Category: visual

Sir Nicholas Serota, the formidable and contentious director of the Tate galleries whose contract was about to expire, has been made a “permanent employee” to stand at the helm of the galleries indefinitely, The Independent has learnt.

“Openness is essential to the experience of this architecture, a constantly changing, kinetic space. Now, instead of that first expansive view, with marble floors reflecting the lines and volumes of the building and the lake beyond, we see people’s backsides. We see people waiting in line, a couple of desks and cash registers.”

“The internet is home to a fast-growing, worldwide community of photographers who feel their hobby is being gradually outlawed by an increasingly paranoid society. But the photographers from America, Canada, Australia and beyond all seem to agree on one thing: nowhere is the situation worse than in Britain.”

“Fifty years ago, the Soviet Union returned 1.5 million art treasures looted at the end of World War II to East Germany. Twenty-eight German museums are staging a series of exhibitions to say thank you. Gratitude is one half of the message. The other is: Can we have the remaining 1 million works back now too, please?”

“These aren’t bars with art added: Now, the gallery is the main focus, with a separate lounge adjoining. That way, artworks can be displayed to their best advantage and stay somewhat protected from the more uninhibited bar scene.”

“Intruders broke into the church, stole a few objects and broke the window – leaving a hole about 24 by 16 inches. The window, in the Metz cathedral, was designed and made by Chagall in 1963 and depicted Adam and Eve.”

“The director of the Guggenheim Bilbao, Juan Ignacio Vidarte, has admitted that the Spanish museum lost €4.2m of public money when it purchased Richard Serra’s The Matter of Time, 2005, using US dollars rather than euros to buy the work.”

As in not completed. Still…

“The £46m Baltic opened to great fanfare in 2002, riding the wave of the Tate Modern in London’s popularity. While it has been popular, it has undoubtedly had problems. The first director, Swede Sune Nordgren, left a year after the Baltic opened.” Three directors later, Godfrey Worsdale takes on the challenge…

Sotheby’s said it will cease holding auctions of Asian contemporary art in New York and ‘consolidate’ them instead in Hong Kong, with biannual sales in the Asian city.