Category: visual

“The covert campaign targeting street art began about seven months ago, with blobs of paint that appeared overnight, obscuring murals and wheat-pasted art on walls in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. Arcane messages were pasted at the sites, but it was difficult to ask for an explanation. The author was never identified.” Paint splashings, fliers, stink bombs: What’s going on, and who’s behind it?

“Hear the name ‘Eames,’ and you probably picture bent plywood ‘potato chip’ chairs, or midcentury tables resting on ‘paper clip’ legs — iconic home furnishings that shaped the legacy of their designers. Less celebrated is Charles and Ray Eames’ 1949 Pacific Palisades home, though it has profoundly influenced how Southern Californians nest, even to this day.”

“Looks as if Frida Kahlo, one of the Modern era’s most enigmatic artists, has been keeping a few more mysteries tucked inside her tehuana outfits. … On Monday, the Mexico City daily newspaper Reforma published a story in which Raquel Tibol, a respected art critic and author of a new biographical study of Kahlo’s husband, Diego Rivera, raised questions about the authenticity of two of the works in the Kahlo restrospective at the Palace of Bellas Artes.”

“Donatello’s David, the statue credited with starting Italian Renaissance sculpture, is to receive its first big clean-up using innovative laser lifting techniques that are expected to reveal striking gold leaf hair highlights. The 18-month restoration, boosted by €200,000 (£135,000) in government funding, will be carried out in front of visitors to Florence’s Bargello museum. Instead of moving the bronze figure to a laboratory, restorers have brought their lights, cleaning utensils, microscopes and lasers into the display room.”

“President Nicolas Sarkozy’s idea of abolishing entrance fees for French museums is dangerous, said Francoise Cachin, former head of the Musee d’Orsay and of the country’s state-run museums. ‘He has not weighed the consequences of free admission, and will regret it if he goes ahead,’ Cachin said in an interview in Paris. ‘There will be a huge gap that the state will either have to fill directly or by renting out works in exchange for cash.””

“Street artists have speculated for months about the identity of a mysterious figure who has become known as ‘the Splasher’ because he or she hurled colorful blobs of paint at prominent pieces of art on exterior walls in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. The only clues left behind in the paint assaults were bold manifestoes — phrases like ‘destroy the museums, in the streets and everywhere’ — that appeared to critique the commercialization of art. Now it appears that there may be more than one Splasher….”

“Nearly five years after they first proposed a downtown Philadelphia location, Barnes officials last week rejected a $50 million offer to keep the gallery in Lower Merion Township, saying it came far too late to be taken seriously. Montgomery County officials, who made the offer, say they will take the Barnes to court in a final effort to prevent the move.”

Charles Saatchi has bought up all of Royal Academy student James Howard’s work in one fell swoop. “The question is, who wins? Saatchi gets a bargain – three years’ work for the rock-bottom price of £4,500 – and Howard gets notoriety, so it would seem that both of them have a reason to smile. Yet more than a few artists have suffered at the hands of Saatchi’s generosity in the past.”

“The Rijksmuseum has cherry-picked its masterpieces into a ‘greatest hits’ show during refurbishment. Great! No one wants to trudge through an entire collection anyway – do they?”

“There are currently more than 60 biennials and triennials around the world. I’d like to say good riddance to this system. It’s hard to imagine the process working this way in fifteen years. A new generation is going to have to find new ways to do big shows. Biennial culture is already almost irrelevant, because so many more people are providing so many better opportunities for artists to exhibit their work.”