A Nazi archive of 60,000 digital colour images of wall and ceiling paintings in German buildings has been put online. The pictures were taken for the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda and the Department of Buildings and Monuments between 1943 and 1945, and show the interiors of 480 buildings—churches, monasteries, castles and palaces, dating from the 10th to the end of the 19th centuries—in what was the ‘Greater German Reich’.”
Category: visual
World’s Top Museums Vie For Hong Kong Project
Some of the world’s top museums are competing to be part of the world’s biggest arts project, the multi-billion-dollar Kowloon Cultural District. “Last month it emerged that two former rivals—the Guggenheim and the Pompidou Centre—have joined forces to increase their chances of securing the lucrative deal. It also appears that other museums angling to get in the frame include the Art Institute of Chicago and Asia Society in New York, the Royal Academy of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Musée d’Orsay and Musée Guimet in Paris, and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.”
What Went Wrong With Our WTC Plans?
“Why has it been so difficult to replace the twin towers of the World Trade Center? Four years after the attacks of 9/11—four years of design competitions, planning studies, and public forums—the design that has emerged is an unlovely and unloved fortress of a skyscraper, which seems to inspire no emotion deeper than a kind of resigned chagrin. This was to have been the building of the century: what went wrong?”
Computer Declares Mona Lisa’s Smile
Mona Lisa is, in fact, smiling, says a computer analysis. “The painting was analysed by a University of Amsterdam computer using ’emotion recognition’ software. It concluded that the subject was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry.”
Decommissioning Northern Ireland’s War Murals
“Over the past 20 years, Belfast has become famous (perhaps infamous) for its paramilitary murals, visual depictions of its “troubled” times. In Catholic republican areas, street paintings celebrated the Irish Republican Army; in Protestant loyalist areas they paid tribute to a host of splintered violent outfits such as the UDA, the UVF, the UFF. Things are starting to change. With the help of generous city government funding, community activists are replacing these symbols of war with advertisements for peace.”
Director: Detroit Historical Museum Won’t Close
Contray to what the mayor and city say. Bob Bury, executive director and chief executive officer of the Detroit Historical Society, said the society has “adequate funding” to keep the museum open. The mayor had announced closure because of budget needs.
A Solution For The Museum Looted Art Mess?
American museums should not grudgingly cough up artifacts piece by piece, like thieves caught with swag. They should make a virtue out of adversity and offer to share their disputed antiquities en masse with plaintiff countries–this applies above all to the Getty, which can afford to lead the world by example and precedent. The Getty should flaunt its courage with a grand public change of heart. It should offer to build Getty museums abroad in the Guggenheim Bilbao manner to house its antiquities in style and to create a system of permanently shared collections.”
Britain’s Most Popular Building (Or One Of Its Biggest Eyesores?)
The new Scottish parliament building was voted the UK’s 8th most popular in a poll, just a day after it was voted in another survey as one of the country’s biggest eyesores. The Eden Project in Cornwall has been voted the UK’s best-loved modern building.
Detroit Mayor Closes Historical Museum
Acting quickly on a re-election mandate to fix the city’s finances, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on Tuesday announced the layoffs of 400 city workers, the closing of the Detroit Historical Museum and transfer of management of the Detroit Zoo.
What It’s Like To be An Art Critic?
“The days on your feet. The camaraderie of the galleries. The athleticism of aestheticism. A fellow art critic recently told me the story of an important figure who, in important tones, once asked him to explain how he goes about criticizing art. Well, the critic replied, I see art … and I write about it! The response, he reports, was met with bewilderment.”