Category: visual

The Spire of Dublin “gains its power from its engineering, rather than from symbolism. Perhaps that’s what’s wrong with the design for the World Trade Center Memorial–it is relentlessly literal; the two tower footprints, the names of the victims, the inevitable visitor center. (It must be said that this is chiefly the fault of the committee that created the original program.) Wouldn’t it have been better if the memorial had been … uplifting and inspiring, but also mute?”

“It isn’t memory that is the issue. It is commemoration. Memory, at least right now, is readily summoned. Commemoration is something else altogether. The new exhibition at the New-York Historical Society, for example, is not a commemoration. ‘Here Is New York: Remembering 9/11,’ which opens today, is exclusively about memory….”

Charlotte Higgins tracks down 22 years of winners and talks to them about their experiences.

“The Barnes Foundation has chosen Tod Williams and Billie Tsien to design its new home in downtown Philadelphia. Museum officials said the choice would be announced today.”

What are the chances of a court challenge keeping the Barnes Collection in its longtime home? “Three law review articles say the original case was wrongly decided, but conventional wisdom says a successful reversal is a long shot. A ruling is a ruling. I’m no lawyer, but the shorthand reasoning seems to be “No do-overs.”

The New York museum is in the midst of a major restoration. “Wright’s professional reputation has emerged intact, experts involved in the project say. The building’s flaws lay in its execution, not its conception. Exposed to high winds and extreme variations in temperature, the walls have continually expanded and contracted. They will still be flexible but will become more resilient, with concealed control joints that allow the gunite to expand and contract without cracking.”

“Miami-Dade has spent three decades — and more than $33 million — building one of the largest and richest art collections in Florida, destined to enhance courthouses, libraries, transit stations, the airport and the seaport. But the collection of more than 700 artworks, praised by many as among the finest in the field, is in disarray.”

“Nothing about the opening this month of the (Philadelphia Museum of Art’s) Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building – the first public addition since the opening of the neoclassical temple in the 1920s – makes the (institution’s) mission less serious. But the 173,000-square-foot expansion represents the museum’s only suggestion in decades that its art is not necessarily tied to a building, and that it is ready to come down off its pedestal, literally and figuratively, to become part of a city neighborhood.”

“Historic preservation is a good cause, but, truth be told, it’s always been a little nerdy… But now, it seems, preservation is almost cool — or at least cool enough” for American Express to launch “an online vote that will let people pick a favorite [Chicago] landmark from a list of contenders vying for $1 million in rehab funds.”

“Judy L. Larson, director of [Washington, D.C.’s] National Museum of Women in the Arts, has resigned her post, according to the museum. Larson, one of the museum’s longest-serving directors, took the helm of the museum in September 2002… Under Larson, the museum completed a $25 million endowment campaign and celebrated its 20th anniversary.” No reason was given for her departure.