Category: visual

“Jack Vettriano is not even an artist. He just happens to be popular, with ‘ordinary people’ who buy reproductions of his pseudo-1930s scenes of high-heeled women and monkey-suited men, and celebrities who fork out for the originals of these toneless, textureless, brainless slick corpses of paintings. I urge you to visit the National Gallery. Look at great paintings for a few hours. Now take a look at Vettriano. I’m not arguing with you; I’m telling you. I look at art every day and I know what I don’t like. There I go – being elitist. Art critics are, in the game Vettriano plays, snobbish patsies. Critical disdain is part of Vettriano’s success, making him ‘controversial’.”

A radio talk show host in Seattle assails a planned sculpture for an outdoor sculpture garden by Louise Bourgeois. Why? Because it’s of a nude father and son on a fountain. And this is bad because…

Embattled Getty antiquities dealer Marion True has resigned after the Getty raised questions about her failing “to report certain aspects of her Greek house purchase transaction in violation of Getty policy. ‘In the course of the Getty’s discussions with Ms. True on this matter, she chose voluntarily to retire.’ True, 56, faces trial in an Italian court on charges that she conspired with dealers who were trafficking in looted antiquities. In its statement, the Getty said she was retiring to devote her full energies to her defense. Internal Getty records obtained by The Times show that museum officials knew three years ago about the loan True obtained for the vacation home. The Getty declined comment on the documents.”

“Ms. True goes on trial in Rome in November on charges of conspiring to receive illegally exported artworks. Reached by telephone, Maurizio Fiorilli, a lawyer for the Italian Culture Ministry, said that the departure of Ms. True might provide an occasion for the Getty to reopen negotiations with Italy. ‘It could be the basis for a gesture of good will on the part of the Getty to discuss with the Italian government the objects that it has’.”

“The son of prominent Canadian sculptor Haydn Davies says his father is prepared to let one of his most famous works decompose in a field rather than surrender to what he terms the ‘ransom demands’ of the Ontario community college that originally commissioned, then dismantled the piece.”

Rare map dealer E. Forbes Smiley III has been caught and charged with the theft of maps from Yale’s library. Smiley, who has been “buying and selling rare North American maps and atlases for more than a decade, scheduled to make another court appearance here on Monday, the case is turning into an embarrassment for prestigious libraries and elite collectors from Chicago to London. A field marked by tweedy scholarship in quiet, climate-controlled vaults has been rattled by disclosures of maps disappearing amid lax security and suspicions that big-money deals were being made with too few questions asked.”

Agnes Gund, one of New York’s leading cultural figures, has resigned from the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board. “Governor Pataki (and it saddens me to say, Senator Clinton has joined him) has caved and virtually ensured that there will be no cultural component to the redevelopment. I hate to walk away from this situation and leave it to you and the others to sort out. But I am afraid that the governor and those few family members have succeeded in destroying what could not be destroyed on that awful Tuesday, which is our hope.”

Italy’s culture minister says the Getty Museum will return three artifacts to Italy. “Italian officials traveling to Los Angeles will receive the artifacts ‘within the next few days’ in the form of a donation from the Getty, ministry spokesman Walter Guarracino said. He said the donation formula allows the museum to avoid admitting any wrongdoing in the acquisition of the objects and doesn’t alter Italy’s position in its trial against Getty antiquities curator Marion True.”

A long screed carved into a floor by a schizophrenic French farmer has become Paris’ most controversial artwork. “Since the Plancher de Jeannot (Jeannot’s Floorboards) went on display last week, it has created an unprecedented stir. ‘People are terribly disturbed by it. Some feel it should not be on public view.’ The carving – 80 lines of text, in capital letters with no punctuation – contains references to Hitler, to Popes and to an infernal machine that controls humans. The work raises painful questions about whether madness can be artistic.”

“The Moscow World Fine Art Fair was set up by its Swiss-based organisers Art Culture Studio last year to tap into the huge amounts of money being made by Russia’s capitalists, but in 2004, regulations prevented anything from being sold. This year’s fair moved to a new and better venue and attracted more dealers, and Art Culture Studio persuaded the authorities to let dealers sell art rather than merely hold an exhibition.”