Category: visual

For 20 years they all thought the picture on the wall behind the boss’s desk was just an odd portrait, maybe even an unflattering one of the boss himself. But upon appraisal, the “poster” turns out to be a genuine signed Picasso. – Flint Journal

Two prominent San Francisco families are arguing over the sale of a $45 million Picasso. The painting was to be bought jointly by a wealthy art patron and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The sellers agreed to the sale, thinking the museum would own it. When it became clear the patron and SFMOMA would co-own it, the sellers pulled out. – San Francisco Chronicle

Sculptor Mark di Suvero’s design for a “gateway sculpture” under consideration for a prominent spot in Sydney’s Sculpture Walk has prompted “responses from rapture to dread.” – Sydney Morning Herald

Using computer re-creations and chemical technology to expose underlayers, after 15 years of arduous restoration a dozen 15^th-century wall paintings by Renaissance master Piero della Francesca will be unveiled to the public Friday in the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo, Italy. Twenty years ago such a job would not have been possible. – New York Times

Hans Haacke, fresh off his Whitney imbroglio, is into another, this time in Germany where his proposed project for the new Reichstag – a wooden flower trough, 23 feet wide and 70 feet long – has also sparked controversy. “The trough is to be filled with dirt brought by each of the 669 legislators from their hometowns – something that many lawmakers across party lines say draws an awkward allusion to the mythical veneration of German “blood and soil” practiced by the Nazis.”- Fox News

Two men believed to be responsible for the rash of recent art heists around Montreal have been arrested. Police have seized several statues, but say artwork worth millions of dollars may be unrecoverable. – CBC

“Up to 16 times since the beginning of autumn, some of Canada’s toniest residences on the island of Montreal were hit by art thieves who absconded with millions of dollars worth of works by famous masters, including 10 by the prolific 19th-century painter Cornelius Krieghoff and six by James Wilson Morrice, the first Canadian-born painter to achieve an international reputation.” – The Globe and Mail (Canada)

This spring New York’s museums are full of technology. “These artists were just working with what surrounds them, and technology is so dominant, TV, computer and Internet-wise, that artists have to confront these technologies.” – Wired

In the 1890s, newspapers and magazines were full of articles celebrating the new woman, the new journalism, the new fiction, the new sculpture and, above all, the new art – l’art nouveau.” A new exhibit London’s Victoria & Albert Museum highlights the currents of change in design and aesthetics that swept through Europe from 1890-1914. – The Telegraph (UK)

OR WAS IT “GAUDY”?: “infectious dominance” and bizarrely extravagant ornamentation.  – The Times (UK)

OR MAYBE “SEXY”?: “The most startling among 400 objects in the largest exhibition of art nouveau ever mounted has been lent on condition that no salacious comments are made about it.” – The Guardian

Somehow Picasso paying restaurant bills by sketching on menus seems a lot more palatable than the current craze for artists’ “peripheral works” – like the inky faxed pages of David Hockney’s works that sold for $17,000 last year. Now snapshots from a roll of film taken by Hockney are going on sale next week and they’re “being hyped as a potential investment.” – The Age (Melbourne)