So the UN covered up Guernica this week. Was it sensitive to the message? “The continuing sensitivity to Guernica exemplified by the U.N. cover-up may remind us that modern art is poor in images glorifying just military action, though rich in images of the horrors and injustices of war. Further back in history, of course, there are numerous celebrations of the triumph of righteous might.”
Category: visual
The “Third Rail” Of Art History?
After Lawrence Weschler wrote about David Hockney’s theory about how Old Master painters might have used optical devices as aids in their work, he got an avalanche of protests. “I write about all sorts of things–hell, I write about relations between Jews and Poles, for God’s sake – so I’m used to getting letters. But I’d never found myself on the receiving end of anything like this. It turns out that the question of technical assistance may be the Third Rail of popular art history. Most people, it seems, prefer to envision their artistic heroes as superhuman draftsmen, capable of rendering ravishingly accurate anatomies or landscapes or townscapes through sheer inborn or God-given talent.”
Matisse Book Stolen From Greek Museum
A rare book featuring illustrations by Matisse has been stolen from a Greek museum. “The book’s cover was left behind and replaced with an art magazine that contained images of the French master. Because of its identifying number and missing cover, the stolen material would be difficult to sell at auction.”
Evaluating The WTC Finalists
Critic Herbert Muschamp writes that the choices are clear. “Daniel Libeskind’s project for the World Trade Center site is a startlingly aggressive tour de force, a war memorial to a looming conflict that has scarcely begun. The Think team’s proposal, on the other hand, offers an image of peacetime aspirations so idealistic as to seem nearly unrealizable.Compared with Think’s proposal, Mr. Libeskind’s design looks stunted. Had the competition been intended to capture the fractured state of shock felt soon after 9/11, this plan would probably deserve first place. But why, after all, should a large piece of Manhattan be permanently dedicated to an artistic representation of enemy assault? It is an astonishingly tasteless idea. It has produced a predictably kitsch result.”
Cleveland Museum To Get Big Upgrade
The Cleveland Museum of Art will unveil a major expansion plan this week, as designed by architect Rafael Viñoly, whose proposal “calls for demolishing nearly half of the museum’s existing complex before rebuilding and expanding the museum’s “footprint” and gallery space.” The renovation will cost $225 million and is scheduled to be completed in 2008. But the museum will have to delay the project if it cannot raise at least half of the money by the end of next year.
And Then There Were Two
Two finalists have been named in the competition to determine what will be done with the space known as Ground Zero. Architect Daniel Libeskind, whose proposal includes much use of concrete and preservation of the Ground Zero site as a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, is one finalist. The other final slot goes to the THINK Team, headed by Rafael Viñoly, which proposes to construct an elaborate complex of glass and steel, dominated by two transparent latticework towers where the original Twin Towers once stood. The winning design will be announced by the end of the month.
WTC Choices On Target
There seems to be general satisfaction with the choice of finalists for the World Trade Center site. “The process of deciding what will replace the destroyed World Trade Center has produced a unique cultural moment. In previous years, when there has been a major cultural issue playing itself out in public, people largely rallied to make clear what they didn’t want. The debate about the World Trade Center site has turned all that on its head. Not surprisingly, there is an unprecedented level of public engagement with and emotional investment in this project. And that involvement has driven the project forward but led it to embrace the most ‘cutting edge’ designs – Mr. Libeskind’s and THINK’s.”
Made To Order (But Whose Orders?)
A good building is the result not just of a good architect, but a good client. The two finalists for the WTC site have interesting proposals, but whether or not either one is able to actually build what they propose over the next decade will be complicated by just exactly who the client is – and there are competing jurisdictions…
Getty Passes On Masterpiece
For years the J Paul Getty Museum in LA has been able to buy whatever art it wanted – and has. But at the recent Old Master auctions in December the Getty failed to even bid on an important work that would have been a natural for its collection. “The decision of the world’s richest museum not to even bid on one of the last great narrative pictures of the Renaissance (one arguably of even greater rarity and importance than the $50 million Northumberland Raphael) is incomprehensible.”
UN Covers Up “Guernica” Reproduction
The United Nations has covered up a reproduction of Picasso’s “Guernica” that has hung outside the UN Security Council since 1985. “U.N. officials said last week that it is more appropriate for dignitaries to be photographed in front of the blue backdrop and some flags than the impressionist image of shattered villagers and livestock. ‘It’s only temporary. We’re only doing this until the cameras leave’.”