Scarecrow Punches Tin Man, Chinese Artist Actually French: Last Week in Art

Alexandre Ouairy has been successfully posing—and selling art—as his fictional character Tao Hongjing for over a decade.

by Sami Emory

November 9, 2015, 2:10pm

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A lot went down this week in the weird and wild world of Art. Some things were more scandalous than others, some were just plain wacky—but all of them are worth knowing about. Without further ado:

+ The Whitney announced the curators for its first biennial at its new location on the banks of the Hudson River. [The New York Times]

+ Chinese artist Tao Hongjing is actually Alexandre Ouairy, an imaginative Frenchman from Nantes. [Yahoo]

+ (Above) The obscured detail of a pooping man, thought to be censored by none other than Queen Victoria, was uncovered by the conservators at the Royal Collection Trust in a painting by Isack van Ostade. Nothing beats 17th century bathroom humor. [Smithsonian Magazine]

+ Rapper Lil Wayne's $30,000,000 art collection was seized last Monday during a raid on his Miami Beach mansion. [artnet News]

+ Donald Trump’s SNL appearance lived up to all the uncertain anticipation with a whopping dose of awkward bad vibes. [The Gothamist]

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+ Meet the man behind one of the world’s most impressive collections of photography by African artists. [ARTnews]

+ The personal art collection of Margaret Thatcher is headed to Christie’s. [International Business Times]

+ Cadmium is back on the table boys and girls: European officials have ruled against a ban on the bright orange paint pigment. [The Art Newspaper]

+ ARTnews has compiled an infographic of ISIS’s path of cultural destruction. [ARTnews]

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+ The New York Historical Society will receive a massive donation from Time Inc., encompassing some 7,500' of archives and artifacts. [Art Forum]

+ The Guggenheim’s online exhibition, Åzone Futures Market, is live. [The Art Newspaper]

+ After The Moment: Reflections on Robert Mapplethorpe at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati opened on Friday and exhibits work from several contemporary artists inspired by the controversial photographer. [The Art Newspaper]

+ Berlin officials have announced that a fence will be constructed to protect the Berlin Wall from maltreatment. [The Guardian]

+ Kurt Cobain’s warm and woozy cardigan—as seen on the November 1993 taping of MTV Unplugged—went up for auction to the tune of $60,000 and sold to the melody of $140,800. [Vogue, Kiro TV]

+ The story behind ISIS’s million dollar art trades. [Huffington Post]

+ Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, and Handguns: The name of Adrien Brody’s series of Pop art paintings set to debut at this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach. [artnet News]

+ The legally slippery Priska Juschka Fine Art gallery returns to New York at a location in the Lower East Side. [Artinfo]

+ 3D Photoworks is helping blind people see art for the first time. [Des Moines Register]

+ One step forward, two steps back: The Bosch Research and Conservation Project accredited the Flemish master with an unsigned sketch, though recently, two paintings previously believed as “authentic” Bosches have been discredited. [Hyperallergic]

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+ Rhizome launched their new website and brand and it looks flyyyy. [Rhizome via New Museum]

+ The founder of The Brooklyn Rail weighs in on why running an art-based publishing company is frequently frustrating and perpetually problematic. [The New York Times]

+ Dove is promoting a range of curly hair emoji and GIF keyboard as part of their “Love Your Curls” campaign. [Mashable]

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+ The Impressionist and modern works at Sotheby’s second round of Taubman auctions this week brought in impressive sales after a disappointing first night. [The New York Times]

+ What happened last Saturday at this Wizard of Oz themed brawl in Ontario? A comment from the local police: “the Scarecrow didn’t have the brains to stick around, and ran away with the Cowardly Lion.” [The Globe and Mail]

+ Art collectors seem to be donating their works to smaller nonprofits—think: hospitals, nursing homes, and libraries—rather than museums, where pieces stand a greater risk to slip onto dusty shelves and into obscurity. [Wall Street Journal]

+ Artnet News brewed up some possible Tinder profiles for your favorite artists (Frida, age 108: SWIPE RIGHT). [artnet News]