Category: visual

“The campaign to save the Titians has exposed the fatal flaw in Britain’s system for saving works of art. There are tax breaks for giving money to public institutions, and once the collector is safely dead, works of art may be accepted in lieu of inheritance tax. But a living collector will have to be moved by pure philanthropy to give a work of art.”

To Jeremy Strick’s way of thinking, “the crisis that forced MOCA’s leaders to face facts and consider radical options, including a merger with LACMA, was ‘a crucible. It was difficult, it was painful, but thank God it happened’.”

Michael Kimmelman: “Mystery clung to each impending image as it took shape, the camera conjuring up pictures of what was right before one’s eyes, right before one’s eyes. The miracle of photography, which Polaroids instantly exposed, never lost its primitive magic. And what resulted, as so many sentimentalists today lament, was a memory coming into focus on a small rectangle of film.”

Holland Cotter: “The light on the buildings outside the windows changes, the all-night lights of the city, the shadow of clouds on the river, the light through a rose window, the light through a sculpture, the light in Times Square, where one year will soon be seen out, while another, with a sizzle of light, brought in.”

“The big names in painting – Picasso, Monet and Degas – have helped push attendances at our major galleries to more than 2.5 million visitors. And attendance figures are tipped to improve even as the economy takes a dive.”

“One point, however, made me wince. The agreement stipulates annual trustee dues at a minimum of $75,000 — effectively putting MOCA’s board off limits to all but the wealthy. That’s foolish. Lots of people, such as scholars or community organizers, can make profound contributions to a board. Why exclude them if they don’t happen to be rich?”

For years, architecture in France has been stuck in a time warp. It’s odd. France is so provocative in so many fields, so open to other cultures, yet in architecture it’s seemed trapped.

“Under the rescue plan, the museum said it would also begin a $75 million fund-raising campaign, hire ‘reputable investment advisers’ to manage the endowment, and exhibit its seldom-seen permanent collection ‘widely, consistent with customary museum practices’.”

“Venturi et al. pitted the unruly architecture of Las Vegas (most of it designed by private businessmen) against the logical, doctrinaire architecture of the academic modernists (most of it designed for the public sector) as a way of showing up the latter. What makes Learning from Las Vegas so fascinating is this trick of deploying one kind of crap to discredit another.”

“The stop-start courting of one of London’s most respected museums by a series of regional suitors has been revived, with discussions about a franchise for the Victoria & Albert on Blackpool seafront.”