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Unlike professional athletes, actors (Gene Hackman) and some novelists (Philip Roth), visual artists don’t usually retire. Or if they do, they don’t announce it. But in 2011, Maurizio Cattelan — one of the most expensive living artists, then at the peak of his career and the subject of an uproarious retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum — told the world that he was finished, fatigued both creatively and by the velocity of the money-fueled art world. During the last couple of years, though, Mr. Cattelan found himself itching to make things in three dimensions again. “Actually, it’s even more of a...

An artists has called 'bull***t' on the pretentious art world by sitting named on a toilet for two days at a New York gallery. Lisa Levy, from Brooklyn, sat with no clothes on and remained silent on her toilet during two five-hour displays at Christopher Stout Gallery on Saturday and Sunday. Visitors were invited to sit opposite her on another toilet during the bizarre performance.

The centenary of the artistic movement known as Dada is coming up in 1916 and it ought to produce a lot of nonsense. The word “Dada” is supposed to come from the Kru language in Africa, and refers to the tail of a sacred cow. Up till then, the purpose of art had been to say something about humanity, and how to be a human being. Dada had the contrary purpose that there is nothing to say about human beings. The artist’s mockery and nihilism is supposed to be proof of his superiority to the stupid public.

LONDON,- A London art expert said four replicas of a urinal famously submitted as a sculpture in 1917 have recently been discovered, bringing the total to 19. Sarah Thornton, an art expert and contributor for The Economist, said four previously unknown copies of Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain," a urinal submitted as a piece of art, have recently been confirmed as authentic copies of the same urinal, The Times of London reported Monday. Thornton said one of urinals is in the possession of Arturo Schwarz, 86, a friend of Duchamp. Schwarz said he may attempt to sell the item for about $2.5...

Here is a song that really hits home for right-favoring conservatives but may initially be hard to swallow.

As the sixth class in this mini-art appreciation set of lectures, it’s time to consider Dada and Surrealism. The roots for this movement of art fantasy goes back to Henri Rousseau and de Chirico in the late 19th and first decades of the 20th century. These unusual, dream-like settings provoke our imagination more than the emotion of Expressionism and the intellectual structure of Cubism. Henri Rousseau Sleeping Gypsy and de Chirico Mystery and Melancholy of a Street Note in the street images, how the long shadows create a mysterious, imminent mood, and that the “girl” is only a shadow of...

Enough already. Where are the moderators that are letting these dang threads from this Zot wanna bees going on and on and on. The one up now is at 7,000 plus. Another one was at over 64,000 the last I looked. Don't just boot the idiots, pull the threads they start too!

unnngh...

Derrida’s Bluff By Christopher Orlet Published 10/15/2004 12:04:18 AM The most charming and practical thing about the obituary is that the writer has at most a thousand words to sum up the life of the deceased. He must be concise. This fact provided especial relief when the French philosopher Jacques Derrida died this week. Most of us, I'll wager, have heard of Derrida, some of us even had heard of his brainchild deconstruction theory, but few of us could have said what all the fuss was about. Even in death Doc Derrida continued to baffle and confuse, in particular the...