“To its credit, perhaps, the Modern has become the leading exemplar of the changing role of new art in museums. Where museums used to be vaguely or overtly suspicious of the new, allowing it through the door only hesitantly, now they can’t get enough of it, or at least certain kinds of it.”
Category: visual
Working To Save The Ruins Of Babylon
“For the first time since the American invasion in 2003, after years of neglect and violence, archaeologists and preservationists have once again begun working to protect and even restore parts of Babylon and other ancient ruins of Mesopotamia. And there are new sites being excavated for the first time, mostly in secret to avoid attracting the attention of looters, who remain a scourge here.”
First Looks At Bhutan’s Art Treasures
“The spectacular paintings seen by the British experts decorate the walls of 17th-century temples in dzongs, or Tibetan-style fortresses, the most important of which includes the Tamshing Monastery.”
What Art Politicians Hang On Their Walls Says Something About Them
“Ministers’ private offices are their inner sanctums, and what they choose to hang there can say a great deal about them, their personal preferences and how they see themselves.”
A Fatal Flaw In LA’s Approach To Urban Planning
“Even as city planners have made a point of focusing, at least in theory, on a finer grain of civic improvements, such as urban-design guidelines released in 2009, in practice they continue to allow developers to shape downtown one mega-project at a time.”
Why America Can’t Build Big Projects Any More
“America certainly isn’t developing the design, construction and management capacity to build on a large scale to global standards.”
What Exactly Is the Modern Arab Art in Qatar’s New Museum?
“Modernist art for public display in the Middle East has long been something of a paradox. Painting is not part of the Arab tradition and museums are a Western invention. Arab art from the 19th and early 20th centuries has a very European feel.”
Police Hunting for War Criminal Find Photos of Stolen Modigliani
“Serbian police searching for a war-crimes fugitive on Thursday instead found photographs of a Modigliani painting they suspect is in his possession.”
Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds: Does It Still Work If You Can’t Roll Around in It?
Adrian Searle: “You can now only look at it, from a distance, sombre in winter light, inert. It is a work that demands that you walk on it – that you feel it. This is the classic story of the gallery both as midwife, helping the artist give birth to a work, and as its castrator.”
Mecca Makeover – Monster Buildings Loom
“The historic core of Mecca is being reshaped in ways that many here find appalling, sparking unusually heated criticism of the authoritarian Saudi government.”