Artists Get What They Want by Painting It

Once-criticized American artist ended up among the greats

(NEWSER) - Cy Twombly, a renowned abstract painter once slammed by critics, has died at 83 in Rome. No cause has been given, though the American artist had cancer, the New York Times reports. Twombly’s work, full of scribbles and scratches, at first earned him harsh words from art critics. But he largely ignored them and kept to himself, and by the 1990s was established as one of the top American abstract painters of the 20th century. More»

British artist's exhibit got much hype, but only because he's famous, say critics

(NEWSER) - “Bad boy of British art" Damien Hirst decided to put his headline-grabbing, conceptual art projects aside and return to painting. Critics, however, are not impressed with the exhibition of 25 new paintings, which opened today:

• “There are many painters in evening classes much worse than Hirst,” writes Tom Lubbock in the Independent. “On the other hand, you'd find quite a few who were better, too. To try to be accurate: Hirst, as a painter, is at about the level of a not-very-promising, first-year art student.”

(NEWSER) - Mark Hosenball of Newsweek was at Woodstock, and not only did he not have a good time, but he can’t quite figure out how we’ve “transformed a chaotic mudfest into an epic pageant of peace and love.” Hosenball reminisces about the “massive, teeming, squalid mess” and its “traffic jams, torrential rain, reeking portable johns, barely edible food, and sprawling, disorganized crowds.” He can’t even really remember what acts he saw. More»

2009 list also includes sports figures, politicians, royalty, entertainers, artists

(NEWSER) - Vanity Fair’s 2009 International Best-Dressed List is as glamorous as ever, but the magazine didn’t ignore the global pinch of the recession. A sampling of the honorees, along with their favorite recession-friendly bargain-hunting locale or item:

• Michelle Obama: J. Crew
• Barack Obama: Secret Service employees’ store
• Alicia Keys: Barneys warehouse sale
• Brad Pitt: Make It Right Foundation T-shirts

Book of portraits raises money for human-rights charity

(NEWSER) - During a four-month period in 2006 and 2007, 100 celebrities checked into Room 23 of Beverly Hills’ Peninsula Hotel. The result is photographer Deborah Anderson’s Room 23, a coffee-table book to raise money for a human-rights charity. “We wanted to portray anything and everything, from Minnie Driver reading a script, topless, in bed, to Lindsay Lohan in her bra and underwear,” Anderson tells the Telegraph. More»