A large tapestry with a theme of the 9/11 attack hung at Los Angeles International Airport in late January has sparked waves of protest. “The exhibit, titled ‘Eye-Speak,’ includes images inspired by the attacks, such as a bare-breasted woman holding a bleeding heart with the World Trade Center’s twin towers on fire behind her.”
Category: visual
British, Swiss Call For Tighter Enforcement On Stolen Art
Britain and Switzerland get together to talk about the traffic of stolen cultural goods. “Governments need to raise the profile of cultural goods to the same level of priority as tobacco, arms and alcohol,” and greater enforcement of borders is key.
Bragging Rights For Hockey
The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia will unveil Thursday a 137-year-old painting it claims is visual proof that Canada’s national past-time was first played in Nova Scotia. ‘There is quite a debate. There are tonnes of written records of hockey and hurley and all these others claims, but … to our knowledge there’s no one else who has an earlier visual record of hockey being played’.”
Walker Center Attendance Declines 30 Percent
Attendance at Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center was down 30 percent lasty year. Officials attribute the decline “primarily to a tourism fall-off after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a natural decline after a 2001 blockbuster season that included popular shows of home design and art by Yoko Ono. Attendance at the Walker fell from an all-time high of 636,000 in 2001 to 439,000 in the 2003 fiscal year, which ended last June 30.”
A First Look At (What Would Be) London’s Tallest Building…
Plans have been unveiled for a new 700-foot high skyscraper in London. “The skyscraper, the creation of the architects responsible for the Lloyds building and the Millennium Dome, would be at least 100ft (30 metres) taller than any other structure in the City.”
Shutting Off Art From Cuba
Until recently, licensed collectors were able to travel to Cuba and bring some art back to the United States. But “the Bush administration has canceled most licenses for culture-related Cuban travel, and the Treasury Department recently stepped up prosecution. Americans who are caught taking unlicensed trips to Cuba from, say, Canada or the Caribbean now face hefty fines, reportedly up to $10,000. The Cuban government allows some artists to leave the country to sell their work, and Cuban artists may mail works to the United States. But some Cuban artists at the Havana Biennial were worried they might have trouble obtaining U.S. visas to attend gallery shows here.”
National Gallery of Australia – Life After Kennedy?
Was Brian Kennedy forced out as director of the National Gallery of Australia? At the least, he was politically isolated. So now who will succeed Kennedy? “John McDonald, the gallery’s former head of Australian art, will not apply. He resigned after a falling out with Kennedy, and says the new director needs to reverse the steady decline in visitor numbers and morale that happened under Kennedy. ‘Kennedy should have gone in disgrace several years ago. It will take a while to repair the damage’.”
The Greatest Collection That Never Was
In 1973, British Prime Minister Edward Heath made a list of the 35 most important artworks in private hands. A “declassified 1973 document lists 35 paintings by foreign artists, each then worth at least £500,000. The entire list of 35 works could now be worth as much as £1 billion. The idea was that if the pictures ever came up for sale, they should be bought by public collections.”
Kennedy Quits National Gallery Of Australia
Controversial National Gallery of Australia director Brian Kennedy has decided to leave the museum after seven years. “While acknowledging that criticisms of him as stubborn, combative, ambitious and a workaholic may be true, Dr Kennedy said he was also passionate, concerned and dedicated.”
Sydney Opera House Opening Up To The World
The Sydney Opera House is getting its first structural facelift. “The western foyers will be opened to the harbour by a new glassed facade, and a $6 million loggia, or colonnade,” opening up a long windowless tube that connects the center’s various theatres. An ambitious plan to lower the Opera House floor would cost $300 million, and hasn’t yet been approved.