The photo turns 50 years old on Christmas Eve this year, but why did it affect humanity’s view of the Earth so strongly? The photo – called “Earthrise” – “with its incontestable beauty, a beauty that had needed no eye of a beholder for billions of years, … caught the human heart by surprise.” – The Guardian (UK)
Category: visual
How Does An Art Museum’s Conservation Scientist Do His Job? [AUDIO]
A great way to end the podcast year: MoMA senior conservation scientist Chris McGlinchey talks “about all the complex machines he uses, the extremely tiny scale conservators work on, and figuring out how to fill the museum with sugar cane that won’t rot.” – Slate
The Art Project With Its Roots In An S&M Magazine That Failed
Recent art history for the long holiday weekend: “For the late photographer Steve Kahn, ‘The Hollywood Suites,’ a series of images that chronicled, in conceptual ways, the interiors of a dilapidated no-tell hotel on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, all started with a bondage magazine.” – Los Angeles Times
The Brand Hellscape That Is An Ice Cream (Or Avocado) ‘Museum’
Just because you can Instagram something doesn’t make it a museum. “We go to museums to see our humanity reflected back at us; at the very least, what we expect when we visit one is a bit of cultural centering, some provocation, and intellectual inquiry.” – Eater
A Bit Of Stalinist Utopian Design, Now Available On AirB&B
A pair of architectural history buffs bought this 377-square-foot apartment in a 1932 Constructivist building in Moscow, restored it, and furnished it with copies of avant-garde Soviet furniture and design, including the famous Suprematist chair and table by Nikolai Suetin and upholstery from a design by artist Lyubov Popova. All yours for a mere $75 a night. — The Art Newspaper
After A Year, Rijksmuseum’s Branch In Amsterdam Airport Is Reopening
The Rijksmuseum Schiphol was the world’s first museum satellite at an airport, with a rotating selection of ten Golden Age paintings displayed (at no charge) for a few hundred thousand visitors each year. Leaks in the roof above had required the space to close last January. — The Art Newspaper
Once World Capital Of Oil-Painting Copies, Chinese Town Tries Move Into Original Art
A decade ago, the Shenzen suburb of Dafen produced three-quarters of the world’s supply of oil reproductions of famous paintings such as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. “[But] what was once pejoratively described as something akin to a citadel of copycats is now trying to rebrand itself as an incubator of original art,” albeit with limited success so far. — Hyperallergic
Revolving Door? Toronto MoCA Director Moves On After Less Than A Year
Heidi Reitmaier is moving on in January to become deputy director of the Art Gallery of Ontario, where she’ll also serve as chief of public programming and learning. – Toronto Star
Stendhal Syndrome Gets Lethal: Tourist Finds Botticelli’s Venus Literally Heart-Stopping
An Italian man broke down and suffered a heart attack after gazing at Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (ca. 1485) at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence over the weekend. The unnamed man was treated by a group of four visiting doctors with a defibrillator and was rushed to a hospital where he is currently recovering.” — Artnet
Banksy’s Latest Guerrilla Art Strike Is Even More Depressing Than Dismaland
His latest mural, which popped up in the Welsh steel town of Port Talbot, shows a child catching snowflakes on his tongue — except that the flakes are actually ashes from a dumpster fire behind his back. Merry Christmas! — The Guardian