Category: visual

Workers in western Washington state unearth one of the earliest villages ever discovered in the Pacific Northwest. “Among the artifacts to surface from the grounds of Tse-whit-zen — a likely former winter village of the Klallam peoples of the upper Olympic Peninsula that carbon dating so far shows could be as old as 1,719 years — are remnants of a longhouse and at least two other tribal houses crafted from cedar. Discovery of such structures is significant, Larson said yesterday, because they may be among the oldest remnants of homes ever found in the Northwest.”

“Old controversies over the influence of the European avant-garde on American art seem almost quaint, if indeed somewhat paranoid. Yet some of those old polemics were characterized by a ferocity that is worth recalling, if only as a measure of how radically some things have changed for the better in this country, at least in the realm of high art.”

Architect Daniel Libeskind is suing the developer of the World Trade Center site. “In court papers filed July 13, Mr. Libeskind claimed that Mr. Silverstein owes his firm $843,750 for the architectural work it performed on the Freedom Tower between July and December of 2003. Mr. Silverstein allegedly last offered around $225,000 for the work, a figure that Mr. Libeskind has called “insulting,” and which he has said is in retaliation for the way his vision for the skyscraper clashed with that of Mr. Silverstein’s architect on the project, David Childs, of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.”

“London-based photo-digital artist Henry Reichhold is using Nokia 7600 and 7610 camera phones to create huge panoramic images of events and places. Using the phones to snap a series of images and then stitching them together with software, he’s produced stunning landscapes of London seen during both day and night.”

“Pope John Paul is to remove one of the Orthodox church’s most revered icons from his private chapel and dispatch it to Moscow in an attempt to improve the Vatican’s tense relations with the Russian Orthodox hierarchy.”

Artwork dating back 13,000 years has been found in a cave in England. “The site of the find, Church Hole Cave at Creswell Crags, is being called the “Sistine Chapel” of the Ice Age because it contains the most ornate cave art ceiling in the world. The ceiling extends the earliest rock art in Britain by approximately 8,000 years and suggests that a primary culture unified Europeans during the Ice Age.”

The art world has been buzzing about Shipley Miller, “head of the Judith Rothschild Foundation, ever since he hatched a Gatsbyesque plot in the spring of 2003: He would travel the globe for one year acquiring contemporary drawings with several million dollars of the foundation’s money. Then he would usher the collection into MoMA, where he serves on the drawings committee, with a museumwide show.”

The buzz at Sotheby’s last week was high as a Vermeer was put on the block. But “the atmosphere at Christie’s Old Masters sale a few hours earlier could scarcely have been more different. There were empty seats, little buzz and a lacklustre mood. Several of the most important pictures failed to sell, including El Greco’s Saint Francis meditating, estimated at £700,000 to £1 million, Il Vanvitelli’s The Piazza del Popolo, Rome, expected to fetch £1 million to £1.5 million, and Bodegon with bread by Luis Melendez.”

“The true architectural icon is a building that is unmistakable, often provocative, and carries cultural signals far beyond its purpose. Obvious iconic landmarks include the Sydney opera house, the Pompidou centre, even the new Scottish parliament building – all of which initially met with disapproval. These modern icons simultaneously signal their function and their public importance. They convey the spirit of their age; they are both useful and memorable. But there are also less significant buildings that aspire to iconic status but do not always deserve the profile their sponsors demand.”

There is growing awareness that there are many fakes of Russian master paintings on the market. “London sales of Russian masters exceed £10 million a year. But behind the scenes there are growing recriminations in the secretive world of Bond Street dealers. One accuses Sotheby’s, which dominates the market, of lack of competence. Another Russian dealer said: ‘Western auctioneers now have fakes in their catalogues all the time’.”