The Da Vinci of Design: 7 Ways Steve Jobs Changed the Visual Arts Forever (And One Way He Didn't)

Steve Jobs's stunning announcement that he is stepping down as chairman of Apple has investors worried. Can the tech Goliath sustain the momentum it has built under the sensei-like leadership of Chairman Jobs, beginning with his rebranding of the iMac and continuing through the revolutionary launches of the iPhone and iPad? But spare a thought for the art world, which in manifold ways, subtly and not-so-subtly, has been transformed by the innovations Jobs has pushed forward in the last few years (even if artists have come into conflict from the company from time to time). Here, ARTINFO takes a look at a few of the way that Jobs's impact has been felt across the visual arts. thanx artinfo.com

Capitalism, Unclothed: Art Provocateur Zefrey Throwell on Overthrowing Wall Street With His "Naked Army"

NEW YORK—New Yorkers pride themselves on their blasé — nothing will phase a well-trained city pedestrian. But artist Zefrey Throwell's urban intervention turned even the most stoic of heads: those of Wall Street traders. Throwell's "Ocularpation: Wall Street" saw 50 performers strip down and mime different Wall Street-related professions (traders, yes, but also janitors, secretaries, and everything in between) in a critique of the financial industry, a piece inspired by the plight of the artist's mother, a 60 year old woman who lost her retirement savings in the economic crash, and was forced to come out of retirement to look for a job. READ MORE

Oversized and Oversexed, Murakami Mines the Past With Racy New Gagosian Show in London

 Takashi Murakami has a confidence crisis. Perhaps bored with the Manga imagery always associated with his name, the Jeff Koons of Japan clearly wants to prove in his new Gagosian show in gallery his artistic roots reach further than the relatively recent Anime culture. This is most apparent in four triptychs that pay imitative homage to the turn-of-the-century painter Kuroda Seiki, best known for having introduced Western style of painting to Japan. One of Murakami's triptychs is a copy of Kuroda's own "Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment," a 1900 composition of three realistic female nudes to which Murakami has boldly added a double signature: "Seiki Kuroda – Takashi Murakami 1899-2010." The claim for a lineage couldn't be more explicit. READ MORE (artinfo)

A Contest For Picasso's Mistresses Spurs Christie's Impressionist and Modern Sale to a Stunning $227 Million

LONDON— The summer auction season rocketed off the starting line at Christie's here, powered by a trio of Pablo Picasso's portraits of his most storied muse/lovers that cumulatively made £42 million, heavily contributing to the £140,019,200 ($227,111,142) tally. Eighty of the 92 lots sold during the two-and-a-half-hour marathon, delivering a stellar 13 percent buy-in rate by lot and 20 percent by value.

It was the slimmest casualty percentage by lot since the top of the market in June of 2007, another strong indicator that the art economy is humming and confidence is in full bloom despite dire international problems in finance and the Euro Zone.

Thirty-one lots sold for over a million pounds, forty over a million dollars, and four world records were set. The result was the third highest for Christie's London in this category, shy of last June's £152.6 million ($226.4 million) total. That sale had a 25 percent buy-in rate by lot.

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Will the Arab Spring Bloom at the Venice Biennale?: A Preview of Four Politically Charged Displays

Ahmed Alsoudani's "Untitled," 2011  

Arab artists will have a heightened presence at the Venice Biennale this year, with five national pavilions from the Middle East  — representing Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates — as well as the international event's first-ever Pan-Arab exhibition and other independent shows.  Considering the democratic upheavals and revolutionary fervor that have overtaken the Middle East during the last five months, the political moment will be sharply reflected in several of these displays.  source artinfo