Category: visual

Stephen Borys, a former Winnipegger who is currently chief curator at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla., will be the new director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Borys replaces Pierre Arpin, who left the WAG last September to run the Canada Council’s visual art program.

“In Washington, there are people who wander the streets looking for things that feel like a city. And then there is the school of urban planning that worries more about whether this or that building feels like Washington.”

“Jewelry has always been one form of art. So why is it that a good 99.99 percent of what is made today doesn’t come close to passing that test? Make that 99.999. Considering the bulging display cases at Zales and Kay, you might even have to add another bunch of nines.”

Bringing masterpieces to a folksy corner of the Ozarks better known for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., has spurred some art world reactions “ranging from fascination to skepticism to fear,” the journal ARTnews wrote. There is also excitement among art professionals over what some describe as a major new museum, one of only a handful nationally focused on American art history.

One of the best-loved paintings in the National Gallery – an exquisite vision of Venus and Cupid by the greatest artist of the Reformation – once belonged to Hitler

the aim of the new Manhattan sister fair is to shift “the paradigm away from a commercial trade show mentality”. The fair “is not only about the buying. People are here to make a statement about the artists they work with.” The invite-only selection process is focused on choosing artists rather than galleries.

“With every major work projected onto the market by commercial digging, a portion of its past history is lost forever. From Tibet to Cambodia, the common treasure of mankind is squandered at a rate that matches that of melting Antarctica. And business goes on.”

Public art can generate big revenues and beautify urban areas. Or it can anger residents. How does one measure its success?

Nicholas Penny: “The increasing importance of exhibitions within museums and galleries is beginning to change the fundamental purpose of those institutions. Even if I were against all temporary exhibitions, which I’m certainly not, it’s now a question of to what extent you control it. We won’t put on exhibitions just because they will be popular, and we’ll do them with consideration of the needs of the permanent collection.”

“Austria’s culture minister said Wednesday she was seeking ‘clarity’ regarding an art collection that allegedly contains works stolen by the Nazis… Culture Minister Claudia Schmied said she expected the [Leopold Museum Private Foundation] to ‘open up’ by early April and approve an independent examination of its collection by two researchers paid by the federal government.”