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Louise Bourgeois Left Nothing to be Desired

Louise Bourgeois Left Nothing to be Desired

When I heard that Louise Bourgeois (Season 1) passed away on the morning of May 31, I was genuinely surprised. It seemed only natural that she would live into a …

Flash Points

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Better Than Ketchup and Vaseline

Flash Points

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Better Than Ketchup and Vaseline

Twice recently I have been contacted by teachers who have run into some trouble sharing Art21 videos with their classes. In both cases these teachers were called by parents (and …

Inside the Artist’s Studio: Jason Bailer Losh

Inside the Artist’s Studio: Jason Bailer Losh

Jason Bailer Losh is an American artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in the midwestern town of Denison, IA. Denison is also the birthplace of actress Donna …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Nourishment

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Nourishment

Each year the National Art Education Association holds a conference for a few thousand people and streams of art teachers, art professors, artist-educators, museum educators, administrators, starving artists, starving administrators, …

Art in the Twenty-First Century BC: Encino Man

Art in the Twenty-First Century BC: Encino Man

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnd8TV2mn08] This backflip stands out among the many iconic scenes of the seminal 1992 film, Encino Man, for its purposefully calibrated relationship to time and space, history and gravity. (Full …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Ideas and Objects, Ideas vs. Objects

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Ideas and Objects, Ideas vs. Objects

Last week I described a few upcoming classes where my high school students were taking on the question of whether or not an idea can be considered a work of …

"Singing in the Rain", (film still from 1952 film of the same name), SOURCE: www.imgartists.com

What’s Cookin at the Art21 Blog: A Weekly Index

What’s Cookin at the Art21 Blog: A Weekly Index

“I am so happy right now.” That is the last line from Nina Schwansee‘s video on the art of Amy Fischer. Whether she reciting Fischers infamous monologues pertaining to art …

Packaging a Music Experience: Ryan Catbird and Catbird Records

Packaging a Music Experience: Ryan Catbird and Catbird Records

Moviola, “Dead Knowledge”. Catbird Records, CBR010, 2007. Image courtesy of Catbird Records. Ryan Catbird has commanded a silent influence on the independent music scene since he began his blog, The …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Talking with Esopus Editor, Tod Lippy, Part One

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Talking with Esopus Editor, Tod Lippy, Part One

Back in 2004, I was lucky enough to be introduced to Esopus magazine at a silent auction being held during a Mass MoCA fundraiser. Don’t ask me how, but my …

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup

Biennials, cremated canvases, German faces, cashmere sportswear, sculptural tour de force, fashionable shoes, and an iPhone app comprise this week’s roundup: 2010: Whitney Biennial will open at the Whitney Museum …

Grand Canyon Journal 4: Critique Is Destruction as Joy

Grand Canyon Journal 4: Critique Is Destruction as Joy

[youtube:www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-vPbeJCsJM] CityCenter is the biggest thing to happen to art in Las Vegas since Steve Wynn put his finger through a Picasso. The mixed-use, residential, gambling, fine dining, clubbing, high-end …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Wonder-Igniters: An Interview with Abbe Futterman

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Wonder-Igniters: An Interview with Abbe Futterman

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting The Earth School in New York’s East Village and at one point noticed a science classroom through a small window …

Hair & Nails, Talk & Touch: 4 Encounters with Women Artists in Mumbai

Hair & Nails, Talk & Touch: 4 Encounters with Women Artists in Mumbai

Over the past few weeks, Jennifer Doyle has been reporting from her travels in India. Following is her final dispatch. — Ed. Masooma Syed makes small things, sometimes from materials …

Beyonce and Jay-Z at Art Basel Miami

Top 10 of 2009: Entertainers Who Moonlight as Artists

Top 10 of 2009: Entertainers Who Moonlight as Artists

In the spirit of my Los Angeles beat, I present to you the most exciting art world interlopers to come out of Hollywood in 2009: 10. Sylvester Stallone is making …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Bringing it Back Home

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Bringing it Back Home

December, January, May, June…. These are popular months for graduates to visit their former high schools because they are either between semesters at college or finished for the school year …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Season’s Treatings

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Season’s Treatings

Before the holidays hit us, I thought I might suggest a few destinations, dates, and stocking stuffers for those who are as late with the shopping as I am. Below …

Political Football

Political Football

Flash Points contributor and University of Riverside professor Jennifer Doyle is currently spending 2 weeks in India, traveling with the Indian artist Riyas Komu. Following is the third in a …

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup

This week in Art21 artist news we have two tapestry makers, a silk archway, the master of Cremaster, an artist who likes to do laundry, a magical sound installation, environmental issues, creative …

Support Art21: Donate to the 2009 Annual Fund

Support Art21: Donate to the 2009 Annual Fund

Dear Friends, As you know, Art21 is dedicated to fostering creativity and innovation by engaging students, teachers, and the general public with contemporary visual art, and presenting artists as role …

