Category: visual

“Ever since its earliest days, limning (to give miniature painting its original name) has been the subject of a certain status anxiety. Practitioners and commentators have worried that it is not art at all, but itsy-bitsy hackwork. Or, conversely, that it is not an artisanal craft suitable for men, but merely a hobby for ladies. Or that it is an instrument of the court, full of pomp but not much else. Or, that it is small and domestic, a toy art. Yet alongside this anxious babble is the work itself, an unarguable four centuries’ worth of small marvels.”

What kind of hotel has original Edvard Munch artwork on its walls? “Munch would seem the least likely artist to be at home among the chat and cheer of a posh restaurant overlooking Oslofjord, across the water from the village where he used to summer in the 1890s when he was painting The Scream and other images in his cycle The Frieze of Life. Yet here he is, watching over the business lunchers in the Hotel Refsnes Gods’ Restaurant Munch (no pun intended).”

Thomas Kinkade is making a crusade out of his career. “The 47-year-old painter sees himself as a fine-art rebel at war with elitism. He makes it sound downright radical to be the leading creator of easy-access art in the traditions of Walt Disney, Norman Rockwell and, believe it or not, Andy Warhol. ‘My art is a populist form of art. The official art of our day – the art that our tax dollars pay for – is an art of darkness, it is an art of alienation from the public. … What I create is very much a reaction to that system.”

“The art world, layered with prestige, the weight of history, serious scholarship and not a little pretense, has finally embraced photography, but the verdict is still out about the medium’s position as an arriviste. Serious collectors of art are now seriously collecting photographs, but so are people with cash on their hands who view photography as just another status collectible. That status depends in part on the belief that these fantastic prices reflect some inherent worth, not just canny marketing. Do they?”

Members of a San Francisco synagogue has discovered a “treasure trove” of 19th-century art hidden in plain sight on its walls and ceiling. The discovery that two prominent local artists working in concert were responsible for the temple’s beautiful, Renaissance-inspired interior has touched off a renewed round of interest in San Francisco’s often cloudy art history. “The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed public records and personal papers, erasing much of the city’s artistic history from current memory.”

A new exhibition celebrating the legacy of photographer Larry Clark is opening in New York, and the organizers are treading very cautiously. Clark’s body of work consists in large part of “stark, intimate photographs and movies of teenagers having sex, shooting drugs and waving guns,” and there has always been debate over whether it can accurately be described as art. The exhibitors made a deliberate decision not to apply for any government money to back the exhibit, and the entire show seems to be intentionally flying well under the radar.

A new history of art of the 20th Century suggests a new narrative, writes Eric Gibson. “Indeed, “Art Since 1900” is less a historical narrative than an extended piece of art criticism arguing for a particular point of view. In this one respect the book has something in common with Paul Johnson’s recent “Art: A New History.” The difference is that Mr. Johnson’s approach is traditional and art itself is, for him, front and center; his insights grow out of his close look at the works of art that he is writing about. In “Art Since 1900” works of art are subordinated to one theory or another, reduced to little more than illustrations. And most of the theory itself is tendentious in the extreme, pushing a political “reading” of culture that amounts to a tired paean to Karl Marx and Walter Benjamin.”

Facing large legal settlements with students who were sexually assaulted by a former teacher, Upper Canada College is selling millions of dollars worth of art and property. The art will be sold off primarily at public auction over the next few months. “The decision will be difficult for some people, but the art is not crucial to the education of the students here.”

London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts has a new director. But “what a strange, dysfunctional institution the ICA is. Part cultural department store, part youth club (where the vicar is the DJ), part Kunsthalle, part computer shack, part bar and restaurant … But this is the problem: there are too many parts, too many players, too many conflicting ambitions and drives, everyone pulling in a different direction amid perennial resentments. It is a situation where identity crisis is the norm.”

“China’s commercial capital is starting to take on the chic of Paris, the sophistication of New York and the futuristic vibes of Tokyo. It already boasts the world’s fastest train (the Maglev that takes eight minutes to run the 30 km from Pudong airport into the city), the longest underwater pedestrian tunnel (under the Huangpu river) and the world’s tallest hotel—the 88-storey Grand Hyatt, complete with the world’s highest swimming pool and longest laundry chute. Most interesting, it has Xintiandi, a two-hectare (nine-acre) complex of hip restaurants, bars and shops in an open, elegant, low-rise style that cost $170m to develop and is one of the first examples of China preserving its own architecture.”