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New York Seeks an Artist for a Great Woman Memorial – The public has had its say, suggesting more than 2,000 names of women who should be commemorated with monuments in the She Built NYC initiative, which aims to redress the enormous gender imbalance among the city’s public statues. Now, Mayor Bill de Blasio and his advisory committee are looking for a suitable artist to get cracking on the job. The budget is $1 million, and the deadline for expressions of interest is September 30. (Artforum)
Alex Katz Is in It to Win It – Calvin Tomkins gives Alex Katz the profile treatment in the New Yorker, painting a portrait of the 90-year-old artist as ambitious as ever, with a bit of a chip on his shoulder about certain popular perceptions of his work (which has yet to crack the million-dollar mark at auction). “My work is like pablum to them,” Katz says of his detractors. “You know, pretty girls, flowers, you can’t be serious. I refuse to make sincere art.” Unquestionable, though, is the fact that Katz is a canny athlete on the field of art history, who has always seen himself as going toe-to-toe with the biggest competitors of his time (Rauschenberg, Johns, Lichtenstein), and whose own pantheon stretches back to Thutmose, the 14th-century BC sculptor of Nefertiti, who he calls “one of his favorite artists.” (New Yorker) …Read More
Pictured: Okwui Enwezor. Photo by Joerg Koch/Getty Images