Category: visual

Can Asia Save The Modernist Masterpieces Of Its Many Cities?

The campaigns to save the Hong Kong post office and Modernist buildings in Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan are about more than the structures. “Many of the structures were municipal buildings that served as downtown hubs of civic life. The campaigns, in a sense, are an attempt to preserve the collective memories stored inside.” – The New York Times

As Museums Remain Closed, The Work Goes On Inside

Or, in the case of the Gardner, also in the Museum’s gardens. Just before the museum was shut down again to help prevent gatherings of people from different households, “horticulturists at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum were putting the final touches on one of the city’s most anticipated floral displays: The Holiday Garden, a vivid infusion of more than 400 flowering plants, ferns, and shrubs that each year transform the Fenway museum’s courtyard into a lush bouquet brimming with poinsettias, cyclamen, amaryllis, and orchids.” – Boston Globe

Please Keep Your Hands, Feet, And Breath Inside The Car While At The Museum

That’s 2020 for you, and it’s also a clever way to deal with distancing. In Mexico City, “Objects In the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear (Los objetos en el espejo están más cerca de lo que parece, in Spanish) … brings together over 30 works by more than 20 contemporary artists, from sculpture to video works and LED installations, across three floors of a commercial parking garage in the city’s Polanco neighborhood.” – Hyperallergic

Look, Buildings Of Any Tradition Can Be Beautiful

Seriously. We’re having this discussion because the U.S. president is determined to damage as much as possible before he’s forced to leave, but: “America has beautiful and popular non-traditional structures – the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles – and it has crude and soulless classical buildings.” – The Guardian (UK)

Museums Are Still Acquiring Art During The Pandemic

Museum collecting looks a lot different these days. Not only has there been a greater focus on women and artists of colour, but acquisitions have unfolded more quietly than usual for fear of seeming insensitive to the financial suffering of staff and visitors alike. Far less common are the press releases announcing major purchases. Museums are in the unusual position of downplaying instead of promoting their acquisitions. – The Art Newspaper

Colosseum In Rome To Get Retractable Floor, Just Like It Had Originally

Well, this new one will probably be higher-tech, but yes, the Italian government has requested bids to construct a retractable floor along the lines of the one the ancient venue had until about 1,000 years ago. Plans are for construction to start in 2021 and be completed in 2023, after which concerts and theater will be performed there. – Artnet

Leaked Texts Show How Sackler Family Counted On Museum Philanthropy To Save Their Skins In Opioid Crisis

“For years, as an opioid crisis ravaged America, the Sackler family, which founded Purdue Pharma, the company that made OxyContin, remained largely out of the public eye, free to accumulate billions of dollars of wealth in tranquility. But in recent years, the walls began to close in, as the press and regulators and lawyers and state attorneys general began to investigate Purdue’s role in the epidemic. And as pressure rose, to whom did the Sacklers turn to vouch for them? The museums that had taken their philanthropy.” – The.Ink