“In what appears to be an early application of art therapy, new research suggests that the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí used the garden of a psychiatric hospital as a testing ground for his revolutionary designs, with the patients serving as his artisans.”
Category: visual
Rembrandt Drawing Stolen From LA Hotel
“The pen-and-ink drawing known as ‘The Judgment’ by the 17th century Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn, vanished on Saturday night from the Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey while the curator was “distracted” for about 15 minutes.”
Woman Attacks Another Painting In National Gallery
“Four months after she attempted to rip the Gauguin painting “Two Tahitian Women” off of the wall, Susan Burns, 53, slammed Matisse’s “The Plumed Hat” against the wall, damaging the original antique frame. No damage to the painting, which is valued at $2.5 million, was apparent.”
The Disappointments Of The 9/11 Memorial
“Of all the missteps and miscalculations that have marred the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, the ones surrounding the memorial are the saddest, because many were made in good faith.”
Met Cancels Loans To Kremlin Museum
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art has canceled loans to the Moscow Kremlin Museum of works by French fashion designer Paul Poiret,” in response to the Russian government’s continuing embargo on all loans of art to US museums.
Indianapolis Airport To Replace Public Artwork With Video Screen
“Some arts patrons are criticizing a decision by Indianapolis International Airport officials to remove a prominent, three-story sculptural painting from its terminal and replace it with a video screen that shows ads and art.”
Looking In On The Construction Of The New Barnes Foundation Building
The new home for the museum “has been rising on the [Benjamin Franklin] Parkway for a year and a half, but with the addition of its beautiful limestone cladding, it’s beginning to show us what the finished product will look like when construction is complete by the end of the year.”
L.A. MOCA’s ‘Art In The Streets’ Show Sets Attendance Record*
“MOCA said the exhibition about the history of graffiti and street art was the most attended show in its history – but closer inspection shows that the record comes with a caveat.”
Cultural Center Of The Philippines Shuts Exhibit Accused Of Being Blasphemous
The CCP refused to elaborate on whether they were instructed by the President to shut down the art exhibit “Kulo,” but board members decided to temporarily close it because of the “increasing number of threats to persons and property,” vandalism and claims of blasphemy.
Can We No Longer Relate To Conventional Sculpture?
Michael Kimmelman: “Is it me, or do we seem to have a problem with sculpture today? I don’t mean contemporary sculpture, whose fashionable stars (see Koons, Murakami et alia) pander to our appetite for spectacle and whatever’s new … I mean traditional European sculpture … the enormous universe of stuff we come across in churches and parks, at memorials and in museums.”