Category: visual

“The Tate Modern, which opened in May and is a branch of the older Tate Gallery up the river, is surely the most hyped building of the year. Modern art doesn’t thrive in demure surroundings, and the notion of placing it in the gritty venue of an abandoned power station seemed appropriate. Unfortunately, the architects of the renovation, Herzog & de Meuron of Switzerland, a respected firm, have succeeded in bleeding away most of what should have been a thrilling confrontation of art with architecture.” – Boston Globe

• Now a plan to restore the fortunes of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, which is on the verge of running out of money and says it might have to close if it can’t turn its fortunes around. “The plan would raise 85 million dollars to re-endow the foundation and increase the budget for administering the Barnes collection.” – Morning Edition (NPR) [Real Audio clip]

The thieves who stole a Monet from the Polish National Museum replaced it with a cheap fake. So museum officials are not certain when the painting was stolen. – Ananova

A skeleton found beneath Florence’s Duomo 30 years ago has been identified as that of Giotto, the famed early Renaissance artist. – BBC

“The National Capital Planning Commission meets in Washington DC Thursday to give final approval to the $100-million project’s “finished” design, even though its thematic centerpiece is a complete unknown. This startling fact is a plain example of what a sham the review process for the World War II Memorial has been these past five years.” – Los Angeles Times

• DESIGN REVIEW: “That any monument could work in such a loaded context is doubtful. But it is hard to imagine one more insensitive to the spirit of the site. Pompous and unimaginative, St. Florian’s ring of towering archways and repetitive stone pillars smacks of the worst kind of authoritarian architecture. To build it would not only desecrate one of the world’s great democratic forums. It would do an injustice to the memory of those it is meant to celebrate.” – Los Angeles Times

The Brooklyn Museum of Art “unveiled a $55 million plan yesterday to transform the institution’s front entrance into a major civic plaza, with tiered seating, reflecting pools and programmable fountains flanking a modernistic new lobby of glass and steel.” – New York Times

Monet’s 1882 painting “Beach in Pourville” has been stolen from the Polish National Museum. Thieves cut the canvas from its frame and replaced it with a copy which was discovered Tuesday. – Yahoo! News (Reuters)

“Half the towns in Europe now dream of building a modern masterpiece like the Bilbao Guggenheim. Amazingly, sedate Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, achieved one 65 years ago. The De La Warr Pavilion is a masterpiece twice over. First because of its supremely elegant design by Europe’s leading Expressionist architect, Erich Mendelsohn, and secondly because it still functions almost exactly as intended – as a highly flexible community and arts centre, thronged with people all day, with a theatre playing to packed audiences almost every evening.” – The Sunday Times (UK)

The community public art movement started 33 years ago in Chicago. “It is art where art is unexpected. And, more, it is art that is subversive. An art that undercuts expectations about creativity, ownership and power. An art that is rooted not in a fashionable world of galleries and collectors and appraisers and museums, but in neighborhoods, often poor neighborhoods, and in the people who live there.” – Chicago Tribune

California developer gives the Smithsonian $80 million to refurbish the National Museum of American History. “The museum should talk about who we are. Sometimes it is easy to forget how we started, who made the country. I hope we can put something here to inspire people to chase the American dream.” – Washington Post