With a major death, a minor spat and completely mad bit of art crit in Denver, the year has got off to an eventful start. Please enjoy any or all of the links below:
- Ronald Searle gets called “perhaps the greatest British graphic artist of the last 100 years” in this compelling obituary from the Independent.
- Two more British greats go head to head as David Hockney snipes at Damien Hirst. This is duly discussed in the pages of the Telegraph.
- And here’s the problem. Hirst’s spot paintings are soon on show at all 11 Gagosian galleries around the world. Art Fag City goes on the record with its verdict.
- But security will surely be better in these private spaces than it was in the Clyfford Still Museum, Denver. Watch a news report about the “criminal mischief” maker.
- This interview with painter Brigid Marlin told me as much about reclusive author JG Ballard as a dozen of his books (via/ @rpeckham).
- Carsten Holler at the New Museum has mum-appeal, apparently. Max Weintraub considers this, and of course the relational aesthetics, on Art21.
- The Guardian delved in the archives to find this naive report on the menacing origins of street art. Bear in mind this was 1966.
- LA Times report a Polish museum has bought a Lego concentration camp. Sounds cheap at twice the price.
- Beat the back to work blues with this great photo of a Nintendo wielding salaryman from the Tokyo Times.
- Other commuters might like to try these 8-bit ancient Greek punishment games from Pippin Barr (via Animal New York).