Category: visual

A new exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Arts provides a survey of the portraits of America’s first president and war hero, General George Washington. 15 of the most famous and interesting likenesses are the work of the American master Gilbert Stuart, and behind the series lies a fascinating tale of the evolution of an artistic relationship between painter and subject. Washington was not an easy personality to capture on canvas, but over the years, Stuart managed to break down the president’s defenses, and earn the trust of the most powerful man in a new country.

A 1904 Monet oil painting of the British Parliament has sold at auction for $20 million. “It was the first time the painting – titled Londres, le Parlement, Effet de Soleil dans le Brouillard – had been offered on the open market. The sale, which also included works by Miro and Van Gogh, fetched a total of $128.2m.”

“Biochemists at the United Nations University in Caracas, Venezuela, are using DNA sampling to identify materials from which artifacts are made and the pests that are feeding on them. They then use biotechnology techniques to create weapons that target the pests specifically, without damaging the artwork.”

“An Italian researcher has discovered the formula of Pompeian red, the shiny and intense color that dominated Pompeii’s wall paintings 2,000 years ago.” It turns out the secret was in the processing.

Scotland’s museums say schoolchildren should get free transportation to museums as part of students’ “cultural rights.” “Schools have to work within their curriculum but there’s a real richness on their doorstep if it can be accessed properly. You’ve got collections all over the country but they can’t be seen. Kids are entitled to so many swims a year, and they have developed minimum standards of physical education in schools.”

The Metropolitan Museum’s big fall Chinese show would not have been possible a few years ago. “Behind this prodigious exhibition is a story of curatorial obsession and adventure, as well as a glimpse at how China’s internal bureaucracy has subtly opened up recently, at least vis-à-vis the art world. American specialists found their Chinese museum counterparts accessible in a way that would have been unheard of just a few years earlier.”

“A Norwegian television film is alleging that the British Library in London has acquired looted Buddhist scrolls. The birch bark scrolls in Kharosthi script, from the 1st century AD, are the oldest surviving Buddhist texts and the earliest known manuscripts in any Indic language. They have been dubbed ‘the Dead Sea Scrolls of Buddhism’.”

For the first time, China is opening up to foreign auction houses, beginning in December. “The move opens up what is potentially the world’s largest market with its growing number of collectors to Western auction houses although the crucial question of what the firms will be allowed to sell has not yet been answered.”

There have been howls about the Museum of Modern Art’s decision to charge $20 to enter its new building. But “though MoMA’s new price tag seems to have caused sticker shock, museum admission prices are clearly headed higher. To keep the public interested, museums must keep booking blockbuster shows housed in new, jaw-dropping buildings designed by architectural superstars. Neither comes cheaply.”

“More than half a billion dollars worth of paintings and sculptures, led by a Gauguin worth $40m (£22m), will go up for auction at Sotheby’s and Christie’s annual autumn sales tomorrow as owners seek to exploit the bullish art market.”