Category: visual

In Italy, where earthquakes are common, the “Culture Ministry has implemented guidelines that it hopes will mitigate the threat that earthquakes pose to the country’s artistic heritage. … Under the new guidelines unveiled this summer, officials at the local and national levels are to evaluate the seismic risk to individual structures in their jurisdictions and take steps to reduce the vulnerability.”

A dozen disputed paintings that their owner claims are by Jackson Pollock go on display. Ken Johnson’s verdict? “If they are not by the master, they are expert imitations in miniature of the great abstract expressionist’s late-1940s drip and dribble style works.”

“Italian researchers say they have been able to reconstruct for the first time, stroke by stroke, how Renaissance master painter Leonardo da Vinci created his works of art.”

San Francisco’s DeYoung Museum is having a great year at the box office. “Despite the booming attendance, some local artists, art dealers, collectors and other frequent museumgoers have begun to question [director John] Buchanan’s priorities, wondering whether he is more interested in fluff than fine arts.”

“A print of Osama Bin Laden which morphs into Jesus, and a statue of the Virgin Mary covered in a burqa have sparked furious debate in Australia. The two pieces have gone on display at the National Art School in Sydney after being entered for the prestigious Blake Prize for Religious Art.”

“Many state governments own more houses of historical interest than they can afford to maintain, mainly on farms acquired decades ago and converted to parkland. Now a few states have begun turning these properties, along with some of the surrounding land, over to live-in curators, who take on restoration responsibilities in lieu of paying rent or taxes.”

The Clark Art Institute and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMOCA) have agreed to join forces to share gallery space and collections. “The lease deal for three former factory buildings will increase the Clark’s visibility, and provide the museum with a sensible place to branch out into more contemporary art exhibitions… For Mass MoCA, the arrangement will pump money into the museum’s tiny endowment and perpetually strapped annual budget.”

“Self-taught and sneered at by the art establishment, especially in his native Scotland, Jack Vettriano has become arguably one of the best known painters in the world.” How does he feel about artists who resent his success? “Artists say, how can I get only X for my work and Vettriano gets X thousand for his? Think, you stupid bugger. It’s not a bit about being a better painter than me, it’s about market forces.”

Damien Hirst’s diamond-studded skull has been sold for $100 million to an investment group. “The platinum skull, studded with 8,601 diamonds, has been on the market at least since June 3, when it went on show at London’s White Cube gallery.”

“What is it about architecture that makes it so attractive as a metaphorical job description? There’s Bill Walsh, the NFL coach who after he died last month was widely remembered as “the architect of the West Coast offense.” And Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden’s Rove, often is called the architect of 9/11. Don’t forget James Madison, architect of the Constitution, or Alfred Hitchcock, labeled by one of his biographers “the architect of anxiety.” The computer industry is full of information and software “architects” who do their building with zeros and ones.”