Category: visual

“The works by Federico Del Campo, a renowned 19th-century painter of European scenes, are of a sunny Venetian backwater and of a Venetian canal with two ships, both dated 1895.”

“Swiss artist Hans Erni at age 100 unveiled one of his largest works Saturday – a massive mural on the outside wall of a U.N. building in Geneva. The irrepressible Erni … had to cover up some of the muscular nudes in his mural after concerns were expressed in Geneva that his original design might shock some viewers.”

“A sketchbook of drawings by Pablo Picasso worth about 8m euros ($11m) has been stolen from a museum in Paris, police have said.” The theft from the Musée Picasso was discovered today.

“In the grounds of Château de Vauvenargues, near the Provençal town of Aix-en-Provence, there is a simple mound of earth, covered in grass and ringed by ivy. Perched on top is a curvaceous bronze nude, made by Pablo Picasso in 1933, and exhibited alongside Guernica in the Paris international exhibition of 1937. But, in terms of significance, it doesn’t come close to what lies beneath: the body of the artist himself.”

“Chicagoans love to brag about their open, people-friendly lakefront. In reality, 4 of the city’s 30 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline are unavailable to the public” — “an outrageous violation of Daniel Burnham’s ringing epigram that the lakefront ‘by right belongs to the people.'” An advocacy group’s new plan would give it back to them, plugging “these holes with 2 miles of new parkland on both the north and south lakefronts.”

“Berwyn Police Chief William Kushner said he had never seen a home like this in 33 years on the force. ‘There was stuff all over the house in boxes. The most valuable stuff from the Vatican was on the second floor in the attic,’ he said. ‘It just goes to show you, you never know what you’ll find in a bungalow.'” The FBI said the treasures will be sent back to Italy.

“At first glance, the results of this poll may seem rather predictable — but the longer you look, the more telling the quirks and anomalies become. This is precisely its point. It’s not there to agree with. It is there to argue against.” Let the mud-slinging begin.

“The High Line emulates Paris’s Promenade Plantée, a magical arbor that runs nearly three miles atop a disused railway viaduct, from the Bastille Opera to the city’s edge. But for now, the New York version goes hardly anywhere. At 20th Street, it hits a chain-link fence separating the current park from its future extension. You can stroll the entire open length in less than ten minutes.”

“As the recession continues to inflict damage in the well-appointed halls of the museum world, one of the most noteworthy side effects — on top of layoffs, ticket hikes and reduced hours of operation — is the cancellation and postponement of major exhibitions. In Los Angeles, some of the biggest (and richest) museums have had to take an ax to their upcoming schedules in an effort to save money as their funding and endowments continue to shrink.”

“The need has arisen in me to ascend my soapbox once again and bang on about public art, by which I mean street art, motorway art, art on the loose, art everywhere – which is where it belongs. Art is not a matter primarily for artists, or even curators and connoisseurs. First and foremost, it involves ways of seeing.”