Hasta La Ideas

Willis (“Buzz”) Hartshorn, who has served as director of the International Center of Photograpy since 1994, will step down due to health reasons, the institution announced today. Hartshorn, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, will transition to a new, unspecified full-time executive role at ICP once his successor is in place. In light of the news, ICP’s board has formed a search committee and retained Russell Reynolds Associates to conduct an international search for a new director. “I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to build on the legacy of Cornell Capa, working with a talented staff and engaged board,” said Hartshorn, who joined the ICP staff in 1982. “I particularly appreciate their support, as I look ahead to continuing to serve the institution in new capacities.”

Among Hartshorn’s many achievements as director of the New York-based institution was raising more than $20 million in a 2001 capital campaign (the institution’s first) to move ICP from 94th Street to its current dual sites at 43rd and Avenue of the Americas. During his tenure, the endowment has grown from $700,000 to $11 million. Most recently, Hartshorn directed a planning process that “envisions a facility that would enhance integration of the exhibition, collection, and education programs,” according to a statement issued today by ICP. “Buzz and his team have led ICP from strength to strength throughout his 17-year tenure, from its exhibition programs, to its greatly increased endowment, to the breadth and depth of its educational programs and the photography talent trained by ICP, to its leading position in the world of photography,” said Jeffrey A. Rosen, president of the ICP Board of Trustees. “All are a testament to his legacy.”

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This past weekend, as you may have heard, artist Shepard Fairey was physically assaulted shortly after the opening of an exhibition of his work in Copenhagen. He and his Obey colleague, Romeo Trinidad, were reportedly jumped while exiting a nightclub, attacked by a number of men who screamed at Fairey to “Go back to America” and that he was “Obama illuminati.” By the time they’d run off, the artist had a bruised rib and a black eye. All of this followed something of a giant wall-scaling mural Fairey had painted in the city, near where a famous youth house once stood, which some local residents had seen as an encroachment by the government, despite the painting’s call for peace. After lots of press attention, Fairey himself has posted on his blog about the contentious debate over the mural and the hostilities that popped up around it (it was almost immediately defaced), why the media often seemed to slightly side more with his attackers (case in point, the Miami New Times‘ headline, “Did Shepard Fairey Deserve to Get Beat Up by Danish Anarchists?“), and offering up his view of the fight from inside the middle of the fray. Here’s a bit:

I unthreateningly asked him why he was saying that stuff to me, and what his problem with me was. He just said “YOU HAVE THE PROBLEM” and did the chest shove every visitor to a playground has experienced. Then as he raised his fists I was clocked from the side by someone I never saw. The next thing you know I’m being attacked by at least 3 guys and Romeo jumps in to help me. It was crowded, and people tried to pull everyone apart which somehow left Romeo being ganged up on by a couple guys, so I had to jump back in to help him, while I was being punched and kneed by people behind me.

They quickly ran off , and it seemed that things were over except for my wife freaking out across the parking lot. I was wrong, somehow the attackers had snuck back through the crowd and I caught a punch in the eye out of nowhere as I turned to see Romeo pushed against a wall being punched and kneed in the back. I tried to help him again, and after brief retaliation the attackers fled again.

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Speaking of thievery, as we were in that last post, here’s something a bit more direct. Two weeks ago, though only being reported now, a man sneaked into fashion designer Marc Ecko‘s studio in Manhattan and stole the print “Untitled (Calvin Klein)” by the artist Kaws. NY1 reports that the thief knew the door code to the building, entered with a poster tube under his arm, lifted the print and then stuffed it into the tube while hiding in a bathroom before hightailing it back out into the street. The Kaws print is said to be worth roughly $100,000 and Ecko’s most recent blog posts have laid out information about the case, currently being investigated by the NYPD. Here’s all the info about the suspect:

The suspect is described as being a white male between 20 and 40 years old, approximately 5’11″ tall with a thin build and a mustache. He was wearing a dark green hoodie, blue jeans, a tan baseball hat with dark sunglasses and running sneakers. Police say he was also carrying a dark backpack at the time.

Anyone with information about the case is being asked to contact Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-577-TIPS, by texting TIP577 to CRIMES, or by [visiting their website]

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Two weeks ago, we told you that artist Ai Weiwei was treading slightly dangerous waters by opening a Google+ account, despite being issued a complete media and social networking gag order by the Chinese government who had just released him from a long, secretive and reportedly punishing detainment. Now Weiwei is apparently pushing a bit further, as his Twitter account suddenly sprang back to life. His messages thus far, at least in those we’ve read translated by sources like the BBC and ArtInfo, have been more than a bit tame, ranging from “Hey, hugs. Goodnight,” to talking about what he’d had for lunch: “Lunch 10 dumplings, bodyweight regains 3kg.” Whether this means that the media noose imposed by the government has been loosened or has Weiwei just decided speaking to the public worth the risk is anyone’s guess.

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You can tell that either the celebrity in question has made it so large that he now exists on another plane away from we ordinary man, or that, outside of American politics, it’s been a pretty slow, summer news week. Decide for yourself as you react to the news that this week fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld was photographed without wearing his sunglasses. Are you shocked? Are you hyperventilating as you click over to Google News to check out the more than 40 news outlets (well, make that 41 now) that, at the time of this writing, had breathlessly reported as much? Or can you somehow, perhaps because you’re gifted mentally, imagine Karl Lagerfeld without his sunglasses by simply picturing him with normal looking eyes instead of a pair of sunglasses? Whatever camp you fall into, let us all remember where we were when this happened and what we were doing, because this is the sort of thing you tell your grandchildren. And then when they ask, “Who is Karl Lagerfeld?” you can answer, “He was a guy who wore gloves and made plot-less ice cream commercials.” They should understand immediately thereafter and be filled with a glowing reverence for all you have experienced.

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