Category: visual

“It seems a misunderstanding of public art to place decisive emphasis on the private feelings of one group, however potent their victimhood.”

In the past few weeks, looters have removed inscribed blocks from tombs at Saqqara, Giza and Abusir, and even tried to cut into pieces a colossal red granite statue of the 19th Dynasty king Ramesses II at the southern quarry of Aswan.

The National Museum of American History, always on the lookout for current materials, has dispatched a curator to Wisconsin to judge whether signs and buttons from the ongoing labor debates are museum-worthy.

That’s the question in Detroit after arts is taken out of the place it was created for…

“In truth, then as now, the real issue concerned the quality of the work of art that emerged, which is why we variously refer to such derivations as plagiarism (boo!) or homage (hoorah!).”

Archeologists are criticizing the Smithsonian Institution over a planned show of objects salvaged from a shipwreck in the Java Sea, saying that the company that recovered the objects from the wreck did not observe professional archeological standards in doing so.

“So did Armory 2011 signal that the model of the art fair as a system for delivering high-end merchandise to the extravagantly well-heeled is passé? Hardly. The change is a reflection of the fact that the auction houses (and their private sales arms) are increasingly wresting four-star goods away from the dealers.”

In recent decades, many of the architect’s modernist buildings in the Punjabi capital have fallen into disrepair. “Recently, international art dealers have made substantial sums selling hundreds of chairs, tables, carvings and prints designed by Le Corbusier and his assistants but obtained at knockdown prices from officials often unaware of their value.”

Among the winning designs at this year’s “Brickstainable” design competition are “hollow, honeycomb shaped bricks that … ensure that, throughout the day, different parts of the brick absorb the sun’s heat, while others cool” and “BeadBricks” – “flat, triangular bricks that can be combined in three dimensions (rather than the usual two) … [to create] intricate patterns of color and shadow.”

“This is probably thrilling news for some, depressing news for others, but I’d like to make the case for why the statue should be welcomed. RoboCop (the cop and the movie) is a great ambassador for Detroit. And though a statue to him won’t fix the city’s problems, it does have something important to say about the place and its plight.”