Category: visual

“Prince Charles can be incredibly irritating, and one can’t blame [architect Richard] Rogers for hating him; but it is hard to see what is unconstitutional about him expressing opinions, however misguided, on non-political matters. It would be unacceptable if he were already head of state, but he isn’t; and nobody is obliged to take any notice of what he says. Nor does anybody often do so.”

“The Museum of Contemporary Art says one of its trustees, real estate and investment executive Fred Sands, has given the museum $2 million, with an anonymous donor providing an additional $1 million. The donations are on top of $1 million and $5 million gifts from unnamed donors that the museum had made public last month, and bring the total raised since Jan. 30 to $10 million….”

“Prince Charles, a vehement antimodernist, is up to his old tricks again. The row has now escalated, with an English Baron — Lord Rogers of Riverside, better known as the architect Richard Rogers — calling for an official tribunal to examine the role of Prince Charles in state affairs. Mr. Rogers is incandescent with rage, and no wonder.” A world-famous architect and “a political animal,” Rogers “knows the ropes and I suspect he knows he has support.”

“London art sales this month have estimates that are 70 percent lower than last year as auction houses abandon guaranteed prices, deterring sellers,” who are showing a preference for private sales. “The auction houses expect to make at least 100.9 million pounds ($165 million) in total. The equivalent sales last year had a low valuation of 334.7 million pounds.”

“A memo by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff lambasting a secret settlement involving New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has become the talk of the Holocaust restitution community. The museums announced a confidential pact with a German historian named Julius H. Schoeps and his relatives on Feb. 2…. Seven weeks later, in a six-page written judicial opinion tinged with sarcasm, Rakoff questioned the motives of both sides.”

“Ever since plans for the [Art Institute of Chicago’s] Modern Wing were unveiled eight years ago, I’ve been harping on the need to bring pedestrians safely between Millennium Park and the wing, either through a tunnel or a mid-block crosswalk. And I’m not the only one. In a phone call Tuesday from the Paris office of the Modern Wing’s architect, Renzo Piano, his staff confirmed that Piano has personally asked Mayor Richard Daley for a crosswalk.” Without it, 90-year-olds are jaywalking there now.

“Star-Wars creator and amateur architect George Lucas has been accused of rather too closely following the designs of media magnate William Randolph Hearst’s ‘Xanadu’ Castle. He should have looked closer to home for inspiration: his Star Wars films are full of wonderful architecture. Here the Architects’ Journal selects its top ten Star Wars buildings.”

“The foundation that runs the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum said on Tuesday that despite record attendance, it will cut 25 positions, or 8 percent of the institution’s full-time staff. The cuts, which will involve both laying off employees and leaving positions vacant, will be made across all departments, including curators.”

“Anne Baldassari, the director of the Picasso Museum in Paris, has appealed for thieves to return a sketchbook by the artist that was stolen last week. ‘It’s an interesting notebook from a scholarly standpoint, as documentation,’ she said in an interview. ‘On the market, it’s worth nothing, especially since it was stolen.'”

He had announced a big guerrilla art piece for his hometown, Bristol; his fans had expected something near the Clifton Bridge or in an empty Woolworth’s. Instead, he took over the City Museum and Art Gallery, replacing much of the collection on display with 100 of his own works.