Category: visual

A Berlin couple plan to deliver their baby in a local art gallery. The manager of the DNA-Galerie in central Berlin said the artistic couple wanted to challenge conventional norms. ‘It’s a bit of test to see if society can cope’.”

“For decades now, the Walker has been one of the liveliest museums in the country, an institution that maintained a strong independent voice despite its ties to the mainstream art world. When the museum hired the Swiss team of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron to design a $67 million expansion and renovation of its existing 1970’s-era building, it seemed like a match made in heaven. The architects had built their reputations on museum projects like London’s Tate Modern and the Goetz Collection in Munich, known for their meticulously refined materials and a sense of inner tranquillity. The result is an exhilarating place to view art.

The Peruvian government has come up with an emergency rescue plan to save the ruins of Machu Picchu from erosion and tourists. “The $132.5m (£70m) plan is to be studied by Unesco and the World Bank at a three-day meeting in Lima beginning on Saturday. Machu Picchu is the most visited archaeological site in Latin America. It has been a Unesco world heritage site since 1983, but the UN’s cultural organisation made it clear last year that if something were not done soon it would be put on the list of sites at risk.”

A legal dispute has scared buyers of artwork by Nelson Mandela. “The row has left a bitter taste – raising questions over whether the value of the art might plummet. Questions have also been raised over whether Mandela painted the series or merely endorsed them with his signature.”

The Museum of Modern Art has had 1 million visitors since its new building opened in November. “If the current rate of visits continues, the museum expects to have twice as many visitors this year as the 1.5 million it received annually in the mid-1990s, prior to the revamp.”

The National Endowment for the Arts and the US State Department have signed an agreement to create a new committee to choose American artists for international biennales. “The committee will comprise “up to seven people”, appointed by the NEA for terms of “no more than three years”. They will include curators, artists, museum directors, specialists in American contemporary art, and perhaps persons from outside the field as well. Important details remain uncertain, including the names of anyone who will serve on the newly established panel, precisely how the selection will take place, and how exhibitions will be administered and funded.”

“Last year such marketing ventures grossed $156.3 million, returning $26.7 million in profit to the museums — nearly half the Smithsonian’s unrestricted funds, to be spent any way it pleases. Marketing has become so important that the Smithsonian now knows from surveys that the kids in the school groups that fly through the National Air and Space Museum each have about $5 to $10, and just about that many minutes to spend them. That’s why the gift shop at the world’s most visited museum is stocked with budget-friendly items such as military dog tags and marbles designed to look like planets. That’s why last year 200,000 packs of freeze-dried astronaut ice cream were sold.”

Contemporary painting is hot in London right now. “The popularity of painting often coincides with boom periods of art buying – the last time people spoke of painting as being “big”, for instance, was during the 1980s. New collectors, in particular, attracted to a buoyant art market, tend to go for paintings. Their ease of display, combined with their historical legacy and their aura of originality and uniqueness, means that paintings are unrivalled not as works of art, but as commodities. Perhaps the best way to view the current status of painting, then, is not so much as an artistic phenomenon, but as an economic one.”

The Miami Art Museum is losing the only director it has ever known, with Suzanne Delehanty stepping down after nearly 11 years. “Delehanty’s resignation comes at a critical juncture for MAM: a $100 million bond issue passed in November will take the museum to a newer, larger home. And Miami’s art scene has exploded in the last several years, with galleries and private collectors’ warehouses popping up throughout the Design District and Wynwood, and Art Basel Miami Beach bringing thousands of collectors every December. The museum is in the midst of a $75 million fundraising drive.”