Category: visual

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow announce a long-term alliance to share and exchange artwork. “The first exchange will send 200 objects from the MFA’s Glassell Collection of African Gold to the Russian museum in 2001, the first time in its 100-year history that it will exhibit African art. In December 2002, a trove of French paintings by such masters as Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso will travel to Houston.” – Houston Chronicle

It only opened last May, but already this year the Tate Modern has topped 3 million visitors, averaging 18,000 people a day. How does it compare to other attractions in the capital? “The British Museum was top of last year’s list, recording 5.5 million visitors, and the National Gallery was in second place with five million.” – London Evening Standard

A set of big bronze Henry Moore sculptures is resting in a park in central Beijing. How did they get there, and why choose Moore to represent British art? Turns out they’re just the thing… – The Guardian

Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art is back from the brink of oblivion. But it’s got to got to terms with balancing good art and pulling in the crowds. New director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor “is under great pressure to pull in the crowds. But she is yet to prove that elaborately marketed shows with a sometimes tenuous relation to art are the way to go. Asked about the exhibition of elephant paintings, she laughed loudly.” – Sydney Morning Herald

The Guggenheim and the Hermitage Museums are coming to Las Vegas. What will their new buildings look like? “Whether or not they succeed as architecture will go a long way in answering a question that has secretly terrified the profession for more than a decade: How does architecture assert its value in a world saturated by manipulative advertising and mass-market entertainment?” – Los Angeles Times

The Guggenheim’s new show of Armani fashion has reviewers in a tizzy. “Reviewers stumbled out of this array of some 400 garments in a higher-than-usual state of befuddlement, and have delivered themselves of reports written in rapturous poetry or horror-struck prose or, in some cases, both. And how do we factor in the US$15-million Giorgio Armani has reportedly given to the Guggenheim for its worldwide projects? Rich people have been giving tons of money to museums, and getting back favours, since the beginning of time. That’s perhaps a horrifying idea. But has anybody really suffered?” – National Post (Canada)

“William Thorsell, who was appointed head of the Royal Ontario Museum – Canada’s largest museum – four months ago, wants to strip away decades of alterations that have left the original galleries a dark shadow of their former selves.” – Toronto Star

• Works by the four artists shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize have gone on view at London’s Tate Britain. The UK’s premier art award, the Turner (which will be announced next month) has developed a reputation for generating substantial controversy – Damien Hirst’s sheep in formaldehyde and Chris Ofili’s cow-dung paintings were past winners – and this year’s no different. Only one finalist is actually British, to the consternation of many. – BBC
  
  
  • A SPECIAL SECTION ON THE TURNER PRIZE – The Guardian
    
    
  • “The shortlist for this year’s Turner Prize is the most balanced and serious since 1996.” – The Telegraph (UK)

The first in a week-long discussion of John Armstrong’s new book “Move Closer,” a primer for “those who sweat when confronted with art” on the pleasures of viewing. “Can a stubbornly unvisual person – someone who might love a picture but might be unable to describe it coherently five minutes later – be taught to see things differently, in a less ham-handed way?” – Slate

Leaders of Chinese Palace Museums (in Beijing and Taipei) meet to talk about exchanging artworks. The move is historic because Mainland China has in the past charged that Taipei’s collection was plundered when the Nationalists left the Mainland. – China Times (Taiwan)