– The Anti-Rob Pruitt Awards: Perpetually apoplectic British art scandal-blog Cathedral of Shit (which, like ARTINFO's blogroll, received commendation yesterday from Arts Media Contacts'
best art blogs of 2010 list) has proposed a set of awards categories as
a riposte to artist Pruitt's sort-of parody fundraiser art awards
(which returned for their second time around to the Guggenheim last month, to mixed reviews). They include "The Bill Viola Worst Artist Award," the "Award for the Most Irrelevant Hans Ulrich Obrist
Project," the "'Erm, This Is Embarrassing, I’ve Never Actually Been
There' Gallery Award," and — the blog hails from the U.K. after all —
the "Most Desperate Austerity Measure Award." (A definitely-in-bad-taste
"Gus Fairhurst Memorial Award for the Most Desperate Attempt at
Notoriety" — referring presumably to the late artist Angus Fairhurst,
who hung himself — seems to have been removed from the site, though it
still appears in Google Reader). The Cathedral team awaits your
nominees. [Cathedral of Shit]
 
– True Tales of an Antiquities Trial: Former Getty antiquities curator Marion True, whose long illegal-trafficking trial in Rome ended last year — due to Italian statutes of limitations — before she had a chance to speak in her defense, has issued a statement to the Art Newspaper about her travails, saying she believes the "politically motivated process" was simply a squeeze play on the culture ministry's behalf to recover antiquities from U.S. museums, especially the Venus of Morgantina. She suggests the Getty would have voluntarily given back many of the contested objects if the Italians had presented evidence of their looting, but says the government pursued the criminal prosecution. The entire essay, suffused with a quiet but white-hot fury, makes for compelling reading. [TAN]

– Tale of Two DJs: Conceptual DJ duo AndrewAndrew have
been placed under the scholarly microscope of the Times's Thursday
Styles section, and the results are even weirder than some might expect.
Sure the live/work couple — who met at Disney World's Tomorrowland
in 1999 — have dressed identically for more than a decade, presiding
over hip parties and doing art-inflected things like interviewing folks
at Art Basel. But did you know that memories of a trip they took
to the Dear Leader's tomb in North Korea can move "the Communist
Andrew," who wrote "let the revolution continue" in the dead tyrant's
guest book, to tears? [NYT]

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– Bury Me Not: The mad scientist/artisan behind the ghoulish "Bodies" exhibition, Gunther von Hagens, says that he is dying and has asked his wife to "plastinate" his body, using the preservation technique he invented, and that "my plastinated corpse will then stand in a welcoming pose at the entrance of my exhibition.” At least we could be sure that his body didn't belong to an executed Chinese political prisoner, which can't be said for many of the other remains in the show. [NYT] 

– Dept. of Desecration: Graffiti vandals, target shooters, and illegal garbage dumpers have defiled the Red Rock Canyon, often defacing the 1,000-year-old pictographs that make the Western natural monument an invaluable touchstone for precolonial American history. [NYT]   

– The Real McGee: San Francisco graffiti great Barry McGee has posted the entirety of his latest book of work, "T.H.R.," online for free viewing. Edited by Aaron Rose, the book has images of surfing and hiking as well as some pics of his street-art-inspired installations. For those dinosaurs committed to owning the real object, it'll set you back $49.95. [Vandalog]

– Is Glenn Lowry Underpaid?: Apropos of the new book “America’s Medicis: The Rockefellers and Their Astonishing Cultural Legacy,” Art Market Monitor's Marion Maneker notes that according to the facts detailed therein, it appears that the salary for MoMA's director has increased ten-fold when adjusted for inflation since the storied institution's founding. Ah, but, surely the museum is more than ten times its size now as it was back then! So it looks like it's time for Lowry to ask for a raise on his $1.3 million salary, Maneker proposes. [Art Market Monitor]

– Art on High: The High Line has announced its spring 2011 public art program to coincide with the opening of the new section of the elevated park, featuring installations and performances by Kim Beck, Julianne Swartz, and Trisha Brown. Beck will present a three-sculpture work titled "Space Available" — evocative of the skeletal frames of billboards — from March 4. Swartz's contribution is "Digital Empathy," a sound piece comprising computer-generating voices speaking encouraging words. The Trisha Brown Dance Company will re-stage the 1971 "Roof Piece." [High Line Art]

– Billboard Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Designer Jon Jackson, who has lived in Los Angeles for his entire life, is making the only decision a sane person can make, and is moving to New York. But he won't just slip out of his city on the midnight train. Jackson is designing and installing five 10-by-23-foot billboards around L.A. to let his hometown know that he's "seeing other cities." [adiosla.com]

– College Art Association Honors: The annual CAA Awards for Distinction have been doled out to such art-world notables as artists Lynda Benglis, John Baldessari, and Faith Ringgold, along with various art critics, historians, and curators. A ceremony will be held honoring the prize-winners on February 10 at the Met, where past recipients will bestow the honors. [artforum]

– Feeding the Ballet Frenzy: If you, like the rest of us, recently saw "Black Swan," and now find yourself craving more tutus and tulle, here is a delightful photo gallery of images by Colin Jones — best known for his portrait of the rock band The Who —who toured with the Royal Ballet School as a dancer in the 1950s. [Independent]

– How Young Painters Can Find Inspiration in the Unicorns: An account in the Atlantic describes how disgust toward the Whitney Biennial last year drove two artist buddies to visit the Cloisters in New York for the first time. There, they fell in love with medieval tapestries and abbeys brought to New York by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. For those disillusioned with contemporary art, here is an impassioned case to look to the middle ages, and hop an M4 bus to the Cloisters. [Atlantic]

– Jonathan Jones Wags His Finger Yet Again: This time, the crotchety British critic has taken aim at the Royal Academy, which has been distributing disturbing publicity for its upcoming "Modern British Sculpture" show. The Web site of the art institution lists the main draws of the exhibition as Jacob Epstein, Damien Hirst, and Phillip King. Who? The reason you don't know who King is, Jones points out, is because he's a former president of the Royal Academy, who is getting supremely sucked up to by his former institution. [Guardian]

– Heralding the Rebound of the New York Art Scene: Young galleries, distinct from the pricey, junk-peddling art spaces that invaded Chelsea during the boom, are popping up as their bloated predecessors fall at the hands of economic uncertainty. Newsweek offers as prime examples of this trend Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman's The Hole in SoHo; fordProject (subsidized by the Ford modeling agency) up on West 57th Street, under the direction of Tim Goossens; and Asya Geisberg's eponymous space back on good old 23rd Street. [Newsweek]