Category: visual

“Powered by a democratic awakening after decades of Fascist rule and by the dividends of European Union membership, Spain is clearly outpacing its European siblings in the breadth and daring of its new architecture.”

“If Venice is about the artists, and discreet Basel about dealers and collectors, brash Miami is about money. It is money that you can not only taste in the air; you can hear it discussed, and see it being spent all day long. The effect is strangely distorting. Twenty-four hours in, and you feel a touch under-dressed. Forty-eight hours in, and you wonder WHY you don’t own any Chanel couture. Thirty-six hours in, and you no longer turn clammy when you’re told the price of things. ‘It’s $68,000,’ the bald guy in the Prada suit will tell you. “Hmm, not bad,” you think, aware that the woman with the stretched face to your left has just written a cheque for six times as much.”

“Modern architects have always been sensitive about the public’s ambivalence towards their buildings, and the last thing they wanted was a programme highlighting their dislike of a string of high-profile modern buildings and clamouring for their demolition. The critics need not have been so nervous. What the poll showed was the public’s remarkably sanguine attitude towards modern buildings, despite numerous Lottery-funded projects that might have been expected to generate controversy.”

“The Levy-White collection could prove a complicating factor in discussions between the Met and the Italian Culture Ministry, which says it has evidence that more than 20 objects that the Met already owns were illegally removed from Italy. As the case has unfolded, the Italians have issued subpoenas to the Met through the United States Justice Department.”

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom wants to make quality architecture a priority in his city. “He takes potshots at predecessors who allowed “a dumbing down of quality.” He says developers should be held responsible for how their buildings look, and he wants the city to be known for new landmarks as well as old favorites — even if some people cringe at what they see.”

“Between 1986 and 1994, Myatt churned out more than 200 new works by surrealists, cubists and impressionists, passing them off as originals with the help of an accomplice, John Drewe, an expert at generating false provenances. Despite the fact that many of Myatt’s paintings were laughably amateurish (they were executed in emulsion, not oil), they fooled the experts and were auctioned for hundreds of thousands of pounds by Christie’s and Sotheby’s. It was, said Scotland Yard’s art and antiques squad when they finally caught up with Myatt in 1995, bursting into his Staffordshire studio at the crack of dawn, ‘the biggest art fraud of the 20th century’.”

Artist Simon Sterling, fresh off his Turner win, has announced plans for a new project in Toronto, and the he’ll be employing the services of a much-hated invasive species to help him symbolize the original invasive species of North America- European colonizers. “The core proposal involves casting a replica of Henry Moore’s Warrior with Shield, a 1954 bronze in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, and sinking it into Lake Ontario for six months, where it will become encrusted with zebra mussels before being displayed as the centrepiece of an exhibition of Starling’s work.”

Dan Rockmore, a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College, wants to “bring digital technology to the art of authentication. Using hi-res digital cameras and software that he wrote himself, Rockmore aims to examine the brushstrokes from Flora and 24 other works to reveal Rembrandt’s unique mathematical fingerprint.”

Seattle galleries were shut out of official selection for the Basel Miami art fair. So a group of Seattle galleries got together and “booked an entire motel in Ocean Beach, a short walk from Basel/Miami. Then they crossed their fingers and asked 35 galleries to join them.” The idea was a hit…

“Monday night’s Turner Prize presentation was a confirmation, if any were needed, that that acceptance has now very much arrived. Watching three of the nominees talking about their work (painter Gillian Carnegie chose not to appear), you couldn’t help feeling that modern art, more than ever before, has become safe, approachable… comfy.”