Category: visual

“Lavinia Fontana [was] a Mannerist widely considered to be the first professional female artist, and Sofonisba Anguissola [was] an Italian noblewoman who served as King Philip II of Spain’s court painter.” Both women were praised by the likes of Michelangelo, van Dyck, and Vasari, and Fontana was blessed with an extraordinary husband who — in the 1580s, mind you — put her career ahead of his own.

“A month before the much anticipated unveiling of the revamped Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Md., a contracting firm that oversaw the ambitious expansion there has sued the foundation that runs the institution … [for] breach of contract and mismanagement, adding that a ‘torrent of changes’ the foundation had demanded repeatedly disrupted and delayed work” — work which the contract claims it still hasn’t been paid for.

“One of the challenges of designing systems for buildings like the [now-destroyed National] Museum of Brazil is balancing the fear of fire itself with the damage that typical fire suppression systems like sprinklers can inflict on precious artifacts. But according to the experts I spoke with,” writes Rachelle Hampton, “that balance can really only be considered post-mortem.”

The Washington couple has decided to donate its Duchamp art to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, where the works will raise the profile of the Smithsonian modern art museum. “This is the art world equivalent of the Wizards getting LeBron James,” said Hirshhorn board chairman Daniel Sallick. “Any museum in the world would want this collection.”

“Timed to the 50th anniversary of Duchamp’s death, the gift [from Aaron and Barbara Levine] includes 35 works by Duchamp as well as 15 portraits and related photographs and works on paper by his contemporaries Tristan Tzara, Man Ray and others.” Says the Hirshhorn’s board chair, “This is the art-world equivalent of the Wizards getting LeBron James.”

“The warehouse-like buildings of Redrock Stockport beat five other shortlisted candidates to win the Carbuncle Cup, awarded by Building Design to what its readers deem to be the biggest architectural eyesore of the past year. Judges were left unimpressed by the ‘awkward form, disjointed massing and superficial decoration’, while readers called it an ‘absolute monstrosity’.”

Visitors began lining up before 8 a.m. on the last day of the holiday weekend, which was the first of the museum’s September Walk-up Weekdays. Several hundred were waiting when the doors to the Smithsonian’s newest venue opened at 10 a.m.

Nate Heller surveys the, er, concept – from Marcel Duchamp right up to Tino Sehgal’s no-paper-trail-whatsoever performance pieces and Darren Bader’s “lasagna on heroin” (a hunk of lasagna injected with heroin) – and considers such issues with conceptual art as insuring it (tricky) and storage (doesn’t need much).

“[Paleontologist Paulo] Buckup, who has worked at the National Museum since 1996, led the group’s harrowing entry into the museum. ‘There were constant collapses while we were inside. There were falling objects and lots of smoke. In one area we realized there was a real risk of the ceiling collapsing, we could not assess when the third floor would fall.'”