Category: visual

“In a decision expected to have major ramifications throughout the international art world, a British judge yesterday found the venerable auction house Christie’s guilty of ‘negligence’ and ‘misrepresentation’ in the sale 10 years ago of two urns to Canadian heiress Taylor Lynne Thomson… If the complex, 71-page judgment holds, it should result in changes to the way auction houses in Britain and likely elsewhere attest to the accuracy of the information they present in their catalogues and by their staff for the objects they sell. Heretofore, auction houses have described their views on their consignments as being essentially ‘opinions,’ not statements of fact.”

The Whitney Biennial has a web site, of course, just like every other organization on the planet. But unlike many other attempts to merge art exhibits and websurfing, Jim Regan says that this site actually does an excellent job of complementing its real-life counterpart. “The overriding reason for visiting the site will be to view the Art and Artists section. With 108 candidates to choose from, displaying the options in an intelligible manner presents a challenge. This is what the Whitney site does so well.”

“In the last decade or so, Conceptual Art – represented by the Young British Artists – has won all the prizes, especially the Turner Prize, and occupied the commanding heights of the British art world, for example the various Tate Galleries, and grabbed all the media attention. Meanwhile the Campaign for Real Painting is in retreat, overshadowed, pushed out and buried by an art establishment who believe that the practice of painting the human figure, by hand, in oils, from life or from imagination, is thoroughly old hat and beneath consideration. And now the whole world is filled with installations, video-projections, ready-made objects, dead animals, manipulated photos and obscene model-making. But is the tide about to turn?”

Seattle’s new Rem Koolhaas-designed central library is winning raves from the critics. “High-end architecture is often a monument to the architect. Rarely is it art. This library is rooted in its functions, blooms where it’s planted, is art in itself and is going to be a huge hit with the mass audience that is its principal customer.”

Architect Rem Koolhaas was a longshot to design the Seattle Public Library. He almost didn’t enter the competition to design it, almost didn’t win the competition. “The new Central Library is an instant landmark for Seattle, a 21st century global architecture icon and a testament to this city’s futurist impulses. But for the 59-year-old architect who designed it, the new Central Library may represent even more: a major force in redemption of his reputation.”

Everyone is talking about the hot art market that has seen record prices for contemporary art. “So what gives? The declining dollar and inflation fears certainly make art a decent, demand-driven place for the rich to park their money. In these faux gilded times, the wealthy use art as a Veblenite way to advertise their fortunes — witness gaudy spreads on the Dallas scene in the current Art + Auction and on Los Angeles collectors in the new Art Review and the New York Times. There’s nothing like showing off that boob job or eye tuck in front of a Frank Stella or Cindy Sherman.”

“Now almost forgotten, the Musée Napoléon briefly contained almost all the works of art then most praised and valued by European connoisseurs at the turn of the 19th Century. All this loot had been removed from its owners by right of conquest. ‘The fate of products of genius,’ as an official declaration on the subject put it, ‘is to belong to the people who shine successively on earth by arms and by wisdom, and to follow always the wagons of the victors.’ Furthermore, obviously, Paris — being the most advanced spot on the globe — was the natural home of the world’s finest works of art.” Then, in 1815, the Musée was broken up and its treasures dispersed…

In this era of superstar architects and buildings that are decidedly form-over-function, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that household objects are now popping up with names like Gehry attached to them. “The new objects of desire are consumables designed by architects to help everybody bond around design… The possibilities for invention with new materials are staggering. It takes a lot of extra sweat to get from having an idea about new manipulations with glass to putting the ‘float’ tea lantern on the shelf.”

The Turner Prize jury surprises the art world with its choices for this year’s shortlist. “Though the panel did not make it quite explicit yesterday, the lesson of its shortlist was clear: the not-so-Young British Artists, the shock-horror stars of the 1990s, have had their day. This is a shortlist of serious established artists who have been beavering away for decades and are now flirting with middle age.”

A 47-year-old, radically queer homeless man named Badger is probably not many people’s first vision of what an artist looks like. But to the residents of New Orleans, Gainesville, Asheville, Minneapolis, and other cities which Badger has temporarily called home who have been lucky enough to come across his work – large-scale installation pieces, usually constructed of found objects, and usually functional enough to double as a temporary shelter for anyone in need – there is very little question that the man is devoted to his work. The authorities, however, tend to take a dim view of art which they see as encouraging vagrancy, and this spring, Badger has been facing down the parks board of Minneapolis in a desperate fight to preserve what he creates.