art things
From the NYTimes, History Claims Her Artwork, but She Wants It Back:
At 83, Dina Gottliebova Babbitt still recalls the rickety easel where in 1944, under orders from the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, she painted watercolors of the haggard faces of Gypsy prisoners…
Via Arts & Letters Daily, China’s Art Factories: Van Gogh from the Sweatshop:
The life Wu and his roommates live is not so different from that of the artists whose works they’re copying, at least as far as their average day is concerned: They start painting around lunchtime and work until late at night. But unlike many of his colleagues, who have made a name for themselves in town as artists in their own right, Wu will never paint an original. If he were allowed to paint whatever he wants, he would soon run out of ideas, the young man admits.
And from the LATimes, if anyone still cares, Thomas Kinkade is rumored to be the focus of an fraud investigation:
“It was a program of lies and deception, predicated on Christian values that weren’t there,” said Joseph Ejbeh, the Michigan attorney who tried the arbitration case.