“[Aby] Rosen is something of a Shiva-like figure in the arts world — hailed and pilloried as both preserver and destroyer.” His latest art controversy concerns the 33-foot-tall “beyond-naked pregnant woman with an exposed fetus” by Damien Hirst that he has plunked down on his lawn in Old Westbury, N.Y. [NYT]
And here’s Aby Rosen calling Tom Wolfe a “buffoon.” [Page Six]
Ai Weiwei removed his artwork from an upcoming show at UCCA in Beijing after his name was omitted from the press release for fear of government censorship. Over Instagram, Mr. Ai wrote Philip Tinari, director of UCCA, “you don’t have to ruin yourself with this Chinese-ness.” [The Art Newspaper]
Anselm Franke, who helmed the 2012 Taipei Biennial and is the head of visual arts at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, will organize the 2014 Shanghai Bienniale. [Artforum]
“Film academy to pay LACMA $36.1 million for movie museum lease.” [Los Angeles Times]
Chinese authorities have detained an Australian artist after he publicly spoke about the 25-year anniversary of the Tianamen Square massacre. The artist, Guo Jian, was arrested just hours after speaking to a publication about his commemorative piece: “a diorama of Tiananmen Square that he had covered in 160kg of minced pork.” [The Guardian]
A suspect was arrested for the fatal shooting of two Israeli tourists at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May. [The Art Newspaper]
“But me, I never understood this—the art industry, with the art dealers in cahoots with the reviewers… [laughs] Shenanigans! We put a frame around that wall right there, it’s $10 million!” Spike Lee interviewed by Kehinde Wiley [Interview]
