Category: visual

“A life-sized statue of the 13th Dynasty Pharaoh Neferhotep I has emerged from the ruins of ancient Thebes in Luxor. Buried for almost 3,600 years, the six-foot limestone statue shows the “beautiful and good” pharaoh — this is what Neferhotep means — wearing the royal head cloth.”

Peru has unveiled a new conservation plan for Machu Picchu. The plan includes restricting the number of visitors. “With the defeat of the Shining Path terrorist movement in the 1990s, Peru has been “rediscovered” by the international tourism industry and the hordes of visitors are causing erosion and other damage to the archaeological site which extends over some 76,000 acres. In addition, mummies dating from the Inca period are being exposed to the elements and wild orchids are threatened by the increasing pollution.”

Where are the hot new British artists coming from? All over. The British Art Show “reflects how London’s art scene is fast usurping New York and European cities as the place to be.” “The final list of 49 artists unveiled today – a day before the original Young British Artist (YBA) and former enfant terrible Damien Hirst turns 40 – incorporates more than 18 different nationalities. Curators of the exhibition said its diversity was a reflection of how London had become a magnet to growing numbers of international artists who were enriching the scene and re-defining the notion of “Britishness”.”

The Chicago Art Institute’s expansion plan designed by Renzo Piano and unveiled last week, is a winner, writes Blair Kamin. “The plan calls for a $258 million wing at the southwest corner of Columbus and Monroe Drives that will concentrate the Art Institute’s now-scattered modern and contemporary collections in a 264,000-square-foot temple of steel, glass and limestone. Completion is due in spring 2009. In most cities, this would be a stand-alone structure, the leading art museum. Here, it has been deftly woven into an urban composition that includes the sober classicism of the Art Institute’s 1893 temple along Michigan Avenue and the baroque modernism of Gehry’s Pritzker music pavilion, across Monroe in Millennium Park. That is a balancing act worthy of a circus acrobat carrying a parasol.”

A painting by Marilyn Monroe has sold at auction for $78,000. “The 1962 painting of a red rose was initially inscribed to President Kennedy, but she never gave it to him.” The winning bidder runs a Rhode Island gallery.

It’s no secret that the Mona Lisa is the biggest art draw on the planet, with 90% of the Louvre’s visitors coming specifically to see the famous DaVinci portrait. Now, the painting has a snazzy new home, and the crowds are bigger than ever…

A court has said one of the biggest private art inventories may have to be sold. “Unless the sons of the late art dealer Daniel Wildenstein, Alec and Guy, reach a settlement with Daniel’s widow, Sylvia Wildenstein, a significant collection of paintings and drawings will be sold at auction in early July.”

It looks like there will be protracted battles to determine whether a trove of paintings said to be by Jackson Pollock are authrntic or not. With lines in the dispute being drawn, “they should get the paintings out and let the sides be drawn and make some new educated observations. The thing to do is to keep an open mind until it’s all sorted out.”

Two more top officials at the Minneapolis-based Walker Art Center have resigned to take other jobs, leaving the museum – one of the flagships of the Twin Cities’ arts scene – with something like a leadership vacuum months after opening a massive addition. “Major building programs often trigger staff turnover, experts said, but it is rare for so many important players to depart simultaneously, especially when the project has gotten national rave reviews, as the Walker has.”

“The Bremen Kunsthalle art museum on Friday put on display a previously unknown painting by Norwegian master Edvard Munch, depicting a naked girl appearing to be threatened by a vision of the faces of three men… The painting was discovered while restoration work was being done on the Munch painting ‘The Dead Mother’… The symbolist-style painting, measuring 90 by 100 centimetres, is estimated by art experts to date to around 1898.”