ART BRIEF
All in the Family
In the past two years two art museums endowed by Los Angeles billionaires have opened. Eli Broad opened The Broad museum in 2015 and the…
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ART BRIEF
A New Law That’s Bad for the Art Business
Sometimes legislation in Sacramento is rushed through with unintended consequences, an unfortunate example being a newly expanded law posing problems for art dealers. This 2016…
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ART BRIEF
Ivanka Dearest
President Trump’s proposed plan for a $54 billion increase in the defense budget would be paid for by drastically cutting many agency budgets, including the…
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ART BRIEF
Freeport Shenanigans: Secret, Secure, Unseen
The greatest collection of art in the world may not be at the Met or the Louvre any longer. The secret vaults of the wealthiest…
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ART BRIEF
The Naked City Sexual Politics, West Hollywood Style
The City of West Hollywood is well known as one of the most liberal cities in America, so it’s more than a little ironic that…
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ART BRIEF
Sacked and Pillaged; Simchowitz vs. Mahama
Stefan Simchowitz is a controversial figure in the art world. He doesn’t own an art gallery yet maintains a large network of art collectors. He…
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ART BRIEF
Keeping it Real
Last year I was invited to view a controversial painting that the owner claimed to be a genuine Rothko he bought at a small LA…
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ART BRIEF
All That Glitters is Not Gold
In April I received a catalog for Sotheby’s May 2015 contemporary art auction with a cover image of a cardboard Coca-Cola crate embossed in gold…
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ART BRIEF
Is California’s Resale Royalty Act Doomed?
In May of this year, headlines trumpeted that the contemporary art auctions in New York hit a new record of over $1.2 billion in sales…
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ART BRIEF
My Afternoon with Ed
I’ve come to know Ed Moses as a result of a friendship with his son, artist Andy Moses. In the last few years Ed became…
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ART BRIEF
Clash of the Titans
The Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills had its annual Oscar week art opening in February with an after-party for its top Los Angeles patrons at…
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ART BRIEF
The Disappearing Red Dot
Art Basel Miami was such a social swirl (what did that Miley Cyrus concert at the Raleigh Hotel have to do with art?), that it’s…
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ART BRIEF
Degenerate Art
In September I managed to view the last day of the remarkable “Degenerate Art ” exhibition at cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder’s Neue Galerie in New…
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ART BRIEF: Banality
Jeff Koons’ Dubious Transformations
In September, while in New York, I popped into the Whitney to check out the occupation of the entire museum by Jeff Koons. While I’m…
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ART BRIEF: Multiplicity
Art in the Digital Age
I attended the opening of a show of the recent work of David Hockney at the L.A. Louver gallery titled “The Arrival of Spring.” These…
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