Category: visual

“After years of losing money, the American Textile History Museum may have to sell its 160,000-square-foot home, move out of the city famous for the industrial machinery displayed within its brick walls, or close its doors entirely.”

A superbly preserved 2,300-year-old mummy bearing a golden mask and covered in brilliantly colored images of gods and goddesses has been discovered south of Cairo. It is being described as one of the most beautiful mummies ever found.

A new Arab American Museum is opening in Michigan. “Using high points of Arab culture as the foundation for the new museum makes perfect sense. Still, the narrative ends abruptly, without addressing the gradual disintegration of Arab intellectual and military dominance. At some point, curators ought to plunge into the contentious historical debate over the decline of Arab influence. That skirmish–pitting those who emphasize the deleterious effects of Ottoman and European colonialism against those who stress factors internal to Arab culture and Islam–sheds important light on the forces that have driven Arabs to come to America.”

Ever since Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center opened its sparkling new addition last month, denizens of the Twin Cities have been staring at the gleaming silver box that forms the bulk of the space, and wondering what exactly it is supposed to look like. Perhaps a spare head from your old Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots game? Or maybe a next-generation lunchbox? To the outdoorsy crowd, the dang thing doesn’t look unlike the world’s most challenging climbing wall. The Walker isn’t offering any officials, but thankfully, one newspaper was smart enough to put the decision in the hands of the people.

Increasingly, contemporary art festivals seem as much about the inevitable scandal generated by a headline-grabbing artist as they are about advancing art itself. But as artists turn increasingly to deliberately amateurish techniques to grab headlines and elicit an emotional reaction from viewers, they must remember to back up their irony with substance, says Susan Mansfield. Without some obviously solid thought behind it, ironic art can become nothing more than shoddy work.

Learning architecture in a university setting can be quite different than practicing it professionally, especially when actual clients get involved and start imposing their real-world wishes on an architect’s vision. “Typically, architecture students’ projects are assessed by architects – although the students may consult with engineers and construction companies – not by developers, with their concerns about costs, loading docks and maintenance.” But the Yale School of Architecture is bringing the two sides together in an effort to better educate its students about the realities of the business.

An exhaustive new biograophy of 19th-century Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins contains enough bombshells to keep the art world arguing for some time. Author Henry Adams has crafted a portrait of “a severely troubled individual with a catalog of psychoses, including a castration complex, sexual inadequacy and trauma, and a propensity to drink more milk than perhaps is healthy.” And as if that weren’t enough, Adams is also taking some pointed shots at the Eakins scholars who came before him, accusing them of ignoring the seedier side of the artist’s life.

“The Art Fair Wars have come and gone, and though there was something for everyone to enjoy this past weekend, the consensus in the art community is that the winner is: Art Chicago in the Park, hands down… perhaps the near-death of Art Chicago was exactly what it needed to come back to itself. Painting and drawing dominated the show, and about two dozen international galleries showed up. There were especially strong showings from Spain and Korea; one of the better booths was Spanish Galeria de Arte la Ribera, with big paintings of moody interiors by Rosa Martinez-Artero. Less space seemed to make for a friendlier neighborhood feeling.”

Italian police have recovered seven stolen art works, including one by Picasso. “Among the 20th Century works retrieved were a sculpture by Italian Arnaldo Pomodoro and a piece by British modern artists Gilbert and George. Police have arrested one man in Nice, France, who they suspect of trafficking the art to Italy.”

“The master plan for ground zero is unraveling, which is not necessarily bad news. But what are the odds that planners will see this as an opportunity to save it? The discovery that the Freedom Tower will have to be redesigned to address concerns raised by security experts has once again sent architects scurrying to patch up one of the most muddled developments in the city’s recent memory… These are not simply errors in judgment. They are byproducts of the mix of secrecy, self-interest and paranoia that have enveloped the site from the outset – a climate that favors political expediency and empty symbolic gestures over thoughtful urban planning discussions.”