Miscellany. 03.24.13.

Gravity and Grace, 2010, by El Anatsui. Currently on view as part of the artist’s solo exhibit Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, at the Brooklyn Museum through August 4. (Image courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. Photo by Andrew McAllister.)

• Have something you need to get off your chest? Artists JEFF&GORDON want you to leave them a voice mail.
• “It’s time to restore Marcel Duchamp’s urinal to the bathroom.” Randy Kennedy has a good piece in the NYT about art as a form of social service.
• CultureGrrl picks apart how MOCA might be able to merge with LACMA. Needless to say, it would involve committees and a refund to Big Brother Broad.
• I’m digging this L.A. Times series, in which artists discuss works they find interesting or influential in SoCal museums.
• A site comprised entirely of Facebook comments.
• The Accidental Audience: Brad Troemel has a thoughtful piece on the ways in which art is consumed, shared and regurgitated on the internet — sometimes unknowingly.
• This new Art F City feature is something I can really get behind: understanding an artist through his/her stuff. First up is Paul Chan.
• Peter Schjeldahl’s review of the Piero della Francesca exhibit at the Frick makes me really want to see the show.
• Pete Brook’s “Pete’s New Friends” series. I love running into these on my Tumblr.
• The urbanist philosophies of Batman versus Superman.
• Totally late on this, but what the hey: Toyo Ito won the Pritzker Prize. And Architect magazine says, “Finally!”
• An interesting essay in the Guardian about the myth of the American cowboy. Interestingly, a lot of the language and costume is derived from Mexican tradition.
• Maureen Tkacik dismembers the Thought Leader class. Whoa.
• There is an absolute stunner of a story by Jill Lepore in the New Yorker about the legal history behind the creation of the Guantanamo detainee camp. One of the first times that the notion of the unlawful combatant was employed in U.S. jurisprudence was in the 17th century, against Algonquian Indians trying to oust the British from New England. They were sent to the Caribbean and sold as slaves. (Subscription required.)
• Journalism words to not live by, according to the Washington Post. Someone needs to come up with a list of these for art writers.
• Book writer Edward Champion is trying to raise bucks to walk across the country. Help a blogger out!
• The internet has had great giffitude this past week. Also here.