Category: visual

“When I saw that the New York Public Library hired Norman Foster to carve out a new library space under the celebrated reading room of [its] main 42nd Street building, my trend meter lit up. That’s … exactly the strategy that the Philadelphia Museum of Art is following for its expansion, which is being designed by Frank Gehry.”

“An artwork by street artist Banksy in central London will be removed to send a message to graffiti artists in the city, a council has decided. Westminster City Council has ordered a 23ft-high (7m) mural, entitled One Nation Under CCTV, to be removed from a building on Newman Street.”

“If the Mad Hatter suddenly acquired taste and culture, he might hang a Jackson Pollock drip painting with a watercolor of a fruit bat and call the match inspired instead of weird. Such bizarre couplings rule ‘The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions,’ the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s effusive hats-off tribute to its retiring director of 31 years.”

“Disappointing art auctions in London and Hong Kong this month cost Sotheby’s $15 million in losses on guarantees it provided sellers. The losses occurred because the artworks either sold for less than the minimum price the auction house guaranteed to sellers, or not at all, Sotheby’s said in a filing late yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.”

Thursday’s fire in Los Angeles’s Sepulveda Pass came within two miles of the Getty Center, but there was no damage from flame or smoke. While the museum was closed as a precaution Thursday, it will be open as usual on Friday.

“The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao… is reported to have paid well over the odds for art to fill Frank Gehry’s swooping titanium masterpiece.” Internal documents reveal that former director Thomas Krens “paid more than the market value for the works, offering whatever price the artists demanded.”

“LOLcats, the crazy cat photos with goofball sayings that swept onto the web a few years ago, are rapidly becoming more than just an internet meme… Works by nearly 30 artists influenced by the pidgin-speaking-cat meme will be auctioned off Thursday during a sold-out art show in San Francisco – with proceeds going to benefit an adult-literacy program.”

“L.A. seems to be a place where the only way to look at the arts is forward. But… more and more writers, curators, filmmakers and historians are digging into the origins and evolution of the cultural landscape. Whether focusing on small slices of Southern California or looking at L.A. in a statewide context, they are turning local art history into a hot topic.”

“Titian’s masterpiece Diana and Actaeon has been unveiled at the National Gallery in London, as a campaign to keep the painting in the UK continues.” The painting ordinarily hangs at the National Gallery of Scotland. “The Duke of Sutherland is offering [the painting, plus another Titian] to the galleries for £50m each – one third of their estimated open market value.”

“Norman Foster, the eminent British architect who has made something of a specialty out of inserting contemporary designs into historic buildings, has been selected for a major renovation of the New York Public Library’s landmark 1911 main building.”