Category: visual

“Frescoes in the ancient Roman city, one of Italy’s most popular attractions, fade under the blistering sun or are chipped at by souvenir hunters. Mosaics endure the brunt of tens of thousands of shuffling thongs and sneakers. Teetering columns and walls are propped up by wooden and steel scaffolding. Rusty padlocks deny access to recently restored houses, and custodians seem to be few and far between.”

The tiny northern Italian village of Canova has had a rough haul the last few decades, as residents left for larger cities and better jobs elsewhere. But a new focus on the town’s historic stone architecture has attracted preservationists, and a new civic association “hosts field schools and exhibitions in the village and offers restoration consultations throughout the valley.”

The New South Wales Government is pushing for a national review of restrictions controlling images of children in art, following the furore over work by Australian artist Bill Henson.

A committee in San Francisco’s city government has introduced a bill that would allow misdemeanour or felony criminal charges to be brought against any artist or financial backer who causes “the death, abuse or suffering of an animal” when making a work of art.

“After walking this landscape once a month for a decade, watching it change, noting every plant and responding with his artist’s eye, Robert Irwin quietly retired this year, ending his role as shepherd of what he has long called ‘sculpture in the form of a garden.’ It’s a milestone for a garden long marked by controversy. Initially, many asked: Why choose an artist without garden experience? Why combine plants so unconventionally?”

“Is New York still New York if its trophies are sold off to foreign interests? Why do peak oil investors love our landmarks? What’s next? The Seagram Building? And why not the Empire State Building? Or Rockefeller Center (again)?”

“Arguably the Tate brand, which has gained huge international currency since the founding of Tate Modern at the turn of the millennium, has threatened to eclipse that of MoMA. The Tate has even been making audacious inroads into MoMA’s home turf of New York, courting American philanthropists and holding glamorous fundraising events.”

“The explosion of construction activity that has transformed Beijing into a modern metropolis over the past decade also turned many of its historical neighborhoods — known for their narrow alleyways, or hutongs — into rubble.”

“It’s hard to miss San Francisco’s new U.S. Federal Building, a narrow 18-story office slab with a skewed, not-quite-mansard roof. Completed in March of last year, the building is a study in contradictions: an ambitious energy-conserving agenda, a tight budget, and a highly restrictive set of security concerns. How did Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne deal with this challenging mix?”

“One could argue that some controversy was inevitable no matter what. Memorial sculptures for King have long been lightning rods for racial resentments, black and white. The importance of this one — the first representation of an African-American and nonpresident to be so honored on the National Mall — would make it particularly fraught.”