Louise Bourgeois, the French-born American artist who gained fame only late in a long career, when her psychologically charged abstract sculptures, drawings and prints had a galvanizing effect on younger artists, particularly women, died on Monday at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. She was 98.

We owe her the only worthwhile public sculpture in the city. I always hoped she might gift us with another.

(Photo by Geekstalt)

Tornado: steel wool, cotton, ground parsley and moss.

He builds them out of household items. flour, cotton, cinnamon, rocks, tables, dollhouses, fun fur…

My work involves the construction of small-scale meticulously detailed models using various materials and objects to create emotive landscapes. Every aspect from the construction to the lighting of the final model is painstakingly pre-planned using methods which force the viewers perspective when photographed from a specific angle. Using a mixture of photographic techniques such as scale, depth of field, white balance and lighting I am able to drastically alter the appearance of my materials.

If you happen to be in NYC, he has an exhibition opening at the Winkleman Gallery on May 7th.

(Via MNN.)

(Via the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.)

It’s done now. Will write soon.

(Via MeFi)

Eric Fortune’s introspective paintings make me a touch melancholy. Part of that is the content: iconic girls in balletic poses with implied, sad goals, rendered with milky color. But it is also the very existence of such a person as Mr. Fortune, who is 32 years old and until a few days ago, totally unknown to me. Bratty yahoos like the kid who recently vomited on a Mondrian (Google it; I refuse to give that bore any more linkage) are more widely recognized as “artists” than the ramen-supping drudges who can pluck scenes like this from their live, nude brains. On demand, even. As if function, skill, and work ethic were somehow antithesis to appreciation.

But I am not yet bitter. Merely tangy.

(via ECTOPLASMOSIS!)

The Dutch Ministry of Finance organized an architecture competition for which a selected group of architectural offices (unstudio, nox, …) and artists were invited, including myself. The goal of the competition was not to design a building, but the new 5 euro commemorative coin with the theme ‘Netherlands and Architecture’. The winner will be rewarded with a nice price, but most of all with the honor: his design will be realized and will be a legal coin within the Netherlands.

One of the world’s most famous and revered Islamic calligraphers, Khalil Al-Zahawi (also known as the “elder of calligraphers” – shaykh al-khattatin) was gunned down outside of his home in Baghdad, another casualty in the ever-escalating sectarian war on culture and learning.

Once the largest city in the world and the center of human art and science, it’s slowly being transformed by soldiers and fanatics into a city of terrified, uneducated peasants.

May their gods preserve them — it’s obvious that we cannot.

“Graffiti writers are not real villains. I am always reminded of this by real villains who consider the idea of breaking in someplace, not stealing anything and then leaving behind a painting of your name in four foot high letters the most retarded thing they ever heard.”

“This photograph is the result of digitally averaging every Playboy centerfold foldout for the 10 years beginning Jan. 1988 through Dec. 1997. The shroud-like image is yielded by a simple, custom process: point-by-point mathematical averaging. No special “morphing” is used.”

More from Jason Salavon.