Watching which luxuries people are relinquishing in these financially dreary times is like watching a neat little piece of sociological theater. While I've given up Whole Foods in favor of Trader Joe's (like a common urchin), young men in Tampa are abstaining from strippers. In Fort Pierce, Florida, the crackheads are being asked to calmly suppress their habit (the cost of which has doubled) and they're fucking crackheads!
With the whole world falling down, don't for a second think the ultra-wealthy aren't tightening their belts. They may be richer than God, but this recession is leaving no pocket unpicked. Subsequently, Manhattan's elite have emerged from their caviar comas and realized that arbitrarily priced canvases spattered with paint aren't worth more than the homes of the vast majority of the world's population.
Yesterday, artist Francis Bacon's "Study for Self Portrait," a piece Christie's estimated would collect $40 million plus, went unsold with nary a bid. WHAT MADNESS IS THIS!!!?!?!?!?!?!?
Shit! Jezebel's paparazzi photo art gallery is very, very good and we are so damn mad that we didn't do it first. Check it out and then riddle us this…
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ARTS AND FARTS AND CRAFTS Artist Damien Hirst's massive auction of his work yesterday at Sotheby's fetched $169 million from buyers, with 87 of the 223 lots having yet to go up on the block. This is an all-time money high for an auction of works by a single artist, a record formerly held by Pablo Picasso. At left is Hirst's "The Golden Calf," an embalmed bull with gold-plated horns and hooves, which sold for $18.5 million. You don't get it.
This classy portrait (by David LaChapelle) of a topless Pam Anderson enjoying a relaxing spray-on tan was expected to draw up to $25,000 at Sotheby's Contemporary Art sale. We're curious as to what kind of person has 25 grand to spend on artwork yet also chooses to blow that money on a Pam Anderson piece.
The photo dates back to 2004, when Pam still wasn't relevant but well-known for her orange glow and huge boobs. You can see those in the uncensored picture below.
A one euro coin has turned up in Spain bearing the face of cartoon couch potato Homer Simpson instead of that of the country's king, a sweetshop owner told Reuters on Friday.
Jose Martinez was counting the cash in his till in the city of Aviles, northern Spain, when he came across the coin where Homer's bald head, big eyes and big nose had replaced the serious features of King Juan Carlos.
The comical carver had not taken his tools to the other side of the coin displaying the map of Europe. So far, no other coins of the hapless, beer-swilling oaf have been found in circulation.
The US Commission of Fine Arts has approved the revised design for the 28-foot Martin Luther King Jr national memorial statue. Opponents of the original design said it felt "confrontational" and similar to statues toppled in formerly dictatorial nations.
The new design gives King a less furrowed brown and a mouth tilted ever so slightly into a smile. It's exactly how the civil rights hero wouldn't look upon a nation that still has people asking if the White House can be called that with a black president in it.
Click through to see the before and after.
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Look! Bob Dylan's paintings are half-assed, too. But, as usual, good luck getting anyone in the mainstream media to admit it:
He never does anything - be it his retro-western clothes or those huskily claustrophobic radio programmes - without a powerful sense of style. And surely the fiercely cantankerous intelligence that produced 'Like a Rolling Stone' wouldn't allow anything into the public gaze that would compromise his carefully developed mystique.
He's the most critically acclaimed Victoria's Secret spokesman ever.
Last week Queerty editor Andrew Belonsky shared a child's rendering of his dead hamster, a piece of art that may be the most profound — and adorable! — illustration of death's mystifying effects. Luckily for us, there were more where that came from, and he graciously captured a few other drawings for public consumption. They're no "Hamster what?" but magic like that only comes along once in a lifetime.
A new series of portraits by conceptual photographer Sam Taylor-Wood features some of Hollywood's most sought after leading men – Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Daniel Craig, etc – in tears. According to Taylor-Wood, the idea's pretty simple: "It's about the idea of taking these big, masculine men and showing a different side." Yay, straightforward, unpretentious art.
