Category: visual

“Since it began 29 years ago, Artrain USA, one of the oldest of an increasing number of museums on wheels, has brought original artworks by Picasso and Warhol, Calder and O’Keeffe, Norman Rockwell and Robert Rauschenberg, to more than 600 towns and cities in 44 states. It has gone to big cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Washington, but more often its destination isn’t even a whistle stop anymore – places like Zeeland, Mich.; Plant City, Fla., and Parkers Prairie, Minn.” – New York Times

“Britain may have lost its former colonial territories, but its national museums still hold vast cultural treasures; the surviving legacy of hundreds of years of empire. These museums are now becoming increasingly out of step with museums around the world which have been handing back material over which there have been claims. Indeed the Australian Museum has been a leader in the field for more than 20 years, having returned significant items to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.” – Sydney Morning Herald

Though many of its treasures have been looted, the National Museum of Afghanistan has reopened after a decade of being closed during the civil war. – BBC

The National Gallery of Australia has bugs – of the kind that cause Legionnaire’s disease and are potentially very dangerous. The museum has apparently known about the problem for five years, according to documents. – Sydney Morning Herald

“Mori Building is starting a ¥270bn ($2.5bn) development in the Roppongi area of Tokyo, which aims to transform the district, best known as a sleazy centre for international night life, into a cultural metropolis by 2003. And the crowning piece of this project, which will cover 27 acres and feature hotels, offices, homes and shops, will be the Mori Art Center – on the top five floors of a 54-storey skyscraper. It promises to be one of the most lavish and ambitious art spaces that Tokyo has ever seen.” – Financial Times

David Hockney charges that Constable painted his remarkable skies with the aid of mechanical device. As if this is a scandal. So what? Artists have always used tools to help them with their work. – The Guardian

The Phillips Collection will “lend 26 major paintings and sculptures from its collection for a six-month show at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts, the hotel’s state-of-the-art gallery built by former owner and famed art collector Steve Wynn. Billed as “Masterworks From the Phillips Collection at Bellagio,” the show will include major works by Monet, Degas, Bonnard, van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and El Greco.” Why do it? The museum hopes to collect $1 million from the deal. – Washington Post

“With a typically enigmatic installation that won high honors at the most recent Venice Biennale, the expatriate Conceptual artist Cai Guo-Qiang has unexpectedly achieved every artist’s dream: he has provoked a debate, long overdue, in his officially stifled native country about the meaning of art, originality and the avant-garde.” – New York Times

Britart/”Sensation” photographer Richard Billingham has had a rapid rise to fame; one minute he was taking pictures of his speed-addled brother playing video games and his mum smoking fags – the next minute, his work was being collected by Saatchi, Rockefeller and New York’s Metropolitan Museum. He and his family are a bit bemused: “has no one seen a dog licking the floor before?” – Irish Times

Artists Robert Rauschenberg and Art Spiegelman, filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese and performers Laurie Anderson and David Byrne have spoken out in support of striking employees at the Museum of Modern Art. The first strike in 27 years by museum employees — including archivists, conservators, curators, librarians and other professionals is now in its seventh month. – New Jersey Online (AP)