Category: visual

“Houston’s Menil Collection on Friday said it had agreed to return the 700-year-old wall paintings to the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus, ending a long-term loan arrangement” established after Dominique de Menil helped ransom the frescoes from looters.

Liu Bolin “paints himself into” locations around the world, covering his body so as to blend into, say, a Beijing commune or the bronze bull on Wall Street. Emma Hack makes “skin illustrations,” asking models “to stand still for between eight and 15 hours while she covers them in intricate patterns.”

Le Corbusier’s chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France attracts pilgrims of religion and architecture alike. Designing a convent adjacent to that site would be daunting for any architect; Renzo Piano took on the challenge – and, says Jonathan Glancey, has created a masterpiece.

The South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center’s “central architectural motif [is] two folded planes wrapping around the sides of a vast glass façade. … But this is a building that pays homage to the act and art of performance, and so the metaphor of applause is both appealing and persuasive. The building is its own best playbill.”

“Two entire galleries have been under [the British sculptor’s] firm control for some months now. The lighting has been changed, venerable objects have been shifted in and out. Even a floor has been raised. … It is the first time a living artist has been allowed to intervene with the Hermitage’s collection in this way.”

“A previously unknown painting by Francisco de Goya has been found hidden underneath one of his masterpieces, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has announced.”

“It has been eight years in the making, come in more than $15.8 million over budget, and been mired in litigation throughout its construction, but Rafael Viñoly’s $44.3 million arts center in Colchester, England, will finally open its doors on September 25.”

The fantastical Barcelona church “finally has a completion date – 2026 or 2028, more than 140 years after it was started. Joan Rigol, president of the committee charged with finishing the building by Antoni Gaudí, said it should be finished in time for the centenary for the architect’s death – or, if not, two years later.”

The yet-unbuilt museum in Fredericksburg, Va. – led by Douglas Wilder, Virginia’s first black governor – “has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The action Wednesday would … put an end, at least temporarily, to the possibility that [the museum’s] land will be sold.”

“Mark Cline’s fiberglass sculptures of giant ticks and man-eating dinosaurs are the sort of fare that a $66 million art museum would normally keep at arm’s length. But curators at the Taubman Museum of Art have approached Mr. Cline about showcasing some of his unconventional works.”