Category: visual

Turkish mosaics have been ripped from their sites and sold internationally. Does anyone care? “The excavations uncovered a Roman villa. The news was published. The mosaic was to stay in situ and locked up. Six years went by. One night, thieves came, cut out two-thirds of the mosaic and made off with it. Interpol has been searching the entire world for it since 1998.” – Artnet

The British Museum and English Heritage continue hassling over the Case of the Wrong Stone, laid for a new portico for the museum. They also “resist any suggestions that the entire structure could be condemned, although Camden council has not ruled out this possibility.” Instead the stone could be “color-washed” to make it blend with the surrounding stone. – London Evening Standard

“Hundreds of museums could close without investment from the government and the local authorities that are largely responsible for regional collections. Funding from central government to the museum service has fallen by 15% in real terms since 1997, and hundreds of museums around the country are sacking staff, cutting opening hours and seeing treasures kept in inadequate storage crumble because of a lack of funding.” – The Guardian

“The skyscraper is back, and little wonder. Big egos like big buildings. Megalomaniac real estate developers do not believe that ‘less is more.’ Skyscrapers provide instant status symbols for emerging economies. Besides, there’s nothing like a little face-to-face contact to make the wheels of capitalism turn smoothly.” – Chicago Tribune

Legendary dealer Richard Feigen has written a dealer tell-all about the art business.  He “promises tales about ‘the painters, the museums, the curators, the collectors, the auctions, the art.’ That’s a tall order, too tall even for a well informed insider. And it’s far too ambitious for an author who rambles, who digresses, and who loves to preach rip-snorting sermons on too many topics.” – The Idler

Shock, disgust, and horror are common themes at the heart of numerous contemporary artists’ work. Relying on the grotesque to shake viewers from the complacency of modern life’s distractions and luxuries may be an honorable goal, but is it succeeding? “Disgust is a drug whose effects quickly abate with overdosing. If art aspires to disgust and nothing more, then disgust will rapidly become the pallid salon style of the day – and that is exactly what has happened. Disgusting is now simply what art is; it has lost its shock value.” – The Sunday Times (UK)

An interview with American art legend Robert Rauschenberg who, at age 74, is still creating, improvising, and expounding freely on “the way a serendipitist works.” “For me, art shouldn’t be a fixed idea that I have before I start making it. I want it to include all the fragility and doubt that I go through the day with. Sometimes I’ll take a walk just to forget whatever good idea I had that day because I like to go into the studio not having any ideas. I want the insecurity of not knowing.” – New York Times

Chicago’s Mayor Daley and the Chicago Sun-Times are feuding. Not about taxes or police or misdeeds. It’s about ping-pong tables. This summer, in a follow-up to last summer’s art cows, the city has placed ping pong tables through downtown. The newspaper called the project a flop and the mayor’s fuming; the city ordered the table in front of the Sun-Times building removed. – Chicago Sun-Times

In the ’80s architects and the buildings they created were reviled in Britain. But a whole new generation of buildings has made building the hot visual art of the moment. “Architecture is a profession that matures late, and there are innumerable young practices with potential. What follows are five to watch out for, architects who have already demonstrated their potential but have yet to achieve their best work. If they are not clearly established as household names by the end of the decade, then the fault will lie not in their own talents, but in Britain’s traditional failure of will when it comes to commissioning young architects.” – The Telegraph (UK)

What is it about being shocked that artists and viewers find so…invigorating? “Notoriously, ever since the dawn of Impressionism, modern art has delivered the shock of the new. Whether you find it a bracing blast of novelty or a dastardly attack on everything sacred is partly a matter of temperament – and taste.” – The Telegraph (UK)