Category: visual

“A senior royal aide told the trust and its architects that [Prince Charles] could not accept the design of a proposed £14.5m building in Swindon and said it should be changed or they would face the prospect of his stepping down as its president, according to a source involved in the project at the time. … Clarence House has no minutes of the meeting but said any argument was about the sustainability of the building.”

“After nearly three-quarters of a century Robert Capa’s ‘Falling Soldier’ picture from the Spanish Civil War remains one of the most famous images of combat ever. It is also one of the most debated, with a long string of critics claiming that the photo, of a soldier seemingly at the moment of death, was faked. Now, a new book by a Spanish researcher asserts that the picture could not have been made where, when or how Capa’s admirers and heirs have claimed.”

“I’m a champion of free speech. I think it is important for people to be able to speak freely, but if I’m watching a channel whose content is not my cup of tea I may choose to change the channel. It does not make me an opponent of free speech. Preferring my brick unadorned does not make me anti-graffiti. Every time I put a piece of art on the street I know it may be cleaned. That is the nature of the art form.”

“The first shovel has been turned on the … $8.7 billion Mass Transit Tunnel from New Jersey that will double the number of passengers arriving from across the Hudson River” into Manhattan, though not at Penn Station. “With a little architectural vision, the tunnel could link with a spruced-up Penn and spur as much as 40 million square feet of commercial and residential development,” transforming “the far West Side the way Grand Central replaced a smoke-belching ditch with tree- lined Park Avenue.”

“Plans to bring a branch of the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum to Dundee have moved a step closer after the Scottish Government announced its support. Ministers promised to give money towards building an outpost of the V&A,” whose Dundee “branch would house major exhibitions from the main London centre and showcase Scottish work.”

“The [Marcel Duchamp] diorama known by its abbreviated French title Étant donnés is spectacularly bizarre, enigmatic, mysterious, disturbing, captivating, and, perhaps to some observers, repellent. None of those attributes is obvious, because Étant donnés is also as secluded as a cloistered nun.”

“Far from the macho, heroic projects that were the hallmark of the first generation of earth artists, – some of whom, like Michael Heizer, have spent close to 40 years moving tons of dirt to create massive, remote sculptural environments – ‘leave no trace,’ or at least, leave an ecologically enhancing trace, are the watchwords of many artists working in the field.”

“The Fresno Art Museum this week is cutting its budget by a third, laying off a still undetermined number of its 15 employees and declaring furloughs for those who remain. The museum also is reducing the number of days it will be open.”

“Cleveland museum trustees said they hoped Gribbon’s appointment would communicate stability and momentum as the museum nears a critical decision in December about whether to continue with a $350 million expansion and renovation, now half-finished.”