Category: visual

“The Tomb of Mehu, in the Saqqara necropolis near Giza, features dozens of vibrant paintings from Egypt’s sixth dynasty, dating back approximately four millennia. … [It] was first discovered by Egyptologist Zaki Saad in 1940, but remained off-limits to the public until this month.”

“Since the dawn of the twentieth century, our understanding of good design has had a slightly moralizing tone, even as it shifted from early Bauhaus to boxy midcentury modern and into the sleek … white cubes of twenty-first-century Minimalism. … Ugliness isn’t just a rebellion against the norms of good taste; it’s also a fittingly chaotic aesthetic for a chaotic era of presidential tweets, alternative facts, and government propaganda.”

Public display of Pascal’s work was a condition of the 1994 contract signed by Corcoran director David C. Levy and several Tyler Art trustees, including Petty. The trust gave the museum about 100 pieces of art and $1 million “to cover costs associated with establishing and maintaining the permanent gallery and the collection,” according to court filings. The agreement states that the art and the cash gift must be returned if the Corcoran “has not complied with the conditions.”

The relic — a piece of stone marked with a hashtag-type design in red ochre, discovered in an oceanside cave between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth — is roughly 30,000 years older than the oldest previously-known drawings, which were found in Spain and Indonesia.

“A breezy, sunny week in Buenos Aires ushered in the inaugural initiative for Art Basel Cities, one of the latest endeavors from the eponymous art fair powerhouse. … Working essentially as long-term consultants for Buenos Aires, Art Basel hopes to strengthen the local cultural scene and create more global awareness of the city’s cultural offerings.”

The contrast with the prestigious art fair even a decade ago was striking, with only 61 exhibitors this year, two thirds of them French. On Monday, the First Lady Brigitte Macron toured the stands for three hours, perhaps a salve for the dealers. But no significant historical work or masterpiece was unveiled.

Alina Cohen’s list for Artsy goes all the way back to Pliny and right up to Jerry (but not Roberta). It’s mostly white males (there’s one 6th-century Chinese scholar), but three of the seven 20th-century critics are women. (Also, it must be said that three or four individuals on this list would not be considered by most people to be art critics as such.)

“While most Brazilians were still reeling from the devastating fire at the country’s National Museum last week, Luana Santos and fellow museum studies students in Rio de Janeiro had started gathering photos and videos of missing items, and even selfies taken by visitors to the vast archive. … Within hours, their appeal went worldwide; so far, it has received 14,000 replies – including videos, photos, written recollections and even drawings of favourite exhibits.”

The highly anticipated museum, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and opening to the public this weekend, is part of a £1 billion plan to regenerate Dundee’s waterfront and change the Scottish city’s public image from post-industrial wasteland to cultural hub.