Category: visual

Is the French government purposefully holding up loans of Impressionist paintings for a planned exhition in Orlando, Florida? Experts say that “the show, which could mean millions of dollars for the local economy, is being postponed in part because of tension between the United States and France, organizers said Wednesday. ‘If it weren’t a French-owned museum, I don’t think we’d have these delays’.”

“With its single black staircase and a breathtaking rooftop sculpture garden, Reno – Nevada’s ‘biggest little city’ – has a renovated art museum that takes the town a step beyond the gaming industry. The new Nevada Art Museum is a four-story, 60,000-square- foot black steel building that is reminiscent of a ship at sea. It is four times the size of its predecessor and includes a 180-seat theater, several galleries and a restaurant. But the feature that has drawn the most attention is the rooftop sculpture garden and its views of the snowcapped Sierra.”

“A Rembrandt self-portrait which lay undiscovered for centuries after it had been painted over has sold for £6.94m at auction in London. It was bought by US billionaire casino tycoon Steve Wynn during a transatlantic telephone bid at Sotheby’s. The portrait, painted by the Dutch master in 1634 when he was 28, lay hidden under layers of paint for more than 300 years.”

Scientists say that they have shown with tests that satellite imaging can show buried archaelogical sites from space. “Images from US space shuttle missions in the 1980s appeared to show ancient river drainage patterns beneath the Sahara desert. Satellites have revealed ancient river beds beneath the Sahara. Subsequent imaging turned up ring structures beneath the ice of Antarctica. But until now no-one has been entirely sure that these images definitely showed real objects.”

Director Francesco Bonami had idealistic plans. He handed over the reins to 11 other curators, two of whom are artists. “He didn’t create a team of co-curators working together but gave all of them complete autonomy to do their own thing. He bestowed an idealistic title on this exhibition of exhibitions: ‘Dreams and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer.’ And somehow, despite the best intentions in the world, he fell, metaphorically, flat on his face with the biggest, sloppiest, most amorphous biennial ever. As we ought to know by now, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Am I the only one who hits a snag at the notion of the, uh, dictatorship of the viewer? Isn’t that what happens at art fairs? Isn’t that what Hitler proposed when he outlawed art criticism? Quite apart from that little conflict between the dream of individual freedom and the idea of dictatorship, the Abdication of the Director would have been far more precise.”

Seventy-seven years ago Congress authorized the creation of a new African American Museum in Washington DC. More recently the project has seemed to gain momentum in Congress. But that momentum may be illusory. “The main concern is an age-old one—location, location, location. The commission would like to put a new building on the Washington Mall, near the Capitol. But the Senate bill ignores the commission’s existing recommendation, instead charging the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents with picking a spot. Perhaps more ominously, it grants the board 18 months to make a decision, a lifetime given the ever-changing balance of power in Congress. Meanwhile, the uncertainty puts a crimp in any fundraising plans.”

Boston is an old city, by American standards, and most of its public art seems to be nearly as old as the city itself. “Boston often is criticized for lacking a bold or effective plan to develop new public sculpture. But some long-overdue appointments could change that. In May, artist Sarah Hutt was named director of public art for the city. Hutt now oversees the Boston Art Commission, which recently has been revived with an all-new membership. The four-member commission hasn’t been active since Director Mildred Farrell resigned two years ago. Even before that, the group frequently was criticized for a lack of discrimination and being out of touch.”

Rather than selling their artwork abroad to raise money for tax bills, last year Britons donated art treasures valued at £40 million to British museums rather than paying inheritance tax. “Titian’s masterpiece Venus Anadyomene, watercolours by Edward Lear and a Barbara Hepworth sculpture were among works handed over. The scheme has settled tax bills worth more than £6.5m during the past year.”

The director of Iraq’s National Museum says that one-in-ten of the museum’s artifacts is missing since the looting of the museum two months ago. “Dr Nawalaal Mutawalli told a press conference at the British Museum in London that some 13,000 objects had gone missing from the Baghdad institution’s storage room in the days following the fall of Saddam Hussein.”