I had a hunch it was time to check in on the contemporary art situation in Egypt, given that the new Islamist-drafted constitution passed recently, handing a victory to the Muslim Brotherhood. I can only report what I read elsewhere, and that news isn't great. Last week, the online English edition of Al Ahram published an article rounding up what's happened in the Egyptian art world over the past year in a piece headlined Artists and Islamists Going Head to Head. It began: Islamists’ attack on arts and culture in Egypt since they came … [Read more...]

China's best-known artist has struck again: in another manifestation of Ai Weiwei's many talents , fertile mind and ability to annoy the Chinese government, he has issued a “little black book” -- Weiwei-isms parrots the form of "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung," which was short-handed as the "little red book." Ai's book, too, consists of short, sharp thoughts and sayings. Drawn from his tweets, interviews and articles, the maxims have been organized by the editor, Larry Warsh, into six sections: freedom of expression; art and … [Read more...]

Davidoff makes cigars and "luxury tobacco products." Not something I usually want to promote. However, this past week, in connection with Art Basel Miami Beach, the company did something admirable. (Interestingly, when I went to its website, I had to enter my birthdate and affirm that I was a smoker before being allowed to enter -- since I am not a smoker, I could not make the affirmation, and I left.) Many companies take sponsorship roles at art fairs, or run their own events simultaneously, and Davidoff does that, too. Now, however, the … [Read more...]

The Guggenheim Museum, despite suffering a power outage to its downtown administrative offices, which are closed (its email and phone systems are also down), managed to get out some news today (the museum itself was closed, as usual for Thursdays, but it plans to reopen tomorrow -- it has been closed since Sunday, but opened yesterday only for Picasso: Black and White). So I thought it was worth a post: the museum named Danh Vo as winner of the Hugo Boss Prize. It's the 9th time for the biennial prize, which involves a $100,000 award. … [Read more...]