Category: visual

“A self-portrait of David Hockney standing before a work-in-progress while his friend and former assistant, Charlie Scheips, scrutinises the canvas has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. The £148,000 purchase is the gallery’s first painted self-portrait of Hockney. Completed two years ago, it was bought from funds raised by ‘gift aid’ in which the public donates money on buying an admission ticket….”

“The raging debate over putting the Chicago Children’s Museum in Grant Park has literally descended to a new low, one that reveals how fundamentally misconceived the plan is. The plan not only would undermine more than a century of efforts to keep this singular park free and clear of buildings. It also threatens to mar the experience of the very constituency the museum is designed to serve — children.”

“With high-end real estate markets reeling, the developer of the Chicago Spire on Wednesday did what any crafty developer would do to instill confidence in his $1.5 billion project: He had his star architect show off fresh plans for apartments, including one with a circular sleeping zone framed by sliding glass doors. How real-life buyers will react is anybody’s guess but these details clearly reflect the vision of architect Santiago Calatrava.”

“Artist Chapman Kelley insisted the wildflowers he planted in Grant Park was not a garden but a federally protected work of art — a belief supported by a judge Wednesday. … Kelley’s attorney, Frank Hernandez of Dallas, said the case is believed to be the first time an artist using ‘alternative materials’ has successfully sued under the Federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VERA), passed in 1990 to protect public art and its creators.”

“Though its physical construction is years away, the National Museum of African American History and Culture today is inaugurating an online spot where visitors can help shape its content. One feature of the Web site, named after the museum, is a Memory Book, where people can submit a story, photograph or audio recording that tells something about themselves or a moment in African American history.”

Philadelphia has Rocky. Milwaukee has the Fonz, a.k.a. Richie Cunningham’s cool pal from “Happy Days.” In Milwaukee, just as in Philly, there may now be a public sculpture to commemorate the connection. “So far, Visit Milwaukee has raised $45,000, and the group is confident it will meet its timetable of unveiling a bronze Fonz in 2008….”

“Few written documents have the power to immerse readers in the mind of an artist — to get at the heart of how an artist thinks. This is partly because nothing can get us closer to art than art itself: Everything else is ancillary or anecdotal. It is also because few artists with literary gifts choose to put pen to paper, when they could be putting brush to canvas or chisel to marble.” Vincent van Gogh’s letters are among the exceptions to the rule.

Good question, though a new exhibition about her doesn’t try to answer it. “We are all Jane Jacobsites today. … Obviously many people take Jane Jacobs’s name in vain, and many on either side of the urban debate claim her for their own. But the important thing is that — with the exception of a few younger urbanists rebelling against their parents — her vision of the world has overwhelmingly won the day.”

Elton John is confirming that he is the owner of a photo seized from exhibit by British police under child pornography laws. The photo, by renowned photographer Nan Goldin, “shows two young girls playing together in front of a kitchen sink. One is skimpily dressed, the other is naked and lies beneath her, knees bent and legs splayed towards the camera.”

As the debate rages over saving the Cape Cod landscape Edward Hopper painted, Verlyn Klinkenborg finds it all a little odd. “I believe in protecting open land on almost any pretext and surely the dunes of South Truro deserve to be protected because they are part of the larger ecosystem of the Cape Cod National Seashore. What puzzles me is the idea of the Hopper landscape. The landscape Hopper saw, as an artist, is already protected. It exists only in his paintings, nowhere else.”