Category: visual

“At its current location on 4th Street [downtown], visitors to the museum have a tendency to look befuddled after viewing the 20 pieces of neon and wonder where [are] some of the more iconic pieces,” such as the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre dragon. Says the museum’s director, “People ask, ‘Where’s the Brown Derby?’ We couldn’t get it in the door here.” So MONA is moving to Glendale.

The new Wyly Theatre is “edgy and unpredictable” with an “industrial esthetic everywhere”; the Winspear Opera House across the way is modern formal, “an ellipse inscribed in a square, a red Christmas ornament, a clear glass box.” The latter’s “red reflective-glass panels … present a visual timeline” of a century’s worth of architecture.

After nearly a decade of heading up the Royal Ontario Museum and leading a bold expansion project designed by Daniel Libeskind, William Thorsell plans to step down as the ROM’s director and CEO.

“The Museum of Contemporary Art, revealed to be in dire financial straits late last year, said today that it has raised nearly $60 million since December, hailing the figure as indication of a turnaround at the institution. The downtown museum has also coaxed two disgruntled trustees who quit during the fallout to rejoin the board.”

“Mexican federal prosecutors said Tuesday they are investigating a claim that more than 1,000 items attributed to artist Frida Kahlo were forged. The Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Trust filed a complaint saying signed paintings, notes and drawings featured in two recent art history books are fake, the Attorney General’s Office said.”

“For an artist who seems to have been everywhere and done everything for nearly three decades, Mr. Koons is taking a new direction. He is trying his hand as a curator, agreeing to organize an exhibition of the Greek industrialist Dakis Joannou’s contemporary-art collection when it comes to the New Museum [in New York] in February.”

“It is a shame that Gehry wasn’t given a chance to build his transparent, landscape-topped arena, but it is hard not to cheer the fact that the rest of his plan for the Atlantic Yards has also been abandoned. … Surely we’ve learned by now that having large chunks of the city designed by one architect, no matter how talented, is not a good idea.”

“Masked thieves stole a painting by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte today in an armed daylight raid on a museum dedicated to his life and works. The security breach at the Musée Magritte on the outskirts of Brussels came at around 10 am this morning.”

“Too many people associate the name only with the business he built, Walt Disney Co., and forget the man behind it, said Diane Disney Miller, 75, a daughter of Walt Disney and a board member of the foundation that funded the $110 million museum,” which opens Oct. 1.

“The new temporary public art and sculpture park down on Canal Street where an office building once stood, LentSpace, opened only a few days ago – but already it’s been visited by some with a critical bent. The visitors left behind some rather harsh opinions in black spray paint. No alternative was offered, which is often the way with critics.” (includes photos of the damage)