Free Republic

Georgian-born American artist David Datuna has eaten a banana used in an art work by Maurizio Cattelan, which had sold for $120,000 (£91,000). The artwork, titled Comedian, was on display at Art Basel in Miami, one of the world's most high-profile art fairs.

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - It's a canvass of contempt that spares few. Democratic voters may want to take a detour around the corner of 25th and Cedar Streets, after a man covered much of his century-old home in scornful spray paint. The two-story tableau takes on left-leaning politicians, including Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine and Terry McAuliffe. Dozens of demeaning phrases are painted from the ground to the roof, with Bill Clinton compared to Satan, D.C. described as Hades, and the Trump-Pence ticket, praised.

I was dazzled with the first CGI commercial that showed a wife and husband drawing lines on their walls and the lines turning (with CGI magic) into fabulous home improvements. I just saw a CGI with Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal fixing up their bird house, then one with Family Squirrel solving their overflow acorn storage problem. Hey. Everything doesn't have to be doom and gloom. Seems like there's better art in commercials than on the shows themselves.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with a certain type of brain damage are known to develop new artistic skills during their illness. A "before and after" look at one such patient's artwork offers some clues as to what is going on when this occurs.The condition known as frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) occurs when sections of the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain deteriorate, leading to dementia. There have been reports of previously inartistic people becoming talented visual artists after developing FTLD. But it is not clear whether the brain atrophy is releasing dormant talent, or the disease itself...

Tompkinsville artist Scott LoBaido is rolling out the welcome mat for next week's Republican National Convention, with a patriotic art show entitled "Hail to the Chief," opening tomorrow at a Manhattan gallery. And the unapologetically Republican LoBaido has a message for GOP convention delegates, who will spend four days in Democratic New York City beginning on Monday.

I am deeply disappointed that CBS, the network that in 1964 gave me complete artistic control in creating television specials, now caved in to right wing Republican pressure to cancel the network broadcast of the movie The Reagans. (And I say MOVIE - because this is NOT a documentary - it's a television drama.) The movie will now be aired on Showtime, where the difference in viewership is in the millions. One can only imagine the kind of pressure that would compel CBS to take such an extraordinary action. This was an organized Republican spin machine at work. Remember the...

"...The art of painting, one of the greatest traditions in all of human history has been under a merciless and relentless assault for the last one hundred years. I'm referring to the accumulated knowledge of over 2500 hundred years, spanning from Ancient Greece to the early Renaissance and through to the extraordinary pinnacles of artistic achievement seen in the High Renaissance, 17th century Dutch, and the great 19th century Academies of Europe and America. These traditions, just when they were at their absolute zenith, at a peak of achievement, seemingly unbeatable and unstoppable, hit the twentieth century at full stride,...