Category: visual

Work has started on Hans Haacke’s controversial project at the Reichstag: Each of the 669 members of Parliament has been asked to bring a bag of soil from their voting district and dump it into a 69-foot wooden trough – Haacke’s statement on ethnic and cultural diversity. – Times of India (DPA)

According to one critic, visiting Rome is no longer the frustrating endeavor it has long been for art lovers who encountered museums covered in scaffolding and prize treasures locked away out of view. “Jubilee Year has galvanised the owners of churches, galleries and temples into cleaning their finest possessions and placing them on view. Rome has refurbished more than 700 monuments, works of arts and sites. The results are spectacular.” – The Times (UK)

Described variously as art terrorists, opportunists, or “gimmicky” provocateurs, Chinese performance artists Yuan Cai and Jian Jun Xi say they’re trying to “fuel artistic debate and celebrate the spirit of modern art.” How, exactly? Recent pranks include urinating on Duchamp’s famous urinal and vandalizing Tracey Emin’s “My Bed” installation at the Tate. – CNN

A British member of parliament has attacked Suzanna Taverne, director of the British Museum, over the use of the wrong stone for a new museum portico. “It amazes me that Ms Taverne is now saying they were ‘mugged’. It seems as if those responsible for the scheme are trying to pass the blame.” – London Evening Standard

Edinburgh has traditionally been a net exporter of artists. “But now, just as fledgling artists have always flocked to ply their trade in Paris, New York or Florence, some of today’s young talent is beginning to head for Edinburgh. It is now a city which holds more publicly funded art galleries than any other outside London.” – The Scotsman

The Smithsonian is setting attendance fundraising records. “Overall attendance at the Washington and New York facilities for the first eight months of this year totaled 26.1 million, compared with 23.5 million for the same period in 1999.” The Smithsonian raised $200 million last year and its endowment is close to a record $755 million and has grown by $100 million a year over the last two years. – Washington Post

Time Magazine art critic Robert Hughes survived a traumatic accident in Australia, then watched as Aussies took him to task. It’s part of the country’s love/hate attitudes about high culture, Hughes believes. “The whole Aussie experience has left him seriously considering throwing in his citizenship – renouncing the country he has so often defended. ‘What’s the point of going back? It’s like a dog returning to smell its vomit,’ he told me in our most recent telephone call.” – New Statesman

Last week the North Carolina Museum held a ceremony for a Cranach painting that had been stolen by the Nazis and had ended up at the museum. Two sisters came forward last year to claim the art as stolen from their great-uncle during World War II. “The museum struck an extraordinary agreement, persuading the sisters to sell the artwork below its market price as a tribute to the museum’s sense of fair play, as well as its commitment to educating the public about the evils of the Nazi era.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

The Museum of Modern Art and its union of about 250 workers have settled a four-month strike.  The agreement “awards an 18 percent wage increase over five years and promises to give jobs back to any union members furloughed when much of the museum is closed during a five-year, $650 million expansion and renovation. Some employees will be assigned to a temporary museum to be set up in Long Island City, Queens.” – New York Times

As the fall season gets underway, the gap between frothy entertaining exhibitions and higher-aiming art fare seems to be growing. In Boston you can “blame the increase in the former partly on the box-office success of the Guggenheim Museum’s 1998 ‘The Art of the Motorcycle,’ the most highly attended show in the New York institution’s six-decade history.” – Boston Globe