Warhol 15 Minutes Eternal

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Its been 25 years today since Andy Warhol died in a New York hospital and he still permeates popular culture.  This year we will see an explosion of Warhol related exhibitions and retrospective due to the anniversary of his death. On view now the MMK in Frankfurt, Warhol: Headlines, is the first exhibition to cover this type of subject in his oeuvre. Starting in March Affirmation Arts in New York will presentConfections and Confessions, which will include over 50 rare and unique photographs of the artist.  And also starting in March a massive retrospective exhibition of Andy Warhol's artwork will tour five Asian cities over the next three years – Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal will open in Singapore first and then to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing in 2013 and Tokyo in 2014.

Bruce LaBruce's Obscenity Show Hugely Controversial

With a priest's face suggestively covered in semen, actress Rosy DePalm biting down on a rosary, and naked nuns, Bruce LaBruce's new show at LaFresh Gallery in Madrid is inciting immense fury among Catholics and conservatives who are calling the exhibition of 50 photographs blasphemous and depraved. See photos from the show and protesters after the jump. "Obscenity" will be on view until April 4, 2012 at LaFresh Gallery in Madrid, Conde de Aranda, 5 28001.

The Aesthetics of The Photobooth

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When the first photobooths were set up in Paris in 1928, the Surrealists used them heavily and compulsively. In a few minutes, and for a small price, the machine offered them, through a portrait, an experience similar to automatic writing. Since then, generations of artists have been fascinated by the concept of the photobooth. From Andy Warhol to Arnulf Rainer, Thomas Ruff, Cindy Sherman and Gillian Wearing, many used it to play with their identity, tell stories, or simply create worlds. Behind the Curtain - the Aesthetics of the Photobooth, an exhibition created by the Musée de l’Elysée, is the first to focus on the aesthetics of the photobooth. It is divided into six major themes: the booth, the automated process, the strip, who am I ?, who are you ?, who are we ?. Provider of standardized legal portraits, it is the ideal tool for introspection and reflection on others, whether individually or in groups. By bringing together over 600 pieces made on different media (photographs, paintings, lithographs and videos) from sixty international artists, the exhibition reveals the influence of the photobooth within the artistic community, from its inception to the present day.

Art of Elysium's PIECES OF HEAVEN Auction

Chris Heads, UNTITLED 11, 2011

The Art of Elysium, which bridges philanthropy with contemporary art, will be holding an auction, in partnership with Christies, on February 23 entitled Pieces of Heaven, featuring an amazing array of artists from Andy Warhol to Pas Un Autre's very own Adarsha Benjamin. February 23, Smashbox Studios, 1011 N. Fuller Avenue Hollywood, California 90046

Worn to be Wild: The Black Leather Jacket

A notable upcoming travelling exhibit has just been announced at the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which pays tribute to the black leather jacket. The exhibit, entitled Worn to be Wild: The Black Leather Jacket, will explore its roots from being worn by aviators during WWI, to bikers, to its modern-day designs from fashion houses such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Gianni Versace. The exhibition will run June 16 to September 3, 2012 at the Harley Davidson Museum.

Making Faces

Portland, Maine – On view at the Portland Museum of Art, two newly acquired portfolios by Berenice Abbott and Robert Doisneau, filled with portraits of famous artists and actors of the mid-20th century, prompted this look at the art of photographic portraiture. Drawn from the Museum’s growing collection of celebrity portraits, the exhibition of 35 works will examine the way in which appearance, poses, and props help to define the public perception of an artist’s work, whether it be on the stage or in a museum. Making Faces: Photographic Portraits of Actors and Artists is on view until April 8 at the Portland Museum of Art, Seven Congress Square, Portland, Maine.

Mike Kelley Dead From Apparent Suicide

Pictured above, Abbey Meaker photographs a piece by Mike Kelley at Art Basel Miami last December. Mike Kelley, who has reportedly ended his own life at 57 years old, was an artist with an outsider spirit who found himself not only on the inside of the art world, but on the top, and found it too hard a cross to bear. Kelley's work involved found objects, textile banners, drawings, assemblage, collage, performance and video. He often worked collaboratively and had done projects with artists Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler and John Miller. Kelley was often associated with the concept of abjection, "the state of being cast off." Photograph by Natalia Vuley.

John Cage Turns 100

Art by Daniel B. Sierra

American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist John Cage, who died in 1992, would have been 100 this year and there are a slew of events to celebrate the centenary – including EVERYDAYJOHNCAGE in the city of Rimini, Italy where every single day of 2012 from January 1st to December 31st a viral system distributes publicly and privately, fragments and materials related to John Cage, and  an exhibition entitled Things Not Seen Before: A Tribute to John Cage, a visual art exhibition at Tempus Projects, organized by Independent Curator Jade Dellinger. Inspired by a line from a letter the curator (as a student – in the late 1980’s) received from the late, great composer concerning the work of Marcel Duchamp, Cage noted: “I am not interested in the names of movements but rather in seeing and making things not seen before.” Visit www.johncage.org to see all events.

