Category: visual

Daniel Libeskind is such a prominent presence in the architecture world that it’s easy to forget that he hasn’t completed a single building in the US. Until now: “The architect’s new wing for the Denver Art Museum… appears at first to be primarily an example of aggressive form-making — a branding exercise for designer and client alike… For all its iconic power — and for all the evidence it presents that Libeskind is still fully in thrall to the colliding, fragmented forms of deconstructivist architecture — this is a project that a New Urbanist could happily endorse.”

“New venues have been springing up like some genetically altered mushroom able to thrive in full sunshine. The already decentralized metropolis can now boast of galleries in neighborhoods from Culver City (the current center of buzz, if not always daring cerebration) to Chinatown and Santa Monica.”

“With “Adele,” Lauder and the Neue Galerie are making a grand gamble: Can a splashy, nearly unimaginable art acquisition turn an obscure museum into a must-see destination? Can a single painting – even a $135 million one – lift a museum to prominence?”

“Instead of collectors thinking of museums as one of the first places to put their art, they’ll be more willing to hang on to it and probably put it back on the market, so it’ll probably never end up in a museum.”

All well and good for people to suggest Maria Altmann ought to have hung on to the Klimt paintings that were stolen from her ancestors by Nazis and recently returned. But “what if Ms. Altmann had decided to hold on to her Klimts? Once Nazi-looted art is restored to its rightful owners, the bills start coming in. Lawyers in some restitution cases may work pro bono, but their costs cannot be waived, and these can quickly pile up.”

“We’re committed to seeing the end of illegal excavations and the illicit trade in archaeological works of art. This is a new era of legality. That’s why it’s very important to see the objects here in Rome.”

“Obviously, everybody regrets to say goodbye to something from their collections, but the theme to our meetings was to find out what was the right place for the objects. Both sides were looking for the truth.”

Germany’s Leipzig Art Academy has become an artworld Mecca. “Academic art used to mean staid and stuffy. Now it means hot and hip, at least when it comes to works by graduates from the Academy.”

“Colombian artist Fernando Botero is offering some 80 paintings and drawings portraying the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison to any suitable museum willing to display them.” So far… no takers.

The Museum of the City of New York is finally ready to break ground on an expansion that it first unveiled nearly two decades ago. “The new wing tries to project a more inviting and inclusive identity for what is a city landmark built in the 1930’s.”