When Kodak announced last June that it would no longer manufacture black-and-white printing papers, the decision did more than terminate 117 years of production. By severing a vital supply line long taken for granted, the company reminded photographers of their humbling dependence on equipment and materials—and how quickly both they and the equipment and materials can go out of date.
Category: visual
Guild Formed To Combat Russian Art Forgery
To combat the rising incidence of art forgery, Russian scholars are forming a new guild to act as an authority. “The Guild’s main goal is to establish rules and standards for authenticating art works. It plans to license art experts, act as a lobby for the art market in Russia and provide information and legal assistance for collectors.”
A Little Darkness Falls On The “Painter Of Light”
Thomas Kinkade has made millions as a self-styled “Painter of Light.” But some of his gallery owners are suing him, and they paint a pretty dark picture. “In litigation and interviews with the Los Angeles Times, some former gallery owners depict Kinkade, 48, as a ruthless businessman who drove them to financial ruin at the same time he was fattening his business associates’ bank accounts and feathering his nest with tens of millions of dollars.”
British Museum Lends To China
The British Museum is loaning 272 of its most precious artefacts to the Capital Museum of Beijing in one of the highest level cultural exchanges between the two countries. “Ancient Egyptian tablets, Greek busts and the world’s oldest tool will be among the items on display in the first major overseas exhibition staged at the new museum – a gleaming structure of glass, steel and stone that opened in December.”
Stolen Matisse Offered For Sale Online
One of the paintings stolen in Brazil has shown up for sale on the internet. “Henri Matisse’s Luxembourg Gardens, which was taken from the Chacara do Ceu museum in Rio de Janeiro, was advertised on a Russian website. Brazilian police say they believe the stolen pictures are still in Rio.”
Corcoran Cuts Staff, Reimagines New Future
Washington’s Corcoran Gallery has cut staff, including its chief curator. The move comes one month before Paul Greenhalgh takes over as director. “Greenhalgh announced the cuts at a meeting Thursday for staff and faculty of the gallery and its College of Art and Design. He characterized the moves as part of an effort to help redirect the 137-year-old institution.”
Collectivity And The Dynamics Of Art
Artist collectives change the dynamics of making art. “One way or another, joint production among parties of equal standing — we’re not talking about master artist and studio assistants here — scrambles existing aesthetic formulas. It may undermine the cult of the artist as media star, dislodge the supremacy of the precious object and unsettle the economic structures that make the art world a mirror image of the inequities of American culture at large. In short, it confuses how we think about art and assign value to it. This can only be good.”
The Whitney’s Collaborative Biennial
This year’s Whitney Biennial opens. Michael Kimmelman: “Conservatives will no doubt dismiss the whole exhibition as another political show like the 1993 biennial. But this show’s not like that one, which went out of its way to thumb its nose at many people.”
This Year’s Whitney – Best In Show
Jerry Saltz calls this latest edition of the Whitney Biennial “the liveliest, brainiest, most self-conscious Whitney Biennial I have ever seen. In some ways it isn’t a biennial at all. Curators Chrissie Iles and Philippe Vergne have cleverly re-branded the biennial, presenting a thesis not a snap-shot, a proposition about art in a time when modernism is history and postmodernist rhetoric feels played out.”
How Art Appreciates
What is it that increases the value of art? Fame, exposure, The right collectors?