A policy of inviting the public into the “pre-decisional” process directly contradicts the panel’s assertion that “curatorial freedom of expression, expertise, and authority” are vital. It would turn the Smithsonian into a sitting duck for all manner of groups that want to implement an agenda. Opening exhibition preparation to crowdsourcing is not a way to anticipate controversy–it’s a way to assure it.
Category: visual
China’s New National Museum Has Global Ambition
“With a floor area of 192,000 sq. m (2.07m sq. ft)– “a little bit bigger than the Met”, a Chinese official reminded me–the new National Museum is clearly intended to signal China’s muscular ambitions.”
Ai Weiwei’s Public Art Project In Manhattan To Proceed As Planned
The installation of Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, a 12-piece sculpture to be installed at the Pulitzer Fountain near the Plaza Hotel and Central Park, “will go forward even if Mr. Ai, who was detained by Chinese authorities on Sunday, is unable to be present.”
Peter Zumthor’s Serpentine Pavilion To Be A Secret Garden
“The pavilion, which opens in July and closes in September, will take the form of a contemplative garden courtyard created by the Dutch designer Piet Oudolf, enclosed by a low-key and lightweight timber structure Zumthor plans to wrap and coat with scrim and black paste mixed with sand.”
Architects Are The New Cultural Punching Bags
“Are architects cultured designers or glorified triage surgeons working in towns and cities lacerated by architectural collateral damage caused by political and commercial expediency, rubber-stamped by planners?”
What If The Stuckists Are Right About Contemporary British Art?
“There is a palpable tension between painters and the current – inaccurate – British idea of what modern art is. If you reject the notion that physical skill, natural talent or technical training have any value as art in themselves, then painters are screwed.”
China’s New History Museum Writes Its Own History
“China spent more than a decade and nearly $400 million to remake the National Museum into a leading showcase of history and culture, a monument to its rising power no less grand — it is designed to be the world’s largest museum under one roof — and more enduring than the Olympic Games it hosted in 2008. But one tradition has remained firmly in place: China will not confront its own history.”
Italian Culture Minister Says Mega-Ads In Venice Need To Go
“Tourists should not be faced with such a horrible sight, and the advertisers themselves must be finding the ads are bad publicity, he said. The money to pay for the restoration that the advertisements are financing will have to be raised in other ways.”
The Divided Architect
“James Stirling divides opinion: architects love him, while those who use his most notorious buildings loathe him. Or that’s how it used to be.”
The Suburb, The Starchitect, The Controversy
Elk Grove, a suburb of Sacramento incorporated in 2000, held an international design competition to create a master plan for a $159 million civic center complex on 78 acres. Starchitect Zaha Hadid was chosen. But the design has proven controversial and the politics even worse.