I'm a crier myself, so I say more power to Taylor-Wood and her subjects. And special kudos to Jude Law, who went above and beyond by not just crying, but doing so in a corner in the fetal position.
Because everyone loves elementary art, the front window of Queerty editor Andrew Belonsky's neighborhood vet currently features some childrens’ renderings of their pets.
As you can see, one local child recently lost their hamster and, like so many people, has a hard time grappling the concept of death.
Robert Rauschenberg, a "brash, garrulous, hard-drinking, open-faced Southerner," according to The New York Times, and an important link between abstract expressionism and pop art, according to everyone, died of heart failure last night. He was 82.
• Alexyss K Tylor is back! And oh, God, is she NSFW. [DListed]
• "10 Tips to Rule Your Kitchen for a Girl On-the-Go"? Tip number one: stop calling yourself a "girl" before you're old enough to have a kitchen of your own. [INO]
• Michael Lohan on ex-wife Dina's Top Mom award: "Are you kidding! Top celebrity mom? Look at her off-screen antics, her lack of morals and how she conducts herself." [ICYDK]
• Miley Cyrus' ratings are actually down after that whole Vanity Fair fiasco. Because, oddly enough, many people are boobs scared of boobs. [Yeeeah]
• Murakami's at the Brooklyn Museum. Go if you're in Brooklyn, not epileptic and interested in crazy, sexual, Japanese Manga characters. [CityRag]
• Clooney failed big and your mom and girlfriend still love him. Deal with it. [PS]
That creepy portrait Heath Ledger sat for just one month before passing away has won some art award. Said someone in our office more insensitive than ourselves: "It's just 'cause he died."
Heard about Aliza Shvarts, the Yalie senior who, over the course of nine months, induced multiple miscarriages in the name of art? Check it: " … she will showcase the stomach-turning display next week — complete with her own blood samples and videos from the terminated possible pregnancies." My goodness, can you imagine what kind of spoiled, pretentious, ignorant kid would do such a thing? Perhaps you can, but don't, because after the jump we've posted video footage of this Shvarts simpleton. And get this: she's literally atop a soapbox saying things like, "So, empowerment: it's important." Ha!
Lost hobbit Dominic Monaghan is exhibiting some of his photography at a gallery in West Hollywood. Do stop by if you're in the area for a glimpse at the pictures, which range from blurry photos of buildings to blurry photos of celebrities to computer-manipulated photos of the sky. And all taken with a point-n-shoot. It's what you would take pictures of if you were drunk and famous.
Conclusion: Once you're a celebrity, that's your career. Feel free to vacillate between callings at will; nobody will have the balls to tell you you're bad.
The photos, in all their fuzzy glory, after the jump.
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Besides being a tiny heiress to a second-rate fashion line, you'll recall that Ally Hilfiger is also a budding artiste, the profession of choice for aimless rich people looking to have loads of both free time and room for interpretation.
Last night was the opening of the small wonder's weird show, which focused heavily on the number eight. Ironically, we don't believe any of the work we've seen is anywhere near an eight out of 10. Let us know your thoughts, amateur art critics.
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• Had you forgotten that jerks everywhere are making sure "art" looks stupid? Check out this video for a reminder. We just got that professor an A in his own stupid stupidy stupid class for stupids. [Pop17]
• Cord Jefferson is now also an editor-at-large at Stereohyped. Check in over there once in a while, y'hear? [SH]
• The Olsen twins are releasing a book about their influences. It's going to be called Influence, and it's going to be a lie because it's not going to include cocaine. [DListed]
• Jakey G likes crossword puzzles. Swoon, nerd girls (and boys). [PS]
• Leonardo DiCaprio rocks out to Elton John, and that's more than fine with us. [INO]
• One of Snoop's sons is named "Corde." This is upsetting to us here at Mollygood. Very upsetting, actually. [ICYDK]
• LOLbritneys! [CityRag]
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