close, and Julian Schnabel, give insightful commentary.

Average Netflix rating: 3 The Darwin Awards...

Funnyman Ben Stiller is helping to organise a charity art auction to benefit the children of Haiti.

The Meet the Parents star has been actively involved in the earthquake relief effort in the Caribbean country since the disaster struck in January, 2010 - and he's continuing his efforts by teaming up with New York art dealer David Zwirner to launch the Artists for Haiti sale.

The auction, featuring works by contemporary artists such as Chuck Close, Jeff Koons and Paul McCarthy, will take place at Christie's in Manhattan on 22 September.

All proceeds will be donated to charities aiding Haitian kids affected by the earthquake.

Ben Stiller is organizing an art auction to benefit Haitian children affected by last year's disastrous earthquake. The Meet the Fockers star has teamed with New York art dealer David Zwirner for the benefit event, dubbed 'Artists for Haiti'. Artists Paul McCarthy, Jasper Johns, Dan Flavin, Chuck Close ad Jeff Koons will contribute work to the auction, which will take place on (more)...

It's hard to imagine the La Weekly without Arts Editor Tom Christie. When I first met him in the mid-80s his hair was still black and he was working for California Magazine editor Harold Hayes (Esquire) at what eventually morphed into Los Angeles Magazine. Christie has been an institution at La Weekly for 15 years, supervising coverage of books, film, theater and art; he's the last of the old guard to leave since editor Drex Heikes took the helm. Christie now has time to finish his documentary on artist Richard Serra (who memorably appeared on Charlie Rose recently, with Chuck Close) and finish a screenplay adaptation of A.W. Hill's Nowhere-Land.

According to Lucas Samaras, that is. Judith H. Dobrzynski on the subjects of his new show featuring the likes of Evelyn de Rothschild, Cindy Sherman, and Leonard Lauder.

Jasper Johns is there. So are artists Cindy Sherman, Alex Katz, Chuck Close and Lisa Yuskavage. Glenn Lowry, the head of the Museum of Modern Art, and Lisa Phillips, of the New Museum, are side-by-side with collectors Leonard Lauder, Marie-Josee Kravis, Agnes Gund and dozens of similar luminaries.

Related story on The Daily Beast: Stolen Aphrodite Returns

They're all subjects of new photographic works by Lucas Samaras, a slight, 74-year-old multi-media wizard whose new exhibition, "Poses," launched an art-world version of the name-game when it opened at the Pace Gallery this week.

Why Leonard Lauder, chairman emeritus of the Whitney Museum, but not his brother Ronald, former chairman of MoMA? Where are hot-shot artists Richard Prince and John Currin? Why isn't Henry Kravis there with his wife?...

Looks like the Jonas Brothers could have a new gig.

In an interview with Daily Front Row, AOL CEO and Chairman Tim Armstrong says his company wants to change the way both AOL properties and the web in general look... with help from the boy band.

Pointing to the content provider's in-depth fashion week week coverage, Armstong says, "Our properties and sites and the company itself will start to represent more of what you see in the runway world -- the creativity and the perfection. It's what we want at AOL: a well-designed and styled version of the internet. That's why we're working with some of the most creative people on the planet -- from Chuck Close to the Jonas Brothers. We want them to help us redesign the Internet."

The Bros. -- Nick, Kevin and Joe -- launched original online video channel Cambio.com with AOL this summer. Last week,...

When the art world had reached the conclusion that portraiture as a style of painting had played itself out, Chuck Close’s endeavors were consequently seen as antiquated. How to breathe new life into a genre that’s been a staple of every aspiring artist while still making the act of renewal to be more than just a singular effort in that direction? Chuck Close did it, mostly, in that he now regularly creates portraits based on a painstakingly arranged photograph that is then broken down into tiny segments which are then recreated with an abstract form. The resulting portraits have an unmistakable flair and it has become the style for which Chuck Close is famous, and this documentary charts, through a series of peer recounting, the steps that led up to Chuck’s revolutionary method.

Before the film delves too far into Close’s methodology, it gives a brief...

Today rounds out the unofficial teen angst week here on Pajiba After Dark so because this is a television column tonight I want to know what you were watching when you were younger. Did you have a favorite show or was it more whatever was on in the background as you talked on the phone? (Side note: I am appalled when I think back on how much time I spent on the phone as a teenager. I hate talking on the phone now and will go to great lengths to avoid it if at all possible.) I'm a little too young to have hit some of the more popular teen dramas like "My So Called Life" but I do remember watching "Popular", "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" out of misplaced affection for "Clarissa Explains It All" and, obviously, "Daria." I still miss "Daria" but I don't want to get the DVDs...

