Category: visual

As architecture gets more and more creative, and buildings spring up in shapes and configurations never before thought possible, the “wow” factor frequently gives way to more practical reactions. “Are the new skyscrapers giving us a new poetic language — or are they the architectural equivalent of profanity, strictly designed to grab attention and make a buck? Do the towers create vibrant urban places — or are they simply drop-dead objects that could be shifted from one look-at-me boomtown to another without anyone noticing?”

Sketch artists are no longer a regular sight on the battlefield, having been long since replaced by omnipresent reporters and photojournalists. But following the 9/11 attacks and the US invasion of Iraq, one New York artist decided that the most important thing he could do was to report to Baghdad and serve as the art world’s eye on the war. “With press credentials provided by the online artnet Magazine, Mumford made four trips to Iraq in 2003 and 2004, and he created hundreds of ink and watercolor drawings documenting many different experiences of the war.”

A week or so ago, Chicago architecture critic Blair Kamin publicly blasted a ten-foot kiosk erected in the city’s downtown loop by developer Donald Trump to advertise his planned new 92-story hotel/condo building. As it turns out, The Donald doesn’t take criticism particularly well. “Trump argued that the kiosk is justified because he spent $18 million to rebuild the superstructure of Wabash Avenue next to his tower… [But] the significance of this battle transcends the tiny stretch of North Michigan Avenue sidewalk where Trump’s kiosk was planted. Cities around the country are struggling with similar conflicts…”

The Phoenix Art Museum’s capital campaign (initiated to pay for a major expansion) has been so successful that museum officials have doubled their final goal. “It started with about $18.2 million in bond money approved by Phoenix voters in 2001. The initial goal was to raise another $12.5 million, but the museum so far has been able to raise about $30 million.”

Richard West is leaving his post as director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. West spent 17 years working on the project. “West, a Harvard-trained historian, Stanford-educated lawyer and member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, left a lucrative legal career to help make the museum a reality.”

A painter and long time admirer of Jackson Pollock buys a painting that may be a Pollock (but then again may not be). The price was $61,000. “The 15-minute auction opened at $25,000 Wednesday evening but dropped to $10,000 when no one bid and then to $5,000 before the bidding heated up. ‘I’ve been looking at them for 40 years. My gut tells me this is real’.”

Rocked by claims it had purchased looted antiquities, the Getty establishes new rules for acquisitions. “The Getty’s new rules allow for buying pieces that were exported from their home country after Nov. 17, 1970. As long as they are accompanied by documentation, the export is legal. The November 1970 cutoff date was originally adopted by a United Nations convention to prevent the illegal trafficking of archaeological material.”

Curator Gary Tinterow makes a list of gaps in 20th Century art in the Metropolitan Museum’s “encyclopedic” collection.

Leading archaeologists are worried that Baghdad’s National Museum collection might be broken up. “The initiative follows reports in Baghdad that the government is considering the possibility of “regionalising” the National Museum’s holding. In particular, there is some pressure to send antiquities excavated in the south to Basra or one of the main sites, such as Nasariyah.”

“Cultural life in Germany would almost certainly be more vital with a smaller, better capitalised arts sector, but the path to it is unclear. So it is not surprising that in the combination of acute financial need and firmly local and regional political oversight, the issue of deaccessioning is cropping up in fairly primitive forms.”