On Sunday I popped out of the heat and into the cool of the National Gallery to see two exhibitions on Spanish art: "Luis Melendez, Master of the Spanish Still Life" (warmly reviewed for TWS here) and "The Art of Power: Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain." In the latter I found one of those habits of curators that’s in vogue now: the pairing of paintings with the very artifacts rendered in those paintings. For instance, there was a full suit of armor—Charles V’s (which had room for a smallish paunch)—placed to the side and slightly in front of a full-length portrait of him, decked out in that very suit.

I’m not sure to what to make of this yet, but I know I spent a lot more time inspecting the armor than the painting, and then I felt bad that the painting wasn’t getting its due attention. The same image in its 2-D and 3-D varieties shouldn’t have to compete for our gaze. But I’m guessing this is being done in an attempt to enrich our viewing of the painting and of the statue.

And now I just read that the Dallas Museum of the Art has found a new way to make viewers “interact more deeply” with art: adding music to paintings! People can access the music files via iPhones and Blackberries. The music-cum-paintings have been christened “soundscapes.” Pollock, for instance, is coupled with a jazz track, because he often listened to jazz when making those famous drip paintings.

This “soundscape” project is certainly a step beyond pairing paintings with matching sculptures.

Maybe I sound too old-fashioned, but there’s a lot to be said for looking at one thing closely at a time and with no distractions. That’s far more stimulating than overstimulation. And anyway, the more iPhones etc. we keep out of the galleries, the fewer people you’ll bump into as you shoulder your way toward Charles V’s resplendent fitted gown of armor.

The Washington Post reports that the original red-and-blue Obama “HOPE” collage by Shephard Fairey is headed to the National Portrait Gallery. It’s a grand, and domineering, 60 by 44 inch artwork.

The iconic collage is a gift from Tony and Heather Podesta, superlobbyists in Washington whose late mother, Mary K. Podesta, was an Obama supporter ever since she met him at a 2004 fundraiser for his Senate race. Apparently, he liked her cooking.

Note too where the giant collage will go: In the “new arrivals” section on the first floor. It will be shining forth hope and change next to Laura Bush’s official likeness, which was unveiled on December 19 at the gallery. I’m not sure where Bush's portrait will go. But many will like that he’s been hanged and framed, as he pointed out. You can see his likeness at that same link.

In case visitors can’t get enough of Obama, another picture of him--a color photograph by Martin Schoeller--is hanging in the NPG’s exhibition “Portraiture Now: Feature Photography.” A variant of that picture originally appeared in GQ. On having his image in the magazine, Obama said to GQ: “The reason you do this stuff is not to . . . get your face in a magazine . . . You do this stuff because you care about the epic struggle to make America what it can be.” At least he believes in the efficacy of art.

A few years ago, the LOL cat was born. Yes, that's right, as in "Laugh Out Loud" cat. In case you don't know what a LOL cat is, check out this website. It's chock full of oddball photos of cats--fat cats, fluffy cats, scary cats, behatted cats--paired with oddball pidgin-English phrases. You either love or hate this kind of humor.

But you are bound to love what Marianne Goldin, a University of Washington undergrad and freelance illustrator, has done with LOL cats. She wants to make a LOL cat art movement out of them. Wired's blog reported:

"Take ceiling cat," she said. "He's the god of LOLcat land. And to see him re-created in a 16th-century Renaissance-inspired oil painting, it strikes me as a new painting movement."

All this, just when you thought art couldn't get weirder!

With funding from the I Can Has Cheezburger? website, Goldin curated the one-night only show and auction "LOL Art" last night. Proceeds went to an adult literacy program. I guess if you can't help grammatically challenged cats, you help their grammatically challenged owners.

If you’ve been reading the Arts section of any newspaper, you’ve probably read about Damien Hirst’s auction at Sotheby’s, (in)famous for bypassing galleries and dealers and for racking in so many pounds—111.5 million, to be exact. Hirst named the show “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever,” but Lee Rosenbaum had it right when she called it “Beautiful Inside My Wallet Forever.”

Even if you think Hirst’s work is subpar, you have to admire him for his gall and genius when it comes to getting people to pay so much money for his work. And now, to rake in even more money and build his name even further, Hirst is opening a shop in London right next to Sotheby’s where the big auction happened. The shop will be run by Other Criteria, Hirst’s publishing and merchandising company, and open on October 6.

If you can’t make it to London and are just dying to break your piggy bank to smithereens, you can buy a silkscreen of “For the Love of God” (the diamond-encrusted skull) for 10,000 pounds, or an 18-carat gold charm bracelet jingling with casts of pills for 25,000 pounds. But, alas, in an age when our American piggybanks are going on a major diet, it looks like the 15 pound postcard set is a bit easier to stomach--if you want to support Hirst, that is.

In case there isn't enough talk about celebrity in America, here's some extra fare from England. And it¹s not about Obama, or Paris, or Britney. It's about Kate Moss.

Today the British Museum announced that 'Siren,' a nearly $2.8 million, 110-pound solid gold statue of Kate will grace the Greek sculpture collection. The sculptor, Mark Quinn, says it¹s the largest gold statue made since the time of ancient Egypt.

I wonder if the Obama artists are getting any ideas ....