Blog

Remaking London’s Skyline

London is “looking quite literally for a new profile, one with shapely skyscrapers designed by big-name architects proclaiming the city’s determination to be known as an innovative 21st-century metropolis. By 2010, not just the majestic dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral but also a new forest of glass and steel will symbolize the ancient heart of London. After centuries of sprawling growth, the city is finally reaching for the sky.”

In Praise Of “Difficult” Art

“Life in the cultural universe of the difficult tribe could be bleak – yet perhaps this is a time to revive those debates, for the silencing of such severe examinations of value has occurred in step with the closing down of cultural spaces wherein complexity or difficulty might thrive. The enemy of complexity has always been the commodity – the work of art reduced to mere gratification.”

Hughes: Closing The Chapter On 80s Art

Twenty-five years after Robert Hughes’ wrote “The Shock of the New”, he goes back to update. But how? “Most of the 1980s artists over whom such a fuss was made have turned out to be merely rhetorical, or inept, or otherwise fallen by the wayside. Is there anyone who really cares much what Julian Schnabel or David Salle, for instance, are now doing? Do the recent paintings of Sandro Chia or Georg Baselitz excite interest? Maybe in your breast, but not in mine.”

Vandal Breaking Venetian Art

Venice authorities are puzzled over the cause of damage inflicted on religious statues all over the city. “Witnesses reported seeing a man with a hammer climb a decorated column at the Doge’s Palace in the Piazza San Marco and smash the hands of a statue. Similar damage has recently been found on religious statues at other historic buildings around the city. Mayor Paolo Costa said the attacks were the work of an isolated lunatic.”

US Retreats From Kurtz BioTerror Charges

Artist Steve Kurtz, who has been investigated by the FBI for bioterrorism was finally charged Thursday by a federal grand jury in Buffalo, New York– but “not with bioterrorism, as listed on the Joint Terrorism Task Force’s original search warrant and subpoenas, but with petty larceny. Also indicted was Robert Ferrell, head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health. The charges concern technicalities of how Ferrell helped Kurtz to obtain $256 worth of harmless bacteria for one of Kurtz’s art projects. The laws under which the indictments were obtained covering mail and wire fraud–are normally used against those defrauding others of money or property, as in telemarketing schemes.”

Pakistan’s First E-Museum

Museum attendance in Pakistan is very low. So the owner of a museum in Lahore wants to create an e-museum to display artwork. ” ‘I would like to make our collections accessible to as many people as possible and the e-museum seems like a great way to do this.’ The family also hopes subscriptions to the e-museum will provide much-needed revenue.”