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Mark Rothko

Art

10 Famous Artists’ Stunning Studios

By Claire Cottrell on

Leonardo da Vinci once said, “An artist’s studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it.” An interesting concept, but does it necessarily hold true centuries later? With that in mind, we thought we’d take a look at some of the most inspiring ateliers of some of the world’s most famous artists. From Picasso’s spacious studio on the French Riviera that was both his home and the hub of his social life to Georgia O’Keeffe’s beloved Ghost Ranch in New Mexico where she could work both inside and out, click through to check out some of the most spectacular creative spaces in the world. Let us know in the comments which you’d most love to work in! … Read More

Art

Rothko Paintings Recreated in Rice

By Emily Temple on

Recently, an iconic Mark Rothko mural, Maroon on Black, was rather strangely defaced by a museum-goer at the Tate Modern in London. Inspired by the event, photographer Henry Hargreaves and chef/food stylist Caitlin Levin (whose previous collaboration, Deep Fried Gadgets, you may remember) created a new series, which they’ve dubbed Mark Rice-Ko — classic Rothko paintings reinterpreted in colored rice. The project, which we first spotted over at Feature Shoot, isn’t just a random recreation: Rothko’s Seagram Murals, of which Maroon on Black is one, have a specific connection to food.

As Hargreaves explains, “Rothko was commissioned to paint an installation for the new Four Seasons restaurant in New York. It was 1958 and the Four Seasons was to be the pinnacle of fine dining in New York. It was a bizarre commission for him to accept as he despised the excess, pretense, and crowd the restaurant was hoping to attract. Rothko claimed that he tried to create ‘something that will ruin the appetite of every son-of-a-bitch who ever eats in that room. If the restaurant would refuse to put up my murals, that would be the ultimate compliment. But they won’t. People can stand anything these days.’” Click through to check out the series, which we can guarantee won’t ruin your appetite for anything. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Judy Berman on

1. Jay-Z took the subway to Brooklyn’s new Barclays Center for the final performance in his eight-night venue-opening run. And, of course, his fellow commuters flipped the eff out. Watch a video of the chaos at Vibe.

2. Despite taking a beating from critics, Taken 2 ruled the weekend box office, earning $50… Read More

Art

Famous Artworks Inspired by Their Creators’ Nervous Breakdowns

By Heba Hasan on

Van Gogh cut his ear off. Gauguin had a mid-life crisis and shacked up with frighteningly young Tahitian girls. Munch suffered from hallucinations. It’s a cliché that all great artists are crazy. However, the “tortured artist” stereotype certainly has a basis in fact — many famous artists’ most emotionally resonant works were created during times of emotional turmoil, the result of an all-consuming mental ailment. Not merely aesthetic masterpieces, these pieces offer great insight into an artist’s inner torment. Inspired by the fantastic Yayoi Kusama retrospective that’s currently up at the Whitney Museum, after the jump we look at some of history’s greatest mentally unstable artists and the work that beautifully captures their crises. … Read More

Pop Culture

Famous Artworks Transformed into Sandwiches

By Alison Nastasi on

Artists Brittany Powell and Tae Kitakata were studio mates in art school and wanted to keep in touch — creatively speaking — after graduation. They started Low-Commitment Projects as a way to ” … share concepts and schemes without a huge outlay of time, energy, or money.” They alternate posting these quick “sketches” on their blog every Monday. We fell in love with Powell’s sandwich creations, in which she transformed famous works of art by Jackson Pollock, Damien Hirst, and many more — turning the iconic images into tasty sandwiches. It’s a simple, but brilliant concept that captures the spirit of each artist’s expression. Get hungry past the break, and take a closer look. … Read More

Art

The Most Staggering Sales at Art Basel 2011

By Allese Baker on

Art Basel, the most legendary, prestigious art fair in the world — which this year featured $1.8 billion in art — closed with a spectacular bang Sunday. Galleries boasted of epic sales, Gagosian selling $45 million worth of art within the first 45 minutes of the fair, and works by artists like Mark Rothko, Maurizio Cattelan, Anish Kapoor, and Bridget Riley fetching well over $2 million. Bloomberg declared that the art the market was officially back to, if not above, “peak of the boom” 2007-2008 levels and Forbes called the fair a feeding frenzy, reporting that billionaires and celebrities were sweeping up artworks at world-record prices. If the soaring sales at Basel serve as any sort of economic barometer, it’s clear that the disparity between the rich and the poor is graver than ever. The following list chronicles ten of the most mind-boggling sales at Basel this year. … Read More

Cocktails

Cocktails Inspired By Famous Artists

By Judy Berman on

In the wake of last night’s midterm elections, we imagine many of our readers have turned to drink (or plan to, come five o’clock). Allow us to help you out with that. Inspired by HTMLGiant’s wonderful list of Writer Cocktails, we bring you 10 brand-new Artist Cocktails, meant to embody everyone from Rothko and van Gogh to Jeff Koons and Pipilotti Rist. As you might have guessed, some of them are disgusting. … Read More

Art

USPS Issues AbEx Postage Stamps, We Hyperventilate

By Kelsey Keith on

The US Postal Service must have heard our collective wail at the news that they’re looking to scale back mail delivery to five days a week, cutting out Saturday entirely. Because they’ve just offered us a real treat in the form of new stamps emblazoned with canvases from the Abstract Expressionism period in the 1940-50s. As Twitter user @rcwellington reports, the stamps are “HUGE!” Set in a stylized frame riffing on elements from Barnett Newman’s Achilles (1952), the stamp party pack includes ten AbEx favorites. Get a closer look after the… Read More

Web

What’s on at Flavorpill: Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caitlin Brody on

Today at Flavorpill, we found ourselves in a “Forest Hills State of Mind” thanks to Rachel Dratch. We ogled Hong Kong-based designer May Sum’s odd, animal-centric gems. We were surprised to hear that a wolf caught in action by a prize-winning wild photog was actually a model. We kept our fingers crossed… Read More

Art

Drink Like a Dead Art Star: Cocktails Inspired by Diane Arbus and Mark Rothko

By Peter Joseph on

Not all books come with a body bag, but that was the favor given out at the book party for Alix Strauss’ marvelously morbid Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious. The bags held macabre gifts like Funeral Home Perfume and Waterproof Mascara, which aren’t exactly to my taste, but it also included Vincent Van Gogh vodka and Hemingway Daiquiri rum, which definitely are. The liquor didn’t stop flowing there: Strauss asked mixologist Eben Klemm to invent signature cocktails for a few of the book’s exquisite corpses, making it the best literary celebration of death since Finnegans Wake.… Read More