Category: visual

“The architecture and furnishings of this country’s early years are so closely identified with its founding ideals that they have acquired an overlay of shared heritage and patriotic sentimentality far beyond their undeniable aesthetic appeal.”

“Critics urged the Dutch royal family Friday to get rid of a painting they say is an offensive reminder of wrongs from the Netherlands’ colonial past, but the Royal House defended the 19th-century work as an important part of the country’s history. Homage of the Colonies … depicts half-naked, brown-skinned women and men in servile poses bearing gifts to an enthroned white woman.”

“One thousand two hundred male and female volunteers woke up early Saturday morning to participate in a mass nude photograph by artist Spencer Tunick at the Dead Sea. The volunteers included men and women ranging from 20 years old to somewhere in their sixties.”

The “mainstreaming of Aboriginal art and culture has largely failed us”, she said.

“According to culture minister Giancarlo Galan, Unesco has threatened to strip the ancient site of its World Heritage status if immediate, decisive action is not taken.”

“Facebook has repeatedly disabled users’ accounts for posting images of Gustave Courbet’s The Origin of the World, 1866. The erotic work of art, in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, falls foul of the site’s prohibition of offensive materials.”

“The mind behind iconic projects as the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the Dancing House in Prague, the Experience Music Project in Seattle, the Cinematheque francaise in Paris, and the Strata Center in Cambridge, is turning his attention to making a warming hut along the Forks skating trail this winter.”

A six-mile long work of public art, a smartphone app and a lot more ask Indiana’s art-loving citizens to consider where a raindrop goes — and what happens downstream.

“Since the rise of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, New York has dominated textbook accounts of contemporary art. Pacific Standard Time hopes to establish Los Angeles as an equal player in the post-World War II art world by spotlighting its unique contributions, including David Hockney’s dazzling swimming pool paintings, Ed Ruscha’s deadpan-humorous prints and the lifestyle-defining furniture of Charles and Ray Eames.”

“When today you can read a book on a screen, we needed to create ‘real things.’ The aspect of craftsmanship is really important for us. We wanted to turn an industrial object into a unique handmade craft. And the fact that the objects are not working places the user into a spectator position, a way to see the object out of its function.”