Category: visual

“The Czech EU presidency has apologised for an art installation it commissioned that lampoons national stereotypes. Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra apologised directly to Bulgaria, which has formally complained over its depiction as a toilet in the art work. He said the image, at the European Council building in Brussels, would be removed if Sofia insisted.”

“Whether ‘Entropa,’ Czech artist David Cerny’s hoax representation of the 27 European states, was a good work of art, it certainly was a good joke. It also caused a certain amount of embarrassment to Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra when it was switched on.”

“The poor Czechs. Their turn at leading the EU already had provoked deep skepticism, and Cerny’s 9-ton diss — hanging at the entrance to the European Council building in Brussels — doesn’t help. But what did they expect?”

“Eric Lee, who distinguished himself for two years as director of the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, is the new director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Kay Fortson, president of the Kimbell Art Foundation, said the board voted unanimously to pick Lee, 42, after spending 18 months interviewing ‘many, many, many candidates from all over the world.'”

“A wanted Lebanese antiquities dealer has been arrested in Bulgaria over accusations he stole ancient Egyptian artifacts and slipped them out of the country in recent years, Egypt’s Culture Ministry said on Thursday.”

The spymaster/judo master/fishing master/ski master/master tiger hunter/Master of All Russia (all of this well-documented on video) has turned his mastery to painting. His debut canvas was prepared for a charity auction in St. Petersburg. (The Prime Minister is said to have completed the painting in 20 minutes.)

“Notice the confidence with which those curtains are drawn – how with each long stroke Putin never loses contact with the canvas until the of his loaded brush is dry. There isn’t a wasted or unnecessary brushstroke and nothing childish or naïve about this picture.”

The medieval English city, devastated by World War II bombing, has seen a surge of innovative buildings go up near architect Basil Spence’s admired 1956 Coventry Cathedral, a landmark of 20th-century church design and symbol of the city’s rebirth.

“A rare signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation has been lent to the National Museum of American History by Washington financier David M. Rubenstein. The print, one of 48 signed by President Abraham Lincoln, was purchased by Rubenstein a few months ago in a private sale.”

“Works by Lucio Fontana, Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons will fail to lift the total estimate of London’s contemporary-art sales next month above a quarter of 2008’s level. The evening auctions by Sotheby’s, Christie’s International and Phillips de Pury carry a total low estimate of 38.4 million pounds ($55.9 million), according to Bloomberg calculations. This is 23 percent of the 164.3 million pounds in equivalent sales estimates in 2008.”