A number of artists are experimenting with medical testing in their art. Scans, endoscopy, genetic testing – “to obtain images of their insides, artists are pushing the boundaries of self-exposure, subjecting themselves to painful scrutiny on many levels.” – ARTnews
Category: visual
WHO KNEW?
Georgia O’Keeffe was fond of secrets. But everyone thinks they know the artist’s work. Turns out not as well as people might think. In compiling the O’Keeffe catalogue raisonné its author “was stunned to find hundreds of carefully preserved sketchbooks, tiny line drawings, detailed renderings of landscapes, luminous floral pastels, and completely abstract late watercolors. The works on paper make up about half of the slightly more than 2,000 entries in the two-volume catalogue.” – ARTnews
OLD LOOT LAWS
Someone’s doing some work on your property. They find a cache of buried gold coins. They claim it for their own. Do they have a right to it? “Idaho Supreme Court will soon hear a dispute pitting media mogul Jann Wenner, the owner of Rolling Stone magazine, against a construction worker who discovered a cache of gold coins buried on Wenner’s land near the Sun Valley resort area. The worker made his claim based on the ancient common law rule of treasure trove, which awards title of an artifact to the finder, be he looter or archaeologist.” Is this fair? – Archaeology Magazine
HOW BAD IS BAD?
As though the word had a static meaning. Nonetheless, academic art has had a bad rep for a long time. But there are signs that is changing. – The Atlantic
EVERYTHING OLD AND NEW AGAIN
American architect Rick Mather has been entrusted to redesign and redevelop London’s South Bank. Mather has been working in London for 30 years, putting his modernist touch on a series of redevelopment projects, including the Dulwich Picture Gallery, National Maritime Museum, and Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. His South Bank scheme blends conservation and renewal. – The Telegraph (UK)
DON’T FENCE ME IN
A fence being built around the Pantheon in Rome in hopes of protecting it from vandals is earning the ire of Romans. “Should art and architectural treasures be left to be enjoyed as they are, despite the risks of vandals, thieves and pollution? Or should they be fenced off, sealed behind bulletproof glass or hauled off to museums with modern-day copies as stand-ins?” – Washington Post
FOR MATURE AUDIENCES
A collection of ancient Roman erotica, unearthed from Pompeii and Herculaneum, will open to the public for the first time next month after being stashed in a Naples museum for 200 years. The so-called “secret cabinet” of artifacts ranges from “mythological scenes of love and sex between nymphs, gods, and satyrs that decorated Roman homes to erotic images which were hung in brothels.” – Times of India (Reuters)
THE POLITICS OF STAMPS
Commemorative stamps are big big business, and the US Post Office has been releasing a flood of them – 5 billion to 6 billion a year: singles, sheets, rolls, blocks, booklets, commemorating everything from… well… – Washington Post
PILING ON
As many as 200 Australian art and antique dealers may file lawsuits against Sotheby’s and Christie’s, charging the auction houses with collusion on fixing commissions during the 1990s. – Sydney Morning Herald
BLOCK THAT SALE
A 10th-century Chinese sculptured wall panel stolen from the Five Dynasties (A.D. 906-960) tomb of Wang Chuzhi in Hebei Province in 1994 has been ordered seized in New York. The artwork was due to be auctioned at Christie’s but the US Customs office wants to return it to China. – Archaeology Magazine