artists
7:55AM STV | Apocalypse Commences at MGM Tower: A brave reader sends word and photographic evidence of the third — and by far the most real yet — safety crisis to grip the Century City landmark in the last week: Bees! “They have not yet shut down the building, but the front entrance is now closed due to a swarm of bees huddling over and around their queen,” we’re told. We’re not sure if this is at all connected to the Tower’s bomb-y, anthrax-y week of living dangerously, or if perhaps it’s just a late public rally in support of UA’s beleaguered Paula Wagner, but in any event, we once again advise caution to those working at or visiting the site. And, of course, insert your “Finally — buzz at MGM!” joke here. More »
Barack Obama Art Exhibition Stops Off In L.A. Wondering Who’s ‘Got Next!’
4:35AM Defamer Hollywood | I can’t remember any other politician in recent memory who has inspired artists as much as Barack Obama. From the moment I saw the Shepard Fairey “Hope” poster, I knew that Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid was toast. Just as she had inspired t-shirts eight years ago that gave an indication she was gaining enough buzz to enable her to win the Senate seat, I knew that Obama had captured the imagination of the general public when his visage turned into iconography. More »
Brace Yourselves, Ken Done May Need To Start Painting Again
3:21PM Jess McGuire | We have such fond memories of artist Ken Done, you know? A man not afraid of a bright colour, he was the brains behind some of our favourite curtain designs at our childhood holiday home in Shoal Bay. So we are saddened to hear that things are not going all that well for Ken.
The artist behind some of Australia’s most colourful images, Ken Done, may have to return to painting the harbour and cuddly koalas after losing three-quarters of his personal fortune due to what he claims was bad financial advice.
Done, 67, who painted the widely recognised and colourful depictions of Australian life, is suing the financial advice arm of the Commonwealth Bank for $53 million after his nest egg was whittled away on risky loans and stakes in untested and little-known companies that ultimately failed.
In a case that will have its first preliminary court hearing today, he claims that had the advisers invested as he said over the four years from 2001 to 2005 he and his wife, Judith Done, would now have a trust fund worth $61.5 million. Instead he has been left with just $8 million.
Still. $8 million from this kind of stuff -
- seems like a pretty good deal, in our uncultured eyes. More » 
Will The Archibald Prize Judges Give The Sympathy Vote To Ledger Portrait?
1:00PM Clem Bastow | You may have read during the first flush of press frenzy immediately following Heath Ledger’s death that a Perth artist had released images of an almost-finished portrait (detail at left) that the actor had sat for in late-2007. And while Ledger had been relaxed and happy during his sittings, the moody painting took on an altogether more chilling vibe in light of Ledger’s reportedly troubled final days.
Well, as though it wasn’t already a fait accompli, the artist – Vincent Fantauzzo – will be entering the painting in this year’s Archibald Prize.
Ledger appears three times in the painting, which is titled Heath. In the central figure, he looks haunted and intense. On either side, he whispers secretively to himself from behind a shielding hand.
It is a dark painting in which the actor, who died in New York just weeks after the sitting, appears to be assailed by mischievous mind-spirits.
Fantauzzo yesterday delivered the painting to the Art Gallery of NSW as an entry in the Archibald Prize.
He said Ledger had been excited about the portrait, had known it was to be an Archibald entry and had thrown himself into the sittings.
“He was looking forward to everything to come,” Fantauzzo said.
Ledger and Fantauzzo worked together on the portrait’s concept. One of the secondary figures was originally going to be screaming, but Fantauzzo scrapped the idea as being too dominating for the central figure.
He said the whispering in the painting represented Ledger’s inner thoughts which, as a private man, he was inclined to withhold.
“I guess it’s the whispering, the voices, the frustration or something comical – all the different ways that we might be thinking in our own mind,” Fantauzzo said.
Even if Fantauzzo doesn’t come away with the prize (likely, particularly in light of the judges’ recent predilection for charcoal sketches), he’d have to be a sure bet for either the People’s Choice or Packing Room gongs, wouldn’t he? More » 
