SantaFe.com

Untitled (Orange and Brown), an oil-on-paper work from 1963 by Robert Motherwell, is a steal at $65,000.

Keep it around for a little while, ’cause it really is a great little gem of a painting. Or just flip it at auction. Preferably in Europe, so you can get paid in Euros.

William Shearburn Gallery is one of five galleries worldwide through which the Dedalus Foundation—founded by Robert Motherwell—distributes his unsold production. Motherwell was extremely prolific, and when he died, in 1991, he left many paintings and a large body of prints. He’d printed 435 separate editions. Some of...

Friday, August 1, 2008
by Jon Carver • THE magazine

Bling is a special kinda sparkly magic that happens between you and your financeabilities. Bling is the shine of the big pimpin’ high life as flashed and splashed across the new media plasma-screen. Early hip-hop was politics; late hip-hop is strip bars, cars, and bling. Bling constitutes an announced utopian capitalism—Ka-ching! Bling is the thing.

The thing about Bling is the status it portends, and that is exactly the script that Celebrity, by Benjamin Schulman, so neatly flips. His lawn jockey jug is a traditional Peruvian figure vessel in the form of the little black ring holder who...

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
by Jon Carver • THE magazine

“Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government when it deserves it.”
—Mark Twain

For almost eight long miserable years they’ve torturously abused power to line their pockets and destroy my country. They’ve selfishly trashed her spirit, reputation, and currency for shortsighted private gain. In a just world the American people would try and convict them for treason.

Naida Seibel’s The War Planners embodies them well. Carved in wood and painted, they stand half as tall as a person. Most hold either cocktails or weapons in their bloodstained hands as they pathetically lie and send...

Thursday, June 5, 2008
by Jon Carver • THE magazine

Is the Big Apple still the navel of contemporary art? New York is currently centrality-challenged by Los Angeles and the rise of a New Regionalism, a global scattering of equally important epicenters. Yet, the art star in Zimbabwe or Guatemala still requires a solo show in Manhattan to take it to the next level. And the Peruvian transplanted to Brooklyn probably has a better shot at big-time art status than her homegrown compadres de arte, no? Plus, global nomads still spend more time looking at contemporary art in “The City” than anywhere else.

A retrospective of the wacky work of Gordon...

Tuesday, May 1, 2007
by Jon Carver • THE magazine