Category: visual

“The team also found more than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements, according to the report.”

“Competition for attention will be tough this time around: 89 nations are participating, up from 77 two summers ago. A third are setting up their shows in small buildings dotting the Giardini, a Napoleonic park on the city’s eastern edge; the rest are staking spaces in the city’s historic shipyards or in buildings nearby. Nearly 40 art foundations and private collectors are also organizing separate exhibits citywide.”

“The crescendo of outrage grew so rapidly that Rome’s traffic cops had to be deployed to keep a 24-hour watch to ward off potential vandalism until video cameras could be installed on surrounding lampposts.”

Artist Joe Fig “interviewed 50 established and up-and-coming artists in their studios, turning 20 of those encounters into minutely observed replicas of the artists’ paint-spattered worktables or even the entire studio space depicted in miniature.”

“Russia’s actions are the result of a ruling in a U.S. District Court last summer that Russia must restore a trove of religious books and manuscripts to Chabad, a prominent international ministry based in New York City. Despite a U.S. law and diplomatic assurances to the contrary, Russian officials have said they fear art shipped to American museums could be seized as collateral.”

“With a budget of E1m less than the 2007 edition, the 53rd Venice Biennale has attracted a record number of visitors, 375,702 in total (with a daily average of 2,223), 56,370 more than the 52nd biennale–an increase of 18%.”

“It has become a cliché to say that museums are today’s churches–special places for contemplation, separate from day-to-day concerns; conversely, there’s an argument that museums should aim to be commonplace, part of normal life. It is intriguing that museums were once talked of as places that reinforced cultural hegemonies, but now they are more often seen as democratising access to art.”

“Law-enforcement officials around the country are prosecuting graffiti artists with harsher sentences than ever, pushing for felony charges, real prison time and restitution payments as they seek to wipe graffiti from the streets. At the same time, the art world and corporations are embracing the form like never before.”

“One of Europe’s wealthiest and most fractious families has returned to feuding mode after the son of the Spanish art collector Baroness Carmen Thyssen took her to court in a battle over two paintings – valued at €6m (£5.2m) – by Goya and Giaquinto.”

“Today, we begin to create the Whitney of the future, an aspirational space where contemporary artists can realize their visions and audiences can connect deeply with art.”