Street art has been one of New York’s highlights since the old Keith Haring days, but we haven’t been as good keeping up with the Paris scene. But these days, there’s always someone keeping an eye on things.

The fine folks at Wooster Collective just put us onto a colorful new tagger called FKDL who’s been leaving his mark everywhere from Turing to Queens. He mostly deals with silhouettes over neon-colored backgrounds, with a little bit of newsprint collage for texture and a lot of attention to the human figure…which we’ve always been a fan of.

Here’s hoping he doesn’t start his own a t-shirt shop for a while.

Take a peek at the streets of Paris»

Marc Jacobs’ favorite photographer is bringing out some new work to the Dutch gallery De Haan Haarlem, and lucky for us it found its way to the internet.

It’s a bit more abrasive than his ad work, naturally, but his absurdist streak is still alive and well. Our favorite—other than the pharmaceutical snap at left—poses the famous William Eggleston in a rural parking lot behind a grand piano. As homages go, that one takes a lot of brass—but apparently Eggleston liked the joke enough to play along.

If you find yourself in Haarlem (no, not Harlem), you should swing by.

See our pick of the photos»

Our favorite bowtie-glad pop artist is expanding into yet another field. Not satisfied with fantastic gallery work and the occasional high-fashion collab, Takashi Murakami is getting his Pixar on. Or should we say, his Miyazaki.

His latest project is an animation and film studio dedicated to the characters he’s produced. The trailer for the first major animated film kaikai & kiki debuted at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary art this year, and he’s already gone as far as setting up office space. Apparently he has a bit more faith in the economy than Mr. Hirst.

See the trailer and a few of Murakami’s economic musings»

Comic books have been growing steadily more legitimate since the 70s, but while writers like Alan Moore and Frank Miller have stumbled into mainstream recognition, comic book artists not named R. Crumb are still mostly viewed as doodlers with a voyeuristic streak.

Well, we’re doing our part (with a little help from Mr. Spear).

Phil Noto cut his teeth (and, presumably, earns a living) in the comic world doing art for titles like Wonder Woman, Hellboy, and the cult series Jonah Hex, but he also churns out oil paintings with surprising wit. He may not be ready for Sotheby’s just yet, but any man who devotes an entire canvas to depicting Bond and Goldfinger on the golf course has our vote.

See what we mean»

It isn’t just banks and magazines shedding employees anymore: even our old pal Damien Hirst has gotten in on the game. Despite having a very good year on the auction circuit, Hirst is laying off 17 of his 22 studio-hands. As of the January 1, they’ll be staring into the diamond-encrusted skull of unemployment.

All Hirst had to say for himself was the usual corporate mumbo jumbo about “efficiency cutbacks” and “not making those butterfly paintings anymore,” but we’re concerned. If Hirst’s not equipped to support an entourage anymore, we aren’t sure who is.

Perhaps some sort of a bailout is in order.

The overlap between the fashion and art world tends to be a sly, embarrassed one—at least, as long as you’re name isn’t Murakami. But we’re always happy when designers spread their wings, especially on the web.

Helmut Lang recently put up a virtual gallery with some of his less wearable items—like heavily textured pine tar on wooden boards, or the riveted stacks above. The best part to our eyes is the rotating images on the website that let you see Helmut’s precious creations from any angle.

Of course, it wouldn’t be truly upscale without a liquor sponsor, so Helmut’s latest project gets the moniker “In an Absolut World.” Just because it’s art doesn’t mean it can’t be good business.

Whether it’s Africa or flight attendant training school, the subject often makes the photographer. And as subjects go, brothels are a pretty good one…as long as you keep the kids away from the coffee table.

Prostitution has been legal since 2001 in Germany, and lensman Patric Fouad recently made a tour of the small-scale dens of iniquity that have popped up in the seven years since, resulting in his monograph, Brothels in Germany. They alternate between sterile hotel rooms and fantastical holdovers from old-world courtesanship, managing to be both exotic and bleak. It might be a place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.

A few more interiors»

We may have been a little hasty when we predicted a depressing art boom.

New York favorite Mark Rothko landed sales as high as $72 million before the troubles—possibly fueled by eccentric advertising executives—but the latest sale couldn’t even pull a measly $10 million bid. That’s even more remarkable given that the painting depicts the gaping emotionless void within us that no light can pierce…so it would seem to have the depressing art market cornered.

Maybe we should hold on those Van Goghs a bit longer.

