Author: Douglas McLennan

An anonymous French art collector has donated an astonishing collection of more than 100 masterworks – by Cézanne, Manet, Picasso, and others – to France. Although the mystery donor insisted on remaining nameless, rumors abound that it’s actually a well-known and wildly generous Parisian medical researcher. “I can think of no comparable donation in the recent history of this country’s museums.” – BBC

New York’s Museum of Modern Art will have to vacate its home for a few years while its massive renovation is ongoing. So it has unveiled a site in Queens for its temporary home during the interim. “How long the museum will display its artworks at the provisional site, a former Swingline stapler factory, depends on how long it takes to finish its Midtown Manhattan renovation, designed by the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi. That project, which won unanimous approval yesterday from the City Planning Commission, is scheduled to be completed in late 2004 or early 2005.” – New York Times

A new show at London’s National Gallery is measuring the eye movements of viewers to see how we see. “The results so far are not stunning. When people look at Albert Cuyp’s The Maas at Dordrecht in a Storm (1645-50), a painting of sail boats being thrown about on a tempestuous sea off the Dutch shore, they look first and longest at the boats. When they contemplate Paul Delaroche’s sentimental 19th-century history painting The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (1833), their eyes tend to be drawn to the central white-clad figure of the kneeling woman about to have her head cut off.” – The Guardian

For years the Canadian government’s Art Bank bought artwork so it could be rented out, collecting some 18,000 works of art. Now the bank wants to clear out work that is rarely rented. Artists will be offered a chance to buy back their work; any remaining unwanted art will be deaccessioned. Critics “say the Art Bank’s ‘revitalization’ is going to hurt artists and the art market by transforming a government agency into a pseudo-corporation more intent on competing with the private sector than in advancing Canadian art.” – Ottawa Citizen

Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial in Washington was so controversial that “when it was over, I wanted to pretend it never happened. I went back to school and tried to forget it. I refused to talk about the memorial or do another one.” Now she’s out with a new book about her career. – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Library of Congress is rushing to raise $14 million to try and buy a map made in 1507 that “represents the very first symbolization of America in any kind of medium. It also represents the first document that truly understands, at least from a European perspective, the way the world is constructed.” – Washington Post