Category: visual

‘The Most Exciting New Private Museum In America’ — Sebastian Smee On Glenstone

“Glenstone is a 21st-century version of the Frick, the Phillips Collection or the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. And it’s the equivalent, among its contemporaries, of such celebrated art sanctuaries as Naoshima in Japan and Louisiana in Denmark. … Even as you sigh and breathe more deeply at Glenstone, you can’t help but feel that the people who set all this up — a billionaire couple who live on the property — have designs on you. And part of you — or part of me, anyway — wants to resist.” – The Washington Post

Hermitage Museum Considers Opening Saudi Satellite

“The State Hermitage Museum [in St. Petersburg] has held talks with Saudi officials to explore the possibility of opening a satellite in the Gulf state. The meeting took place earlier this year during Hermitage Day in Oman, part of the Russian museum’s practice of taking short-term exhibitions and lectures to locations around the world as a form of soft power.” – The Art Newspaper

Who Will Take Over As Head Of The National African American Museum When Lonnie Bunch Leaves?

“Lonnie Bunch gave 14 years. He has built an incredible foundation. We want someone just like [him], who was transforming, who could inspire the really terrific people we have at the museum to reach new heights, someone who has credibility in the academic community as well as someone who is a strong leader.” – Washington Post

More And More Museums Consider Offering Free Admission

Just last week, L.A. MoCA announced that it will eliminate admission charges; earlier this year, MoCA Cleveland did the same thing, while Toronto’s AGO made itself free for visitors under 25. Other cities have made their museums free for limited groups such as public benefits recipients or library card holders. Many museum administrators now find themselves torn between the public library model (“where you can walk in for free and learn something”) and “a gut feeling that people value things more when they have to pay for it.” – The New York Observer

We’re Not Returning This Painting To Italy, Even If It’s A Leonardo, Swiss High Court Rules

“Switzerland’s highest court has rejected Italy’s request for the return of an oil painting attributed by some to Leonardo Da Vinci, ruling no Swiss laws were broken when the work was brought over the border. Titled Portrait of Isabella d’Este and dated to the 16th century, the painting became the subject of an international tug-of-war after an Italian woman, Emidia Cecchini, sought to sell it in 2013.” – Reuters

How Peter Schjeldahl Illuminates The Art World

“What separates Schjeldahl is the tangible sense in nearly every piece in this book — say 85 of the 100 — that something existential is at stake as he writes. The same sensation is present in Barthes and Sontag, his closest analogues to my mind, writers who, whatever their subject at a given moment, are desperately attempting to make something lucid out of this indecipherable life they’ve received without asking for it.” – The New York Times

There Will Be No Roof Garden Or Avant-Garde Spire At Notre-Dame: French Senate Votes To Make It Like It Was

“On Monday evening, the French Senate approved the government’s Notre-Dame restoration bill — but added a clause that it must be restored to the state it was before the blaze, striking a blow to the government which had launched an international architecture competition to debate ideas on the restoration.” – The Local (France)