Category: visual

“Unfortunately, both the memorial’s sponsor — the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation — and one of the official panels that reviews designs for this city’s monumental core, the Commission of Fine Arts, have gone seriously awry on the sculptural portrait of King that will adorn the Stone of Hope.”

The Sobey Art Award, given annually to an emerging Canadian artist under the age of 40, has attracted criticism as well as praise since its inception in 2002, but organizers have been remarkably quick to respond to concerns and tweak their practices. This year’s finalists are on display at the Royal Ontario Museum.

If it’s true that behind every great man is a great woman, surely these women deserve some exposure. “The book is Hidden in the Shadow of the Master: The Model-Wives of Cézanne, Monet and Rodin, recently published by Yale University Press. In it [the author] tries to rescue from obscurity the women who she argues were so much a part of the triumphs of these visionaries.”

“Five works of aboriginal art – three masks, a painted drum and a woven cedar basket – were taken from the museum at the Fort Langley National Historic Site between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.”

“The J. Paul Getty Trust is announcing today that it is reducing the Getty Center’s operating hours and increasing parking at both the Getty Center and the Getty Villa from $8 to $10. The changes are part of the Getty’s strategic planning process begun earlier this year to streamline the institution’s operations.”

At a news conference held for the release of its annual report, Tate said it acquired 494 works, 320 of which were given or bequeathed by collectors and artists, making the year a record one for acquisitions. Tate now owns two more Francis Bacon pictures and a 1939 Stanley Spencer oil, “The Wool Shop,” as well as works by Lucian Freud and Balthus.

Sotheby’s, the world’s largest publicly traded auction house, sued Halsey Minor, founder of Cnet Networks Inc., for not paying $16.8 million for the purchase of works of art including Edward Hick’s “Peaceable Kingdom.”

Representatives for a gallery in Gateshead appeared in court yesterday charged with outraging public decency, after featuring a statue of Jesus with an erection.

After a six-month search, the Museum of Modern Art has chosen one of its own curators, Ann Temkin, to succeed John Elderfield, who retired as chief curator of painting and sculpture in July.

A convict on death row in America has agreed to let his body be made into a work of art if his final appeal against execution fails.