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Round-Up: Ancient graffiti, 3-D selfies, Norway’s cool abstract money

A stencil of a hand found in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is about 40,000 years old, say archaeologists, making it the oldest piece of graffiti on record.
(Kinez Riza / AFP/Getty Images)
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The world’s oldest piece of art is graffiti, Norway has new abstract money and it’s super-cool, an artist beats the IRS in court, and architect Moshe Safdie is totally over public-private space. Plus: architectural separated-at-birth, developments in public housing and Nazi rules about jazz. There’s a lot going on in today’s Round-Up:

— Let’s kick things off with the hard news: Privacy concerns were cited when a Berlin arts space canceled a performance/installation by artist Dries Verhoeven, who employed the hook-up app Grindr to attract users and then made their conversations public.

— Norway has gotten architects to design its new money, and it is SO. DARN. RAD.

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— Sorry, European cave painters, the oldest known work of art is a proto graffiti that is reportedly almost 40,000 years old and resides in Indonesia.

Artist Susan Crile wins a court victory against the IRS. The result: You can call yourself an artist even if you don’t make much money from your work.

— Dezeen magazine reports on a speech in which Habitat 67 architect Moshe Safdie offered some sharp words to developers and designers. Safdie says that a penchant for skyscrapers and the privatization of public space are creating cities that are “not worthy of our civilization.” (Hyperallergic)

— Architect Renzo Piano tells The Times’ Christopher Hawthorne that he’s “struggling to do something good” with his film museum for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in L.A. Of course, “good” is still looking pretty “Aliens.”

— And speaking of architecture, it appears that Peter Zumthor’s design proposal for a revamped LACMA was totally separated at birth from Aldo Amoretti’s ESO astronomy lab HQ in Germany. (@KnightLAT)

— A design studio and a community development corporation have come together for an interesting public housing project in one of the U.S.’s poorest cities: Brownsville, Texas.

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— Sort of related: a proposal to turn parking spaces into public housing in New York.

— The Royal Bank of Canada’s announced a painting prize. One artist’s submission takes the bank’s human resources policies to task. Well done.

— On to photography news: The Getty Museum has acquired a trove of photography by Chris Killip, an artist known for his stark images of the British underclass in Thatcher-era England. Can’t wait to see these in a show. (Weisslink)

— Magnum photographer Larry Towell’s new book on Afghanistan looks pretty boss. The New Yorker has a story and a slideshow.

— Novelist Douglas Coupland says the selfie of the not-so-distant future will be the 3-D printed selfie. That gyre of trash in the Pacific isn’t gonna know what hit it.

— “They were the ones granted the opportunity, the education, the leisure, the power to put their thoughts out into the world. In people’s minds, what do professors look like? What do judges look like? What do leaders look like?” British artist Grayson Perry writes an insightful, conversational essay about “Default Man,” the white, middle-class, heterosexual male figure that has become the default identity in Western society.

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— And since we’re on the subject of race: NPR has a terrific report on a new book called “A Chosen Exile,” about the ways in which some African Americans have passed as white in American society, and the personal losses it entailed.

— Dear Art World: David Byrne is not that into you now that you’re all about money.

— Even better: Marina Abramovic rilly rilly rilly wants to collaborate with film director Lars Von Trier: “Dear Mr Lars von Trier, I think you are the most disturbing director in this planet and this is why I’d really, really love to work with you.” (ARTnews)

— Just because: a map of the old Spanish and Mexican ranchos of Los Angeles.

The Nazis had rules about jazz: “The pace must not exceed a certain degree of allegro, commensurate with the Aryan sense of discipline and moderation.” (@johnedwinmason)

— Last, but not least, Yelpers are now reviewing entire cities. L.A. gets only three-and-a-half stars. How is that even possible? Chicago gets four stars and they have winter and Rahm Emanuel. More evidence you can’t trust Yelp.

Find me on the Twitters @cmonstah

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