Category: visual

“The settlement requires Fisk, a storied but cash-poor historically black university, to seek a donation that would allow the school to keep one or both of the paintings, which have each been appraised for $8.5 million. The two paintings comprise over half of the estimated value of the entire Stieglitz Collection. If no donor steps forward within 30 days, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum – which had sued Fisk to stop the sale – will buy ‘Radiator Building’ for $7 million. Fisk could then also sell the Hartley painting, perhaps through auction.”

A life-size statue of Elvis Presley is being erected in Hawaii on the 30th anniversary of the singer’s death. “Wearing his iconic bejewelled jumpsuit, the bronze statue will be placed on the site of Presley’s historic 1973 Aloha From Hawaii concert.”

” It has meandered for decades through art galleries and private collections before ending up in the middle of a pitched legal battle in New York’s Southern District court, where two of Grünbaum’s heirs–Leon Fischer, a New York stamp dealer, and Milos Vavra, who lives in Prague–have bickered for two years with the drawing’s owner, David Bakalar.”

Striking workers at the Louvre temporarily let visitors in free Wednesday. “The workers, who are responsible for guarding the Mona Lisa and other famous works, later moved away from the booths and officials returned to charging for admission.”

Ontario’s McClaren Gallery has “unveiled a large bronze reproduction of The Thinker, Auguste Rodin’s masterpiece of manly, moody meditation, the original plaster version of which was created in 1880, 37 years before Rodin’s death… For many, The Thinker probably will serve, at least for a time, as a painful reminder of a bold, multimillion-dollar art deal gone bad — so bad, in fact, that it almost destroyed the gallery on whose corner it now sits.”

The Greek government had put pressure on the museum, saying that the Apollo statue the Louvre wanted to borrow was probably stolen. “Agence France-Presse reported in December that Greek officials had asked the Louvre not to exhibit the sculpture, saying that it was probably sold illegally after having been found in the 1990s by an Italian vessel in international waters between Italy and Greece.”

“While conservators have inherited generations’ worth of knowledge about oil paints, they know comparatively little about synthetics and how to protect the masterpieces created by using them, many of which are rapidly approaching the half-century mark.”

It’s useful to keep in mind the disconnect between professionals’ and the public’s opinions, as illuminated in the American Institute of Architects’ “America’s Favorite Architecture” survey, John King writes. “The general public isn’t looking for cultural sustenance, or a three-dimensional manifesto on the inequities of capitalism. The starting point is more basic: How does it feel?”

“The Smithsonian Institution rejected a request from Oliver North to film a stand-up in front of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb. This is the latest flap in the Smithsonian’s development of programming for a cable television network. North … said in an opinion column that the museum’s action raises questions about the propriety of the contract between Showtime Networks and the Smithsonian, which limits access of film crews.”

No question about it, Lance Esplund writes, Arnold Lehman has transformed the Brooklyn Museum and lured huge crowds. But at what cost? “What is present at the Brooklyn Museum is a belief in the power of art as entertainment and attraction. Mr. Lehman obviously knows what the public wants, and he is giving it to them. What is missing at the Brooklyn Museum is a faith in the public and in the power of art.”