Category: visual

The story of the late African-American artist Lester Hayes, whose work is seen in a current retrospective at the Harlem gallery Triple Candie, “is a familiar one, and of a kind the art world loves. Not only was he tragically unrecognized but, we now learn, he was also hugely influential.” Except that he wasn’t. “He never existed.”

“The ArtTactic Market Confidence Indicator increased 1 percent in the six months through November after a 26 percent surge in the previous year, said surveyor ArtTactic Ltd. Collectors said a global economic slowdown would be the art market’s greatest risk. Hedge funds’ use of leverage and soaring prices for young, unproven artists also were a concern, ArtTactic said.”

“Authorities in Italy suspect that up to 100 treasures from ancient Rome were looted and have asked the Japanese government to help secure their return.”

“The company that ran the art storage depot that went up in flames destroying hundreds of pieces of Britart has secretly paid out tens of millions of pounds in damages to leading artists, collectors and insurance companies.”

Do New York and Los Angeles compete in architecture? “Among those New Yorkers who care about things architectural, the serious competition has been coming out of Chicago, rather than points farther west, for the past century or so. And though Los Angeles does possess architecture — it is, after all, a city — you don’t have the impression that the majority of its citizens care greatly about their buildings, and surely these do not enter materially into any assessment of the Angelenos’ municipal identity.”

Twelve years ago the Hammer Museum sold Leonardo Da Vinci’s Codex Leicester to Microsoft founder Bill Gates for $30.8 million. This helped “bankroll the institution’s exhibitions and programs” and since the sale, the museum has been relying on interest income from the sale. The move was, “at first glance, conflicts with the code of ethics that major U.S. museums have endorsed for decades.”

Why have there been, “and still are, so many different styles of architecture? Why do some of us like one thing — let’s say, glass-and-steel modernism — while others despise it? Why do so many Americans in 2007 wish to live in copies of the red-brick-white-trim Georgian architecture of the 18th century?”

“With colleges and universities spending billions of dollars to upgrade facilities and attract students in a hypercompetitive academic marketplace, the pressure to produce iconic, ‘look at me’ architecture is more intense than ever. Yet there is no guarantee that a sexy, signature building will successfully fuse form and function.”

“Steven Nash, who coordinated the organization and opening of the Nasher Sculpture Center and served as director for its first three years, will leave the post in early March. He’ll be the new executive director of the Palm Springs Art Museum in California.”

“Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli and officials in the Tuscan city announced this week they had given approval for renewed exploration in the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of power for various Florence rulers, including the Medici family in the 16th century. There, some researchers believe, a cavity in a wall may have preserved Leonardo’s unfinished painted mural of the “Battle of Anghiari” for more than four centuries.”