Category: visual

Marc Wilson, who took the helm of Kansas City’s top art institution in 1982, oversaw a massive transformation of the museum: the expansion of collections and launch of new departments, the growth of the board, the quadrupling of the staff, a new Learning Center, renovation of the Kansas City Sculpture Park, and the doubling of the museum’s space by opening the “luminous” Bloch Building, designed by Steven Holl.

Tyler Green: “If I were a child, this show might get me hooked on art for life. And if I had children, I’d consider it a perfect way to show my kids how exciting art can be. Except I wouldn’t be able to afford to, and neither will many other families. The museum is charging as much as $88 for a family of four to see the show, effectively pricing out all but the relatively wealthy.”

The Dutch bank ABN Amro has filed a claim for A Bend in the Herengracht, a 17th-century painting by Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde which financier Louis Reijtenbagh had used as collateral for a now-delinquent loan. Problem no. 1: Reijtenbagh used the same painting as collateral for a 2006 loan (also delinquent) from JP Morgan Chase. Problem no. 2: He sold the work to the Rijksmuseum last September.

“The planned structure is a four-story building with a glass atrium on one corner, a towering wind turbine, a wall of living plants along one exterior side and an interior open courtyard. Other features will include a slip on one of the Potomac piers with science and boating activities, and a gathering place in a nearby woodland.”

“Is it or isn’t it a Michelangelo? That is the question being pondered by art experts after the Italian state spent 3.3 million euros, or $4.2 million, last year to buy a small wooden crucifix attributed to that Renaissance genius.” If it’s not a Michelangelo, “then the state may have squandered its dwindling resources” at a time “when more than one billion euros have been cut from the Culture Ministry’s projected budget for the next three years.”

“A new 66ft (20m) high public artwork on the site of a former coal mine has been officially unveiled on Merseyside. The £1.8m Dream sculpture, in the form of a girl’s head with her eyes closed, is on the site of the former Sutton Manor Colliery in St Helens. A group of local ex-miners chose the design, which is made from 90 unique panels of pre-cast concrete.”

“Silvio Berlusconi’s light-hearted dalliance with a television starlet whom he subsequently appointed to his cabinet has been made the subject of an oil painting in which both are shown in the nude. … The artist, Filippo Panseca, made his name in the 1980s as the designer of colossal, pharaonic stage sets for the conventions of the Socialist Party under Mr Berlusconi’s then patron, Bettino Craxi.”

“The search has begun for members of the public to become living works of art on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth. More than 2,400 people will stand on the central London plinth for one hour each, over 100 days from 6 July. Artist Antony Gormley, who created the Angel of the North, said he hoped the whole of the UK would be represented in the work, entitled The One and Other.”

“The curator of Coachella’s art programs, Philip Blaine, commissioned a number of pavilions this year that straddled the line between architecture and installation art. They also took advantage of the growing prominence of temporary structures in a world suddenly drained of capital. The short-term future of American cities, after all, involves lots of provisional and low-budget projects — and a whole lot fewer iconic towers.”

“Saying the Art Institute of Chicago isn’t affordable for many city residents, Ald. Ed Burke (14th) today increased the pressure on the world-famous museum to reverse its looming 50-percent increase in admission fees. Burke, chairman of the Finance Committee, pushed through a resolution urging the Chicago Park District to repeal the increase it approved in March and force the museum to offer reduced fees for Chicago residents.”