Author: Matthew Westphal

Clarence Thomas Claims That Smithsonian Exhibit (Which He Hasn’t Seen) About Him Is Wrong (Which It Is Not)

“Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas hasn’t visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture, but he cited one of its exhibits last week to explain how Washington’s rumor mill works.” But, rather than explaining it, Thomas exemplified it. Peggy McGlone reports. – The Washington Post

Mexican Government Calls Out Fashion Designer For Cultural Appropriation, Calls For U.N. Involvement (?!)

Alejandra Frausto, Mexico’s secretary for culture, wrote an official letter to designer Carolina Herrera and her creative director, Wes Gordon, about a recent Herrera collection that Frausto described as “plagiarism”: “This is a matter of ethical consideration that obliges us to speak out and bring an urgent issue to the UN’s sustainable development agenda: promoting inclusion and making those who are invisible visible.” – The Daily Beast

Why Is Google Street View Blurring The Faces On Philadelphia’s Murals?

“Of a random sampling of 30 Philly murals that included people, about three-quarters had some degree of facial blurring applied in Street View.” Why? According to a Google spokesperson, the technology that blurs the faces of actual people in Street View images “may be a little overzealous, likely because some of the faces appeared so life-like.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Plagued By Construction Problems And Controversy, Berlin’s Humboldt Forum Postpones Opening

“The museum, one of Europe’s most ambitious and expensive current cultural projects, has been burdened … by accusations from academics and activists that it hasn’t done enough to determine the provenance of its objects that were acquired during the colonial era or to address whether it is appropriate to hold onto them. The opening of the permanent exhibition had already been delayed to 2020; the Forum was slated to open in stages, beginning with a temporary exhibition of ivory objects in November.” – The New York Times

Huge Number Of Works In East Germany’s Museums Were Stolen From Citizens: Report

“Starting in 1945, East German art owners fell victim to an array of inventive methods of expropriation. … In each of the four collections [studied], between 200 and 1,500 objects were discovered to have provenances suggesting they were unethically acquired, accounting for between 1% and 8% of their total inventories.” – The Art Newspaper

Thirty Years Ago, The Corcoran Canceled A Mapplethorpe Exhibit, Setting Off Washington’s First Big Battle In The Culture Wars. Now The Corcoran Has A Show About That Cancellation

Few of the people involved in the controversy at the time imagined that the culture wars would still be raging three decades later. Kriston Capps reconsiders that battle and the way museums have addressed the wider issues, then and now. – The Washington Post