Dana Schutz' Painting Of Emmett Till Creates Controversy At Whitney Biennial 2017

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Update: Trump Between Mushroom Clouds & Nazi $$$ Signs Billboard Appears In Downtown Phoenix

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(Photo: Johana Restrepo/The Republic)

Updated: Santa Monica, Ca artist Karen Fiorito accepted a commission from Phoeniz gallery La Melgosa for a billboard dedicated to Donald Trump. The billboard is located near Grand Avenue and Taylor Street in downtown Phoenix.

La Melgosa commissioned Fiorito to do a similar anti-President George Bush billboard in 2004, when she was a graduate student at Arizona State University. 

"I was given the opportunity to just say what I want," Fiorita told The Arizona Republic. 

The result is a large billboard sign featuring a photo of Trump backed by two mushroom clouds typically associated with nuclear explosions. Swastikas on either side of Trump have been manipulated to look like dollar signs.  

March 19, 2017 update: Beatrice Moore, owner of the billboard and a long-time patron of the arts on Grand Avenue, says the billboard will remain as long as Trump is president. As expected, artist Fiorito is receiving death threats on a much escalated level than when the Bush presidency billboard went up in 2004.

Read more about Beatrice Moore: Grand Avenue May Never Be Home to Fancy Coffee Shops and Cell Phone Stores, and That's Just Fine with Beatrice Moore Phoenix New Times

(Photo: Johana Restrepo/The Republic)

At Austin's SXSW Female Heroines Kick Ass Back: Anne Hathaway, Brie Larson, Charlize Theron

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As Austin's SXSW festival comes to a close, a new kind of hero took center stage, writes Joanna Robinson for Vanity Fair. "the battle-tested and badly bruised action heroine."

In a year when throngs of women are still reeling from Clinton's presidential election loss and the ascendancy of a narcissistic, Twitter-crazy megalomaniac to the White House, our commitment to resistance is bolstered by kickass heroines who get knocked down and rise up again. They include Anne Hathaway in 'Colossal'; Brie Larson in 'Free Fire'; Charlize Theron in 'Atomic Blonde'. 

There’s been a resistance growing—even among those who clamor for more female-fronted stories in film and television—against the catch-all phrase “strong female character.” Those three little words are often thrown up in defense of characters who are two-dimensional at best. If she can punch like the guys (or, as is often the case, better than the guys), then she must be strong, right? But actual progress is not about women being superior to their male counterparts; it’s about them being treated equally. And when most action films starring women are precious about their leading ladies, seeing the real consequence of violence on a female body is both shocking and refreshing. The heroines of SXSW offerings Free Fire, Atomic Blonde, and Colossal, just like generations of male heroes before them, grit their teeth through swollen faces, split lips, and bullet wounds to keep fighting their way out.

Read on: 'The Women of SXSW Take a Licking and Keep on Kicking Vanity Fair

'Trump Regretters' Are Growing, Feeling That Trump Is "Going Too Far"

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Last month, half of Trump voters felt he was "surrounding himself with the best people". This week, only 39 percent do.  The majority of Trump supporters still feel the President is "keeping his promises" and "getting things done" but "three of the four traits on which Americans rate {Trump} as doing 'more than expected' are negative", says Margie Omero of PSB Research, who polled 800 general population respondents between March 6-9.

"He has no crossover appeal," Omero told MarieClaire.com, citing other polling outlets that have found Trump to be strong with his supporters, but dangerously weak with Democrats and independents. "So if he starts to slip with his base—as he has in our poll—where does he have room to grow?"

"He has to hold onto his base going into the midterms," she added. "If this slide continues, he is going to have some serious trouble."

PSB has issued another potential flag on Trump's field of political play: Voters who were "With Her" last fall are twice as likely as Trump voters to have taken some sort of politically-motivated action since January. Actions include protesting and marching, contacting their congressional rep, donating to a cause, or switching away from a product or service whose leadership didn't share their values.

"People are looking for ways to take action," said Omero. "There may not be a vote until next November, but there's still plenty to be done between now and then."

The PSB poll was conducted among 800 general population respondents between March 6-9, before details of Trumpcare -- his proposed health care plan and the federal budget were released. Given a health care plan that doubles insurance costs for many people in the 50-65 age bracket -- and Trump's proposed federal budget with its staggering cuts for programs like breakfasts for poor children and the elderly, and the elimination of any arts funding including axing Big Bird and The Cookie Monster, as part of PBS, It seems totally reasonable that Trump's "going too far" numbers will decline further.

Related: Trump's Budget Blueprint Is A War on the Future of the American Economy VOX

Trump's Budget Hits Trump's Voters Hard The Daily Beast

The tax Trump paid in 2005 is the tax Trump wants to abolish Business Insider

Trump's budget would cut funding for Appalachia -- and his allies in coal country are livid VOX

Why Does Trump Want to Defund Meals on Wheels? Seth Meyers Thinks He's "dead Inside" Vanity Fair

Savannah Cunningham, In Center Of Marine Online Misogyny Scandal, Starts Basic Training In April

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Savannah Cunningham, In Center Of Marine Online Misogyny Scandal, Starts Basic Training In April

Savannah Cunningham says that while she's been torn over how to respond to the online harassment, she decided to join the Marines because it was the most selective and demanding. She will work on a crew loading missiles on Cobra helicopters.

