Category: visual

A list…

“The San Francisco Arts Commission, the city agency responsible for the collection, is especially poor at tracking its unusually large collection of around 2,500 portable works — paintings and other pieces that are supposed to decorate public spaces and buildings.”

“Do a quick scan of major exhibitions in big American museums in the past few years and Africa’s barely there. The same with India. Even China, usually an easier sell, is seen only discreetly. Wasn’t the multicultural surge of yesteryear supposed to produce the opposite effect?”

“Life as a cultural pariah ended in October when the museum directors suspended their sanctions in recognition of the National Academy Museum actions toward better financial planning and management. And now it is preparing to reopen its complex, on Fifth Avenue and 89th Street, in September with a reconstituted board, increased financial oversight and an interior refashioned by a $3.5 million renovation.”

“These well-intentioned interventions into Aboriginal art have had a mixed effect. In fact, there is increasing evidence they are contributing to the deep malaise afflicting the entire indigenous art market.”

“Five years after The Australian reported on claims of unscrupulous behaviour in Aboriginal art, prompting a Senate inquiry under the Howard government, the industry remains divided and the market has lost ground despite government efforts to regulate the sector. Several galleries have been forced to close and long-running disputes have deepened between art centres and dealers.”

“The Los Angeles Police Department reported a spike in graffiti and vandalism in the museum’s Little Toyko neighborhood.”

“We do not leave disused railway stations or barracks or dockyards to ruination. We do not refuse to repair churches so as to create new ruins. What is so special with castles that we leave Stokesay, Cowdray and Portchester gaunt and empty?”

“At 20 feet long and ten inches thick, the wall weighs 1,400 pounds. Fortunately, an faulty bit of conduit pipe inside the wall had caused a crack in the middle, enabling conservators to remove the wall in two pieces.”

“While museum director Jeffrey Deitch was unveiling his ‘Art in the Streets’ exhibition Thursday at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in a preview for invited guests, the Los Angeles Police Department reported a spike in graffiti and vandalism in the museum’s Little Toyko neighborhood.”