VIEWERS’ CHOICE
Trying to account for the huge popularity of Instagram and its increasingly frequent cross-pollination with the world of contemporary art—with dealers using it to sell art and Richard Prince turning users’ posts into art—Ben Davis found answers in an improbable place: the Marxist-feminist art historical writings of John Berger.

RAMPAGE
One or more janitors at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf got fed up with students leaving their artworks lining the hallways, and took some action. Unfortunately, as Alexander Forbes reported, those actions took the form of slashing, smashing, and trashing more than 60 artworks by students enrolled at the renowned school.

CRITICAL
Koonsteria gripped the art world this week, with the Whitney Museum opening its massive Jeff Koons retrospective just as the artist’s flower-covered Split-Rocker took root at Rockefeller Center. Ben Davis visited the Whitney exhibition not expecting any surprises and came away startled, but not for good reasons.

BLOOPER
In an incident all too perfectly tailored to the Internet’s sensibilities, a US exchange student at Tubingen University in Germany had to be rescued by 22 firefighters after he became trapped in a massive marble sculpture of a vagina while attempting to make good on a dare.

QUOTABLES
In order to prepare museum-goers for the overwhelming and very shiny experience of visiting the Whitney Museum’s Koons retrospective, we sought some tips from the man himself, dredging up six fantastic quotes from Koons addressing René Magritte, the autoerotic potential of the Venus of Willendorf, and more.

NEWS TO KNOW
50-Foot-Tall New Orleans Art Tree House Dismantled

Cleaning Reveals Hidden Details of Caillebotte Street Scene

Homeless Man Picture Wins BP Portrait Prize

Marina Abramović Goes to Coney Island: A Burlesque

George Lucas Snubs San Francisco, Picks Chicago for Art Museum