Category: visual

“‘We need to cooperate,’ Zahi Hawass, who heads the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told [conference] delegates from 15 other countries. ‘We need to fight together.’ The delegates should produce one list of artifacts that should return home, he said.”

“This week, Senegal officially unveiled the African Renaissance Monument, a 160-foot statue of a man, woman, and child emerging from a volcano,” depicted in a style that would look right at home in the 1960s Soviet Union or North Korea. “What follows are 10 more examples of why bad art and bad politics are a dangerous combination.”

“[I]n the era of blanket photographic and video coverage of the wars which Western powers are involved in, why are war artists still needed?”

“Culture often takes the role of religion in our contemporary world. Galleries are modern-day temples, regularly attended by the people on their day of rest. … It is less art that needs the Church, but the Church, in its waning popularity, that needs art. It should embrace the opportunities offered to it by culture.”

A district court judge “said lawyers must disclose relevant documents that were deleted or destroyed from Fairey’s files and when the deletions or destruction occurred. [The judge] further said the lawyers must disclose the identities of anyone who tampered with or destroyed records, commanded and supervised the acts or was told about them.”

“In 1999, the National Park Service announced its intention to move [a painting depicting Pickett’s charge] and tear down the building … to restore the landscape to its 1863 appearance. The decision touched off a long battle between Civil War purists and modern-architecture preservationists that may have finally reached its conclusion.”

“The Owensboro Museum of Fine Arts met Friday morning with the city’s newly appointed arts council to try and figure out ways to keep the museum open in the short and long term. The economy has hit many people hard and the museum says it’s no exception. Officials say the museum may have to close in thirty days.”

“Near where the statues stood is a network of cliffside caves. Some have elaborate, centuries-old carvings across walls and ceilings that have been covered by a blanket of dusty shoeprints where Taliban soldiers threw their footwear at the walls in an act of defiant graffiti.”

“The observation deck of the world’s tallest skyscraper reopened on Sunday, two months after an elevator malfunction that left visitors trapped more than 120 stories above ground forced it to close.Dozens of tourists lined up on Sunday for tickets to take an elevator to the 124th floor of the half-mile-high Burj Khalifa in Dubai.”

“The statue, which cost £17m and is taller than the Statue of Liberty, stands on a hill overlooking the capital, Dakar. It marks Senegal’s 50 years of independence, and the president, Abdoulaye Wade has said he hopes it will become a tourist attraction.”