Category: visual

“The essence of architecture, Zumthor said over the phone, ‘is to do rooms or spaces for people. If you look at the Earth without architecture, it’s sometimes a little bit unpleasant. So there is this basic human need to do shelter … whether it’s a movie theater or a simple log cabin in the mountains.'”

“By selecting the reclusive, introverted Swiss architect Peter Zumthor for the Pritzker Prize, the jury left me wishing it had been more adventurous. Zumthor’s uncompromising perfectionism is admirable. … [But] I would have liked instead someone whose work speaks to the extraordinary challenges of our time.”

“The dreams, visions and occasionally successful pitches” of scores of artists “are in the vast archive of the Public Art Development Trust. From 1983 until funding was lost in 2004 the charity organised art competitions, brokered deals between artists and developers, and commissioned work in an attempt to create more inspiring public art than stone generals and draped bronze maidens.” The public will soon get a look at the archive, which has been acquired by the Henry Moore Foundation.

A painting that uses popular cartoon characters to parody Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” is causing a bit of a stir in Old Town San Diego. “The Gathering,” a new painting by artist Glen Tarnowski, uses Looney Tunes characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Marvin the Martian and Road Runner to stand in for Jesus and his disciples in da Vinci’s famous 15th century fresco.

“He is not a celebrity architect — not one of the names that show up on short lists for museums and concert hall projects or known outside of architecture circles. He hasn’t designed many buildings; the one he’s best known for is a thermal spa in an Alpine commune. And he has toiled in relative obscurity for the last 30 years in a remote village in the Swiss mountains, out of the limelight and away from the crowd.”

“Starting Tuesday, the Ministry of Culture will dispatch 14 teams to assess the art damage. The prime minister has pledged €30 million (about $40 million) for art relief and appealed for donations. Unclear is the fate of thousands of works like Renaissance sculptor Andrea Della Robbia’s altarpiece depiction of Christ’s resurrection, which is still somewhere inside Church of San Bernardino di Siena with its crumpled bell tower.”

“Italy is not like America. Art isn’t reduced here to a litany of obscene auction prices or lamentations over the bursting bubble of shameless excess. It’s a matter of daily life, linking home and history. Italians don’t visit museums much, truth be told, because they already live in them and can’t live without them. The art world might retrieve a useful lesson from the rubble.”

“The Vatican has appealed to art experts around the world for help in restoring paintings and other treasures damaged by the Italian earthquake on Monday. The 6.3-magnitude quake damaged bell towers, cracked walls and reduced some churches to piles of stones. Also affected were many paintings hanging inside religious buildings, painted frescoes, and objects such as crucifixes, chalices and altars.”

“Budgetary wrangling between university officials and the architectural team has postponed the start of construction of the multimillion-dollar building. This week, officials at MSU said the groundbreaking for the long-planned Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum is now scheduled for March 2010, which represents a two-year delay on the project.”

“The London-based Art Trading Fund, which launched its second fund in May 2008, has had to ‘delay’ its plans as it was ‘unable to raise the necessary amounts’… The fund aimed to raise $50m to invest in contemporary art and boasted Mr Saatchi as one of its consultants. While potential invest­ors had verbally committed around $35m to the fund, only $15m came in.”