Someone paid $575k for This Kissing Cops Painting

from Reuters:

Reuters reported that Kissing Coppers, his iconic picture of two kissing “British Bobbies,” sold at Fine Art Auctions Miami on Tuesday for $575,000, at the lower end of its estimate. Last week in London, Banksy’s sculpture Happy Shopper (2009) fetched £506,500 ($831,691) at Phillips’ Contemporary Art Evening Sale, more than twice its low estimate. According to artnet’s price database, this was the third most expensive Banksy work ever sold at auction (the current record is for his 2007 Keep it Spotless painting, which shows a maid pulling up a Damien Hirst-like spot painting like a curtain).

Who The F*?k is Jonathan Cheban? You Better Ask Somebody!

MR. CHEBAN IN HIS OFFICE

Ever wonder who the hell is the guy with the good head of hair, killer shades and tanned skin who is almost always with Kim Kardashian? Well, contrary to what you may have heard across the web, he isn't some hanger on with nothing to do. In fact when you see him, eating or shopping with Kim K, he is actually working. How you ask? Well he sits a top a growing empire that includes, a top PR firm, restaurants and digital media. His name is Jonathan Cheban, or Mr. Cheban If you're clueless. Jonathan Cheban is the founder and CEO of Command Public Relations a leading PR firm that counts some of Hollywood's brightest names as well as fortune 500 companies as clients. He got one of his biggest breaks working with Sean "P Diddy" Combs back in the day and hasn't slowed down since. As his partner Simon Huck mans the PR ship Jonathan  is focused on expanding his business interests. He recently opened his first restaurant called Sushi Mikasa in Miami which he says isn't your normal sushi joint. The eatery already attracts the top echelon of Miami's social crowd.  There are plans to open another one in Vegas followed by a fast food joint called Burger Bandit. This isn't a shock for those who know Jonathan because he is a self proclaimed foodie and is known for posting pictures of food he is about to inhale on his instagram feed. He also owns Elitedaily.com which is a lifestyle website for "Generation Y" which gets about 7 million page views a month. There is also a jewelry line called Rich Rocks Jewelry which already carries much buzz within Hollywood's young elite circles. Also there are the reality show franchises like E!'s "The Spin Crowd" which takes us inside the inner workings of Cheban's public relations machine. So Jonathan Cheban has his hands full making a sweet living overseeing his growing portfolio of business ventures. When he isn't spending time at his homes in L.A or Miami, he is back home here in New York City, taking care of business and building his rolodex. So if you didn't know, now you know!

Def Jam is Leaderless Again

FORMER DEF JAM PRESIDENT JOIE MANDA

Since Jay Z stepped down as President/CEO of Def Jam, no one after him has held on to the position for long. Its as if the office is cursed. Former Murder Inc boss Irv Gotti campaigned for the spot, even enlisting Def Jam founder Russell Simmons to submit letters on his behalf to the powers that be at Island Def Jam, but Gotti was passed over for Joie Manda who resigned last week and is now back in Los Angeles as President of Urban Music at Interscope. So now that the legendary once dominant hip hop label is without a leader again, all eyes are on Island Def Jam boss Barry Weiss who is expected to name a new President in the coming weeks. The question is, who will be Def Jam's new President? No immediate plans were mentioned in the news release as far as a replacement goes, but there are good picks out there if Barry takes the time to choose the right person. Here now is our short list of candidates who would be good picks to run Def Jam in no particular order.

Irving (Irv Gotti) Lorenzo - As the former head of The Inc, Irv has seen the inner workings at Def Jam. He knows the history and the culture of the company and would no doubt build on the current hot streak the label is experiencing right now. And like we mentioned above, he's been after the job for years now. Perhaps now is the time to give him a shot at the title. Then again, he is rumored to be tied up with former Warner Music Group boss Lyor Cohen in a new music venture. Would he walk away from going into business with Lyor Cohen for his dream job running Def Jam?


Mike Kyser (President black music at Atlantic Records) - A long time protege of Lyor Cohen, MikeKyser would be a good fit for the Def Jam brand. With a career built on urban music, Mike would bring a fresh approach to the Def Jam label. He would also still have people like Lyor Cohen, Julie Greenwald and Jay Z as an unofficial advisory board.




Yandy Smith - Many people are not informed about Yandy Smith's background. She is a power broker in the music business. She's had her hands in the careers of artists like LL Cool J, Missy Elliot, Busta Rhymes, Jim Jones and many others. She's consulted for major labels and currently runs businesses in digital media, publishing and eCommerce. Yandy would be a fresh but seasoned face at the top of Def Jam who has some of the most top level resources at her disposal. It would also break the mostly male dominated leadership at the storied label.


