Category: visual

The Royal Academy’s followup to “Sensation” is meant to shock. But “Apocalypse is to the Royal Academy what a pair of purple hipsters are to an aged librarian. The show wants so much to be out there, in the loop, feeling the buzz – but pretending you are out there is not the same as being out there, and the latest attempt by the Academy, founded in 1768, to pass itself off as a happening temple of modern culture shock ends up as a rather sad little show, even a pathetic one. This was obviously not the intention.” – The Sunday Times (UK)

Even as London’s Tate and New York’s Museum of Modern Art get set to launch ambitious virtual museums, a big question still remains: “Why is the Virtual Museum so boring? And it is. The cyber gallery is nearly always dense, confusing, difficult to navigate, devoid of passion and, worse, of intellect. Not only are these sites a betrayal of the ‘muse’ function at the core of the name museum, they often demand hours of downloading special software to handle special effects that are nothing special.” – New York Times

The two-year-old Commission on Art Recovery brokers a return of art stolen in World War II by the Nazis. “The heirs of Gustav Kirstein, a principal in an art printing firm in Leipzig, will recover an oil painting by Lovis Corinth and some 80 items, primarily drawings, by Max Klinger.” – Jerusalem Post

A humble ancient stone turns out to be the first art. “New scientific data suggests that early humans were producing representations of life 220,000 years ago, 170,000 years earlier than previously thought. It is a discovery which could revolutionise our understanding of human development.” – The Independent (UK)

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s artwork is the top-selling of the 1980s. “Does the artist’s work live up to the market’s hype? While Basquiat produced a lot of junk, if you look at his high-water mark as a painter, you can’t help but be impressed by the sophistication of his compositions, painterly surface and effective use of language.” – Artnet

A set of 92 Botticelli drawings illustrating Dante’s “Divine Comedy” has been gathered and reunited in Rome after more than five centuries of being dispersed throughout Europe. – The Guardian

When the Getty opened its new billion-dollar home three years ago in Los Angeles, there were those who thought a period of more modest art acquisitions might follow. But though some Getty programs have quietly gone away, the museum is continuing to collect aggressively, says the museum’s new director. – The Art Newspaper

The Royal Academy’s “Apocalypse” is the successor to “Sensation” and the RA hopes to shock on the order of what the first show provoked. But a lot of what’s up is pretty feeble, writes one critic. – The Times (UK)

• Graffiti artists claim work in a new Brooklyn Museum show belongs to them and not the museum. – New York Times

Harvard University has plans to build two ambitious new museums. “One would be a museum of modern and contemporary art, the other would relocate Harvard’s Sackler Museum, with its rich collection of ancient, Asian and Islamic art.” But neighbors, worried about crowds and congestion, are protesting the plans. – Boston Herald