Category: visual

The St. Petersburg government has decided to sell off more than 2000 of the city’s historic buildings over the next few years, “including several dozen important Czarist-era palaces. Several of Russia’s oil barons have already expressed strong interest in acquiring grand historic residences in the city.” Why? The buildings are in need of repair, and the government believes the best way to preserve them is to sell.

Authenticating great works of art is a tricky business, and despite the phenomenal advances in technology over the last century, the process of spotting fake art is still more or less a matter of casting a practiced eye over the piece in question. But a team of Dutch researchers has “developed a computer system that quickly examines hundreds of paintings for telltale patterns. The results, they say, can lend credence to existing attributions or help dismiss them.”

The Belgian boy reporter with the fluffy white dog appears to finally have found a scrape he can’t get out of. Tintin, the unlikely comic book hero whose adventures have been delighting children and adults around the world for 75 years, has emerged from retirement for one final adventure, culled from the notes of his creator, Georges Remi, who died in 1983 before he could finish the book. The final installment, which has already sold 400,000 copies in France, is classic Tintin in every way but one: the end of the story appears to leave the hero doomed.

Impressionist paintings are frequently characterized by the hazy, cloudy look of their landscapes, and in the case of Monet, by the fog that seems to hang eternally over the London that he so loved to paint. It’s all very pretty on the canvas, but a new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario makes the case that what Monet and others were really showing us was the horrific environmental effects of the Industrial Revolution on the great cities of Europe. That’s not fog hanging over London, it’s smog. And those pretty pink clouds? Coal gas and industrial waste.

“Kamelot, believed to be the first auction house to open in Philadelphia in two decades, will have its inaugural sales today and tomorrow at its quarters in a onetime mill in Manayunk. Backing the new gallery is Susanin’s Auctions, a Chicago gallery known for its sophisticated auction technology.” Auctions at the new house will include online bidders, live remote video for gallery patrons, and absentee bids.

Italian sculptor Eleonora Aguiari had no idea, when she wrapped a 19th-century sculpture in red tape as part of an exhibition of her work, that “red tape” has a political meaning in English and American society. So she was a bit confused when a British ad agency contacted her, asking if she could wrap, for instance, an ambulance in red tape as part of an ad campaign for the UK’s Conservative Party. Aguiari was further confused by the fact that the ad agency is called “Saatchi,” and was initially under the impression that her work had caught the eye of the famous collector Charles Saatchi. Once the confusion was sorted out, however, the sculptor turned the spin doctors down, saying that “my ideas are not for sale.”

“Art Chicago, the annual international art exposition that has taken place in spring at Navy Pier for decades, will move to a tent in downtown Chicago for its 2005 edition.” The location is yet to be announced, but as the tent will reportedly cover 125,000 square feet, there may be a limit to the number of potential locations in the downtown area.

“A bronze bust of Spencer Tracy sculpted by Katharine Hepburn sold for $316,000 yesterday on the second day of an auction of the late actress’s effects. The sculpture had been estimated to sell for $3,000 to $5,000. Hepburn made the bust of her longtime love and frequent costar in the 1960s. She considered it one of her prized possessions. It sat on a bedside table in her New York City townhouse and often went with her when she traveled.”

A new traveling exhibition is attempting to bring attention the architectural/cultural phenomenon of urban “greening,” a philosophy which allows cities to build big skyscrapers and massive sports stadiums, so long as they “consume less energy, use renewable materials and resources, and uplift their surroundings and the spirits of those who work in them.” It’s an intriguing concept, but most American cities, even those which consider themselves to be on the cutting edge of both architecture and the movement towards making cities more inviting, haven’t even begun to explore the possibilities of building green.

There’s been an arrest in the investigation surrounding the warehouse fire that destroyed £50 million worth of art owned by the collector Charles Saatchi. The suspect, who has been charged with burglary and released on bail, is 23, and police are not saying much more than that at the moment.