Category: visual

Archeological experts have begun applying a fungicide to halt the spread of grey and black mould in the caverns, dubbed the Sistine Chapel of prehistory.

“Over $64m from a slush fund set up by Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung, was allegedly used to buy art for his wife Ra Hee Hong Lee who is director-general of the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, according to the Korean corporation’s former house attorney. None of the art has been exhibited in Korea and its whereabouts is presently unknown. Samsung denies the allegations.”

“Other world cities are making it clear in projects of similar magnitude that more than money matters as they embrace standards of architecture and planning that leave New York in the dust. We continue to find the spectacle of developers’ promotional and political savvy riveting, knowing that success will depend on the deal and not the design.”

“In the wake of Katrina, nonprofits like Architecture for Humanity are jumping into the breach. The need is all the more urgent as misguided plans to raze 4,500 New Orleans apartments took a further step forward last week with a supporting vote from the City Council.”

With the Beijing Olympics looming, China is putting up huge new buildings at dizzying speed. What will the lasting impact be on the rising capital’s architecture? “China is currently the one nation on earth blessed with the mix of overweening ambition, brute strength and deranged self-confidence that might lead a country to build something quite as crazy as the new headquarters of China Central Television (CCTV).”

It was a good year for Canadian art and artists, relatively speaking. “Sotheby’s only provided further proof that the market value for contemporary Canadian art… had gained some traction in the money-drenched international art markets.” Still, there’s a long way yet to go.

Several small Southern cities have recently committed to build major new museums, and have hired prominent architects to design them. No one believes that a single museum can suddenly transform Bentonville, Arkansas into Chicago or Boston, but many local boosters believe that the right building could help them mimic the cultural rise of smaller cities like Bilbao, Spain.

As more Muslims emigrate to the US, mosques are being constructed around the country, and that has given rise to an “uneasy relationship between Islam and the West and the future of mosque architecture in the U.S.”

For the UK’s visual arts scene, “it was a non-vintage year in many respects. No grand project opened its doors, no assembling of crack old masters (Caravaggio, Velázquez) shook the world-view.” But the art sales boom continued, Brit film made some strides, and all the usual prizes stirred the usual pots.

Roanoke, Virginia has been trying to reinvent itself for more than two decades, and culture has played an important role in the process. “The latest addition is the new $66 million Art Museum of Western Virginia, one of the most expensive and controversial projects in the city’s history.”