Robin Parness Lipson, at home with Matthew Chambers’s “Rembrandt,” left, and “Follow Your Eyes,” by Simone Lucas.
ASBURY PARK, N.J. — When Robin Parness Lipson walks along the boardwalk here, she does not focus on the shirtless old men with fishing poles, the concrete relics of failed condominium developments or the pigeons who have taken up roost in the neglected Beaux-Arts landmarks along the shore.
What she sees are the bustling new restaurants and gift shops and the energy of a bright future being shaped. And as part of that future, she sees her baby, her dream, the New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art: a glittering monument to the idea that New Jersey is not just the home of Snooki and the Situation, or feuding housewives, or the Bada Bing Club, but a place where cultured, philanthropic people can build something that makes a difference.
Ms. Lipson also has a dozen young artists, curators, event planners and others who are part of her dream. These volunteers have done everything from build a Web site, njmoca.org, to plan an inaugural exhibition and gala on Oct. 23.
Ms. Lipson noted that while New Jersey had many regional museums, it had nothing that drew international tourism.
Rick Norsigian couldn't win over experts on the photographer, so his authentication report was by two relative unknowns. And even they doubt the find is worth $200 million.
Rick Norsigian holding up a print from the found negatives. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times / July 27, 2010)
The case of the "lost" Ansel Adams negatives that purportedly are worth $200 million has turned into a public argument between Rick Norsigian, who found them at a Fresno garage sale 10 years ago, and the great photographer's family and former associates and leading art-photography dealers, who deny that Adams took them.
It was important for Norsigian to trace a path for the negatives to L.A., where Art Center was then based, because the man he bought them from in Fresno in 2000 had said he acquired them in the 1940s at a warehouse salvage sale in Los Angeles.
"It will never be possible to know why [Adams] left them in storage," Alt said in the report. Adams' associates say the photographer, known for safeguarding his work in a bank vault or in a concrete bunker behind his house, would not have let 65 of his pictures vanish.
This week's challenge paired off the remaining contestants to tackle a series of opposing themes -- male versus female, order versus chaos and heaven versus hell. Each pair had to create a conjoined work of art that would address one set of opposites -- but the pairings produced their own oppositions in the form of interpersonal disagreement and resentment.
Mark clashed with Peregrine on their heaven-versus-hell project. Peregrine wanted to use Mark's abdominal scar as the subject of their artwork, but Mark expressed reservations, only to back down from his objections in order to be a good sport.
But in art as in life, being a good sport doesn't necessarily count for much and shameless self-promoters rule the day.
Miles, who worked with Jaclyn on the male-versus-female assignment, revealed his manipulative and predatory side by quietly maneuvering his partner into taking off her clothes for her portion of the project. As shown in previous episodes, Jaclyn doesn't need much encouragement to strip, but her initial hesitation was sanded away by her partner's smooth insistence.
One artist gets naked (again), one judge cries (a first!)
One thing that’s making Work of Art better TV with each succeeding week is that the usual reality-TV rhythms rarely occur, and unexpected emotions arise. For instance: At the start of the hour, it sounded as though Miles was trying to manipulate Jaclyn into failing. Choosing his words carefully, he said to the camera that he hoped to persuade the frequent exhibitionist to “come up with something pretty [long pause] saucy.” A bit later, Miles was pondering “how I could get Jackie to add nudity to her piece,” and after she’d decided that doing a portrait of herself masturbating would illustrate “a woman gaining control,” Miles was gleefully congratulating himself as being “underhandedly genius.” The impression we got was that Miles assumed the judges would be tired of Jaclyn’s repeated use of her own naked form. But things changed later.
Miles and Jaclyn were the winners, but if Miles had hoped to come out of it the superior of the two, he failed: Jaclyn’s portrait was praised as well. With each week, the once-adorable Miles is looking more and more like a weasel. He blithely admitted he’d coveted the now-gone Ryan’s tar, and had told him it was “really hard” to work with, “so I could use it later.” And when he sucked up to guest judge McGinness (“I adore your black-light installations, man”), well — ick. I know, I know, it’s a competition, one must be ruthless; but that doesn’t mean I can’t separate the work and the game-strategy from a guy who’s increasingly shown to be unpleasant.
