Category: visual

“Dean Sobel, who has spent the past six years studying the hidden trove–825 paintings and 1,575 works on paper–is convinced that Still is not only a giant of Abstract Expressionism, but also the first of the breed.”

“Archaeologists are still protesting at the front entrances of archaeological sites, and archaeological work is at a stalemate despite the appointment of a new head to hold Egypt’s antiquities portfolio.” Last week, Mustafa Amin was named secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities; his predecessor had quit after only a few weeks.

“Its daring design [by architect Shigeru Ban] and smart, eye-catching exhibitions have won critical praise, and, just 18 months after opening, the centre has become the most popular exhibition space [in France] outside the capital.”

Clyfford Still “abruptly severed his ties to the commercial art world in 1951 and rarely showed or sold his works after that. … Nearly 95% of Still’s output has been locked away for decades.” A new museum in Denver devoted solely to Still’s work aims to restore Still’s art, and his reputation, in the art world’s consciousness.

“I think that we have to be careful that we don’t compete against ourselves. … We don’t want to confuse people so that they’ll not know what’s on at the Art Institute. I want people to be more fully aware, at any given moment in time, what is on at the Art Institute.”

We might not be able to predict or control the path of the major river, but could its history be art?

This week, Brazilian mining entrepreneur Bernardo Paz “unveiled plans to build a mecca for contemporary arts fans around the Inhotim Cultural Institute, a sprawling rural estate in the hilltops of Minas Gerais state, already one of the most talked-about and unusual arts destinations in Latin America, if not the world.”

English landscapes didn’t just happen. Is a French painter to credit, or blame? “These new landscapes were contrived to look natural: clumps of trees wrapped around lakes, clearing to reveal views to the far horizon, just like in Lorrain’s Judgment of Paris. As in the paintings, classical ruins would be slotted into this apparently wild landscape.”

A few years after they were stolen from Switzerland, two Picasso paintings worth millions of dollars have been found, and may be coming home soon.

Museums all over the world collected “Mayan” crystal skulls in the 19th century. Oops. “Studies a few years ago with a scanning microscope showed, in fact, that the skulls exhibit traces of a processing method which lapidaries have used only for the last 150 years.”