Category: visual

The Antikythera Mechanism, found in a shipwreck a few years ago, say the scientists, was a kind of proto-Blackberry. It was an ancient clock/calendar that was used as a scheduling mechanism that corresponded to the ancient Greek calendar, and noted the Olympic Games.

Japanese post-war filmmaking hit its stride with Nikkatsu Action Cinema, whose versions of film noir, melodrama, gangster films and westerns have received little recognition in North America – until now. “It’s like discovering an entire genre of filmmaking that you didn’t know exists,” says one aficionado.

“A total of 224 projects from 43 countries have been nominated [for the inaugural World Architecture Festival Awards,] including a fire station in Mexico, a public toilet in Texas, a women’s health centre in Burkina Faso, a writer’s retreat in Costa Rica, a sheep stable in the Netherlands, a private cemetery in Lebanon, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.”

“Hebron is the only place in the West Bank where Jewish settlers and Palestinians live and work side by side,” and British artist Caspar Hall just spent three months painting the portraits of the men and women who keep the city’s struggling central market alive. “In all, he painted more than 70 portraits, compiling a unique social document of the market at a crucial stage in its history.”

“Clearly, there are still a few wrinkles to be ironed out of the system before Abu Dhabi secures a permanent spot in the pantheon of world art cities.”

“Some 13,000 works of art — including priceless examples of African and Native American art, and paintings by modern masters like Max Beckmann and Philip Guston — were saved last month when the Iowa River flooded this lovely campus, overcoming much of the UI museum.” They included a Jackson Pollock…

“The practices are alleged to include selling and rebuying the same paintings at auction, publishing questionable provenance notes for paintings in catalogues and obscuring ownership details. Academic and art valuer Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios said if the industry claims about Mr Menzies were true, ‘then he has dramatically inflated the Australian art market, and with it inflated buyer confidence’.”

“Incidents of damage involving gallery visitors are few and far between; works of art stand a far greater chance of being destroyed at the hands of curators, picture handlers or cleaners. Most of the major galleries have had to issue shame-faced apologies for breakages at one time or another.”

Aboriginal art is big business in Australia these days, and there may not be a more imposing figure on the indigenous art market than John Ioannou. “Ioannou says he has a deep and ongoing concern for the welfare of his artists, buying them blankets and food as well as painting materials.” But others call him a vicious and manipulative bully.

Germaine Greer says that the Green movement isn’t doing much for architecture, particularly when it comes to designing homes. “Houses grew uglier as the proportion of architects in the population and their share of the new-build budget grew. New houses are now universally horrible, and eco-houses are the most horrible of the lot.”