Category: visual

“The Milwaukee Public Museum has received a big financial boost in the form of forgiveness of $10.8 million in debt, museum President Jay Williams said Tuesday. The museum cut a deal in which two-thirds of its $13.5million in bank debt that would have come due in 2017 was written off.”

“The introduction of new technology and the provision of points of entry for people who are not art critics are only the beginning. Far more intellectually demanding–and interesting–would be if the Met set itself the task of reinventing museums for the 21st century.”

“The philosopher Roger Scruton launched a rabble-rousing attack on celebrity architects – such as Daniel Libeskind, Frank Gehry, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Peter Eisenman and Rem Koolhaas – who build monuments for themselves, and indulge in overblown discourse to justify buildings that will be torn down in 20 years’ time”

“The UK’s biggest art charity … [has] launched a new National Art Pass, which will give members of the charity free entry to over 200 museums and half-price admittance to temporary shows.” The price: £35 a year; £18.75 for those under 26.

Just three weeks after the opening, “the museum director, Maria Lopez, and a board member, Tomas Llorens, former chief curator of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, resigned this week in protest over what they consider to be unprofessional meddling by the Malaga mayor and the baroness herself in the museum’s artistic affairs.”

“Since starting their political street art three years ago, Voina have kept strictly under the radar. No mobile phones, no bank accounts, no permanent address, and ad hoc gatherings where they hope not to attract the authorities’ attention. This has become progressively harder as their activity has become more acclaimed” – the giant phallus they painted on a St. Petersburg bridge just won a major award.

“A new exhibition in London lets visitors in on the dirtiest of secrets: most everything we consider filthy – from dust to excrement to bacteria to rubbish to soil – is also essential to human existence.”

“A statue of King Tutankhamun, which was looted during Egypt’s anti-government protests, has been returned to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo along with three other pharaonic artifacts, Zahi Hawass, Minister of State for Antiquities, announced today.”

Jonathan Jones: “Someone has to speak up for the London skyline. It is being viciously attacked, invaded by philistines, and a nation stunned into acceptance of every monstrosity so long as we are told it is modern seems happy to see taste, style and proportion go out of the window.”

“For the main stage curtain of the Oslo Opera House, the L.A.-based artist [Pae White] scanned images of crumpled aluminum foil and sent the scans through a computer numerically-controlled loom which transformed the pixels into a massive tapestry of cotton, wool, and polyester. Called Metafoil, the curtain takes an old world staple and gives it a stunning digital twist.”