Read the Press for “Occupy Art Basel Miami Beach, Now!”

December 6, 2011

Read the waterfall of press for my article: “Occupy Art Basel Miami Beach, Now!” Read the good, the bad, and the indifferent from The New York, Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The New York Observer, W Magazine, Departures, The Spectator, Artinfo.com, Artforum, The Art Newspaper, and Le Quotidien de l’Art.

Helen Frankenthaler, the lyrically abstract painter whose technique of staining pigment into raw canvas helped shape an influential art movement in the mid-20th century and who became one of the most admired artists of her generation, died on Tuesday at her home in Darien, Conn. She was 83.

Her longtime assistant, Maureen St. Onge, said Ms. Frankenthaler died after a long illness but gave no other details.

 

A season that pops
By Ben Crandell

On Sept. 23, 1973, international ballet star Edward Villella appeared, playing himself, on the prime-time ABC sitcom "The Odd Couple," the neatnik-vs.-slob farce based on the Neil Simon play. The premise of the episode had Villella teaching the show's stars, played by stage and film veterans Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, how to dance to Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake." With a wink to a notorious X-rated movie of the era, the episode was titled "Last Tango in Newark."

Within that heap of middle-brow popular culture, two words stand out: Edward Villella?

By Aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com

A nonprofit developer armed with a multi-million grant aims to transform Opa-locka’s notorious Triangle into a family-friendly neighborhood by renovating vacant housing, building parks and installing public art.

 

A nonprofit developer plans to transform Opa-locka's notorious Triangle into a family-friendly neighborhood by renovating homes and apartments, installing playgrounds and public art, as depicted in this artist's rendering. Opa-Locka Community Development Corp.

Can a few million dollars, a public art project and a bold redevelopment plan reverse the sliding fortunes of one of South Florida’s toughest neighborhoods?

We’re about to find out.

 

 

Armed with a hefty federal grant and outsize ambition, developer and former politician Willie Logan has embarked on a mission of unusual, if not unprecedented, scope: To transform the entirety of Opa-locka’s notorious Triangle, once among the most violent and drug-soaked spots of Miami-Dade County, into a model, family-friendly urban neighborhood.

10 years of drawing inspiration from the Everglades

By Tom Austin
The Miami Herald

Artists long have looked at the Everglades with wonder. Over time, realistic portrayals of its spectacular landscapes — including the photography of local Clyde Butcher — have given way to contemporary abstraction and performance art inspired by the River of Grass and the modern pressures facing it and, metaphorically, the world beyond.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/18/2549737/10-years-of-drawing-inspiration...

Welcome to the intersection of art, ego, philanthropy and jealousy. It’s where you’ll find the Jorge M. Perez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County.

My initial reaction to renaming the Miami Art Museum for Jorge Perez was negative. Why should our stunning new $225 million civic art museum — with $103 million coming from taxpayers — be named for any individual, no matter how generous his donation? The decision by MAM’s board of trustees to change the name struck me as weak-kneed and wrong-headed. And the requirement by Perez to do so as arrogant and self-aggrandizing. I said as much on TV.

But I’ve reconsidered. After speaking to Perez and looking at how other arts institutions are funded here and across the country, I’ve concluded that Perez should be thanked, not condemned for his $35 million gift to MAM. If the price is for the museum to bear his name, hang his art and be his legacy, well, why not? He’s certainly not the first South Florida art patron to make a deal like this. The Arsht Center? Taxpayers kicked in about $440 million toward the PAC and Adrienne Arsht got her name on it for $30 million, supplanting Carnival Cruise Lines, which had given $20 million.

The new Frost Museum of Science, to be built across from the Perez Art Museum, honors Pat and Phil Frost for their $35 million contribution. There appears to be a $35 million threshold here for naming rights, and Perez has met it, although he’s doing it on the installment plan — $20 million over 10 years and his $15 million art collection. Still, it all adds up to the requisite magic number. You can’t really change the rules in the middle of the game, which is what his critics seem to want.

Like those critics, there’s part of me that rebels against having Miami’s main civic art museum named for anyone except those who mainly paid for it. But we can’t really call it the Taxpayers’ Art Museum of Miami-Dade, can we? Many years ago when the Metropolitan in New York or the Art Institute of Chicago or the Louvre in Paris or Prado in Madrid were created they were paid for by the cities that built them because they were tangible symbols of culture and achievement. Wealthy art lovers contributed money and works of art, but didn’t expect civic museums to carry their names. A wing, a gallery, a plaza, yes. The entire museum, no.

But times have changed. Museums along with other cultural, academic, medical and academic institutions are now more often than not paid for by a major donor who gets his or her name on the edifice. Locally, think of the Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami ($100 million from the Lennar founder Leonard Miller and family); The Frost Art Museum at Florida International University (Pat and Phil Frost once again), the Lowe Art Museum at UM and the Bass Museum on Miami Beach. Joe Robbie Stadium. There are, of course, exceptions. Lin and the late Ted Arison started and continue to sustain the New World Symphony.

Jorge Perez tells me some of the furor over the MAM renaming may have to do with his Hispanic heritage. “You know, the name Perez is new to Miami’s philanthropic society,” he said. “I think we need names of Latin descent to go hand in hand with great Anglo and Jewish names that have shown generosity in the past.”

It’s possible there could be an anti-Cuban tinge to the criticism, although I don’t see it. Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz, prominent art collectors who’ve been outspoken about the MAM name change, are proudly Cuban American. I suspect some part of the criticism is because of Perez’s role as a major real-estate developer who got very rich by helping overheat the housing market . But as he points out, when it cooled down he lost three-quarters of his wealth. And still ponied up $20 million in cash and art worth $15 million. “That’s art I look at every day,” he says, “art that I have an emotional attachment to.”

He’ll be able to see it, as will we, at the Jorge M. Perez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County. Got a problem with that? I did at first, but I’m OK with it now.

Damien Hirst with one of his spot paintings. He is reviving this earlier genre with a bang.

By CAROL VOGEL
Published: December 13, 2011

LONDON — Just as the financial markets were heading for disaster in 2008, the British artist Damien Hirst snubbed his dealers and persuaded Sotheby’s here to sell 223 primarily new artworks. There were dead animals — sharks, zebras, piglets and even a calf — floating in giant glass tanks of formaldehyde; cabinets filled with diamonds; and cigarette butts. And paintings galore: spin paintings, spot paintings, paintings with butterflies pinned under glass...

“IT was an honest gesture at the moment Kris gave it to me, so I feel the ring is mine,” said Kim Kardashian, or anyway Metisha Larocca, who happened at that particular moment to be channeling the tabloid staple at an art party staged by MoMA P.S. 1 in the waning hours of Art Basel Miami Beach, the art world’s version of a reality television show....