Category: visual

“Princeton Architectural Press, which will soon publish a book of Kahlo’s oil paintings, diary entries and personal letters, says it has stumbled across ‘an astonishing lost archive of one of the 20th century’s most revered artists … full of ardent desires, seething fury, and outrageous humour.’ But news of the discovery has prompted a group of Kahlo scholars to denounce the items.”

It prohibits dealers from “taking advantage” of artists or their representatives, acting in an unfair, bullying or threatening manner and exerting undue influence. Dealers must act in good faith, which includes not promoting the “dealer’s interests to the detriment of the artist”.

“India’s biggest contemporary art show opened in New Delhi on Thursday, but without works from the country’s most acclaimed painter because of fears of attacks by Hindu extremist groups. Painter M.F. Husain, 94, who has been called the ‘Picasso of India,’ has angered hardline Hindus by portraying Hindu deities in the nude or in a sexually suggestive manner.”

“The house’s dimensions are incorrect, the arc of a bow window is distorted, and the building’s now-infamous slave quarters are incorrectly located, the critics assert. Some historians and members of a committee charged with reviewing the memorial’s design and content say they are stunned by the vehemence of the complaints. Beyond that, they argue that the memorial … is less about architectural detail and more about the difficult story of enslavement at the heart of the new nation.”

“A federal appeals court today struck down as unconstitutional a 2002 California law giving owners and heirs to artworks looted by the Nazis extra time — until the end of 2010 — to sue for their return.” Left undecided: “Does the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena really own one of the most prized works hanging in its galleries,” or should its Adam and Eve “be handed over to the daughter-in-law of a Jewish art dealer who left the panels in Holland when he fled the invading Germans in 1940?”

“Mentally, a large number of art attackers appear to be several sandwiches short of the full picnic. … Nonetheless, such onslaughts on famous works of art cannot be exclusively explained by lunacy. There’s a spectrum of motivation ranging from the batty to the (almost) legitimate.”

“Christie’s International has scrapped plans to start an art-investment fund and a lending division, according to two people involved with the projects. The move is another sign that the global economic slump is hurting the once-booming art market. … The closely held company wanted to compete more directly with Sotheby’s Financial Services, a subsidiary of Christie’s main auction-house rival.”

“The avant-garde works by the likes of Malevich, Popova, Kandinsky and Goncharova are attracting bigger and bigger prices at auction – last year Goncharova became the highest-selling female artist – and decorate the mansions of Russia’s oligarchs and new business elite. There is just one problem. Most of them are fakes.”

“A cache of Frida Kahlo oil paintings, diaries and archival material that is the subject of a book to be published by Princeton Architectural Press on 1 November has been denounced by scholars as a cache of fakes.”

The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment “is an educational charity which helps communities, developers and designers build places that compare favourably with Britain’s most loved neighbourhoods, towns and cities. We also run training programmes for planners, urban designers and building craftspeople. … I regularly meet other professionals to share ideas and discuss work. We certainly do not meet to review and approve one another’s plans.”