Category: visual

A new plan for Berlin’s Museum Island with its five great museums marks the reorganization of Berlin’s museum holdings. The plan “advocates a return to the Hegelian universalism that underpinned the creation of the island in the nineteenth century. The five buildings, which are to be connected by a series of underground passageways, will together present an overview of European painting and sculpture from its beginnings to the nineteenth century.” – The Art Newspaper

All was civil at this conference until just before the end … – The Art Newspaper

Plans for latest branch outside Melbourne. – The Art Newspaper

• Previously: WORLD DOMINATION: With Bilbao a hit and expansion planned for Venice, the Guggenheim eyes its next move. This time the focus is on South America. Sao Paulo, perhaps? – ARTnews

A dozen major arts buildings are scheduled to open around Britain this year – £400 million-worth of new museums, including the new Tate Modern – built with lottery funds. But most of them are behind schedule and half are over budget. And when they do open there are fears there might not be audiences to support them. – BBC

• Tate Modern being carved out of a derelict former power station in a rundown part of London for $223 million. Expected to open in May and rank alongside New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Paris’s Pompidou Centre as one of the great modern art museums. – Chicago Tribune 

Even a year ago trying to buy art online probably meant having to endure a cheesy experience. No longer. Online galleries and artsellers have proliferated and now represent a wide cross-section of the art world. Here’s a survey. – Chicago Tribune

• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art creates a $50,000 prize for web art to encourage artists to work in the medium. – New York Times

1999 was a particularly good year for donations to Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art, which acquired some high-quality works for its permanent collection. – Los Angeles Times

“I often think the art we don’t understand falls into three loose categories. First, there’s the art we don’t understand and hate, secretly wishing it would disappear.The other two categories are more complicated. First there’s the art you don’t understand and like, maybe even love. Finally there’s art you don’t understand or are ambivalent about, while being somewhat intrigued by or passably interested in it—at least enough to make you not dismiss it outright, though sometimes you wish you could.” – Village Voice

— with London’s defining architect. – Boston Globe

Australian artist Tracey Moffatt’s slick images could be easily dismissed by the art world. But since an exhibition of her work at New York’s Dia Center in 1997 her career has taken off. Last year she had solo shows at major institutions in Copenhagen, Paris, Boston and Barcelona. In London, she’s represented by the powerhouse Victoria Miro Gallery, and in New York, she’s with dealers Matthew Marks and Paul Morris. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)