Category: visual

Frank Lloyd Wright is “in many respects the Abraham Lincoln of architectural history, a figure who has inspired enough books to fill a small library. With “The Fellowship,” Friedland, a professor of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, and Zellman, a Los Angeles architect, enter this crowded field with an unusually detailed account of the architect’s unorthodox design process.”

Some neighbors of the Whitney Museum in New York have filed suit trying to block the museum’s expansion. “The plaintiffs — two associations of residents and the owners of the Carlyle Hotel — claim that the Board of Standards and Appeals erred in granting the museum variances to zoning regulations, in order to allow the Whitney to go forward with its expansion, which includes a 178-foot stainless-steel-clad tower designed by the award-winning architect Renzo Piano.”

Two Edvard Munch masterpieces stolen from a Norwegian museum two years ago have been recovered by police. “The Scream and Madonna were found in a police operation. “We are 100% certain they are the originals. The damage was much less than feared,” police said. They had been missing since two armed men ripped them from the wall and threatened staff at the Munch Museum in the Norwegian capital in August 2004.”

Another sign of the “aging” of the Museum of Modern Art’s mission is the need to do some serious conservation of some of its important works. “The reason these things were never done before is that they’ve never come off the walls. And I think you have to make some choices here. It seems to me one has to accept the fact that it’s important to do this and when they come back, they’re going to be much better than when they left.”

Wildenstein, the art dealership, is being sued by a company claiming Mr. Wildenstein appraised a painting – Gauguin’s Paysage aux Trois Arbres, 1892 – at “millions of dollars above its value without revealing he had an ‘ownership interest’ in the piece.”

The Louvre is talking with the government of the United Arab Emirates about operating a museum in Abu Dhabi. “The talks followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding in July between the government of Abu Dhabi and the New York-based Guggenheim Foundation which sets out the terms for the establishment of a Guggenheim branch in Abu Dhabi.”

Tate Modern “may be the most popular in Europe but it remains concerned about its appeal to young people and those communities where gallery-going is not a frequent pastime. The gallery has asked artists as diverse as the hip hop singer Estelle, former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and east end rap collective Roll Deep each to select a work in the museum and compose a piece in response.”

Dina Gottliebova Babbitt is a survivor of Auschwitz. While she was there she made watercolor paintings. The paintings are in the Auschwitz Museum, but the 83-year-old Gottliebova Babbitt wants them back. “The Auschwitz museum, which considers the watercolors to be its property, has argued that they are rare artifacts and important evidence of the Nazi genocide, part of the cultural heritage of the world.”

A fire broke out in London’s Royal Academy Wednesday. “The fire broke out yesterday at the former Museum of Mankind, now owned by the Royal Academy, in Piccadilly. Part of the roof and first floor was damaged, a London Fire Brigade spokesman said.”