Donna Karan and Ross Bleckner. From PatrickMcMullan.com. Olivia Chantecaille and B. J. Topol.Saturday evening in Southampton, more than 500 movers and shakers turned out in their summer’s finest for the 16th annual Parrish Art Museum Midsummer Party, an event that this year honored philanthropist and mega art collector Beth Rudin DeWoody and celebrated artist Ross Bleckner. Powerhouse artists such as Chuck Close, Eric Fischl, April Gornick, David Salle, Hunt Slonem, Michele Oka-Doner, Dennis Oppenheim, and Keith Sonnier mingled with big-time collectors including Adam Sender, Christoph DeMenil, Jane Holzer, and Jonathan Sobel, while writer Jay McInerney chatted with New York first lady Michelle Paterson. The dinner and after-party raise more than $700,000 for the museum. Sitting at Parrish Art Museum trustee Philip Isles’s table ensured interesting dinner partners. Isles owns one of the most prestigious art collections in New York, so collecting was a popular topic of conversation. Fashion...

When thinking of dream pairings, the idea of Pablo Picasso and Martin Scorsese doesn’t even register in my brain it’s so bloody awesome.

However, according to The Wall Street Journal, the pairing may be together, finally at last.

The outlet notes that this weekend sees the opening of the new Martin Scorsese produced documentary, Picasso and Braque Go To The Movies, which premieres at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art this week.

The film was produced, narrated, and also features an appearance by Scorsese, who also joins the likes of Chuck Close, Julian Schnabel, and Eric Fischl on screen as they talk about just how artists like Picasso have affected them. The film contains clips from roughly 125 films ranging in date from 1902 to 1914, and parallels the ever changing genre of art known as Cubism, with the growth of cinema in that same time period. Picasso and Braque is directed by Arne Glimcher,...

The Us Weekly readers who know freak-folk musician Devendra Banhart as the hippie-haired beardo on the arm of Natalie Portman probably won't recognize him now. The Portman thing ended a while ago, for one. Plus he's wearing glasses these days, prescribed to him when he started getting headaches from poring over his miniscule drawings for a recent art exhibition, he explains in a call from his home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. Also, he'll begin a tour next week to support his latest album, What Will We Be, with a scandalously short-cropped do. "It's like a lesbian librarian," he jokes.

Along with the new bookish look, he's coming out as an accomplished visual artist--his second career that technically came first. His first album The Charles C. Leary, came out in 2002; he's been quietly exhibiting paintings since 1998. He's designed the covers of all but one of his eight albums,...

After getting five teeth punched out by Marlon Brando, left, Ron Galella took precautions. There may be no better way to observe celebrity culture than through the lens of Ron Galella, the original paparazzo. In Smash His Camera, a new documentary on the photographer, which premiered at Sundance yesterday, director Leon Gast enters the world of a man who, in four decades in the business, has taken more than three million photographs of public figures, almost all of them against their will. With full access to Galella, his archives, and his New Jersey home—decorated, by the pap himself, in a gaudy Italianate style—Gast neither glorifies his subject nor gives in to facile vilification. He poses all the right questions: Are paparazzi feeding a need for celebrity snapshots, or are they creating one? Is their work a testament to the First Amendment, or is it a test of it?...

I was thrilled to get an email this week from Akiko Stehrenberger, the designer of my favorite movie poster of the last decade. She had been told by friends about her chart-topping appearance and agreed to do an interview for this column. Akiko is an illustrator and art director who lives in L.A. and has been designing movie posters since 2004.

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Adrian Curry: First of all, the one thing I've always found most alluring about the Funny Games poster is that I’ve never been quite sure whether it’s an illustration or a photograph.

Akiko Stehrenberger: You are correct in not being sure. It is a digital illustration with a ton of noise on it to roughen it up. Warner Independent expressed interest in a certain scene from the film. We had such an incredibly limited budget that there were no resources to get a hi-res film grab. I...

At the age of 26, graphic novelist Dash Shaw has already delivered a genuine masterpiece. And not just any masterpiece: Bottomless Belly Button (EW's #5 book of 2008) is the kind of delicately observed, funny-sad multi-generational family saga that you expect from a maestro in the full flowering of their late-life artistic powers. Ingmar Bergman's Fanny & Alexander, say, or Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Shaw's nimble skill for storytelling and characterization is more than matched by his eclectic drawing style, which is simultaneously cartoonish, realistic, and impressionistic. Every page, every panel of his work combines the composed photographic detail of an...