ART BRIEF
Artists Unite
On February 15, 2019, President Donald Trump issued a fake declaration of a national emergency at the southern border of the U.S., claiming that criminals…
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ART BRIEF
Theater of the Absurd
“Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World”—intended to be the most important show of Chinese dissident art in recent years—limped into California late…
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ART BRIEF
Russian Oligarch Jolts the Art World—Again
The bitter years-long dispute between billionaire Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev and Swiss art-freeport mogul Yves Bouvier (reported in this column previously) has spawned a multi-million-dollar…
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ART BRIEF
Ai Weiwei Goes Hollywood
The first week of October was Ai Weiwei week in Los Angeles—a triple-header of shows including the Marciano Foundation, the opening show of former MOCA…
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ART BRIEF
Trump Gives Arts the Hook
President Donald Trump is no fan of the arts. His first budget proposed entirely eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National…
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New Chief for MOCA (Again)
Does New Director Mean a Calm in the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum?
This week’s announcement that Klaus Biesenbach, director of New York’s PS1, the Museum of Modern Art’s satellite in Queens, was chosen to be the new…
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ART BRIEF: THE WHITEWASH
Graffitist Scrawl New Rights For All
Whenever I mention the V.A.R.A to artists, I’m invariably met with a blank stare. The Visual Arts Rights Act, passed by Congress in 1990, grants…
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ART BRIEF: DO NOT DISTURB
Fending off censorship today
Censorship of art must always bear a high burden—especially after an entire generation of work was nearly destroyed by the Nazis’ war on Modern Art…
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ART BRIEF
The Mona Lisa of the Middle East?
Salvator Mundi, a portrait of Christ attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, was sold to a Saudi Arabian prince for $450 million (including fees) at Christie’s…
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Ed Moses: A Remembrance
1926-2018
Last Tuesday night (January 16, 2018), a day before he died, Ed Moses had an art opening of his latest work at a gallery space…
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ART BRIEF
Selling the Crown Jewels: Norman Rockwell
Although I’m not a big fan of Norman Rockwell’s artwork, a painting of his caught my eye after becoming the centerpiece of a controversy that…
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ART BRIEF
Inside the Glass Menagerie
Does anyone really believe that Michelangelo or Rubens painted all their works—every single stroke? Of course they didn’t. They had assistants working on their art…
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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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