Category: visual

Why does the artist continue to protest his government? “I have a chance to talk to you. Millions of people in their lives can never even clearly state their life and emotions and will die in this darkness.”

“A small hotel chain in Australia is inviting people to steal art from the walls of its hotels today. And they won’t be prosecuted.”

“Over the objections of a group of vocal opponents the city council of Newport, R.I., voted Wednesday night to approve the use of a small park for a permanent installation being designed by the artist Maya Lin to evoke the city’s past and to honor the heiress Doris Duke.”

“Argentinean 3D street artist Eduardo Relero has created worlds of wonder on pavements all over the globe.”

“Following an acrimonious power struggle between local authorities and the administrators of the Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre, it emerged this week that the architect’s name would be removed from the complex as a result of legal action from the outgoing board. When the centre opened in March in the northern Spanish city of Avilés, the local press billed it, with a strong dose of hyperbole, as Spain’s answer to Brasilia.”

“‘Dream and Reality,’ a show at the Istanbul Modern art museum, pairs ‘nearly forgotten’ painters from the Ottoman era with some of the most intriguing artists in Turkey today. The common thread? All are women.”

“Iraq’s second largest museum in Sulaimaniya is recovering stolen artifacts by paying smugglers to return the treasures. Located in the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan, the Slemani Museum has taken drastic measures to refill display cabinets following looting.”

The group Creative Time had bought the plates on eBay for a “culinary-political performance piece” by a New York artist with Iraqi-Jewish roots. The china was looted from one of the dictator’s palaces, and the Iraqi government, saying that the dishes belonged to the people, demanded their return.

“The government’s plans to demolish 50% of buildings within the city’s Central Business District (CBD)–30% more than in poverty-stricken Haiti–has experts questioning the government’s commitment to heritage and the competence of the bodies tasked with safeguarding these properties.”

Treasury regulations “hinder museums from spending the donations they have received in previous years and may stop philanthropists from making future donations”.