Here at Flavorpill, we don’t really consider Libyan dictators to be our go-to folks or fashion inspiration or, well, anything, for that matter. But, today, UnBeige reports that one of Qaddafi’s advisers invited The New York Times’ director of T Magazine Horacio Silva to visit Tripoli and feature the leader’s closet. The idea? Such a profile would help get a retrospective on Qaddafi’s style green-lit by the Met, so the clothes can be properly revered and protected in case the country’s turmoil threatens the garments. The adviser writes, “Our President is one of the very best dressed men of the last half century.” If you ask us, that’s a pretty big claim, and probably one to be judged by someone not under Qaddafi’s thumb. Instead, we’re going to answer the world’s burning question ourselves: just how does Qaddafi’s style rank in to the political sartorial world? Does he deserve more or less closet envy than the average dictator? Check out our roundup after the jump.
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opens Richard Serra’s first drawing retrospective to the public today — and quite the eye-opening, austere exhibition it is for the Met. Serra expands the definition of modern drawing by using drawing as a system of thinking, while focusing on process, gravity, and weight rather than representation and figuration. The radical exhibition, which runs through August 28 and then travels to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Menil Collection in Houston, features some 50 dynamic drawings — many of them monumental in scale — and a selection of sketchbooks from the past 40 years. We spoke with the artist at the Met to gain a deeper understanding of his groundbreaking work, to get his opinion on why young people prefer figurative work, and to capture his realistic thoughts on TV and the internet.
1. MTV has given the go-ahead on two Jersey Shore spin-offs: one show will follow Snooki and JWOWW “when the vacation is over,” while the other will track Pauly D’s “music career.” [via NYT]
2. Ben Affleck is in talks to play Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrman’s 3-D film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, a part that was originally rumored to be going to Bradley Cooper. This sounds like a better fit to us. [via Deadline]
3. Finally we have news about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first post-political office live-action role! He’s currently in negotiations to play a border town sheriff in Jee-Woon Kim’s thriller The Last Stand — which is so much more exciting than that crime-fighter cartoon, The Governator. [via Vulture]
4. Kristen Bell is returning to TV! She will star opposite of Don Cheadle in House of Lies, a new Showtime workplace comedy based on the book House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Tell You the Time. [via Zap2It]
5. This summer’s exhibition on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art sounds a bit tamer than years past. Starting April 26th, steel abstract sculptures by the British artist Anthony Caro will be on display. Museum officials are also teasing next summer’s exhibition by the Argentine artist Tomas Saraceno, which will be “inspired by eco-utopian visions for future sustainable communities.” [via ArtsBeat]
1. Jimmy Fallon’s popular Thank You Notes segment, a recurring Friday night homage to everything from his dad to hangovers, just landed him a two-book deal. The first Thank You Notes book will hit shelves May 23. [via TV Guide]
2. To be filed under things that we find hard to believe: James Franco is launching a college class on James Franco at Columbia College Hollywood. The class will ask student editors to “create a cinematic image of James Franco” using behind-the-scenes videos from the short films that he has directed. [via The AV Club]
3. Ricky Gervais has told the UK’s Heat magazine that he has been asked back to host the Golden Globes for a third year in a row: “The ratings were up again and the organizers asked me to consider a third year. I don’t think I should. I don’t know what I could do better. I certainly couldn’t get more press for them, that’s for sure. You know me. Two seasons is enough.” [via Vulture]
4. Barbara Bush (also known as the less-drunk of President George W. Bush’s twin daughters or the one who went to Yale) has released a video endorsing gay marriage in New York. [via Gawker]
5. The Google Art Project, an interactive street-view-style interface, launched in London this morning, bringing seminal works from Germany, Russia, New York, and 14 other locations online. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art are among the participating institutions. [via Fast Company]
Even if you haven’t wandered up to 5th Avenue at 89th Street recently, chances are you’ve heard whispers of something unusual afoot. That something is courtesy of performance artist Tino Sehgal, whose ephemeral pieces rely on empty space and spectator involvement. One such piece in his current solo show at the Guggenheim, titled “The Kiss,” involves a couple embracing on the floor of the rotunda in a “changing, slow-motion, amorous” entanglement. We at Flavorpill love staging elaborate photo shoots in museums and decided to reinterpret Sehgal’s performance piece in five New York City art institutions: The Metropolitan Museum, New Museum, Rubin Museum, P.S.1, and the Brooklyn Museum. Could we choreograph the same magic?
Outsiders often observe a side of society that those living within naively overlook or simply accept. Such are the situations in Swiss photographer Robert Frank’s seminal series of black-and-white photos, The Americans, which he shot during road trips across the US in the mid-‘50s; and Danish photographer Jacob Holdt’s American Pictures, a series of color snapshots that he made while crisscrossing the US from 1970 to 1975. Two current solo shows of these inquisitive artists’ work allow us the opportunity to look back at the turbulent times they documented and to consider where America is going now.
Roxy Paine creates stainless-steel trees, faux fields of poppies and mushrooms, and robotic machines that make monochromatic art.
Studying nature intently, Paine turns reproductive and developmental patterns into an understandable language and growth process that can be recreated by both man and machine. The conflicts between these two approaches give his art an existential edge that questions the relationship between nature and technology, while providing exciting new results. Read More »
1. Lollapalooza. [via Pitchfork]
2. Germany’s Central Council of Jews wants to republish a critical version of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, a book that has been banned in the country since the end of World War II. [via PW]
3. Have you ever eaten from the most expensive hot dog cart in the world? (It was parked right outside the Met.) [via NYDN]
4. The LA Times thinks Perez Hilton is a tastemaker; Gawker says he’s an unapologetically awful person. [via Gawker]
5. ABC would love to have Paula Abdul on Dancing With the Stars because of her sensitivity and empathy. [via People]
We’re back with your daily reminder of cool events happening tonight across the Flavorpillaverse. If you’d rather have this information delivered straight to your inbox each Tuesday, sign up for our Flavorpill City Guides.
• If you’re in New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts a screening of Douglas Keeve and Isaac Mizrahi’s Unzipped tonight, to accompany its fashion exhibit, The Model as Muse. • If you’re in Los Angeles: Head over to retro, Def Poetry Jam-style Flypoet, a monthly music show/poetry slam/performance art exhibition, and check out featured artists Steve Connell, Sekou tha Misfit, and Norton Wisdom. • If you’re in San Francisco: Nick Laird will be giving a reading from his new book, Glover’s Mistake, a brutal comedy of manners about a 30-something academic who accidentally initiates a romance between his roommate and former professor.
• If you’re in Chicago: Get outside and enjoy the summer weather while watching an outdoor screening of Wall-E, everyone’s favorite robot, take on the world. Literally.
As a Brit, I’m often proud that we manage to beat the Yanks when it comes to cultural progress: the subway, Baseball, gin and tonics… we were there first. To this end, I managed to catch the Francis Bacon retrospective at the Tate Gallery in London last summer, where I was bowled over by the range of work showcased (from the artist’s early sketches to his most famous masterpieces) and the detailed curation (personal letters, photographs, and information about his greatest influences and turbulent relationship with lover, George Dyer). Bacon’s work is haunting at best and confusing at worst, and this exhibition brings out the former whilst dispelling the latter.
Don’t trust the opinion of a posh English snob? Here’s what the critics had to say about Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective, currently on view at the Met through mid-August. Read More »
