Category: visual

Kisho Kurokawa’s 1972 Nakagin Capsule Tower, in Tokyo, is likely to be demolished, undervalued like so much postwar architecture. “[F]or many of us who believe that the way we treat our cultural patrimony is a fair measure of how enlightened we are as a society, the building’s demolition would be a bitter loss. The Capsule Tower is not only gorgeous architecture; like all great buildings, it is the crystallization of a far-reaching cultural ideal.”

“Engineers, architects and fabricators, aided by materials scientists and software designers, are building soaring facades, arching canopies and delicate cubes, footbridges and staircases, almost entirely of glass. They’re laminating glass with polymers to make beams and other components stronger and safer…. And they are experimenting with new materials and methods that could someday lead to glass structures that are unmarked by metal or other materials.”

“[T]he spooky and shocking aspect is the march to the scaffold. … It reminded me of nothing so much as Dickens’ great account in A Tale of Two Cities of Sydney Carton being led through the streets to the guillotine in a tumbril during the French Revolution. Did Gormley intend to evoke anything so gruesome, I wonder?”

“Plastics hold up well for the decade or so during which a consumer uses most products. But museums, unlike consumers, are in it for the long haul, and when plastics crash, they crash precipitously. … A whole generation of irreplaceable items that are as representative of our culture as pottery or flintheads were of ancient ones are dying–and many people charged with their care have no idea how to stop further damage.”

The man leapt on to the plinth ahead of housewife Rachel Wardell, who had been due to be the first with her two young children. His banner stated: “Save the children. Ban tobacco and actors smoking.”

“Perhaps it is more accurate to say that Rub is like a kid who has just been given the candy shop. Lured from the Cleveland Museum of Art, he arrives in Philadelphia this fall to succeed the late Anne d’Harnoncourt as director and chief executive officer of the Art Museum – a move many art leaders view as a bit of inevitable justice.”

“The massive renewal project has reduced the museum’s visibility. The galleries have been closed for three years and aren’t scheduled to reopen until 2012, when the historic institution will begin a new life as the Southwest Museum Education and Cultural Center, offering exhibitions of Native American material and related programs.”

“Gap founder Don Fisher wanted to hand the city a brand-new $100 million museum, a priceless art collection and renovations to historic buildings in the Presidio. Thank God we got that stopped.”

“The Albright-Knox Art Gallery says it will reduce expenses by closing on Wednesdays, starting July 15. The museum will open Thursday through Sunday. In May, the century-old modern art gallery closed for one week and the entire staff went on unpaid furlough. The museum says its revenues have dropped 24 percent and its operating endowment is down 21 percent. It raised admission in January from $10 to $12.”

“Why do artists choose to show themselves in the first place, exposing themselves to accusations of narcissism among critics who seem to confuse self-representation with self-regard? Historically, there has never been much money or glory in it; self-portraits, unlike portraits, are rarely commissioned or appraised as the high point of an artist’s career, even if by Rembrandt or Velázquez.”