Sunday, March 04, 2007

Matter Matters

Steven Litt has a lengthy piece in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer today on the "Matter Pollocks." It includes the following piece of information:

"Matter ...won't allow the release of the most extensive analysis of the paintings so far, performed by Orion Analytical, a firm in Williamstown, Mass. Orion's principal, James Martin, revealed in early February that he completed more than 350 analyses on 23 of the paintings in October, and that his contract with ... Matter's art dealer ... permits him to share the results. But Martin held off on releasing his study after getting a written warning from Matter's lawyer, Jeremy Epstein."

NYU art historian Pepe Karmel says:

"What's very unfortunate is that the whole discussion is conducted with the threat of lawsuits hanging over people's heads. Nobody wants to speak frankly about this, because no one wants to end up in court."

An earlier piece by Litt on the Orion study is here. My most recent post on the Matter matter is here.