In the Future, Everyone Will Be a Pià±ata for 15 Minutes
by Dave Itzkoff
The New York Times
April 15, 2010

This 20-foot-tall pià±ata representation of the head of Andy Warhol, designed by the food artist Jennifer Rubell, will make its debut at a gala for the Brooklyn Museum on April 22. In answer to your next questions: Yes, you will be allowed to hit it with bats, and yes, it is filled with desserts. (In a telephone interview, Ms. Rubell said it will contain “the vernacular of American treats, which will remain nameless for the moment.”) If you have complicated feelings about Warhol, his impact on the art world or his pairing of the Velvet Underground with Nico, this could be your opportunity to release them in an appropriate forum.

Ms. Rubell said the Warhol pià±ata will be the culmination to the gala, which will feature other food-themed exhibitions paying tribute to contemporary artists, including Marcel Duchamp, Bruce Nauman and Paul McCarthy. There will also be some sort of Jackson Pollock-inspired installation that dispenses drinks.

Related Links:

Hangin’ with big boys: Artist slips in stealth exhibit at Brooklyn Museum
by Mike McLaughlin
September 29th 2009
New York Daily News

Some artists will do anything to get their work shown in a museum.

Painter Mat Benote secretly hung one of his paintings in the Brooklyn Museum earlier this month – and it remained for two days before museum officials discovered it and snatched it off the wall.

“This is high-art graffiti,” said Benote, who lives in the city, but won’t say where. “It’s not really destroying anything.”

Museum officials declined to comment on Benote’s stunt, but a worker told the Brooklyn News the prank inflicted minor damage to a wall on the fourth-floor contemporary art gallery.

Benote’s escapade in the museum on Eastern Parkway was the final stop in a month-long tour. (more…)