The NY Historical opened a new $175 million wing with giant, south-facing windows, and the director was like, Open the blinds! We'll just replace the light-sensitive artworks and historical artifacts with photocopies! And the curators quit, and the NY Times is ON it.

Jasper Johns only made one painting with the alphabet before deciding to stick with numbers. But when Barbara Jakobson sold it in 1989, she had another one made for her. Not by Johns, tho. She joined a rich tradition of collectors who love the art AND the money, and so have copies made of artworks they sell.

We don't know Jasper Johns's Alphabet [greg.org]

I wanted to see what they were like at real-world Polaroid size, so I made these prints on aluminum.

Really thought I was done with Facsimile Objects, but the urgency of needing to see Manet's Vase de Fleurs, Roses et Lilas (1882) during this one week it's on view at Sotheby's, combined with the possibility of its disappearing for another 50 years kind of compels a Facsimile Object be available for those in need.

Gerhard Richter has been making Grey paintings, paintings on glass, and grey-painted mirrors for decades. Thinking about making a Facsimile Object of one, there is a difference between making a replica, and reproducing the image of the work. Because, hello, they're mirrors, so an image of the work is not only an image of a mirror, but what it reflected at the moment the image was made. And then to make a reflective image of that, well, you see the issue.

images: all Gerhard Richter, Grauer Spiegel (2021), pigment on bicolored glass ed. 100+20AP, on view Jan-Mar 2024 at David Zwirner London; Grauer Spiegel (Reminiszenz) (2015), an enamel-backed glass ed. 50+5AP; Grau (1974), oil on glass picture mount, ed 60+20AP

Enhance. Stop. Move in. Stop.

Pull out. Track right. Stop. Center and pull back. Stop. Track 45 right. Stop.

Center and stop. Enhance 34 to 36. Pan right and pull back. Stop.

Enhance 34 to 46. Pull back.

Wait a minute, go back. Stop. Enhance 57 19. Track 45 left. Stop.

Enhance 15 to 23.

Give me a hard copy right there.

This is a painting by J.R. Delamarre of a dog purported to be named Pompon, Marie Antoinette's favorite dog. Shaving the dog's ass to make it look like a lion was a thing in the court of Versailles, say the antique dealers who have been selling the dozen-plus versions of this little life-sized painting (10x12 in., basically) over the years.

The way the dog stares right at the artist/viewer makes me think this was not a consensual undertaking.

A Facsimile Object of this painting will be available until the painting itself is sold tomorrow at Sotheby's.

For reasons as yet unclear, collector Chara Schreyer [rip] had full-scale photo facsimiles made of several artworks she owned, including a Warhol painting, a Richard Prince girlfriend photo, a 12-ft long Glenn Ligon neon, and a 10-ft tall Rachel Harrison sculpture.