Category: visual

“Every June for centuries, Pisa and its leaning tower have been illuminated by thousands of candles and oil lamps to celebrate its patron saint, Ranieri, in one of the most atmospheric festivals in Tuscany. But tomorrow night, for the first time, participation in the Luminara festival will be compulsory under a new city law, with police set to roam the twinkling city to slap fines of up to €500 [£420] on anyone caught without a candle in their window.”

“[W]ho’s the private collector who dealers specializing in early 20th Century California Impressionist paintings say got a fabulous buy” — $963,000 — “on 18 pieces that the Orange County Museum of Art sold in March because the museum no longer shows and collects works from that period? And who should Bolton Colburn, director of the Laguna Art Museum, which does show and collect what’s often also called plein air painting, call to beg or dicker with?”

“Richard Rogers, the architect who was sacked last week from a multibillion pound development in London after Prince Charles complained about his designs, has accused the prince of ‘an abuse of power’ and ‘unconstitutional’ behaviour.” The architect “called for a national inquiry into whether the prince has a constitutional right to become involved in matters such as planning applications which have economic, political and social ramifications.”

“Today’s news that the Orange County Museum of Art surreptitiously sold 18 of its 20 early California plein-air paintings for a relatively modest price to an undisclosed private collector in Laguna Beach is remarkable on many levels. Not least is the private sale’s clear deviance from professional standards for deaccessioning that guide the Assn. of Art Museum Directors.”

“The Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach has quietly sold 18 of its 20 California Impressionist paintings to an undisclosed private collector, sparking criticism from two local museum directors who say the secrecy violated the public interest by preventing them from bidding to keep the works in collections open to the public.”

“To see Philadelphia’s win in Venice in isolation, however, is to miss a larger institutional narrative. The museum hopes the Nauman show will build the breadth of its contemporary art collection and, in tandem, help raise money for new contemporary art galleries in Frank Gehry’s expansion and the reworking of the Art Museum’s main building back home on Fairmount.”

he has asked architect Richard Meier to double the size of the Beverly Hills gallery to 11,600 sq. ft. The New York-based architect designed the original Gagosian gallery in Los Angeles in 1994-95 by converting an existing storefront. The newly expanded gallery will open next year.

The annual Art Fund Prize – the UK’s largest single arts prize – honours the most imaginative and original museum or gallery of the year. “Since it appears that there may be some potential irregularities with the online voting for the Art Fund Prize, we have regretfully closed the poll early while we undertake a full investigation into the matter.”

“Many of the 300 exhibitors came to the fair with low expectations and were surprised to find conditions less bleak than forecast.”

“In the aftermath of the killing of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, allegedly by white supremacist James Wenneker von Brunn, museum officials were taking another look.”