Category: visual

Digital photography has been a revelation for those who make their living with a camera. But has technology stripped the art out of the medium? “The advantages of digital are plain enough: easier storage, the ability to upload photos straight to the computer, no need for film, being able to take a mulligan on images you don’t want to keep and, if results are all you require, no need for screwing around in a darkroom. But for ‘making photographs’? For making art? No. It’s like ‘painting’ a picture using your computer. It’s kind of fun to do and what you have when you’re done may be superficially terrific, but unless you’ve actually applied brush to canvas you’re no artist. You are merely a technician with a good eye.”

Fisk University is trying to sell art it owns in order to raise money. “The Nashville school is awaiting a court ruling on whether it can sell a Georgia O’Keeffe painting and a Marsden Hartley painting, both part of the 101-piece collection, which was donated to the historically black college nearly 60 years ago by Stieglitz’s widow — O’Keeffe herself. The collection also includes works by such artists as Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Arthur Dove and John Marin, as well as some of Stieglitz’s photography. According to an IRS filing, Fisk’s entire art collection was appraised at $31.4 million in 2002.”

Are Russian authorities using the recent thefts at the Hermitage Museum as a way to purge museums? “The Union of Museums of Russia protested what it described as an attempt to use the thefts of 221 objects from the St. Petersburg institution to push the government to privatize national museums.”

Gustav Klimt is important historically, writes Mario Naves. “But in the greater scheme of things, Klimt is small potatoes. Forget Modernism: If $135 million is considered a commendable investment for a picture by a minor artist, what price tag do we put on a painting by Fra Angelico, a sculpture by Donatello or a drawing by Durer? The question is undoubtedly lodged in the overexcited minds of museums, collectors and auction houses the world over.”

Two 2,500-year-old terra cotta warriors have been discovered, and archaeologists believe they may be predecessors of the army buried with China’s first emperor. “The four-inch-tall figurines were made in Qin, China’s most powerful state, before its ruler unified China in 221 BC, state media reported. They were found in the north-western province of Shaanxi in the ruins of a workshop.”

“A painting of Mary Queen of Scots, one of only two thought to have been made in her lifetime, has been discovered – in the National Portrait Gallery’s very own store. The portrait was bought for £50 by the gallery in 1916 at Christie’s. But later it was written off as an 18th century fake and was left to gather dust.”

“New York is often the destination for art that is silently whisked from museums and personal collections, but as the center of the art world, the city has more than its share of cautious eyes watching for suspicious sales, missing links, and unusually rare offerings for relatively inexpensive prices. With the disclosures in the past week that hundreds of pieces of art have been stolen from two prominent Russian museums, New Yorkers in the art business and the law enforcement officials who investigate art crime have been watching to see if any of the pieces make their way through this major throughway for the multibillion-dollar art industry.”

Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art has lost out on money from the city’s major funder. “After receiving the museum’s audit on June 8 – two days late – the district’s board decided to remove the museum from it’s Tier II category of funding.”

“The gallery, designed by the Manhattan architect Lindy Roy, is named Gallery Met; it is financed by a $1 million donation from Marie Schwartz, a Met board member. It will be open whenever the opera house or the box office is, and through the end of every performance. Nothing is for sale. When the works come down in May, at the end of the opera season, they are to be returned to the artists.”

How would Dr. Barnes have reacted to moving the Barnes Collection? “When he wrote the original indenture with [John] Dewey, it was optimistic and big-pictured and optimistic about American society and making the collection accessible. The Barnes who died prematurely would indeed [rotate in his grave], I’m sure… It’s evident from the indenture that he left that he wanted the limited access, the investment of funds in low-yield government bonds and so on… But that’s not the Barnes that I think we need to go back to, [I prefer] the Barnes who had this wonderful vision for this wonderful collection who was dedicated to improving America.”