Category: visual

The artist fought hard for her place in the art world. And when men punished her for it, “she turned the horror of her own life into scenes of women’s vengeance on the men at whose hands they had suffered. She used biblical stories to portray, in exquisite paintings, her fury at the sexual violence she herself had endured.”

Hm. “For years, nonprofits from museums to major universities have been strengthening ties with the oil kingdoms of the Middle East as a way to broaden their offerings, foster cross-cultural dialogue and obtain access to those countries’ considerable riches.” Great goals! But … museums have a lot to evaluate right now.

Six of Donald Judd’s buildings in the Texas town are getting a facelift and, in some cases, much more than that: “It will add 26,500 square feet of new program space and make open to the public for the first time another 16,000 square feet.”

The museum was closed for five years – until this weekend, when it became the most recent expression of a long-distant dream: “Though it took decades to realize, the idea to design a building to house the collections of King Gustav III was first hatched in 1792.”

How did a Dalí end up at Rikers anyway? (As an apology gift for a missed photo opp.) After time in the mess hall, a Virginia gallery, and a trash bin, the 3′-by-5′ original ended up near the Pepsi machine in a jail lobby. “The work barely registered with the Department of Correction officers and visitors who passed it. But a plaque next to the painting proclaimed that it was worth an estimated one million dollars.” Well, that was smart. James Fanelli recounts the story of the inevitable, but surprisingly badly executed, heist.

“‘When the hammer came down last week and the work was shredded, I was at first shocked, but gradually I began to realize that I would end up with my own piece of art history,’ the anonymous [purchaser] said in a statement. Banksy has in turn agreed to ‘re-authenticate’ the piece with a new title, Love Is in the Bin (2018). (It is currently unclear which came first: the collector’s decision to keep the work or Banksy’s decision to re-authenticate and rename it.) Sotheby’s, for its part, is making the most of its publicity coup, describing the work … as ‘the first work in history ever created during a live auction.'”

Ben Davis argues that all those folks fulminating over this event — and there are a lot of them, with many different takes (“There are full-on Truthers out there, scrutinizing every frame and angle of the whole thing, as well as Denialists, doubting that it even happened at all”) — are missing the Banksyan genius of it. “A very important concept in street art is placement. Street art fans will be very impressed by where and how a tag was placed … Obviously, the Sotheby’s prank has to be appreciated mainly, simply, as a great placement.” What’s more, it has placed the auction house smack in the middle of the Liar’s Paradox.

According to the museum’s final attendance figures, the Costume Institute show of couture inspired by Roman Catholic vestments was seen by 1,659,647 people. (What, did they count every person who walked past a pope dress in the Medieval Sculpture Hall or The Cloisters?) That number exceeds the 1,360,957 viewer figure for the 1978 “Treasures of Tutankhamun” show.

The project invites viewers to experience a large-scale painting completed on a warehouse at 53rd and Media Streets through the lens of a smartphone app that casts holograms and generates a changing soundtrack as you move from left to right.

Prince argues that he had to use as much of the photograph as appeared in the Instagram post to accomplish his purpose. In a 15-page statement calling his iPhone a paintbrush, Prince explains that he wanted “to reimagine traditional portraiture and bring to a canvas and art gallery a physical representation of the virtual world of social media”. Had he altered the photographs, he says, that intent would go unseen.