Category: visual

How Conservateurs Dismantled And Reassembled An Angkor Temple To Save It

“In recent decades a shift in the flow of water across Phnom Bakheng amid heavy tourist traffic had jeopardised its long-term viability, prompting the WMF to seek a solution. Devotional shrines erected on the various levels had become destabilised because of a gradual change in the pitch at the ground level of the various terraces.” – The Art Newspaper

Why Is Google Street View Blurring The Faces On Philadelphia’s Murals?

“Of a random sampling of 30 Philly murals that included people, about three-quarters had some degree of facial blurring applied in Street View.” Why? According to a Google spokesperson, the technology that blurs the faces of actual people in Street View images “may be a little overzealous, likely because some of the faces appeared so life-like.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Huge Number Of Works In East Germany’s Museums Were Stolen From Citizens: Report

“Starting in 1945, East German art owners fell victim to an array of inventive methods of expropriation. … In each of the four collections [studied], between 200 and 1,500 objects were discovered to have provenances suggesting they were unethically acquired, accounting for between 1% and 8% of their total inventories.” – The Art Newspaper

America’s First Poster Museum Is Opening

How is it then that the US has never had its own poster museum? “We have a lot of cultural institutions in New York, and there’s a lot of competition between them,” Knight said. “Many of them have poster collections, but they use them as supplemental material. They don’t look at posters first. We think it’s really important to do that because it’s the bottom-up view of history as opposed to the top-down upper-echelon fancy art looking down.” – Hyperallergic

Thirty Years Ago, The Corcoran Canceled A Mapplethorpe Exhibit, Setting Off Washington’s First Big Battle In The Culture Wars. Now The Corcoran Has A Show About That Cancellation

Few of the people involved in the controversy at the time imagined that the culture wars would still be raging three decades later. Kriston Capps reconsiders that battle and the way museums have addressed the wider issues, then and now. – The Washington Post

JFK’s TWA Terminal Is One Of The Great Buildings Of The 20th Century. Here’s What It’s Like Now As A Hotel

Saarinen’s TWA terminal, like the great cathedrals of Europe, the giant domes of the Renaissance and the miraculous infrastructure of the 20th century, asserts a truth far deeper than its original purpose: If man can build miraculous buildings, he can remake the world itself into something more equal, more fair, and more decent.  – Washington Post

SFMOMA Will Be Sending Art To The Golden State Warriors’ New Arena

When the Chase Center opens in San Francisco in the fall, it will feature a 700-pound mobile by Alexander Calder and Isamu Noguchi’s 1975 Play Sculpture. “[They’re] part of a unique ongoing partnership to install four major works of art either borrowed from or commissioned by SFMOMA specifically for the Warriors’ new home court.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Museums And Galleries In Hong Kong Close In Support Of Demonstrations Against Extradition Law

“Around 100 Hong Kong arts organisations, including commercial galleries, signed up to call a strike on Wednesday as lawmakers were expected to begin a series of votes on the [law which would make it easier to extradite Hong Kong citizens to mainland China on political charges]. Those proceedings have been postponed as protesters and the police clash outside the legislature.” – South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)