Category: visual

Archaeologists now believe that some of the builders of Stonehenge were Welsh. “The finding, which comes just before Sunday’s summer solstice, not only sheds light on Stonehenge’s origins, but also provides clues to prehistoric migration patterns within Europe following the Stone Age, which was the earliest known period in human culture.”

A year ago, Daniel Libeskind was annointed star of the design of the World Trade Center redevelopment project. But his influence has declined dramatically since then. “People involved with the redevelopment of downtown say he has ample reason to be disappointed; in the year since he was anointed Architect on High, his influence, control and stature have steadily diminished. ‘Where is Daniel at this point? Has he been marginalized? How many of his ideas remain’?”

Do art dealers really need expensive galleries to make their businesses work? “Given the hassles involved in maintaining a gallery space—paying rent, keeping the phones manned and the desk staffed, mounting shows, dealing with logistics such as security or utilities, and so forth,” dealers with established artist rosters and reputations might be able to forgo the gallery grind.

The Whitney says it’s finally going to move ahead with an expansion. Sensitive to resistance from neighbours and the Landmarks Commission to earlier proposed expansions, Whitney director Adam Weinberg vows to create a building that “fits comfortably within the fabric of the community and within the building envelope of the property next to the museum.”

“In early March, a few days after armed rebels forced Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office, vandals ransacked a Port-au-Prince art museum and burned dozens of paintings along with 86 rare vodou dolls that were part of an exhibit marking the country’s 200th anniversary of independence.” But elsewhere in Haiti, new art is being created…

It’s time for the Elgin Marbles to go home. For Britain’s sake. “The marbles in the British Museum are performers, trained as actors in a ceremony. But this is not the Panathenaic Procession. It is a Great British ceremony, about an imperial splendour which thought of itself as universal rather than merely national. In the Duveen Gallery, within the British Museum, these figures no longer deliver Athens any more than the bagpipers who tramp round banquets at Windsor Castle deliver Scotland. They are guests from Greece who became so well known during the 19th century that they were adopted into the family.”

The Art gallery of Ontario is into crunch time lining up resources to build its $196 million renovation/expansion. “The next five months are decidedly crucial, especially if the 93-year-old art museum in downtown Toronto, variously described as the eighth-, 11th- and 13th-largest art institution in North America, is to meet its objective of breaking ground on Gehry’s design in March, 2005.”

FBI investigations of Buffalo artist Steve Kurtz for “bioterrorism” have stretched from Seattle to Pittsburgh, and involve anyone who has worked with the artist. What the feds don’t seem to realize is that artists working in biological material is becoming popular. “All these artists are doing is investigating biology using the same parameters as pure science, It’s a niche at the moment, and it’s very, very alive and it’s going to grow more so.”

Artists are refusing to testify in the grand jury bioterrorism investigation of Buffalo artist Steve Kurtz. “At least six people who were called to testify before the grand jury in the Kurtz case Tuesday refused to appear, invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.”

Two FBI agents came to the Henry Gallery at the University of Washington recently to ask curators about artist Steve Kurtz, the subject of a grand jury investigation into bioterrorism in Buffalo, N.Y. Kurtz had a show at the Henry. “I don’t know what I was expecting from the FBI, but they asked incredibly inflammatory questions. … I remember one of them asked, ‘If you heard there was an explosion in Buffalo that killed 100 people and Steve Kurtz was involved, would you be surprised?’ I said, ‘Yes, of course, there couldn’t be an explosion involving Steve. He’s an artist, not a terrorist.’ “