Category: visual

“The pleasure you get from a Banksy comes from the whole process: the chancing upon on an artwork in the unlikeliest of places, the speculation over how it got there, the uncertainty over whether it’s his or not, the subsequent authentication, and then the knowledge that it might have been rubbed out by the time you return.”

“What effect does the bar code have? Everything about those black-and-white lines screams order, precision and efficiency. … Conversely, there is nothing orderly, efficient or precise about a QR code, not in its appearance, at least. Even the neatest (and I use the word relatively) of those mosaic ciphers look like uncontrollable explosions of toxic bacterial spores.”

The Alexander McQueen exhibit boosts the Met Museum’s attendance, but MoMA can’t quite regain the banner numbers of 2010. Still, both museums have good news about the recession – for them, it’s pretty much over.

“The Gardner’s new wing is next to the Venetian-style palazzo, connected by a glass passageway. The new building, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, includes galleries, a restaurant, a 296-seat concert hall, space for educational programs, a greenhouse, and artist residences. The 70,000-square-foot space will also serve as the museum’s new entrance.”

“Helsinki city councillors are expected to decide on the $180 million US project in February. If approved, the earliest the museum could open in the city of 600,000 people would be in 2017.”

“If they exist at all, most unglazed clay objects from ancient times are now rubble, mere fragments of their former glory. This terracotta head, at around 2000 years old, is a rare exception. Excavated from a village in Nigeria, this is one of the best-preserved examples of its kind ever discovered.”

Jerry Saltz: “Damien Hirst is the Elvis of the English art world, its ayatollah, deliverer, and big-thinking entrepreneurial potty-mouthed prophet and front man. Hirst synthesizes punk, Pop Art, Jeff Koons, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, and Catholicism.”

“The Connecticut Office of the Arts will consolidate four of its local arts funding programs into one initiative; double total funding to $3.1 million; hand out fewer but larger grants; and focus on recipients’ place-making.”

“The current $33 million (25 million euro) restoration plans … are being sponsored by Diego della Valle, of luxury Italian brand Tod’s, in exchange for advertising rights.” The Restorers Association of Italy says the project “run[s] the risk of causing irreparable damage to the monument” by using general contractors rather than specialists.

“An appeals court upheld Fisk University’s right to sell a $30 million share in its famed Stieglitz art collection to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. But Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper, who opposes the collection leaving Tennessee, has a Jan. 28 deadline to challenge that ruling.”