Category: visual

“The affluent emirate of Abu Dhabi appears to be revising its cultural policy. The Arab spring has ushered in a shift in consciousness across the region; citizens are re-considering their rights while rulers watch their step.”

“Modern Western audiences could encounter images that were resonant with the beliefs of an inconceivably ancient culture – one that predated not only metals, ceramics, the wheel, but even agriculture itself – and all in a beguilingly decorative form.”

“The winner, who will be announced next fall, will have a tough act to follow. Last year the award went to the German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann. Mr. Feldmann, now 70, caused quite a stir when instead of presenting a traditional show he covered a gallery at the Guggenheim, floor to ceiling, in 100,000 used $1 bills. He said he had conceived of this Warholian act as a way “to show the quantity” of the prize.”

“Thanks to old-fashioned British reserve and concerns about avoiding the white-elephant syndrome that has plagued many if not most host cities — and also to the sober realities of the economic moment — next year’s Olympics promise to be an exercise, more than anything, in architectural restraint.”

“If only the rock could really levitate. Moving it is turning out to be tougher than expected, and the museum, which was supposed to take delivery in August, now says the rock likely won’t leave the quarry until the end of December.”

The £16 exhibition tickets are now being resold on eBay and Viagogo for up to £400.

The St. Petersburg theater’s new adjunct building, designed by Toronto’s Diamond and Schmitt Architects and expected to open next year, “will be a contemporary performance space with soaring glass walls and a roof-top ampitheatre designed to attract younger and wider audiences to the performing arts in Russia’s former imperial city.”

After tiptoeing through all their data and computations, the artists-and-sex researchers decided that “more successful male artists had more sexual partners than less successful artists, but this did not hold for female artists”.

“The art market works through snobbery and sleight of hand, but here it becomes a bit like a TV shopping channel – watch out, the dead-eyed determination to shift product is showing.”