During Wednesday’s inauguration event for the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, the ex-prez expressed the incredible impact that his oft-discussed painting practice has had on his life, and according to satirical news site The Onion a visit to the new Dallas museum proved similarly transformative for current U.S. President Barack Obama. (more…)
Though he remains banned from traveling outside China, artist and activist Ai Weiwei made a surprise appearance during Barack Obama’s second inaugural weekend, with several quotations and an image from his 1995 work “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn” being projected onto the façade of the Newseum. (more…)
The third most remarkable feature — or the fourth, if you count Barack Obama’s hilarious pose reflected in the mirror as he falls back from a tiny Spider Man’s attack — of White House photographer Pete Souza’s viral snapshot of the U.S. President is a dark, column-like abstract sculpture near the image’s center whose title and maker remain a mystery. (more…)
On Tuesday the American painter and printmaker Will Barnet died at age 101 in his home at New York’s National Arts Club, where he lived for the last three decades of his life. Eight months before his death, on February 13, Barnet was honored in a ceremony at the White House, where he was among the artists who received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama (pictured). In a statement released this morning, National Endowment for the Arts chairman Rocco Landesman remembered that event, and reflected on the beloved painter’s life and work. (more…)
Based on spending records at federal agencies and military offices across the government, the Washington Post reported $180,000 in expenditures on official portraits for members of the White House cabinet last year. Details about the commissions have drawn the ire of Taxpayers for Common Sense spokesperson David Ellis, who argues the money could be better spent elsewhere. (more…)
Join us every Saturday as we re-elect the week’s most mustachioed posts, in retrospect. (more…)
This morning Robert L. Lynch, the president and CEO of Americans for the Arts and the Americans for the Arts Action Fund, issued a statement on the results of Tuesday’s general election, outlining the arts advocacy group’s expectations for the next four years under President Barack Obama and the new congress. (more…)
While pollsters, reporters, and the general public around the world live-tweeted and blogged away during yesterday’s historic U.S. presidential election, artist and illustrator Wendy MacNaughton was busy recording the event in her sketchbook, and uploading the resulting ink and watercolor skeches to her Tumblr as the returns came in. (more…)
In last night’s U.S. presidential election incumbent Barack Obama prevailed, much to the delight of many observers in the art world — whose stakes in this year’s contest were especially high — who immediately took to Twitter to express their delight (and, in one case, unease) at the outcome. See some of ARTINFO’s favorite responses to last night’s election below. (more…)
If you are one of the the five remaining undecided voters in today’s U.S. presidential election, just ask yourself, “who would Jackson Pollock vote for?” In yesterday’s article for The Guardian, British art critic Jonathan Jones mined Washington, D.C.’s art treasures for kernels of partisan meaning. (more…)
