Category: visual

Daniel Libeskind’s new book about his experience designing the tower that is to rise on the Ground Zero site in lower Manhattan is at turns catty and sincere, and takes direct aim at architect David Childs, with whom Libeskind was compelled to pair on the project. “He portrays Mr Childs as patronising and overbearing, and intent on eliminating as much of Mr Libeskind’s vision as possible from the eventual design… for the majority of the time during their weekly meetings, Mr Childs would ‘chatter on about where he’d just been or would lecture me on architecture’.”

How big a risk is New York’s Museum of Modern Art really taking by hiking its admission price to $20? Well, if it’s local competition that matters, the Empire State Building only charges $11, but seeing Scary Spice on Broadway will run you $90. MoMA is also counting its new “coffee shops, movies, and relaxation areas” to make it an all-day destination, but some observers point out that museum attendance has plateaued in recent years. The real answer? No one has any idea whether the price hike will make any difference at all to MoMA’s attendance.

“The Portland Museum of Art expects to buy the Prouts Neck home and studio of Winslow Homer, the 19th century American painter known for his dramatic images of Maine’s coast.”

“The mystery of why eyes in certain paintings and photographs appear to move has been solved: it has to do with how we perceive two and three dimensions, a new study finds.”

Sir Terence Conran, founder of London’s Design Museum, has threatened to resign, worsening a problematic week that began with the resignation Monday of the museum’s chairman, James Dyson. Sir Terence objected to the emphasis on “tinsel exhibitions” over more serious work at the museum, which is currently offering an exhibition on flower arrangements.

One of the finest examples of Victorian Gothic architecture in Europe is getting a £15 million makeover. The John Rylands Library in Manchester, England is being thoroughly cleaned, renovated, and modernized in an effort to lengthen its lifespan and allow the permanent display of more of the treasures in its collection. “It is hoped the new-look library will attract up to 90,000 visitors a year – three times as many as visited it before the restoration.”

A Damian Loeb painting that borrows an image from a 1990 Tina Barney photo was pulled from a University of Hartford exhibition, but why? “Was it merely a question, as the University of Hartford insists, of a painting removed from an important show because of suddenly discovered ‘copyright issues’? Or did an angry, powerful university parent, incensed that images of his children were included in a work titled ‘Blow Job (Three Little Boys),’ demand that the painting be taken down?”

“From the art capital of New York City to the nation’s midsection, visual artists are participating in partisan politics with a vigor not seen since the 1960s.” While large institutions are generally staying above the fray, some gallery owners have risked offending wealthy clients by making their political stance (usually liberal) known.

In the midst of a legal battle over artwork with the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation has said it will suspend donations to Canadian nonprofits. But under Canadian law, doing so may imperil its tax status as a charity.

Digital cameras promised to make photography easier, and maybe they have. But with only 13 percent of digital photos being printed, the images aren’t as permanently accessible as the old-fashioned kind that made their way into albums and picture frames. Without that tangible record of their past, are families losing an important part of their history?