Players Painting: Yolanda Sousa Kammermeier

Players Painting: Yolanda Sousa Kammermeier

Chilavert is sitting on my hotel bed. The 6’4″ Paraguyan keeper cuts an imposing figure, even on canvas: his magnificent shaved head, thick neck and muscular shoulders rest on the …

Ever Spero

Ever Spero

Spero’s art was suffused with [a] very human hope, which she saw as being grounded in the intractability of human struggle. Her work was never crudely utopian—as she told me, …

Donate $5 for Season 5

Donate $5 for Season 5

Wow! We can’t believe Season 5 of Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century is over. Hopefully you joined the over 4 million viewers who watched Season 5 on PBS during October, …

Florian Maier-Aichen Discusses “Myth-Making” at Apple Store Soho

Florian Maier-Aichen Discusses “Myth-Making” at Apple Store Soho

On October 9, over a hundred art fans arrived at the Apple Store Soho to gain insight into the work and life of German-American artist Florian Maier-Aichen. Organized by Art21, …

MoMA Trumpets Amsterdam’s Role as Hub of Conceptual Art

MoMA Trumpets Amsterdam’s Role as Hub of Conceptual Art

While today Conceptual Art is utterly ubiquitous, MoMA’s current “In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960-1976” examines a period when only a few cities in the world …

Art21 Extended Play

Josiah McElheny | Assistant Anders Rydstedt

Art21 Extended Play

Josiah McElheny | Assistant Anders Rydstedt

Long-time assistant and collaborator Anders Rydstedt discusses the differences between creating traditional forms in glass—such as vases—with Josiah McElheny’s sculptural objects and installations. Filmed at the Michael Davis Stained Glass …

Art21 Extended Play

Arturo Herrera | Assistant Jeff Bechtel

Art21 Extended Play

Arturo Herrera | Assistant Jeff Bechtel

DOWNLOAD VIA ITUNES | SUBSCRIBE VIA RSS Arturo Herrera’s assistant Jeff Bechtel describes the process for translating one of the artist’s complex drawings into a refined monochromatic paper collage. Filmed …

Wodiczko Perforates Polish Pavilion with “Guests”

Wodiczko Perforates Polish Pavilion with “Guests”

Entitled Goście / Guests, Krzysztof Wodiczko’s exhibition greets visitors to the Venice Biennale’s Polish Pavilion with the words of political theorist Hannah Arendt: “Refugees driven from country to country represent …

Our #1 FAQ: How does Art21 choose artists?

Our #1 FAQ: How does Art21 choose artists?

Color-correcting a John Baldessari painting at an online facility during the final phase of post-production. The most frequently asked question at Art21 has always been “How do you pick the …

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup

Throughout 2009, 18 museums and galleries across the UK will be showing over 30 ARTIST ROOMS from the collection created by the dealer and collector, Anthony d’Offay, and acquired by …

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest

Making art is part of a ground level experience. The artmaking process can be sensory, visceral and seemingly fleeting, depending on the methods of record of an artist’s choosing, be …

Nathalie Djurberg and Paul Chan: Making Weird Worlds at Birnbaum’s Biennale

Nathalie Djurberg and Paul Chan: Making Weird Worlds at Birnbaum’s Biennale

Daniel Birnbaum’s poetic theme of the 53rd Venice Biennale, Making Worlds, is, in some sense, an anti-theme, emphasizing the plurality of art today. Birnbaum’s explanation that “we now live in …

Pride: Golden Lion Awarded to Bruce Nauman’s “Topological Gardens”

Pride: Golden Lion Awarded to Bruce Nauman’s “Topological Gardens”

I have never thought of myself as susceptible to patriotism, but for the second time this year, I’ve felt proud to be an American.  The first incident of pride stemmed …

Name That Season 5 Artist!

Name That Season 5 Artist!

We received some great feedback and enthusiasm for Season 5 since the release of the trailer back in April. When that went up, we challenged our audience to name the …

Notes from a Novice in Venice

Notes from a Novice in Venice

Exclusive to the blog this week are the chronicles of artist Lily Simonson’s visit to the 53rd annual Venice Biennale, which opened to the public this past Sunday. Stay tuned …

Art21 Extended Play

Josiah McElheny | Assistant Martha Friedman

Art21 Extended Play

Josiah McElheny | Assistant Martha Friedman

DOWNLOAD VIA ITUNES | SUBSCRIBE VIA RSS EXCLUSIVE: Watch artist Josiah McElheny and assistant Martha Friedman transform clear hand-blown glass objects into mirrored surfaces in his Brooklyn, NY studio. Josiah …

Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup

The Art of Caring: A Look at Life through Photography opened this past weekend at the New Orleans Museum of Art.  The show is comprised of over 200 photographs covering …