Category: visual

As New York’s Museum of Modern Art settles into its spectacular new Manhattan home, it’s worth noting that the process MoMA underwent to reach this point was a triumph of modern non-profit fundraising. In the middle of a recession, in a period during which New York suffered a horrific terrorist attack, and at a time in which many non-profits all but threw in the towel as far as fundraising, MoMA managed to raise $858 million to design and construct its new building.

Oslo’s Munch Museum might be closed until next summer as the museum deals with recommendations for new security measures. “National and international art icons must be shielded using glass bolted onto the wall. The remaining pictures must be fastened onto the wall or made so heavy that they are difficult to run away with. The report also suggested metal detectors, a surveillance control room, a labyrinth to delay possible robbers and an automatic gate to lock them in.”

Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum gets a major upgrade this month with the unveiling of the “Jim Rouse Visionary Center, a sweeping, $9.3 million expansion of AVAM that will open to the public in a week and a half. Set in a 28,000-square-foot historic building that was originally a whiskey warehouse, the three-story center will double [AVAM’s] footprint.”

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has put up a new display dealing with the current war in Iraq. Some historians disapprove. “Treatment of current events without benefit of historical distance and analysis is a risky enterprise… the choice to include the operations in Iraq under the “Price of Freedom” title “presents a partisan view of the current war and is counter to our neutral public mission.”

There may be no more powerful editorial tool than the cartoonist’s pen, and a sharp-eyed reader can trace the political fortunes of those in the public eye by observing the way in which they are depicted by those merciless caricaturists. A new exhibit in London examines just such a progression by displaying British cartoonists’ visions of Prime Minister Tony Blair over the course of his career at the top of the Labour Party. “A decade ago, cartoonists emphasized Blair’s broad smile, intense gaze and large ears. But over the years they have become crueler — and funnier — as Blair himself has changed.”

An overly ambitious auction of Impressionists at Sotheby’s Thursday night brought mixed results. “While nobody at the auction house would admit it, the evening probably cost the company a lot of money. But while many works may have fallen short of the auction house’s expectations, there were still several high, record-breaking prices.”

Highlight of Thursday’s Sotheby auction was the sale of a Gauguin for $39 million, a record for the artist. “Sotheby’s also was offering Impressionist and modern works on Thursday, including the painting from Gauguin’s second Tahitian period. The painting, the property of a private collector, was estimated to sell for $40-million to $50-million.”

An archaeologist believes he has found what would have once been Italy’s largest city. It’s the ancient Etruscan city of Clusium, which was at its peak in 500 BC, and for which generations of treasure hunters have been searching.

The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum currently under construction in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is inspiring some hostile talk before the museum even opens its doors. The Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron-designed building has been described as “hideous,” “totally out of place,” and “antiseptic and soulless” by denizens of the city, but John King points out the obvious: the building isn’t done yet, and given the intricate nature of the design, as well as the plan for it to be partially covered in greenery, the amateur critics are passing judgment far too early.

This year’s Carnegie International art exhibition in Pittsburgh is focusing on “designer art,” displaying work by 38 artists from across the world. It’s an interesting attempt to show how pop culture trends can intersect with the world of serious art, but “the problem with designer art is that it can be difficult to distinguish from everyday commercial art… The brainier designer-directors tend to produce work that is more interesting to philosophize about than to experience.”