Category: visual

London’s much-hyped (and much-maligned) Millennium Dome was mired in a new crisis Tuesday as it was forced, due to poor attendance, to reveal it’s on the verge of bankruptcy and ask the government for an emergency hand-out of £47 million – the Dome’s fifth cash injection in less than a year. – The Independent (UK)

There is a general feeling in the UK that entrance to museums should be free. Many already are, but those that charge a nominal admissions fee don’t do it for the money from ticket sales. They do it to exempt themselves from VAT taxes. “The system is absurd, but the problem is not intractable. A solution is now at hand.” – The Telegraph (UK)

Artist Julian Schnabel offers one of his famous plate paintings for a charity auction in Venice. But when the opening bid is set at $150,000 the silence is deafening. – New York Observer

The Seattle Art Museum is fined by the court for causing unnecessary litigation expenses for  New York’s Knoedler Gallery, whom the museum is suing over a Matisse that the gallery sold to a SAM donor. The painting later turned out to have been stolen by the Nazis, and after deliberation, the Seattle museum returned the painting to the original owners’ heirs. – The Art Newspaper

A painting of a small nude figure was removed from an exhibition in Delhi by the government over fears it might offend. In protest, all 25 artists in the show withdrew from the exhibition. – BBC

Suddenly the rush to fill London’s skyline with tall towers has turned into a flood, with new proposals announced almost every week. What’s behind the plans to transform the city’s views? – The Times (UK)

US Gulf Coast artist Jane Brokl will create memorial paintings for your loved ones – incorporating their ashes into the paintings. “Brokl’s paintings are vivid and colorful, with small lines of the ash and bone pieces incorporated. They are designed to last, with memorial plates attached, and cost under $500.” – The Sun-Herald (South Mississippi)

Earlier this year the Seattle Art Museum returned a Matisse painting that had been stolen by the Nazis. Then the museum sued New York’s Knoedler Gallery, which had originally sold the painting to some Seattle collectors back in 1954. SAM is trying to reclaim the painting’s market value, now estimated at $11 million, from the gallery. “But some legal complications recently led to a court order for the museum to pay $143,000 for part of the gallery’s legal fees.” – Seattle Times

“A Dutch doctor will tell a world congress on headache which begins in London today that Pablo Picasso may have experienced bizarre visual migraine auras. Some people who suffer from migraine experience a disconcerting distortion of their vision. When they look at people or objects, they see them split into two parts, usually on the vertical plane. Others say they see just an illusion of a fractured face.” – The Guardian

• SO WHAT? Picasso was dismissive of critics who saw his Cubist paintings as philosophical exercises and tried to understand them through “mathematics, trigonometry, chemistry, psychoanalysis and whatnot”. He was even more dismissive of the idea that he was an abstract artist. Picasso’s visual distortions are always poetic. – The Guardian

Russian design has gone through a rough patch lately – the rockets don’t fly, the submarines don’t come up and the communications towers burn. Simple cause? No money for infrastructure. “Even so, it would be unwise to demean the Soviet achievement. Soviet architecture continues to inform the designs of some of the world’s most intelligent and adventurous architects.” – The Guardian