Pat Steir's "Line" in Video, Katharina Grosse, Alec Soth as Critic, etc. [Collected]

Martha Friedman, Rubbers, 2010. Cast silicon, pigment, and metal, 134 ½ x 3 ½ x 3 in. at Wallspace's "Swagger, Drag, Fit Together." Photo: 16 Miles

• Drawing Pat Steir's "The Nearly Endless Line" at Sue Scott Gallery in New York. [Art Clogged]

• Martin Bromirski visits Katharina Grosse's sprawling MASS MoCA show. Her last one-person show in New York was in 1997. [Anaba]

• Alec Soth's top 10 (plus a few) photography books of 2010 includes Thomas Demand, Hannah Höch, and Chris Verene. [Little Brown Mushroom Blog via Ocular Octopus]

• A concise archive of artist's editions, catalogues, and books. [The Cottage Library]

• A Morandi still life with a delicious-looking croissant. [Feasting on Art]

• Will Cotton: "I do love sugar. But I used to have other vices too. I think the other vices have just fallen by the wayside, and sugar has stepped up a little bit to take their place." [The 99 Percent]

• "It seems to me that Saltz just took a shot at something new, intrigued by the prospect of quick and unmediated feedback." Sharon Butler on art critics and the Internet. [Two Coats of Paint]

• New York experimental masters Excepter tackle "Little Drummer Boy," "Deck the Halls," and "Carol of the Bells." It sounds even better in the new year. [A Million Keys]

• "The dreamer emerges, not as a collection of biologic urges, but as the mastermind capable of creating such a nuanced, intricate and meaning-laden world." Elif Batuman on "Why Criticism Matters." [New York Times]

• Cracklings, wafer cookies, Daniel Spoerri, and more: With Nicole Caruth and Megan Fizell (of Feasting on Art, mentioned above!), I recently wrote about art involving food and art involving food. [Art21]
  
  
• In anticipation of Joe Bradley's Canada/Gavin Brown doubleheader, a classic review in Frieze (via @gregorg), with commentary by Dan Colen. Conveniently, work by Martin Barré goes on view at Andrew Kreps this Saturday evening.
  

Will Cotton, Cupcakes, and Charity: Tonight at Christie's

Will Cotton, Consuming Folly, 2010. Oil on linen, 72 x 96 inches. Courtesy the artist and Mary Boone Gallery, New York

Will Cotton, the art world's greatest baker and perhaps the leading painter of American pleasure, is speaking tonight at Christie's at 6:30 p.m. Cupcakes and wine are also said to be on the agenda. Happily, the event is for charity (the $15 tickets will support the American Federation of Arts), so no guilty feelings are necessary. The only sad news is that Cotton himself will not be baking. I still have beautiful memories of the Will Cotton Bakery, which he organized temporarily at Partners & Spade late last year. Tickets are available online. (Thanks to Nicole J. Caruth of Contemporary Confections for alerting me to the event.)

Will Cotton Bakery at Partners & Spade [Photographs]

Will Cotton Bakery at Partners & Spade, 40 Great Jones, New York. Photo: 16 Miles [more]

Will Cotton opened his bakery for its third and final day of business this afternoon at Partners & Spade. Employees sported cupcake crowns that Ron Warren wore for a portrait by Cotton earlier this year. Business seemed to be brisk as the bakers used a table top oven in the store to keep the goods coming.

Macarons, a Cotton speciality, were available in four flavors — vanilla and pink peppercorn, salted caramel, lemon, and pumpkin — though the shop had a 'three macaron limit' to maintain its supply, which forced some tough choices. (After great deliberation, I decided to forgo the salted caramel.) Though they were all perfect, the pumpkin was particularly delightful, with an unbelievably creamy, rich pumpkin filling that tasted like an expertly made pumpkin pie. The French staple had never felt so thoroughly American.

There were also miniature chocolate cakes, superbly decorated birthday cake slices, a remarkable selection of cupcakes, madeleines dusted with confectioners' sugar, and other treats. In back, one of Cotton's classic disrobed women haughtily peered down from a painting as she luxuriated in a pink, sugar-filled utopia. Cotton's shop may be the closest we ever come to her world.

Dave Hickey, Peter Plagens, Cupcake Crowns, etc. [Collected]

Ursula von Rydingsvard, For Paul [detail], 1990-1992 / 2001. Photo: 16 Miles [more photographs]

• "I don't see any long-distance runners out, anyone who drinks rejection like Cognac." - Dave Hickey, on young artists at the School of Visual Arts, September 17, 2009
• "It’s not my problem any more. I’m 68 years old. I’m a painter... I don’t get exercised that art has all gone to hell in a hand basket." - Peter Plagens
• 11 Most Wanted Warhols. And Warhol's 13 Most Wanted Men. [via C-Monster]
• A bronze zoo on Park Avenue.
• Sara Greenberger Rafferty
• Tacita Dean
• "Sorry we are not sorry." William Eggleston in the journal.
• Cupcake Crown