Category: visual

Archaeologists are pressing for protection of rare ancient Arctic rock carvings after news they have been damaged. “The approximately 170 petroglyphs are mask-like images and animal shapes carved into a soapstone ridge on Qajartalik Island, one hour by boat from the village of Kangiqsujuaq.”

“What is MoMA’s value to society? It may seem a callous inquiry. Artists view MoMA as a priceless collection. But economists, being an unsentimental lot, frequently occupy themselves with such diversions. Indeed, MoMA itself entered the fray with a June study by the firm of Audience Research and Analysis claiming that from late-2004, when it reopened, through mid-2007, the museum’s economic impact on the city will total $2 billion.”

“Former gallery owners said that after they had invested tens of thousands of dollars each or more, the company’s practices and policies drove them out of business. They alleged they were stuck with unsalable limited-edition prints, forced to open additional stores in saturated markets and undercut by discounters that sold identical artworks at prices they were forbidden to match. Some also have accused Kinkade — touted as the most widely collected living U.S. artist — of scheming to devalue his public company, Media Arts Group Inc., before taking it private two years ago for $32.7 million as Thomas Kinkade Co.”

“The order, obtained by Canada’s Competition Bureau, directs Sotheby’s to take measures to ensure it complies with existing rules. Sotheby’s also must pay for the C$800,000 ($720,000) probe and is barred from ‘doing any act or thing directed in the commission of an offence’ forbidden by Canada’s competition law.”

The restitution last month of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s 1913 painting ‘Berlin Street Scene’ to a descendant of the Jewish family who owned it before World War II has “sparked an indignant response from art experts and the regional parliamentary opposition. London-based Christie’s International estimates the oil painting may fetch as much as $25 million at its Nov. 8 auction in New York.”

“The 48-year-old, whose birthday was Monday, comes to the museum after six years as director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, the world’s largest architectural museum. He’s a Montana native who was raised in the Netherlands after his parents, both college professors, received Fulbright Fellowships to travel there.”

The Stuckists are sharp critics of what has been the main stream of contemporary art. “Opposed to conceptual art, anti-art and postmodernism, they also deride what they see as a cosy relationship between the elite of the art world, using their own works to launch satirical attacks on people who they believe to perpetuate the status quo. But is it art?”

Here’s a gallery of contenstants for this year’s Stirling Prize.

A conservationist believes he knows where one of Leonardo’s greatest works is hidden. “But for three years he has been frustrated by wrangling in Florence. Now the election of a new government in Italy, where art is seldom apolitical, has given his search fresh impetus. Francesco Rutelli, the Deputy Prime Minister and Culture Minister, will soon appoint a committee to resolve the issue.”

Iraq’s top cultural official has resigned. “Donny George has resigned as President of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) in Iraq, citing his frustration at lack of funding and at growing interference from the radical Shi’ite party now in control of the government ministry to which SBAH is attached.”