Category: visual

Many supporters of this year’s Havana Biennale withdrew their support after Fidel Castro jail journalists and allowed some artists to be censored. “But with the Castro government struggling to maintain its place on the world stage, and its population suffering under US sanctions dating back to 1961, the hosting of an art biennial is an important opportunity for Cuba and its artists to engage in six weeks of cultural discourse and exchange, as well as for a much needed injection of foreign spending on the island. And with Cuban artists dominating the display, the exhibition functions as an advertisement for native talent. ‘All third world biennials are a strategy to promote the local art. Cuba is no exception’.”

The Libeskind/Childs tower for the World Trade Center site is old-school thinking tied to hidebound out-of-date ideas, writes James Russell. “American Class A buildings are no longer regarded as high-standard buildings in London, Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Japan—not even in supposedly backward China. What’s today’s high-standard tower? One of the most ambitious is Swiss Re, coming to completion in London by Foster & Partners. (You can find it by searching under “projects” in the architect’s site.) It features gardens for idea sharing and for blurring the boundaries between floors, an advanced approach to daylight and ventilation, and a floor configuration that offers almost everyone access to windows or views.”

The World Bank is loaning St. Petersburg, Russia $160 million to help improve its cultrual sites and infrastructure. “The loans are part of the St Petersburg Economic Development Project, a joint initiative between the Russian government and the World Bank which will see some $240 million spent to improve the city’s business climate, notorious for its corruption and red tape, and to restore important cultural sites which are not attracting as many tourists as they could.”

The Dia Foundation is closing its much-loved Chelsea warehouse gallery for two years of rennovations. “The converted warehouse at 548 West 22nd Street was one of the first art venues in the Chelsea district when it opened in 1987, and with some 60,000 visitors annually, it needs new passenger and freight elevators, climate control, roof repairs, and more lavatories. Trustees have pledged $10 million towards a $50-million campaign that seeks $30 million for the Chelsea space and $20 million for Dia’s acclaimed new museum in Beacon, New York as well as for other long-term projects, including land art by Michael Heizer and James Turrell.”

A long-planned project to build a museum focusing on African-American heritage in the nation’s capitol has been getting plenty of press lately. But some observers in Baltimore are concerned that the D.C.-based museum could steal the thunder of Baltimore’s own fledgling African-American history museum. (Baltimore is less than 60 miles from the District of Columbia.) Still, Baltimore museum officials say they aren’t worried, and that the two museums can coexist.

“Art collector Charles Saatchi has launched a £10,000 award which he says is aimed at encouraging more children to become interested in modern art. Schoolchildren will be invited to compete for The Saatchi Gallery Award by sending an essay or project about their visit to the London gallery. The winner will get £7,500 for their school’s art department plus a computer worth £2,500 to keep for themselves.”

“France’s former foreign minister, Roland Dumas, and the country’s leading auctioneer, Jacques Tajan, are to be tried after accusations of an alleged fraud involving artworks left by the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti.”

An early Georgia O’Keeffe painting has been stolen out of the O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. “The missing painting is worth a significant amount of money – half a million (dollars) plus. And it’s not marketable because it’s so well documented. It’s kind of a crazy theft. Let’s hope they just want ransom, or something stupid.”

Olafur Eliasson’s foggy sunset installation at Tate Modern has recorded its one millionth visitor in just two months. “Eliasson’s work, based on the British obsession with the weather, involves 300 mirrors on the ceiling and more than 200 lamps behind a semi-circular screen.”

“The people who read the Harvard tea leaves — let’s call them Harvardologists — duly noted the absence of an architect from the World’s Greatest Graduate School of Design on the newly formed task forces president Larry Summers has appointed to map out Harvard’s march across the river into Allston… The word on the street is that Summers has had more than his fill of GSD architecture mavens, who greeted the newly arrived president with Rem Koolhaas’s bizarre ‘Moses Scheme’ for rechanneling the Charles River near Harvard. More recently the GSD championed the Ugliest Building Ever Built, the near-universally reviled 1 Western Avenue, a 235-unit housing facility for students, faculty, and staff in Allston.”