Category: visual

“Immaturity, self-importance and a certain confused earnestness will always loom large in student art work. But they will usually grow out of it. What of the schools that teach them?”

As global wealth becomes ever more concentrated in the hands of a few, those who view art as a high-end investment are looking for advice and counsel from those who know the art world best. “Art banking is just one of a growing number of non-traditional wealth-management services for the ultrarich.”

The Smithsonian’s new African American History Museum, which is in the early stages of creation, received a $5m gift from Boeing this week. “Smithsonian officials say they expect the museum to cost in the neighborhood of $500 million, more than the recently opened Newseum and the most expensive Smithsonian project to date.”

“It’s taken a citywide fund-raising effort and the sale of two paintings and two drawings by Thomas Eakins, but the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts have now managed to raise the entire $68 million needed to keep an Eakins masterpiece, ‘The Gross Clinic,’ in Philadelphia.”

Chicago’s Merchandise Mart gathers five art fairs under a single umbrella. “The centerpiece is Art Chicago, a stricken show the Mart took over in 2006 and defibrillated back to life. Last year’s Art Chicago drew more than 42,000 attendees. The 2008 version will have more galleries, art and space. Whether it is as successful for dealers as 2007’s may hinge on the mood for art in a dour world economy.”

A painting by Winston Churchill of a sunset over mountains in Morocco, a view he later took US President Franklin Roosevelt to see during World War II, was sold for $US420,000 in New York.

This year’s Carnegie International art show in Pittsburgh has a bit of a different feel from previous incarnations. “The Carnegie decided on four marketing firsts — giving the contemporary art show a title; advertising it in The New York Times; buying substantial Internet ads and launching an interactive Web site.”

Oil painting may have originated in Afghanistan centuries before the medium came into common use in Europe, new evidence suggests. Wall paintings made with oil-based paint were discovered by French researchers in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. “The wall-paintings were devotional art showing the Buddha, often in colourful robes.”

A controversial German artist known for exploring death is searching for a dying volunteer to take part in an upcoming installation: taking his or her last breath while on display.

Former Boston University president John Silber has written a book bashing modern architecture. But the legacy of buildings built during his tenure at the school is a dismal one indeed. Shouldn’t new buildings strive for something more than being simply functional?