A museum is a great place to spend an afternoon—especially if you’re beating a hangover—but there isn’t a lot to do there besides stroll quietly and look at art. If they let you bring over a few friends, some food, and something to drink, then you might be onto something.

Apparently the Guggenheim had the same idea we did»

Things are getting a little grim in the art world lately, with more than a third of the lots going unsold at Sotheby’s impressionism auction this Monday. Apparently the folks that have $10 million to spend on impressionist paintings are investing it in gold bars or bulletproof jets instead. The only good news to come out of the auction was for Edvard Munch’s Vampire, which sold for three million more than expected.

We’ve always been financially savvy, so we’ve come to the following conclusion. The art market may be depressed, but the market for depressing art has never been better.

The Hirsts and Murakamis of the world had better take note: what the people want is paintings of people crying, preferably in black. By the time the year is out, the Met will be handing out Kleenex at every show.

Anyone want to go halfsies on Goya’s Saturn?

Luckily, the reach of an auction house goes a little farther than a trunk show.

Swann Galleries is having a photo auction with some of the best photos of the past two centuries. Big names include Horst P. Horst (pictured), Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, Robert Mapplethorpe and Alfred Stieglitz, with over 400 photos on the block in sum.

Needless to say, it’s an embarrassment of riches, and auction technology has come a long way since the days of wooden paddles and fast talking Brits. You can peruse the selections online or place a bid here, even if you’re a few time zones away.

And of course, just looking is free.

See a few of our favorites here»

While some claim Sotheby’s’ upcoming Damien Hirst blowout—which is expected to bring in about $120 million—is merely an excuse to clear out a backlog of unsold work from Hirst’s London gallery, the bad boy Brit artist insists it actually marks a major turning point in his colorful career.

Titled Beautiful Inside My Head Forever and timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the celebrated Freeze exhibition which launched his career, Hirst says the sale represents the last of his long-running series of formaldehyde works, spin, and spot paintings, which have become a bit too predictable.

“It’s like my friend [late Clash frontman] Joe Strummer once told me about writing songs,” Hirst says. “If you can guess what the rhyme’s gonna be in the next line, then it’s shit and you’ve gotta change it.” We couldn’t agree more; Hirst’s work, turned out by his “factory,” Warhol-style, resembles nothing more then a broken, though very profitable, record at this point. Time for a new gimmick, old boy.

Christie’s auction of Gert Elfering’s private collection came to a close yesterday, allowing us to attach a dollar value to nudity.

Most notably, our favorite first lady ended up just shy of six figures, pulling down $91,000 for a full-frontal Michel Comte snap from 1993. The more striking Lauren Hutton pic (at left) went for $127,000, but we’re sure having Richard Avedon’s name attached didn’t hurt.

More pictures and in-depth analysis»

Tomorrow, Christie’s is auctioning off the private collection of Gert Elferling, a collector who has apparently spent the last few decades compiling erotic shots of some of the most beautiful women in the world. The auction contains lots of familiar faces and it’s already making waves for more than a few of our favorite people.

Notably, our boy Sarkozy is facing some embarrassment from the British press as the auction features a nude shot from Ms. Bruni’s wilder years and coincides with his first Bruni-assisted visit to the UK.

More highlights from Christie’s»

The gala opening of Takashi Murakami’s exhibition was predictably packed last night, with Marc Jacobs among the attendees. Kanye took a break from managing his new travel site to put on a show and keep the crowd on their feet. And, aside from the eminent-domain protests outside, things couldn’t have gone better.

Louis Vuitton was well-represented with an outdoor table of pointedly non-counterfeit goods, but they had more than a few representatives in the crowd as well»

Takashi Murakami has been gaining profile for a while now—he designed the slightly hideous album cover for Kanye’s latest, and is collaborating with Marc Jacobs on a pattern for Louis Vuitton—but his nouveau-Warhol shtick has always left most of America shaking their heads.

Witness, for instance, the kerfuffle surrounding his upcoming exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. The fashion press went wild over Vuitton-based rumors—would the museum be hawking LV bags? Would they get a peek at the new Marc Jacobs pattern?—without giving thought to the exhibition itself. Naturally, the art world is skeptical.

More on Murakami»

Genoese artist Nicola Villa specializes in watercolors of street scenes, making him a kind of gallery-bound Sartorialist. He’s building buzz with a couple exhibitions stateside—most notably for painting scenes in Harlem—and more than a few exhibitions in his native Italy.

This piece, called Walking, caught our eye»