Category: visual

“The Barnes Foundation’s new Philadelphia home will be a gracious, golden-hued temple – modern in style, yet almost classical in its repose – set in a tree-shrouded enclave on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, according to documents that … were made public only today,” after a spate of Freedom of Information Act requests.

“No one would mistake the structure in Brooklyn for a toy. It is roughly fifty feet long and thirty feet wide, and includes an L-shaped portion of two low walls displaying the names. The mockup is mostly painted plywood, but a ten-foot-wide strip of one wall is made from the same bronze and granite that will be used in the memorial.”

“Two and a half years after bursting into life in a historic, former fruit packing plant, the Claremont Museum of Art is on death’s door, the victim of a financial shortfall. … The museum’s five full-time employees, including director William Moreno, have been laid off and the shop closed.”

“With the heat of the embers still glowing from one of the worst wildfires in California history, it’s difficult to imagine anything beautiful coming out of such destruction.” The group ART from the Ashes “takes [as] its mission to help individuals, businesses and organizations affected by wildfires by transfiguring fire site debris into works of art.”

“Best known for his metaphysical depictions of maps and architectural blueprints, [Guillermo] Kuitca began to explore [the possibilities] of seating plans one evening” when the chart for London’s Royal Opera House caught his eye as he was in the ticket line. So when he was asked to design the curtain for Dallas’s new Winspear Opera House, one could guess where he would turn for inspiration.

“Nine years after the Barnes Foundation stunned the art world with a high-risk proposal to escape its litigious Merion neighbors by moving its renowned collection of Impressionist art to Philadelphia, it is getting ready to reveal its most closely guarded secret: what its new home will look like.”

“In the summer, after the [museum’s] Living Hall was refurbished – its oak paneling waxed to a honeyed sheen; the ceiling repainted and the rug cleaned – the nearby East Gallery suddenly looked a bit down at the heels. To complicate matters, the institution had received a loan of two late-15th-century Florentine panels that had to be displayed somewhere.”

“The prized modern art collection of Brandeis University isn’t headed to the auction house, but supporters of college art museums are trying not to declare victory. Rather, they are taking the controversial plan to sell the collection … as a wake-up call.”

“Archaeologists unveiled Tuesday what they think are the remains of Nero’s extravagant banquet hall, a circular space that rotated day and night to imitate the Earth’s movement and impress his guests.”

“The owners of artwork valued in the multiple millions and stolen from a Pebble Beach home have found a ransom note, … The stolen pieces include one by Jackson Pollock, three by G.H. Rothe, one by Matisse, four by Miro, two by Rembrandt, a Renoir and a van Gogh.”