Category: visual

New York City is in the final stage of its current “Taxi for Tomorrow” competition. Former Honda research and development staffer and current “conjurer of ‘ludicrous’ ideas” Steven M. Johnson offers nine proposals – “some pragmatic, some dystopic, others clearly silly” – for the next-generation yellow cab.

“Marilyn Minter takes pictures. Then she paints pictures of the pictures she has taken. When she’s finished, she hires Tom Powel to take pictures of her pictures of her pictures. His pictures go into books and catalogs to catch the eye of buyers willing to pay $100,000 or more for a painting by Ms. Minter.”

“I come from a country where a lot of art is labelled surrealist. I grew up with it and I hate that kind of dreamlike, evasive, easy, poetic, sexual, cheesy surrealist practice. I try to be a realist. There is humour in my work but I’m not playing cynical games or flirting with the art world or engaging with the frivolity of the market.”

“Manhattanites may only need to hail a cab this month to see a few famous works of modern art. The work of portrait artists Chuck Close and Kehinde Wiley will travel atop 500 taxicabs starting Monday, thanks to a second installment of an exhibition that strives to bring art to the streets of New York.”

It is impossible to exaggerate the chilling effect of the economic slowdown on the architectural profession. Gone are the extravagances and hubris that dominated just a few years ago.

“The art world has reacted with astonishment to a European ruling which has determined that works by Bill Viola and Dan Flavin, when disassembled, should not be considered works of art for tax ­purposes. Dealers warn that the decision will inhibit the European art trade.”

“Research presented in Berlin for the first time at the end of last year has tarnished the reputation of Wilhelm von Bode (1845-1929), the former director general of the Kaiser Friedrich-Museum, now called the Bode Museum.”

“Jeff Koons, whose appropriations of popular culture since he was working at a toy shop in the 1980s have ranged from postcards to pornography, is said to be claiming copyright on all representations of balloon dogs.It’s funny, of course, at least if we believe those reports – the idea of an artist who so enthusiastically guzzles up images from the world around him asserting unique ownership of one of them.”

“A continuing study by the preservationist group Our Italy has already identified more than 80 major monuments and archaeological sites nationwide at grave risk of collapse, including Bologna’s two great medieval towers, the ancient Aurelian walls around Rome, and Capua’s Roman amphitheater, second in size only to the Colosseum.”

“Too many critical aspects of the design miss the mark. The galleries, in particular, are deeply flawed; other important elements were either scrapped during the design process or never fully thought through, so that the overall impression is of a project that falls, with an unpleasant thud, well short of its potential.”