Category: visual

“In this city, the process of getting a project approved makes it easier to cut deals than to let architects do their best work, and too much of what’s been built is inept or cynical or both. Even so, the decade saw a heartening number of memorable additions to the landscape.”

“Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, the stars of the art boom, were deposed as auction bestsellers in 2009 as prices for some of their works fell 50 percent. It may take much of the next decade before their works return to record prices, dealers say.”

“The [2009] news in Canada, true to form, runs a relatively smooth, undisturbed course. Our minarets will stand unharmed. … Still, there’s an unsettling inconsistency within the Canadian story of architecture. Just when serious architecture and design occurs, something ridiculous jumps out on the scene.”

“An enormous stage curtain created by Salvador Dali for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo was unfurled yesterday at the Carnegie Museum of Art for the first time since the museum acquired it 33 years ago. The purpose: to evaluate its condition, photograph it for the museum’s internal use and figure out how to display it.”

“It was an era when architecture became hotter and hipper than ever, yet too often was treated as a three-dimensional marketing tool. In fact, it’s the art form that shapes the world in which we live, with long-term implications for the environment and our civic culture.”

“Kane Cunningham has paid £3,000 for the next bungalow set to fall over the cliff and will film its end. He said the house symbolised ‘lost dreams, financial disaster and threatening sea levels’.”

Among the top 10: “Henri Matisse’s 1911 still life of cowslips, ‘Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose’ from the collection of late couturier Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge fetched 35.9 million euros ($45.6 million), an artist record, at a Christie’s Paris auction on Feb. 23.”

“The museum has officially discontinued operations and will put its permanent collection in storage. The decision was made last week during a board meeting. The museum will go online sometime in January at its regular Web site www.claremontmuseum.org and become a virtual museum.”

“Museum and city of Fresno officials acknowledge The Met is near collapse. Its problems are numerous and immense, but nearly all revolve around a lack of money. The museum is in the former Bee building on Van Ness Avenue in downtown. City Hall took ownership of The Met’s home this year after the museum defaulted on a $15 million bank loan guaranteed by the city.”

“Whether intentional or not, the ratio represents the best proportions to transfer to the brain. ‘This is the best flowing configuration for images from plane to brain and it manifests itself frequently in human-made shapes that give the impression they were ‘designed’ according to the golden ratio’.”