LES AMIES DE PLACE BLANCHE

Originally published in 1983, Les Amies de Place Blanche, rereleased by Dewi Lewis Publishing, focuses on the transsexual community living around the Place Blanche district of Paris in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The book established Christer Strömholm’s reputation as one of the leading photographers of the twentieth century. ‘This is a book about insecurity. A portrayal of those living a different life in that big city of Paris, of people who endured the roughness of the streets. This is a book about humiliation, about the smell of whores and night life in cafés. This is a book about the quest for self-identity, about the right to live, about the right to own and control one’s own body. This is also a book about friendship, an account of the life we lived in the place Blanche and place Pigalle neighbourhood. Its market, its boulevard and the small hotels we resided in. These are pictures from another time. A time when de Gaulle was president and France was at war against Algeria. These are pictures of people whose lives I shared and whom I think I understood. These are pictures of women – biologically born as men – that we call ‘transsexuals’. As for me, I call them ‘my friends of place Blanche’. This friendship started here, in the early 60s and it has been going on for 22 years.’ – Christer Strömholm, 1983. The book includes the original essays by Strömholm and publisher Johan Ehrenberg as well as newly commissioned texts by Jackie and Nana, two of the women who feature in many photographs in the book. The introduction is by Hélène Hazera, a leading French journalist, actress, director, and television producer who is also a transsexual. Available now in the UK and in the US next month.

The Collected Poems of Eugenio Montale

Eugenio Montale is universally recognized as having brought the great Italian lyric tradition that began with Dante into the twentieth century with unrivaled power and brilliance. Montale is a love poet whose deeply beautiful, individual work confronts the dilemmas of modern history, philosophy, and faith with courage and subtlety; he has been widely translated into English and his work has influenced two generations of American and British poets. Jonathan Galassi's versions of Montale's major works—Ossi di seppia, Le occasioni, and La bufera e altro—are the clearest and most convincing yet, and his extensive notes discuss in depth the sources and difficulties of this dense, allusive poetry. A new collection of poems by Montale, compiled for a new book, offers English-language readers uniquely informed and readable access to the work of one of the greatest of all modern poets. [purchase]

War, Sex, Love

Illustration by Alberto Vargas

This timely exhibition, Love and War, drawn entirely from the Kinsey Institute’s art and library collections, features visual material from the American Civil War to the 21st century. Many of the items represent popular culture in America during World War II, as Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues spent those years traveling around the country collecting a variety of research material as well as data for their study of human sexual behavior. Cartoons, propaganda leaflets, postcards, photographs, magazines, pin-up calendars, drawings, prints, and a variety of novelty objects are featured, as well as a selection of contemporary images by Garrie Maguire, Len Prince, Herbert Ascherman, and other photographers whose work addresses war in the modern age. Love and War is on view at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, through April 6, 2012, Bloomington, Indiana.

ASVOFF Barcelona

Barcelona hosts the first-ever Spanish edition of A Shaded View on Fashion Film (ASVOFF) created by Diane Pernet. A Shaded View on Fashion Film (ASVOFF) is an event that gathers together celebrated personalities from the worlds of fashion, art and cinema. The Barcelona edition will be innovative in launching the world’s first MOBILE FASHION FILM COMPETITION where two prizes will be awarded to the best short films produced on a mobile phone. ASVOFF Barcelona will be held at CaixaForum Barcelona from 24-27, January 2012.

LSD Song

Thierry Mouillé – "LSD Song", "Brass Space, Pavillon 1", "Archisong", "Opus froissé" and "Le livre des peintures, Partitions" From a geometrical analogy between the LSD molecule and an electronic battery to digital prints of crumpled musical scores, or even a musical sculpture of architectural proportions, The works of Thierry Mouillé belong to the art of scheming and aim to trap ideas and perceptions.  On view at Espace culturel Louis Vuitton's current exhibition entitled Anicroches — Variations, choral and fugue on view until February 19, 60, rue de Bassano 101, avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris.

Paris, Portrait of a City

Photography by Helmut Newton

Paris, Portrait of a City is Taschen publishers new, vivid history of the capital of love and photography. A city built on two millennia of history, Paris is entering the third century of its love story with photography. It was on the banks of the Seine that Niépce and Daguerre officially gave birth to this new art that has flourished ever since, developing a distinctive language and becoming a vital tool of knowledge. Paris: Portrait of a Cityleads us through what Goethe described as a “universal city where every step upon a bridge or a square recalls a great past, where a fragment of history is unrolled at the corner of every street”. The history of Paris is recounted in photographs ranging from Daguerre’s early incunabula to the most recent images – an almost complete record of over a century and a half of transformations and a vast panorama spanning more than 600 pages and 500 photographs. This book brings together the past and the present, the monumental and the everyday, objects and people. Images captured by the most illustrious photographers – Daguerre, Marville, Atget, Lartigue, Brassaï, Kertész, Ronis, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson and many more – but also by many unknown photographers, attempt to bottle just a little of that “Parisian air”, something of that particular poetry given out by the stones and inhabitants of a constantly changing city that has inspired untold numbers of writers and artists over the ages. Available March 1st here.