Category: visual

“The concept is simple: after curators argue for their proposed acquisitions, collectors, who have ponied up money to participate in the event, vote on what to buy with the pooled funds. Since it began in 1986 the event has raised a total of $16 million for the purchase of 157 works, now valued by the museum at $75 million.”

“But even for those of us who had given up on the idea that anything good would ever emerge from ground zero, the unveiling of an elaborate new model of the revised design on Saturday at the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute was heart wrenching.”

“The pocket-sized Pollock comes in two flavors: the SoundBot, which draws in response to loud noise, and the ShadowBot, which sketches along the boundary between light and dark. They can even transform anger into art.”

“The 25 1/4-inch-by-21 1/2-inch bas-relief bust depicting a woman — reputed to be Rodin’s model and mistress, Camille Claudel — was donated by the French government when the memorial was completed in 1912. The plaque was removed from the 72-foot-tall granite monument last year when crews began cleaning the memorial to French explorer Samuel de Champlain.”

“How many paintings and sculptures in Vietnam’s national art museum are actually copies, nobody knows. But rumors have swirled for years that many treasured originals by Vietnamese artists like Niet have been either lost or sold off, and reproductions have taken their place. The copies aren’t exactly forgeries.”

“Hirst’s latest art is surprising — oil paintings, a remarkably old-fashioned medium for a man best known as art’s bad boy. It’s almost as if Bill Gates turned to the abacus. Most of the new pictures feature ghostly white skulls floating on a blue-black background. Why did Hirst turn to painting after his enormous success with sculpture and installations?”

“Although much of this is now history – the prince has kept remarkably quiet about architecture in recent years – old sores, and carbuncles, have clearly yet to heal.”

“The only real threat hanging over the art market became evident as seldom before in this week’s sales of Impressionist and Modern art in New York. It is the drying up of art supplies, and that has little to do with the recession.”

Reduced circumstances, sure, but perhaps by the end of the year the troubled MoCA could be ready for its next chapter…

“From its bamboo floors to its rooftop deck, Clayton Homes’ new industrial-chic ‘i-house’ is about as far removed from a mobile home as an iPod from a record player.” The iHouse (as it is branded), “was conceived as a moderately priced ‘plug and play’ dwelling for environmentally conscious homebuyers,” who can customize the structure online.