Category: visual

“The gallery’s mistaken acquisitions have at times paid off: some paintings thought to have been by unknown artists or copies of genuine works have since turned out to be the real thing, created by the hand of the greatest Master Painters. The downgraded paintings, do, however, outnumber the upgraded ones.”

“For decades” in New York, “new open areas have been born as by-products of business deals and carved out of leftover acreage into awkward, stingy shapes.” Governors Island, where the park design has come first, is a chance for the city to reverse its own pattern.

“While Judge Roger Hunt didn’t say so directly in his April 8 decision, his ruling in the convoluted case of ‘Russian Schoolroom’ … is based on evidence that the FBI must have erred when it put the painting on its list of stolen artworks.”

“A generation of young architects has grown up and been given the opportunity to prove their worth. British architecture was stagnant in the early 90s and now it’s not, for which some of the credit is due to Labour. But Labour has also presided over some of the poorest and most ill-considered housing of modern times, thanks mostly to the explosion of buy-to-let developments.”

“As museums around the country confront tight budgets and shrunken endowments, many are turning to a tactic well-suited to challenging economic times. They’re cutting back on costly exhibits that travel among several venues and involve complicated art loans. Instead, they’re dusting off the works they already have.”

Photographer Bruce “Gilden often used flash to surprise his subjects and to, as he put, it, “energise the frame”. He was the epitome of the in-your-face street photographer. Today, on the more fearful and aggressive streets of London, these kinds of approaches would, before long, get you arrested or beaten up.”

“At its heart, the $8 million suit is a fairly ordinary contract dispute about confidentiality agreements and sales promises. But the details of the disagreement have provided a rare view into a normally very private world of high-end art selling in which membership rules, responsibilities, rewards and reprisals can be so complex and changeable that even art world veterans say they sometimes struggle to decode them.”

“New York police have responded to 10 calls from residents fearing that life-size figures gazing down from buildings are real people about to jump. British sculptor Antony Gormley has placed 31 figures of himself cast in iron and glass fibre on city pathways, pavements, rooftops and ledges.”

“The California Attorney General’s office determined that the Museum of Contemporary Art skirted state law for years enroute to financial meltdown in late 2008 and ordered the museum to hire a consultant to help improve its financial management.”

“It now looks as if the museum Eli Broad wants to build to house his 2,000-piece contemporary art collection is going to land in Santa Monica or at Grand Avenue and 2nd Street in downtown Los Angeles, literally a stone’s throw from Walt Disney Concert Hall.”