Penguin and Random House to Merge

Penguin Books and Random House to merge. The end is at hand! Sinking ships sink faster if they are chained together.

Story via Wall Street Journal: http://tinyurl.com/8gmveg2

Art Makes Your Heart Beat Faster?

Although one sees very few solo viewers in NYC museum, new study says your heart beats faster when you look at art alone. And knowledge has no effect. Questions: Is the increased heart rate a flight response? And how do you measure the effect of a new idea? 

NY Times: http://tinyurl.com/9qlbdq3

Yau Trashes Guyton

Ever the champion of the new, John Yau trashes Wade Guyton at the Whitney. Is Guyton a closet case?

Essay via hyperallergic.com: http://tinyurl.com/8zna3no

Kass Retrospective at Warhol Museum

Deborah Kass retrospective now open at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Did Andy ever do Streisand portraits? No. But Kass did. Including one of Barbra in "Yentl" in male drag.

Huffingtonpost interview: http://tinyurl.com/8pt4esy

Hickey Fumes

Critic Dave Hickey is retiring. At last. In interview he fumes and fusses, revealing --- we think --- that he is part of the problem, as we always thought. Beauty indeed!

Gallerist interview: http://tinyurl.com/8ryl43l

Niemeyer Repurposed In Sao Paulo

Mega-modernist, Niemeyer building in downtown Sao Paulo now includes Pivo Contemporary Art Center in previously unoccupied ground floor spaces.

Story via NYTimes: http://tinyurl.com/8wdefp2

MoMA Garage Sale!

ARTOPIA: MoMA garage sale!

via NYT: http://tinyurl.com/9rozbrp

Should Koolhaas Monster Be Preserved?

Should Koolhaas' CCTV monster be preserved? After four years it is already corroded by Beijing air. Koolhaas himself says preservation laws get in the way of new architecture...Not in HIS way; historic district was demolished to make way for his mega building.

Preservation history in NY Review of Books via AJ.com: http://tinyurl.com/9dsurdl

Wright House Still Threatened

Wright house still threatened! Bad for a state to withdraw from the
Union, but it might be a good thing to kick out Arizona. Now we have another reason. 

NYTimes story: http://tinyurl.com/8qzk6qd

Food As Art?

Author chickens out on NYT opinion page. Very amusing at first but then he caves in. Sorry buddy, your restrictive art definitions don't hold water. Food IS art. Where have you been the last 30 years? 

"A Matter of Taste?": http://tinyurl.com/9yljbvh

Dark Secrets of Every Museum Revealed?

Should Museums Exhibit Bad Art? Artopiaanswer: They already do.
But we agree with hyperallergic otherwise. Let's look at what's in storage. Mistakes? Donor suck-up acquisitions? A history of so-called taste?

Link: http://hyperallergic.com/59354/should-museums-exhibit-bad-art/

Trockel Debacle at New Mu

Trockel at New Museum trashed in depth by Hyperallergic critic, but more politely than previous Artopianews post. 

Link: http://tinyurl.com/9qnyh4t

Chakaia Booker in D.C.

 Chakaia Booker tire sculptures in DC on NY Ave., extended until March 2014. 

Txt and pix via inhabitat.com: http://tinyurl.com/9mcvana

Judith Bernstein at New Museum

Judith Bernstein is famous for her gigantic screw drawings but is now getting even more famous for making fun of fame --- at the New Museum.

Press release and video via New Museum:http://tinyurl.com/d5vavde

Vito Acconci Named Designer of the Year

Vito Acconci named Designer of the Year at Design Miami.
pix & txt via dezeen.com: http://tinyurl.com/8tlz7jf

Scott Trumps Trockel at New Museum

The star of the Rosemarie Trockel show at the New Museum is Judith Scott (1943-2005). Why curator Lynne Cooke allowed the German art star Trockel to pepper her show with 12 "outsider" artists is beyond me. And paintings by a chimp. In comparison, alas, Trockel's highly regarded work pales. 

Quasi-interview/puff piece NY Times: http://tinyurl.com/8smsblv

Example of classic sculpture by Joyce Scott above.:

Neon Sign Museum Debuts

Neon sign museum opens in --- where else? --- Las Vegas

Story via NYTimes: http://tinyurl.com/8v7x3oc

Poster for "Naked Men" exhibit at the Leopold Museum in Austria censored. Statues with male privates made public, if Greek or Roman, are o.k.; but pix of naked soccer players are not.

Article on Huffingtonpost: http://tinyurl.com/9kslc3o

Dance in the Art Museums?

Whitney, Pompidou, and now MoMA add dance. The contemporary dance support system is moribund. Therefore: dance is the new art. Steve Paxton and others in MoMA atrium soon.

Article: http://galleristny.com/2012/10/dance/
Video: Steve Paxton: Satisfying Lover (1967); Center Pompidou, Paris; 2011.

ARTOPIAMUSIC: Unique 78's of Kurt Weill's score for 1939 World's Fair pageant "Railroads on Parade" reissued as CDs. Event featured a cast of 350 and real trains.

NY Times: http://tinyurl.com/8adf8uy
Playbill and other memorabilia: http://tinyurl.com/8ue49kw

ARTOPIACINEMA: "Venom and Eternity" (1951) by Isadore Isou (1925-2007) is quite simply the best post-war avant-garde film. It is astounding. Without Isou, Godard could not exist. Isou founded Letterism (Lettrism/Lettrisme) when he was 16. 

V and E was introduced at Cannes in 1952 by Jean Cocteau. The reaction was so violent fire hoses were required. It begins with a blank screen and a Letterist chant and then...discrepency, chiseling, scratchings, bleach. Stars handsome Isou himself.

Entire film: http://archive.org/details/venom_and_eternity