As her Twitter pics reveal, Cunningham has been working out intensely in preparation for Marine duty. "I wanted to make sure I could do anything male Marines could," she told the Times. "I didn't want anyone to hold me to a lower standard. "

While horrified by what happened to her and how a former close boyfriend shared a private strip tease video, Sav now dates a Marine sergeant and says the majority of male Marines she knows were totally disgusted by the photo sharing. 

"We have to be positive examples of the change we want to see," she said. "Courage, integrity, honor: I want to live those values."

 Annie Leibovitz Archives Go To LUMA Foundation's Living Archives Program

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Annie Leibovitz, Photographs from the “Driving” series. © Annie Leibovitz

Iconic photographer Annie Leibovitz has arranged for her archives to be part of the LUMA Foundation, the Swiss nonprofit founded by Maja Hoffmann. The collaboration is part of LUMA's Living Archives Program, dedicated to working with living artists across disciplines including photography, design, literature, film, and dance. 

Over 8,000 photographs will open on May 26 in an exhibition coinciding with the opening of LUMA's Frank-Gehry designed Parc des Ateliers location in Arles, France.

“Annie Leibovitz Archive Project #1: The Early Years”—which opens on May 27—will focus on the photographer’s work between 1968 and 1983 and is intended as the first of several projects dedicated to Leibovitz’s career-beginnings. The show will also mark the first time that the archives become available to the public. ArtNet writes:

Opening with photographs taken when she was enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute as a painting major, the exhibition will go on to examine the artist’s work through 1983. During that time, Leibovitz began working for Rolling Stone, eventually becoming the magazine’s chief photographer in 1973 before resigning ten years later to photograph for Vanity Fair.

Gowanus Brooklyn Batcave Set For Herzog & de Meuron Transformation To Support Creative Economy

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Gowanus Brooklyn Batcave Set For Herzog & de Meuron Transformation To Support Creative Economy

The Pritzker Prize-winning Herzog & de Meuron will transform the Gowanus Batcave into a manufacturing center for the arts. Commissioned by the non-profit Powerhouse Environmental Arts Foundation, which acquired the building in 2012 for $7 million, the property will support Brooklyn's expanding creative economy, with facilities for metal and woodwork, ceramics, textiles and printing. Other spaces will support exhibitions and events at the Powerhouse Workshop. 

That need has been growing more acute, as gentrification pushes out artists, artisans and the small manufacturers who work with them in this highly-specialized boutique sector. The foundation anticipates that the project will create more than 100 jobs and open in 2020.

Military Nude Women Pics Scandal Expands With Calls For Marines To 'Share the Wealth'

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'Fearless Girl' isn't the only one being metaphorically f#cked this week. The scandal and investigation into hundreds of Marines accused of sharing naked photographs of their female colleagues in a private Facebook group has widened. 

Hundreds of nude photos of female service members from every military branch have been posted to an image-sharing message board -- Anon IB -- that dates back to at least May. In dozens of threaded conversations among men, many of them ask for 'wins' -- naked photographs -- of individual female service members, often calling out the women's names or where they are stationed. 

This new allegation comes in the aftermath of a week-old explosive Facebook story published by Marine veteran Thomas Brennan, calling out a Facebook group called Marines United, home to about 30,000 members who were also sharing nude photos of women Marines and other female service members along with their personal information. Sometimes the comments included encouragement of sexual assault. 

Is Ivanka Trump As 'Complicit' In Working Against Poor & Average Income Women As SNL Suggests

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Is Ivanka Trump As 'Complicit' In Working Against Poor & Average Income Women As SNL Suggests

Saturday Night Live host Scarlett Johansson played Ivanka Trump in the March 11 episode, introducing us to Ivanka's new perfume Complicit, "the fragrance for the woman who could stop all of this, but won't." The ad continued, showing the First Daughter putting on lipstick in the mirror and seeing the reflection of her father, President Trump. "She doesn't crave the spotlight, but we see her. Oh, how we see her."

Complicit's tag line may be giving Ivanka too much credit for her ability to influence her father, but it's timely in aggressively hitting the role of Ivanka's agency in advancing her father's agenda. 

"She's a woman who knows what she wants—and knows what she's doing," said SNL. Increasingly, large numbers of Independent, Democrat and even educated Republican women realize that Ivanka will remain publicly silent on her father's plan to defend Planned Parenthood.  

