“One installation in the show [at Mary Baldwin University] included a bathroom sink with air fresheners — shaped like the silhouettes of statues of Confederate leaders — hanging from it. A medicine cabinet was mounted above the sink, and, inside, pill bottles containing watermelon seeds were labeled ‘make as directed.'” (A colleague had warned one of the artists, “The minute they know you’re white, and they see those watermelons, it’s all over.”) – The Washington Post
Category: visual
Rothko Chapel To Get Renovation, Including New Skylight
“[The $30 million project] will erect three new buildings to support the chapel’s ongoing social justice programming and is replacing the building’s ceiling apparatus with a new skylight and digital lighting system. This will cast gentle natural light by day and uniform illumination by night for the first time on Mark Rothko’s 14 monumental black canvases.” – The New York Times
Immersive Paris Light Show Based On Klimt Paintings Is A Hit
The Atelier des Lumières, a 2,000 sq. m former foundry in the 11th arrondissement, was launched last spring with a 30-minute immersive audiovisual experience of Gustav Klimt’s paintings, featuring mural projections of the images set to music by Wagner, Strauss and Beethoven. With full-price tickets at €14.50, it attracted more than 1.2 million visitors from 13 April 2018 to 6 January 2019. – The Art Newspaper
The Market (And There Is One) For Hitler’s Paintings
It’s a niche market, to be sure, and one that major auction houses and dealers stay far away from. But there’s enough demand to make it worthwhile for a few to sell Hitler’s handiwork — or to forge it. And, according to one auctioneer, that demand doesn’t come from right-wing extremists. – The Art Newspaper
A Million New Visitors Have Come To National Portrait Gallery To See Paintings Of Barack And Michelle Obama
“The Obama portraits have catapulted the Smithsonian museum to the top tier of the city’s attractions by dramatically increasing attendance. The Old Patent Office Building — the historic home to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum — had a record-breaking 2.3 million visitors in 2018, about a million more than in 2017.” – The Washington Post
How AI Is Evolving As An Artist
“We have two streams of data: inspiration and aesthetics. The machine explores the space in between them. We’re giving artists more control of the process and pulling back on the autonomy.” The result is an assemblage of fairly trippy prints. Some show a face that’s blurred or swirling. Others look vaguely skeleton-like and macabre. – Fast Company
How To Think About SFMoMA Selling A Rothko To Fund Better Collection Diversity?
Charles Desmarais: “SFMOMA’s new collection initiative is hardly in the vanguard of such efforts, but it may keep the museum from falling further behind. And we, the public to whom the museum owes a more holistic, and thus more accurate, picture of art and its history, will be watching closely.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Art Acne: When Paintings Develop Pimples
“These are happening on works of art throughout the generations — since oil paint was created,” says a Smithsonian conservator. They’ve appeared on paintings ranging from Rembrandt to van Gogh to Chagall to O’Keeffe. Turns out they’re made of soap — and no, that’s not because anyone has tried to wash the canvases. – Smithsonian Magazine
Of Artists In Major U.S. Museums, 85% Are White And 78% Are Male: Study
“Researchers examined more than 40,000 artworks in the collections of 18 museums across the US, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago, to analyze the gender and ethnic diversity of their holdings.” – Artnet
Sotheby’s Plans An Enormous Expansion
The expansion project—which will be done by New York-based architect Shohei Shigematsu, a partner in the Rem Koolhaas-founded firm OMA—will drastically grow the auction house’s gallery footprint. It will expand the gallery space to more than 90,000 square feet, from a current total of 67,000 square feet—a growth equivalent to more than half an acre. A total of 40 galleries of various sizes will span four transformed floors. – Artnet