Roundup: stabbing at Art Basel, Brown/Venturi receive AIA prize, Pantone’s colors of the year

All the talk is about Art Basel — where an attack was at first confused with a work of performance art. Plus: the passing of pioneering performer Holly Woodlawn, financial drama at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, faking architectural photos in Chicago, and architect Denise Scott Brown and husband and partner Robert Venturi awarded one of architecture’s more prestigious awards. Here’s the Roundup:

— A patron at Art Basel Miami Beach stabbed another visitor at the fair with an X-Acto knife. Many patrons, upon seeing the young woman covered in blood, thought they were witnessing a performance, reported the Miami Herald. The wounds weren’t fatal, but when the 24-year-old assailant was apprehended, she stated, “I had to watch her bleed,” according to the New York Post. She has been charged with attempted murder.

— Sort of related: Art Basel as the champagne-sipping symbol of global inequity. Party on, 1%.

— Holly Woodlawn, the transgender actress who appeared in films by Andy Warhol and was the subject of the Lou Reed song “Walk on the Wild Side,” has passed away at age 69.

— In a memo to the board of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Chairwoman and Chief Executive Dede Wilsey states she did nothing wrong in cutting a check for $450,000 in disability payments to a former employee without board approvals. Her action has made headlines in recent weeks after the museum’s financial officer reported the transaction to the California attorney general.

— The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach has received accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, which confers a greater credibility and should make it easier for the museum to secure important loans.

The government of the Philipinnes is trying to track down the art collected amassed by former first lady Imelda Marcos. She is seen in 2001 at the Shoe Museum in Marikina City, a monument to her collecting prowess.

(Pat Roque / Associated Press)

— The Philippines has started a crowd-sourcing website to track down more than 200 pieces of art once owned by former first lady Imelda Marcos — including works by Picasso, Van Gogh and Michelangelo.

— The Chicago branch of the American Institute of Architects gave an award based on doctored photography. Critic Blair Kamin analyzes the ethics of manipulated photography — and of giving prizes to buildings without visiting them in person.

— More importantly, architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown have been awarded the Gold Medal by the American Institute of Architects. This represents a real shift from 24 years ago when Venturi alone was awarded the prestigious Pritzker, overlooking his wife and design partner. (I spoke in 2013 with her about that infamous snub.)

— LACMA curator Franklin Sirmans, who organized the critically acclaimed Noah Purifoy retrospective “Junk Dada,” recently left that position to take the reins at the Perez Art Museum Miami. He faces a mountain of fundraising.

— Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne has an interesting idea for that land accumulated by Cal Trans for the purpose of building the now-scrapped connector for the 710: build a new network of parks and affordable housing. Lord knows L.A. could use a lot more of both.

The Petersen Automotive Museum opened for previews and the critics are weighing in — including the Times’ own Christopher Hawthorne.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

— Speaking of Hawthorne, his review of the Peterson Automotive Museum is pretty darn epic. Complete with references to “Office Space” and Michael Bay.

— California Sunday has a terrific photo essay of the work of Dana Lixenberg, who has chronicled the people of the Imperial Courts in Watts since the early 1990s. Also: The New York Times has photos of Tehrangeles.

— Plus, because too much L.A. is never enough: D.J. Waldie on the internecine battles about the design of the Los Angeles County seal.

— Mayor Garcetti has put his Modern Echo Park home for sale … for $1.65 million. Pairs well with this story by Ben Ehrenreich on the gentrification of Echo Park.

— Also, 14% of L.A. is devoted to car parking. And the ways in which the ghosts of the city’s street car system shape our landscape.

— On the Kinsey scale of insufferability, what’s more precious: $4 toast from San Francisco or a buttered bread performance by Jennifer Rubell at Art Basel Miami Beach? All I know is that it’s a good reason to link to that hilarious gluten-intolerance parody video again.

— The Week in Art Merch: an Andy Warhol-inspired Barbie doll and Andy Warhol skate decks. Glad to see the Warhol Foundation keeping so busy.

— Pantone has named its color of the year and it’s actually two colors: eggshell shades of pink and blue — like the worst baby shower nightmare.

— Marijuana culture gets ever more highbrow: Gizmodo has a story on Tetra, a new company that features a range of design-conscious accessories chosen by a trio of art and design writers.

— And last but not least, a reunion of Bob Ross superfans in Virginia.

— SPECIAL BONUS LINK: My mom’s empanada recipe. Now this is art…

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