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?

Play voyeur and peep our exclusive slideshow after the jump.

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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.

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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.
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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 »

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first primarily multimedia historical survey, The Pictures Generation, takes its title from the moniker that sprung up for a group of artists working in New York during the late-’70s and early-’80s. This unofficial movement was encapsulated by the 1977 exhibition Pictures at alternative gallery Artists Space, which debuted work from the incubators of Buffalo’s Hallwalls and conceptual artist John Baldessari’s classes at CalArts, outside of LA.
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Each year the red carpet at the Met Costume Institute Gala delivers some of the most interesting and daring fashion choices you’ll spot all year. Last night’s event — “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion” — might have been a little light on the models (Naomi Campbell was a no-show because designer Azzedine Alaïa’s work was not included in the accompanying exhibition), but nevertheless, still heavy on the dramatic ensembles. After the jump, find a few of the most artful looks from the night. Note: Unlike the tabloids we don’t care whether a dress flatters or who’s in it — it’s all about if it makes your jaw hit the ground. Read More »

1. The paperback version of James Frey’s Bright Shiny Morning contains a new passage that has Page Six wondering if he has some scandalous dirt of his nemesis Oprah on tape. [via NYP]

2. Art historians claim that Van Gogh’s ear was cut off by his artist friend Paul Gauguin with a razor. [via Guardian]

3. Woody Allen is trying to keep both Mia Farrow and Larry Flynt from taking the stand in his American Apparel lawsuit. [via NYDN]

4. Meet the man who advised Radiohead to break up — and his plan for keeping the music industry viable in the Internet Age. [via Irish Times]

5. The Met’s Charles Engelhard Court — part of the American wing once called “a rape of the park”— will reopen on May 19 after an extensive two-year renovation with 30 percent more room for displaying work. [via NYT]