Category: visual

The British government proposes to overhaul and simplify the complicated listings and protections of the nation’s historic buildings, sites and monuments. “A single list, maintained by English Heritage, covering everything from Victorian horse troughs to Stonehenge, is proposed to replace the present separate registers of buildings, sites, gardens and battlefields. Buildings are listed, monuments scheduled and gardens registered, each with different criteria and grading systems.”

A large Miro mural not seen by the public since 1990 is on show at the Guggenheim this summer. “The 20-foot-long mural comprises 190 ceramic tiles, with the name ‘Alice’ in huge, exuberant letters surrounded by Miró’s characteristic celestial shapes. The artwork was permanently installed in 1967, but it is usually hidden behind a false wall to accommodate the museum’s array of special exhibitions.”

Next week the UK’s National Gallery will learn if it can get the money to buy a Raphael before it is sold to Americans. “Arguments have been raging over the fate of the painting with varying degrees of hysteria, sentimentality and anger since October. The Getty has been accused of ‘baby-snatching’; there has been talk of “raids on the British patrimony”. The language employed – including the nakedly over-emotional, quasi-evangelical notion of ‘saving’ – has not been helpful. Anyone would think that the National Gallery is protecting the picture from a gang of criminals, masterminded by evil geniuses in the guise of aristocrats, Sotheby’s experts and ruthless foreign curators, intent on grabbing the Raphael and hurling it into the Thames.”

“The row over how to clean David has been reported around the world as almost comic, but it is not funny at all. It is frightening because, ultimately, those involved will do what they want. And if they permanently damage the greatest sculpture in the world, that will just be tough. David is a global property, a defining achievement of humanity. Italy has no more right to damage its surface than the Taliban had to blow up Buddhist masterpieces. Anyway, this is not Italy-bashing; it is a Florentine who has sounded the alarm.”

The Smithsonian’s new $225 million Air & Space Museum still needs $97 million before it starts construction. But “when it’s finished, the center will be the largest construction project in the Smithsonian’s history and the only one built completely with private funds. The main hangar, which will house some 200 aircraft, will be the length of three football fields and 10 stories high. On June 12, the annex accepted delivery of an Air France Concorde. Work is also under way to refurbish another big draw, the Space Shuttle Enterprise. And a newly reassembled Enola Gay, the bomber that flew the missions to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, will be displayed as well.”

“In a legal challenge that aims to block an upcoming show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the grandson of a Russian aristocrat is arguing that 25 of the artworks — including paintings by Cezanne, Degas, Matisse, Picasso and Van Gogh — are stolen goods, looted from his family by Lenin’s Bolshevik government in 1918 and later passed to Moscow’s State Pushkin Museum.” The lawsuit is a new tactic in a larger battle by the family of the Russian collector who owned the pieces to force legal recognition of the Bolshevik seizure. LACMA officials, presumably caught by surprise, aren’t commenting just yet.

The cleaning of Michelangelo’s David is turning into quite the public event, and a fierce argument has developed over the proper way to free David from his layers of grime. “The row centres on whether the statue should be cleaned using water to restore it to its original state or by a dry cleaning method which would be less radical and only remove the worst grime, according to UK press reports on Wednesday. A petition has been signed by more than 39 international art experts to stop Florence’s Galleria dell’Accademia using their planned wet technique and demanding that an independent commission should decide on the best method.”

The Guggenheim has unveiled plans for a new Taiwan outpost. “The proposed museum, designed by noted architect Zaha Hadid, includes several sections of the museum that can change position on demand. The entire West Wing, a two-story structure with a 3,583 square meter base is designed to move either through a rail or air cushion system into three different positions, while the East gallery includes a 440 square meter platform which can move between the first and second floor galleries like a gigantic elevator.”

A new German commission has been set up to work on disputes on looted art. “Germany has paid around £3bn to survivors of Nazi slave camps, and £30bn to victims of the Holocaust, but the issue of stolen property has not been resolved. The eight-member panel was set up after an agreement between the federal, state and local governments on its powers, but it can intervene only if both sides agree to let it act as an arbitrator. “

“Much of the cultural life of Edinburgh today was shaped in the 1960s. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art was opened, the Traverse Theatre was launched and world-class contemporary art arrived in the city, perhaps for the first time. It was enough to make a Morningside lady drop her teacup. Now, a snapshot of this eventful decade is on show…”