Category: visual

“Julie Taymor is negotiating to direct Salma Hayek in the Miramax biopic ‘Frida Kahlo’. Antonio Banderas and Ashley Judd have already agreed to appear in supporting roles, and Edward Norton in a cameo.” – Variety

China’s famed 2,200-year-old terracotta army, one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20^th century, is eroding due to an attack of virulent mold. Reports blame raised temperatures and humidity in the museum which houses the soldiers. – China Times

The Biennale of Paris opens. “With such a very French emphasis on style and with the opening night a cornerstone of the social calendar, the Biennale hardly suffers from a low profile. But this year the Syndicat has decided that in today’s increasingly global art market it is no longer enough to be the most important fair in France; it must have a more international flavour.” – The Telegraph (UK)

Publications are selling original photos from their archives. In a digital age, they say, retaining electronic copies of the images is sufficient. “But to critics of such sales, what is at stake is history itself. Newspapers and magazines can make any number of prints from their negatives, they say, but a new print, however well made, will lack the palimpsest of the past.” – New York Times

Los Angeles’s  two-year-old Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture is in deep financial trouble. Documents obtained by the LA Times claim that “the institution’s management has mishandled its financial affairs and squandered numerous fund-raising opportunities to keep the museum afloat.” – Los Angeles Times

• The Barnes Collection is in trouble again. The museum has 2000 works of art valued at $6 billion. But it’s broke, and museum officials have declared an emergency. “People don’t believe it when I say we don’t have any more money. They ask about the [$10 million] endowment and I have to tell them it’s gone.” – New York Times

Francis Bacon’s studio will be reconstructed exactly the way he left it and moved to Dublin to be put on display. “The curators will re-create the studio down to the precise positions where Bacon left an old newspaper or dropped a gob of paint. Most of the walls are original, with some inscrutable handwritten notes Bacon sent to himself as reminders of how to organise his compositions.” – The Sunday Times (UK)

Why are only 12 percent of the architects in the UK women? And why are there only about 100 architects from black and ethnic minority backgrounds in a profession of 27,000? That is an appalling statistic. Where, for example, are all the second-generation children of the Ugandan Asians who are making such strides in other professions such as the law, accountancy or medicine?” – The Telegraph (UK)

Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney has been painting for 20 years. Magritte and de Kooning are his big influences (Magritte inspired the Beatles’ apple logo). McCartney’s first public show is about to open in London. – The Telegraph (UK)

What’s wrong with Australian museums? Leadership. “Appointing people because they interview well, are good publicists, claim to (or do) know the rich and famous, know more than anybody else about art (or science or history) is of little use, if not dangerous. People follow leaders because they want to, because they not only believe in the vision but can see a place for themselves in the sun, because they receive genuine support.” – Sydney Morning Herald