Damon Dash - Do we really need to tell you who Damon Dash is? This is our dark horse candidate. Sure he squandered his rep, money and alliances in the music business, but everyone should get a second chance and we wouldn't mind seeing Damon dash land at the top of the label he is known for fighting with during his days running Rocafella. It was rumored about 2 yrs ago that he was relaunching the Rocafella label during the time L.A Reid was running Island Def Jam, but that never came to life.  Dame is hungry to get back in the mix but his history with the company will no doubt be an issue.



Christopher "Tricky" Stewart - As President of A&R at Epic Records, Tricky Stewart is the man charged with finding hits for the now L.A Reid lead record label. He's young, keeps his ear to the streets and is hungry to run his own shop or the shop of someone else. He would shake Def Jam up by pushing the label back into artist development, something many labels aren't doing today.

Viddy Lands Jay Z and Will Smith as Investors

STUNNED BY DRE
Viddy is the it app of the moment. The social video app not only attracted 5.5 million users in 11 days, but it also caught the attention and pockets of some of music's and Hollywood's biggest and richest as investors.

Singers Shakira and Jay-Z and actor Will Smith join other high-profile entertainment and technology types as investors and partners in the Los Angeles-based company, Viddy announced Monday. Viddy is the short-and-sweet, shoot-and-share video application for iPhone that has experienced a remarkable uptick in usage and new users since it integrated with Facebook’s Open Graph platform for Timeline and Ticker in February. The one-year-old company, which surpassed 4.5 million users 11 days ago, now has more than 10 million registered users and is adding 300,000 new users per day. The company partly attributes its recent rapid user growth to its status as the number one free app on Apple’s App Store, a place it’s held for nearly a week.

[source:VB]

Artist Adam Pendleton Talks Black Dada

BY ART + TIMES: 
Upstate New York based artist Adam Pendelton brings his Black Dada paintings to MoMa and signs on with  the powerful Pace gallery. At the age of 28, he's the youngest person to do so since the 1970s

Mr. Pendleton’s Black Dada paintings each contain a partial view, usually a corner, of a starkly rectilinear three dimensional object, accompanied by a single letter or two. The letters, which all derive from the phrase “Black Dada,” something that becomes more apparent when the paintings are arranged in large grids, usually suggest a word—for instance, “D A” or “L C K”—but never spell it out completely. The objects depicted are actually details of the famous cube sculptures by the late minimalist Sol LeWitt.

source: GalleristNY

The Art and Antiques Dealer League of America Welcomes New Participating Galleries

BY ART + TIMES: 
New York City’s Park Avenue Armory, the four-day fine and decorative arts fair which starts on May 2, will debut new participating galleries from here in the U.S. and abroad.

Among the new participants from the U.S. are New York-based galleries: Craig Van Den Brulle (mid-20th century furniture); Gavin Spanierman, Ltd. (American 19th- and 20th-century paintings); Lawrence Steigrad (16th- to 18th-century Old Master and British paintings, drawings and sculpture); Sundial (antique clocks and timepieces); and Jason Jacques, specialist (European Art Nouveau, Japonist pottery and turn of the century decorative arts). And from the West will be tribal specialist William Siegal from Santa Fe and John Atzbach (Fabergé and Imperial Russian antiques), based in Redmond, Washington.

 source: artdaily

15 Years Later

STUNNED BY DRE
15 years ago today, 24 yr old Christopher Wallace - aka - The Notorious B.I.G was gunned down in Los Angeles California. Today the murder sits unsolved in the LAPD's hands. The case was reopened over a year ago in what many say is an effort to patronize his friends and family. But still nothing has come of it even though there were credible leads just months after he died. We may all be shocked at the findings in this case if it ever gets solved.

Sotheby's To Offer Up "Sleeping Girl

STUNNED BY DRE
Sotheby's upcoming evening sale of contemporary art scheduled for May 9th will include Roy Lichtenstein’s Sleeping Girl from 1964. The picture is expected to fetch between $30 and $40 million. Before the auction Sleeping Girl is set for a major city world tour touching hot spots like Los Angeles, Hong Kong, London and New York.

“Lichtenstein’s ‘girls’ are arguably his most desirable works today and Sleeping Girl has been coveted since it was acquired in 1964, the year it was painted. It is astonishingly fresh and vibrant, as if it were painted yesterday,” said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s worldwide head of Contemporary Art.

source: ACN