Category: visual

The new set of designs presented as possible replacements for the Twin Towers are certainly impressive, says Lisa Rochon, and they’re also awfully… um… tall. “There are towers that kiss in mid-air, while others stand up like soldiers aligned in a military grid. Some are beautiful. Most of them carry a tremendous wallop of architectural ego.”

With the Guggenheim in financial ruin, why, Hilton Kramer wants to know, is director Thomas Krens still allowed in the building? “The fact is that during Mr. Krens’ 14-year tenure as director of the Guggenheim, the museum virtually ceased to make a significant contribution to the art life of New York. Some of us are old enough to recall the days when the Guggenheim was a vital presence in the city.”

When Surrealist Andre Breton died at 70 on Sept. 28, 1966, his small apartment at 42 Rue Fontaine in the Pigalle district of Paris was “a veritable treasure trove.” But what to do with the art? “With the French government unwilling to buy the collection, the largest single record of the Surrealist movement is to be sold next spring at the Hôtel Drouot-Richelieu, where Paris auctions are held. One measure of the size of the sale is that the auction house, CalmelsCohen, plans at least six catalogs to cover the 5,300 lots. The auction, from April 1 to 18, is expected to raise $30 million to $40 million.”

The Scottish Museums Council says the country’s museums need £14 million to keep them viable. The council’s report stresses that “museums have suffered years of under-investment and called for ‘funding appropriate to 21st century Scotland’. Ultimately we’re talking about museums closing.”

A New York state agency warned architects not to cooperate with a plan by the New York Times to publish in advance plans for rebuilding on the site of the World Trade Center. “Sources tell Newsday that Times’ chief architecture critic, Herbert Muschamp, asked the teams working on plans for the trade center site to show him their work in advance of tomorrow’s public unveiling by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the state agency charged with rebuilding the site. He had planned to have a story in the Times prior to public disclosure of the designs.” None of the architects agreed, according to Newsday sources.

A New York art student was arrested last week after “placing 38 black boxes, bearing the word ‘fear’ in white lettering, around the Union Square station, a crucial hub where six lines intersect. The bomb squad was called in and the station was shut for five hours, causing a ripple effect of chaos on the network, as panicked commuters and transit workers feared a terrorist attack.”

“First things first. What an idiotic project. As the saying goes, art this bad ought to be a crime. So now it is left to hapless, fledgling art students, fresh from Michigan, to keep up the city’s gritty reputation for crime. At least New York can still take pride, as the nation’s cultural capital, that even our misdemeanors are works of art.”

A London gallery owner is under investigation by Scotland Yard “for showing a picture of a girl in a bath taken by her artist mother after a passerby complained to the police that it was ‘paedophiliac and offensive’.”

Should a London man be jailed for decapitating a statue of Margaret Thatcher? He claims the act was art. “The prosecution will attempt to convince you that my actions amount to criminal damage whereas my defence will centre around artistic expression and my right to interact with this broken world. We can ill afford to ever lose our sense of humour. I was left with no choice other than to do this act of satirical humour.”

Proposals for rebuilding on the World Trade Center site are to be presented today. “Thanks entirely to public pressure, our great city has taken a giant step toward reclaiming a place of world leadership in the civil art of building. The participants include some of the most influential figures in contemporary architecture. Not since 1947, when an international design team met to plan the United Nations headquarters, has a comparable list of architectural talent set to work on a New York project.”