Category: visual

“Rembrandt, Velasquez, Goya, I think they were all thinking about the commercial aspects of art,” Hirst said. “I believe I’m only doing what any of these artists would be doing if they were alive.” But Hirst also said he put art first and money was secondary.

“New York is shucking off its aging walk-ups, its small and mildewed structures, its drafty warehouses, cramped stores, and idle factories. In their place, the city is sprouting a hard, glistening new shell of glass and steel. Bright, seamless towers with fast elevators and provisional views spring up over a street-level layer of banks and drugstores.”

“Jeff Koons, the US sculptor and “king of kitsch”, is due to unveil some of his most famous works at the Château de Versailles tomorrow, the first time a modern artist has graced the historic rooms and gardens that were the pride of the Sun King, Louis XIV. But even before the show opens, controversy is raging.”

Hughes said commercial pieces with large price tags mean “art as spectacle loses its meaning” and identified the British artist’s work as a cause of that loss. Hughes says it is “a little miracle” Hirst’s 35ft statue Virgin Mother, could be worth £5 million and yet be made by someone “with so little facility.”

It’s hard enough for architects to get their hands on a decent housing commission in the UK. But making something worthwhile of whatever opportunity they can secure is, if anything, tougher still.

“No living artist has ever taken so many of his or her own works directly to auction. Instead, most rely on galleries to dole out a handful of pieces at a time to curators, collectors and, eventually, the broader public. Mr. Hirst and Mr. Dunphy are betting that they can make more money by cutting out the middlemen altogether, selling new works themselves to the highest bidders. If the sale is a success, other star artists like Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami may well follow suit.”

“Some of us are overfond of complaining about the big money that drives new architecture today. The theoretical designs that once served as a critical commentary on the professional mainstream have all but dried up. Architects who once flaunted their radical credentials now work almost exclusively for giant corporations and nouveau-riche clients. But take heart. There is evidence that serious architecture is still being made, some of it even in New York.”

“If Phoenix has any ambition to be the world-class city it keeps talking about, it can’t do it with low-bid buildings and timid design.” The fast-growing desert city seems constantly to be under construction, yet in recent years, says Richard Nilsen, there has been a demonstrable and unfortunate lack of civic will to create buildings that will stand the test of time.

“Five men have appeared in court accused of demanding £4.25m for the safe return of a Leonardo da Vinci painting. The Madonna with the Yarnwinder was taken from Drumlanrig Castle, near Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway, in August 2003. Its disappearance from the stately home became Britain’s biggest art theft.”

“A self portrait that was nearly torn up by the artist has won Australia’s most prestigious prize for drawing. Virginia Grayson, winner of the $20,000 Dobell prize for drawing, said she realised a few months ago that she had been working too hard on No conclusions drawn — self portrait.” And she nearly destroyed it…