Category: visual

“Cities like New Haven are installing artists in factories and other workplaces to see how technology, be it vintage or cutting-edge, can inform art in the 21st century. Under the auspices of Artspace, a local arts organization, 10 artists were selected last year to be in residence at Connecticut businesses.”

“A record 21,000 people have booked tickets to see the new Turner Whistler Monet exhibition at Tate Britain, the largest advance booking for a Tate show. The previous record was set by the Hopper exhibition at Tate Modern last summer, which had advance sales of 13,500 tickets.”

“Chicago spent $270 million on its Millennium Park, placing a big public sculpture by Anish Kapoor in the middle of it… Woe betide any member of the public who tries to photograph this sculpture, though: it’s a copyrighted sculpture and Chicago is spending even more money policing Chicagoans who try to photograph it and make a record of what their tax-dollars bought.”

“The buzz of the first Moscow Biennale is not the dozens of critically acclaimed international artists represented, some of whom swooped down for the opening last week. While the organisers said they saw record crowds of 2,000 visitors a day on the first weekend, the Lenin Museum had the calm, slow atmosphere of a library by midweek. Rather the beating heart of the festival is Russia’s protest art, which is experiencing a boisterous resurgence in Moscow.”

A new book by Philip Nobel chronicles the messy process of coming up with a design for something at the World Trade Center site. “A decade or two from now, New York City will have gotten what it wants and deserves – not a magnificent citadel but a patchwork of pragmatism, profitability and symbols. One day the World Trade Center site will bear the traces of its history – not just the epochal events, but also the pettier chronicle of craven compromises, showdowns and power plays.”

“Over the past 18 months, prices for modern Indian art have been rocketing. In New York, auctions of modern Indian art which were making less than $700,000 four years ago are now making more than $2.5 million. Saffronart’s last sale made $2.8 million.”

Workers at three UK museums have voted to go on strike. “Hundreds of staff are set to walk out on a one-day strike during the week beginning 14 February, to coincide with the school half-term holidays. London’s Science Museum, the National Railway Museum in York and the National Museum of Photography Film and Television, Bradford, will all be hit. Staff have rejected a 2.5% pay offer, which unions say was below inflation and derisory.”

The art situation in Iraq is still bleak. “All museums remain closed, and looting of archaeological sites continues. The Iraqis lack the funds, equipment, and personnel to cope with the restoration and maintenance of museums and monuments and the protection of archaeological sites.”

A huge collection of plundered African art was intercepted in Niger recently. “The 845-piece collection, dating as far back as 70 million years ago, includes antiquities of incalculable value, ranging from dinosaur teeth to neolithic arrowheads and ancient pottery. While this seizure is notable for the size and breadth of the artefacts contained within the collection, such caches of treasures smuggled out of the continent and into private collections or curio shops around the world are neither rare nor exclusive to Niger.”

The Chinese government has asked the US to restrict import of Chinese art predating 1912. “The request, made last September under the 1970 Unesco Convention, seeks assistance in protecting Chinese cultural heritage, which China says is increasingly subject to pillage and smuggling. It has elicited objections from both the US market and scholars, and faces an uphill battle to gain approval.”