American Ecstasy

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"It’s hard to imagine now, but in 1982 when I started working on porn movies, we shot real 35mm film on big movie cameras.  Home video cassette players had barely been invented.  There were no DVD’s, no home computers, no Internet.  People went out to downtown movie theaters and watched sex movies on the silver screen." American Ecstasy is the photographic memoir of Barbara Nitke who over 12 years shot publicity stills during the golden age of porn. "My images reveal the contradictions inherent in the business – great beauty, tinged with sadness, punctuated by surreal silliness." Nitke is currently raising funds to publish a book of "....seventy color plates, a selection of my written stories of life on the movie sets, and short excerpts from tape recorded interviews [she] conducted with the porn stars at the time." There are currently 11 days left to complete funding for the publishing of American Ecstasy.

Till The World Explodes

Photograph by Bill Ray, Hell Angels

You say, Babe, Don’t ever leave me. Never. I mapped our lives. Rocking chairs, Metronomes, Silver lake, Wrinkled kisses. A cottage, A jungle Overthrown with vines. Or perhaps, We’ll die. Ride our motorcycles Off a cliff In Utah. Arms trapped, Our stars Side by side On the sidewalk Till the world explodes.

Till the World Explodes, by Nina Ljeti

Nymphomaniac

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Lars Von Trier announces a new film entitled Nymphomaniac, to star Charlotte Gainsbourg, "the light and poetic story of a woman’s erotic journey from birth to the age of 50 as told by the main character, the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac, Joe." The film will be in 8 chapters. Filming will begin this summer and there will be a softcore and hardcore version of the film.

Made For Love

All I Need, 2011, oil on linen, 14” x 20”

Allegra LaViola Gallery in New York presents Sarah Kurz: Made For Love. In her first solo exhibition, Sarah Kurz turns her attention to a traditional subject: the portrait. Much as John Singer Sargent painted beautiful women and scenery of his day while exploring the ability of paint to convey light and texture, Kurz also chooses these as her focus. The women of Kurz’s paintings are a combination of myth and reality—they close their eyes to us and seem to dream of someone else, or gaze into a distance beyond our field of vision. When they do confront us, as in Tight Fit, their look reveals only more mystery. Sarah Kurz: Made For Love is on view until March 11.

Warhol: Fame & Misfortune

Andy Warhol: Fame and Misfortune -an exhibition exclusive to the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio - assembles over 150 objects in all media, drawn from the rich collections of the Andy Warhol Museum in the artist’s hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Looking at Warhol’s lifelong obsession with both fame and disaster, the works included in this broad survey juxtapose icons of popular culture, legendary entertainers, art world luminaries, and world leaders, with images of suicides, automobile accidents, skulls, and an electric chair. This diverse range of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and films spans the three prolific decades of Warhol’s career, beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing through 1986, the year prior to his death. Andy Warhol: Fame and Misfortune is on view until May 20.

Bagged Lunch

An amazing leather clutch made to look like a simple paper bag by Los Angeles based accessories purveyor Marier Turnor by designer Beth Goodman. "The classic style of Marie Turnor embraces timelessness and eschews trendiness in the spirit of finding beauty in everyday things: a paper bag, an envelope, folded paper, the colors of nature... The essence of the brand lies in the realization that practical things are also beautiful."

Rare Rothko

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The Academy Art Museum in Easton , MD , in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art, opened Mark Rothko: Selections from the National Gallery of Art. This groundbreaking exhibition, on display through April 22, 2012, features graphic artwork and paintings of Mark Rothko, including seven works which have never been on public view before.

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.