Category: visual

There was a brief time in the mid-20th Century when Baghdad aspired to being rebuilt as an international city. “More construction took place in Baghdad during the second half of the 20th century than at any time since the Golden Age of the Abbasid dynasty came to a close nearly 750 years ago. Most of this new work was Modern in spirit and represented a radical break with Baghdad’s past. Among the international architects with major projects here were Frank Lloyd Wright, then nearing the end of his career; Walter Gropius, a founder of the Bauhaus; and the Italian Modernist Gio Ponti. They were soon followed by a rising generation of Iraqi talents who sought to infuse Western architectural forms with a more local sensibility. Together, such architects transformed Baghdad into a modern city — one whose defining urban features were rooted in the cultural traditions of the West.”

Sadaam Hussein remade Baghdad. “Like other dictators of the past, Hussein saw himself as a great arbiter of taste, an architectural patron cast in the mold of a Cosimo di Medici. He was a familiar figure in architectural circles and on construction sites, where he would often sketch out his ideas on scraps of paper. The competitions Hussein sponsored attracted some of the world’s most celebrated architects. His aim, he often claimed, was to reestablish Baghdad as one of the world’s great architectural capitals.”

“The yawning gap between the best and the rest in the art market has rarely been wider than at last week’s Old Masters sales in London, where there was precious little of the former on offer.”

Which were the great buildings of 2003? “Structural bombast and aesthetic razzmatazz were the order of the year. Blobby, amoeba-like buildings competed with wacky tours de force…

The art commissioned for Tate Modern’s giant turbine hall has been getting bigger and bigger. But is bigger really better? “Art that overwhelms, ‘total immersion’ art, invites suspicion. Some think it intellectually, ethically, and politically dubious. Big art is routinely called “fascistic” – after all, Hitler’s architect Albert Speer dealt in mega-structures and the Nuremberg rally was a triumph of number and mass.”

In the next few weeks a decision will be made on which memorial at the World Trade Center site will be built. “The decision will be hailed by the powers that be as a victory for the people, for the open process by which it was conducted, for democracy. It will also almost certainly be a failure. The eight designs under consideration are widely considered uninspiring, banal, needlessly complicated, unimaginative and insufficient to evoke the horror of Sept. 11. But if you believe the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which is overseeing the redevelopment of ground zero, they are the best that democracy can provide, and that ought to be good enough for anyone.”

Three years ago, the Calder Foundation announced that Philadelphia would be the site of a $70 million museum dedicated to showcasing the work of sculptor Alexander Calder. “But what looked in early 2001 like a done deal has turned out to be just the beginning of an intricate courtship. Unlike other foundations devoted to the work of a single artist, such as the Warhol Foundation, the Calder Foundation does not have unilateral control over the artist’s estate. Six family members, including Rower, his mother and his aunt, control the artworks that would anchor the museum.” So far, the museum hasn’t managed to reach any agreements with the family to display Calder’s work.

“At first glance, Art Basel Miami Beach may seem an incongruous group of words. But this bizarre-sounding conjunction of ice-cool Swiss business and hot-blooded Latino glamour is fast becoming the biggest event in the art-world calendar. Now in its second year, the ABMB sees a massive influx of collectors, dealers and global operators converging on the luxury, art-filled hotels of South Beach… While the Florida climate is clearly an attraction, what has made Miami the art world’s most magnetic new destination is its impressive infrastructure.”

Modern sculpture has become big box office. Not just any sculpture though. The great big oversized sculpture found recently in the enormous turbine room at Tate Modern. “None of these works are necessarily great art. They have nothing much to do with Moore or Donatello. They are made not of bronze or marble but of ignoble materials such as plastic and neon. But they fit triumphantly into the 21st-century urban scene.”

Painter John Currin is hot at the moment. But Blake Gopnik wonders why. “Within the art world, where Currin’s career and reputation have been forged, he can get praise as an original not because he’s doing anything new or special but simply because some vanguard curators and collectors don’t get out enough. It’s as though the elites of contemporary art are so engrossed in their own world that they’re not aware of what’s already going on in the American mainstream – at shopping malls, on boardwalks and in Sunday painting classes.”