As we noted earlier Tuesday, the hacker known as “Guccifer” has struck again, disseminating via playful emails memos from Hillary Clinton (hacked from the email account of Sid Blumenthal). But what do we know about this political prankster?1. “Guccifer” hits high profile targets from both sides of the isle:The hacker first rose to prominence with an audacious hack on Bush family email accounts. It was through this hack on several accounts that Guccifer obtained the now-infamous George W. Bush self-portrait of himself in the shower.According to the Smoking Gun, Guccifer’s victim list also includes a “U.S. Senator, a senior United Nations official, security contractors in Iraq, two former FBI agents, and a Department of Defense supervisor.”Guccifer also infiltrated Colin Powell’s email account and defaced his Facebook page, uploading posts including a message that read “You will burn in hell, Bush!”Continue Reading… … Read More
Painting discovered to be Rembrandt self-portrait worth millions
A painting hanging in a British stately home has been confirmed as a self-portrait by Rembrandt worth tens of millions of dollars, the National Trust heritage body announced on Friday. The picture, which has been at Buckland Abbey in Devon, southwest England, since it was donated to the trust in…
Recovered portrait of early English feminist to be shown at Dutch art fair
Lady Anne Clifford is still celebrated as a campaigner for women’s rights A lost, original portrait of Lady Anne Clifford, one of the first English aristocrats to demand equal land rights with men during a 17th-century legal struggle, is to be displayed at a major art fair in the Netherlands…
The “labia pride” movement
Underneath a self-portrait snapped of the ruffly pink flesh in-between her legs, a woman writes, “I am 23 and so embarrassed of my labia that I still have never shown it to anyone — to a guy or even a doctor!” It’s a post submitted by an anonymous reader on the Tumblr “Large Labia Project.” The blog is filled with similar photos accompanied by tales of vulval shame. One woman writes of distress over the fact that her labia are lopsided. Another worries that she’s lost lovers in the past because “they all thought my vagina was weird.” There are concerns about taste and smell, too, but mostly vulva shape and size.
It’s just one of several new sites calling on women to bare all — to benefit womankind.
These crotch shots are not meant to titillate — although some male readers pop in to proclaim that they navigate the site with one hand. Instead, the idea is that submitting a photo can help a woman get over her body shame — particularly because of positive feedback from site moderators and readers, who often offer “you go, girl” cheerleading. (Although, some posters find it devastating when their photo doesn’t get as many “likes” as others.) The greater aim is to publicly catalog normal genital diversity — the kind you won’t find in mainstream porn — so that women no longer judge their nethers by an unrealistic standard.
ACLU sues Ohio school district over Jesus portrait
The American Civil Liberties Union and Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Jackson City School District in Ohio on Thursday over a portrait of Jesus. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a student at Jackson Middle School and two parents, who objected to having the portrait…
Hollywood So Desperate for Ideas It’s Making Movies Based on Deviant Art Drawings
Continued here: Hollywood So Desperate for Ideas It’s Making Movies Based on Deviant Art Drawings
Drawing by Russian artist Yury Annenkov triumphs at Sotheby’s fetching $1.6 m
Fragment of the portrait of Vsevolod Meyerhold by Yury Annenkov (Image from sothebys.com)A pencil portrait by renowned Russian avant-garde artist Yury Annenkov has set a record at Sotheby’s annual Russian Art Sale having fetched $1.6 million, 20 times the estimate. The portrait was the most expensive lot of the auction. Sotheby’s was auctioning the collection ofRussian-born Hollywood composer Dmitry Tiomkin. He was close with both the artist Yury Annenkov and the subject of the record-setting artwork, theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold. He also had opera legend Fyodor Chaliapin, poets Vladimir Mayakovsky and Aleksandr Blok among his personal friends, along with many other important figures of the Russian avant-garde movement. The 1922 drawing of Vsevolod Meyerhold comes from a series of Seventeen Portraits by Yury Annenkov, who perfected his style in portraiture. It was estimated to fetch between $32,000 and $80,000. The lot eventually sold for $1.6 million becoming the most expensive artwork in the sale. Vladimir Weisberg’s 1973 drawing Reclining Nude tripled expert expectations. Initially estimated to sell for between $64,000 and $110,000 it eventually fetched $366,000. The auction held in London on November 27 fetched a total of almost $9 million in the sale.Tiomkin worked with suc
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h masters of US cinema as Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock. The composer went on to become one of Hollywood’s most decorated composers. He scooped 22 Academy Award nominations and won 4 Oscars for, among others, his scores for High Noon (1952) and The Old Man and the Sea (1958).Yury Annenkov was a Russian avant-garde artist best known for his book illustrations and graphic portraits. He ended his life in Paris in 1974. … Read More
