Category: visual

“Britain’s Tate gallery will recreate the only solo exhibition staged by poet, printmaker and artist William Blake 200 years after it was held in London. The 1809 show, held in Blake’s brother’s shop in Soho, was a flop, drawing a single, stinging review and largely ignored by the public.”

“After three years of negotiations, the financially strained Brooklyn Museum has arranged to transfer its rich collection of American and European costumes and accessories to the Metropolitan Museum of Art so that it can be properly cared for and exhibited. Although widely considered one of the best in the world, the Brooklyn costume collection has been out of public view for more than a decade.”

“It’s been two years since Saparmurat Niyazov – the deeply perverse dictator of Turkmenistan, died. At the time of his death, Turkmenbashi (‘father of the Turkmen’) as he preferred to be known, was on the brink of global superstardom… [photographer Nicolas Righetti’s book] Love Me Turkmenistan presents a glimpse of the [dictator’s] personality cult at its peak.”

“Iraqi officials have seized 228 ancient artifacts, some looted from Iraq’s National Museum, which smugglers intended to smuggle out of the country.”

“An auctioneer who had carried out a routine valuation at the man’s bungalow home only found them when he asked to use the lavatory before he left. He was stunned when he realised the pen-and-ink drawings above the sink were the work of the English artist Aubrey Beardsley.”

“By year’s end, as the government declared a recession, the boom years came to a jarring halt and cities around the nation, including Chicago, worried that their skylines would be frozen in place,” Blair Kamin writes. “These were among the year’s notable events….”

“As the drama unfolds over whether and how L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art will solve its financial crisis, fans of MOCA and museums in general are hoping it won’t choose what some would consider a doomsday option: selling art from the collection to pay off general expenses or satisfy debts. Two leading service organizations, the American Assn. of Museums and the Assn. of Art Museum Directors, say flatly that it’s unethical to sell objects from a collection … except to raise funds to buy more pieces.”

“With financial turmoil at L.A.’s celebrated Museum of Contemporary Art on many minds, artists David Weiner and Angie Lee decided to help out by hosting a bake sale. That’s what community organizers in America do to raise funds for good works, right? … The bake sale is timed to precede a planned meeting of MOCA’s board of trustees, where the fiscal crisis is Topic A.”

“Asher Edelman, the corporate raider turned art dealer, has dressed the windows of his Manhattan gallery in the spirit of the times: ‘Holiday Super Sale,’ one sign says. ‘Totally Insane!’ reads another. ‘No Kidding!’ entices the third. ‘All dealers are offering discounts now,’ said Edelman. ‘I am just being open about it.'”

“The enemies of Damien Hirst have been lined up in massed ranks for years, firing hopelessly at his platinum and diamond success. And I – still – don’t want to join them,” Jonathan Jones writes. But why is Hirst, with all his fame and riches, pursuing a legal campaign against a graffiti artist? And does he really need that £195?