Category: visual

“A decade ago, museums were producing CD-Roms that gave deep, engaged access to aspects of their collections: I would like to see that approach extended to websites and apps. Why is there not yet a really rich, interactive digital edition of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks?”

“There has been talk that schools can be churned out in bulk, the way Tesco builds its supermarket or McDonald’s its outlets. To dot the country with standardised McSchools is not obviously consistent with the government’s localism agenda, or its interest in a ‘happiness index’, but never mind.”

When the museum “tried to acquire it from the Swiss dealer Ernst Beyeler in the ’70s, another client with deeper pockets and an ambition to establish a great collection of modern Western art bought it first–the shah of Iran.”

“Nordstrom has agreed to lease all the downtown office space the Seattle Art Museum once rented to Washington Mutual, a deal that will help fill the deep financial hole the bank’s collapse created for the museum.”

“To bring back the theatre’s imperial sheen, … [workers] are using a medieval recipe which relies on keeping egg whites in a warm room for 40 days before mixing it with clay. Finished off with vodka, it is then used to apply gold leaf measuring 0.1-mm thick onto the theatre’s curved ceilings and balconies.”

“With one exception, the shortlisted designs to replace an old boilerhouse on Exhibition Road are all safety-first concoctions. They will not trigger objections from the cultural nabobs who bridled with fear and loathing at Daniel Libeskind’s “exploding box” proposal.”

“Five years ago the National Portrait Gallery celebrated its 150th anniversary – but this year it may have even more to celebrate. The art of portraiture appears to be having a revival. Since that anniversary, numbers of visitors to the gallery are up by around 100,000, and the launch of the new BP Portrait Award Next Generation show sold out – with, says the gallery.”

A slideshow…

“Researchers in Germany said today they believe it may be possible to reconstruct the smaller of the two 1,500-year-old Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban before the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.”