Category: art news

  • 340-ton boulder on its way to LACMA

    The 10-day journey begins tonight for the huge boulder from a Riverside quarry destined as the centerpiece of Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass at LACMA.  It is so huge it has to travel on a custom-built transporter that requires road and utility accommodations throughout the trip (it’s nearly 3 traffic lanes wide!), and must take a…

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  • Mike Kelley (1954-2012)

    Contemporary artist Mike Kelley was found dead in his South Pasadena home on Wednesday. Obituaries via CalArts (where he received his MFA) and LA Times (with slideshow).

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  • The 30 million dollar punch

    A visitor to the new Clyfford Still Museum in Denver defaced a painting worth $30-40 million.  It’s not clear what her motives were, but she punched, scratched, leaned on, and attempted to urinate on (!?) 1957-J-No. 2 , seen at left.  Okay, she was drunk.  In the middle of the afternoon.  In a museum?? Via…

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  • Faculty publication #1: Making History, by Sylvester Ogbechie

    Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, Professor of Classical to Contemporary African Art here at UCSB, has just released Making History: African Collectors and the Canon of African Art, which explores the under-studied area of African-owned collections of African art.  The image plates are stunning, plentiful, and of the  highest quality.  The volume is available in English and…

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  • USC engineer heads team to save Leonardo’s Last Supper

    An engineering professor from the University of Southern California has lead a multinational group charged with saving Leonardo’s iconic fresco The Last Supper. One problem maintaining the fresco is the way it was painted: directly on a dry wall, which caused it to begin deteriorating almost immediately. Subsequent restorations haven’t helped the matter. However, the…

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  • The art of pepper spraying (cop)

    It seems the pepper-spraying incident at UC-Davis last Friday has brought out the creative side of some people. The Tumblr page PEPPER SPRAYING COP offers readers a place to upload images where “peace officer” Lt. John Pike has been spotted in works of art, film, and popular culture. Note that much of the accompanying text can…

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