Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
How Did The Nobel Literature Committee Lose Its Sense Of Fun?
So: a victory for high literature, for inevitability, for oppositional culture, for men. But for the obsessives who have been attending to the saga...
“Mad Max” Director: AI Will Change Art. Technology Always Does
Artificial intelligence, George Miller said, represents “the most dynamically evolving tool in making moving image.” “As a filmmaker, I’ve always been driven by the...
In The Current Environment, Is There Room For Truth-Telling Art?
These episodes highlighted the vulnerability of the US’s state-funded cultural sector under an autocratic populist president determined to suppress artistic expression perceived as intolerably...
New Venice Music Biennale Director Spins Another Take On Contemporary Music
The invitation for Caterina Barbieri to lead the Music Biennale gave “a platform to another side of contemporary music that is generally excluded from...
How Contemporary Art Is Taking On Nigeria’s Identity
“Many of these artists deal with the idea that Nigerian culture has to be taken as a multinational and multi-ethnic question, in which artists...
Dozens Of Bob Ross Pictures To Be Auctioned To Help Support PBS
Ross, with his distinctive afro, soothing voice and sunny outlook, empowered millions of viewers to make and appreciate art through his show The Joy of...
Report: Depiction Of Black Characters In Children’s Books Is Significantly Down
A report by charity Inclusive Books for Children found that of the 2,721 books surveyed, only 51 featured a Black main character, down by...
The World’s Digital Infrastructure Runs On American Technology. Europe Wants To Reclaim Its Sovereignty
In the 21st century, those who control digital infrastructure control the conditions of possibility for democracy itself. Europe faces a choice: build sovereign technological...
This CEO Has Been Peddling An AI Companion. People Revile Him
The backlash has grabbed far more attention than the product itself, so I wondered: How does Avi Schiffmann, the 22-year-old founder and CEO of...
Sloppy Slop: Why You’re Seeing More Fake Images And Video In Your Feeds
High-engagement, AI-generated posts on Reddit are an example of what is known as “AI slop” – cheap, low-quality AI-generated content, created and shared by...
Chicago Indie Music Venues Protest Big Live Nation Project
A group of independent music venues in Chicago have come together to protest the building of Lincoln Yards, a $5 billion new development on...
Sotheby’s Sells Its Longtime Manhattan Headquarters
The move marks the latest step in a real estate overhaul that includes its 2023 acquisition of the Breuer Building, the Whitney Museum’s former home on Madison...
Major UK Galleries Report Precipitous Drop In Sales
Both galleries reported a nearly 90% decline in pre-tax profits, coinciding with a rumored multiyear art market downturn marked by a global decline in public...
Europe’s Great Rare Books Theft Spree
The Warsaw book heist was not an isolated incident but one of the final stops on an unprecedented grand tour of bibliophilic crime, which...
America’s Largest Supplier Of Books To Libraries To Shut Down
Baker & Taylor let go about 520 employees yesterday and plans to wind down the business by January. Employees who were laid off had...
As We’re On The Verge Of AI, It’s Useful To Reconsider The Luddites
“Ultimately they said: ‘We only want to prevent the implementation of technology as it is harmful, as it is injurious to the working man.’...
The Jimmy Kimmel Affair Exposed Growing Rift Between Networks And Affiliates
As affiliates, they’re not happy. And as they lobby the FCC to abolish the cap on how many stations one company can own (currently...
Longtime ARTnews Owner Milton Esterow, 97
Esterow purchased ARTnews in 1972 from Newsweek, which at the time was a division of the Washington Post Company, and owned it until 2014, when ARTnews was sold in...
Australian Arts Industry Hampered By Rise In Touring Costs
‘We have no shortage of invitations to show our work overseas, but our level of secure, ongoing funding is not enough to underpin these...
How Does Our Brain Perceive The World?
Most of the time, our intuition tells us that what we are seeing (or hearing or feeling) is an accurate representation of what is...
AI Creations On Screen Is Not “Acting”!
The contrast could not be clearer. On one side is Day-Lewis, embodying a role that carries the weight of decades of human experience and...
Alex Ross: The NY Phil’s And Met Opera’s Seasons Of Politics
Two things struck me about the launch of the Philharmonic season. First, the orchestra is embracing pluralism and diversity in the face of a...
How The US Government Shutdown Is Affecting Museums
Smithsonian–run institutions remain open using funds from previous years through October 11. Should the shutdown last beyond that date, the Smithsonian will also close....
What The LA Fires Taught The Art World
While the scope and scale of the art losses are still being determined, claims may take years to resolve. - ARTnews
How Taylor Swift’s Marketing Machine Guarantees Success
At time of writing, over 24 different versions of the CD and vinyl have been released. These include different colour vinyls, different cover images,...