Marilyn Minter, Alison Gingeras & KATSU Behind HAG's Trump Misogyny Poster Action

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Artist Marilyn Minter is again in US President Donald Trump's face, teaming up with curator Alison Gingeras and graffiti artist KATSU for a New York City action Tuesday, March 8, International Women's Day in a poster that calls out Trump's on the record statements about women, dubbed Trump's "sexual assault monologue," based on the transcript of the president's hot mic Access Hollywood recording.

AOC posted the viral social media and streets of New York action without knowing who was behind it. We should have known!! Halt Action Group (HAG), the artist-run protest group who previously created the Dear Ivanka campaign 

“We felt that the viral presence of the poster—it was all over Twitter and Instagram, and used by well-respected writers and commentators in their posts on women’s issues yesterday—was a potent tool to refute the normalization of the Trump administration,” HAG co-founder and curator Alison Gingeras told artnet News in an email. The piece hopes to combat, “the collective amnesia that can dangerously set in when it comes to Trump’s history of violence (verbal and sexual) towards women.”

Artist Marilyn Minter designed the image for HAG, and graffiti artist KATSU was enlisted to help install the 1,000 or so posters across Manhattan using wheatpaste. A high-resolution copy is available for download on the HAG website in both black-and-white and color, and the group is encouraging everyone to print and distribute the artwork.

“We’re planning on doing it in other cities,” Minter told artnet News in a phone conversation. “We want to be the propaganda wing of the resistance.”

Madonna Says 'Dress Up! Speak Up!' In Luigi & Iango's 'Her Story' Film & Harper's Bazaar Germany April 2017 Editorial

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Madonna Says 'Dress Up! Speak Up!' In Luigi & Iango Images For Harper's Bazaar Germany April 2017

It's almost 26 years since Madonna released 'Truth or Dare', the pop icon & feminist celebrated International Women's Day with the release of a 12-minute short film 'Her-Story', dedicated "to all women that fight for freedom".

Directed by Luigi & Iango, who lensed her Harper's Bazaar Germany April editorial above, 'Her-Story' opens with audio lifted from Madonna's January 21 Women's March address. “To accept this new age of tyranny where not just women are in danger, but all marginalized people,” Madonna says. “Where being uniquely different might truly be considered a crime. The revolution starts here.”

Short clips of Madonna’s 2012 single “Girl Gone Wild” also play throughout 'Her-Story', which ends as two figures carry a banner reading “We should all be feminists” down a dark alleyway. Madonna’s handwriting ends the film, scrawling the famous Hillary Clinton quote “women’s rights are human rights” in white text.

“Every Woman Has A Story! Don’t be Afraid to Use your Voice! To Help others! celebrate Women around the World!” Madonna wrote on Instagram, where she shared several of 'Her-Story‘s' individual segments. 

London's V&A Design Museum Acquires Pussyhat While New York's A Fearless Girl Goes Pink, Too

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London's Victoria & Albert Museum Pussyhat Acquisition

On International Women's Day, a simple pink fashion accessory made of yarn and knitting needles has assumed its place in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Home to the world's largest design and fashion collection, the V&A was called "an important acquisition" by museum curator Corinna Gardner who called it "an immensely recognizable expression of female solidarity and symbol of the power of collective action."

On International Women's Day, AOC introduced you to 'A Fearless Girl' the defiant 4 ft bronze little girl facing off against Wall Street's 'Charging Bull' in Bowling Green lower Manhattan. She is part of a campaign by State Street Global Advisers to insist that corporate boards add more women.  People are clamoring to make 'A Fearless Girl' a permanent fixture as a foil to the Wall Street'Charging Bull' sculpture, and our instincts suggest that we will all get our wish.

Pussyhats were celebrated worldwide yesterday, including in Parliaments honoring International Women's Day. Read on. 

'A Fearless Girl' Takes On Wall Street's 'Golden Bull' Citing Stronger Financial Returns With Women In Leadership

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'A Fearless Girl' Takes On Wall Street's 'Golden Bull' Citing Stronger Financial Returns With Women In Leadership

A four-foot tall bronze sculpture is now eyeball to eyeball with Wall Street's iconic bull sculpture, and she is not backing down. Arriving just in time for International Women's Day March 8, 2017, 'The Fearless Girl' -- created by artist Kristen Visbal -- is on a global mission to increase the participation of women on corporate boards. A plaque laid at the bronze girl's feet reads: "KNOW THE POWER OF WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP/SHE MAKES A DIFFERENCE. 

'The Fearless Girl' arrived in the  middle of the night, compliments of McCann New York and client State Street Global Advisers, the world's third-largest asset manager with a $2.5 trillion portfolio.  The guerrilla art aspect of her landing "is in keeping with the Charging Bull itself, which was installed without permission by artist Arturo Di Modica in 1989. Following the stock market crash of 1987, the sculpture represented strength and power and the promise of prosperity that would return. After the American economy's 2007 meltdown, Charging Bull came to represent a day-trading, short-term results economy running wild. Simply stated, Charging Bull now represents a potentially out-of-control, testosterone-driven American Dow stock-buying spree making a big comeback under President Trump.