Category: visual

“The Helen Keller award began in 1933 as an essay competition, after the famous American campaigner visited Scotland, and has been an art award since 1992. Anyone can enter, as long as the art is on the subject of deaf-blindness; this year over 200 entries were sent from across the world. To create a level playing field, the judging panel – including, this year, sculptor Kenny Hunter – aren’t told which artists are deaf or blind, both or neither. This presents challenges, both for the judges and the organisers.”

A 40-block area on Manhattan’s west side is a major opportunity for redevelopment, writes Nicolai Ouroussoff. But “despite the tinkering, the city is left with a vague, crudely executed master plan whose main selling point is that it gives developers the freedom to articulate their own visions. Even with a few interesting flourishes, it essentially relies on developer-driven planning formulas. What’s missing is a voice that could give the plan a cohesive and vibrant identity.”

A Florida art dealer is offering a Picasso for sale through Costco. “Dealer Jim Tutwiler of Orlando, Fla., says collectors can find bargains when they buy from Costco because its markup is just one-tenth that of traditional galleries. He’s been selling art through Costco for the past decade.”

The London Art Fair has undergone a bit of an identity crisis in recent years as it struggled to compete in a newly crowded marketplace where art fairs seemed to pop up like mushrooms in every available urban space. So this year, the fair is going back to basics, abandoning the flashy colors and irritating buzzwords of past years, and focusing hard on modern British art, with an eye towards attracting “collectors, not shoppers.”

Russian president Vladimir Putin seems to have opened the door to negotiating the return of German artwork looted by Soviet troops at the conclusion of World War II. “Putin said that an exhibition in Russia of art that has been returned to Germany, including Raphael’s Sistine Madonna from Dresden’s State Art Collection, as has been proposed by Lidia Ievleva, director of the Tretyakov Gallery, could be held. Such an exhibition would create an atmosphere that could allow further progress on the matter of trophy art.”

The unexpectedly vibrant design selected last week for the new headquarters of the European Central Bank has critics almost giddy with delight. “What makes the design more than a superficial attempt to spice up the European Union’s image is its subtle relationship to 20th-century architectural history. Its bold forms nod to the idealism that was once embodied in International style Modernism but also critique it, expressing a more nuanced view of Europe’s role in the emerging global culture.”

Tyler Green reports that an Anne Truitt piece on display at the Museum of Modern Art has come down. “She was a dame, a solid dame. They called her Catawba and she was short and squat, which is good enough for me. Her green and black bands soaked up light the way a napkin soaks up the sweat that falls down a beer glass.” Why is it gone? Damage caused by a visitor…

“Troops from the US-led force in Iraq have caused widespread damage and severe contamination to the remains of the ancient city of Babylon, according to a damning report released today by the British Museum… The ancient city has been used by US and Polish forces as a military depot for the past two years, despite objections from archaeologists.”

London’s Hayward Gallery is being accused of racial discrimination in a £65 million lawsuit brought by a Harvard-educated Pakistani painter who says that the gallery lost or damaged 300 of his works. “The lawsuit might sound nearly as quixotic as his approach to selling his art – Geoffrey prices his work according to the relative wealth of his clients – but it is likely to shine an uncomfortable spotlight on the London art world’s treatment of foreign artists.”

Like many other American cities, Baltimore is in a building boom, and new office towers and residential complexes are rising at a nearly unprecedented rate. “While there is no shortage of new buildings opening in the Baltimore region this year, many simply reinforce the status quo. For those seeking signs of fresh thinking about architecture,” though, there are a number of diamonds in the rough just waiting to be built.