When Banksy’s correspondent implores the artist to put out a press release expressing his displeasure, he replies with appropriate irony: “Hmm—not sure I’m the best person to complain about people putting up pictures without getting permission.” Instead, it seems, he just chooses to post the text exchange as a dig at the Russian “Banksy” show.
Category: visual
Empty The Museums – Most Of What’s There Belongs Elsewhere
Simon Jenkins argues for the return not just of artifacts looted from other countries, but pretty much any art not created for a museum or gallery: “I want to see the Parthenon marbles as Phidias intended, even if recarved by a computerised jig. … Sensible people would long ago have replicated them and sent the old ones back to Greece. … So many great works – not all of them – derive meaning from where they originated. Malraux was right: a museum is without walls, a place of the imagination.”
Banksy Disavows First Show Of His Work In Russia; Organizer Says That Means Show’s A Success
Told of the show via his Instagram page, Banksy replied, “You know it’s got nothing to do with me, right? I don’t charge people to see my art unless there’s a fairground wheel.” On the other hand, he allowed, “[I’m] not sure I’m the best person to complain about people putting up pictures without getting permission.”
Heatwaves And History: Britain’s Broiling Weather Has Revealed Centuries’ Worth Of Archaeological Evidence
“The drought has had [a] surprising effect: All over the country, ghosts have been rising up out of the earth. In the fields of England, Wales and Ireland, the lost lines of houses and settlements, barrows and henges, the street plans of ancient towns from Roman times to the Paleolithic and the Middle Ages — everywhere the past is returning, written on the landscape. These phenomena are known as cropmarks.”
How Should Arts Orgs Present Work Whose Creators Are Now Seen As Morally Reprehensible? Here’s A Case Study
Journalist Cynthia Durcanin at how the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have handled this year’s Casanova exhibition, whose curators weren’t exactly expecting the #MeToo movement when they started planning the show in 2014.
Cleveland Museum Of Art Unveils First ‘Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Plan’
“Two years in the making, the plan outlines broad changes in how the museum will hire and train employees, buy goods and services from vendors, collect and exhibit art, and educate students. The goal is to eliminate barriers for historically underrepresented groups in every aspect of the museum’s operations.”
Architects Are Protesting Museum Of Contemporary Art San Diego’s Expansion Plans
“At issue is the removal of elements of MCASD’s 1996 expansion, since it’s the only project in San Diego County designed by Venturi Scott Brown (VSB), a Philadelphia firm worshipped in the architecture world.” The objections are to both the changes to VSB design elements in the building and the disruption of the museum’s carefully constructed spatial relationship with the street and downtown La Jolla.
12th-Century Buddha Stolen From India In 1961 Found In UK
“The bronze sculpture was one of 14 statues ransacked from the Archaeological Museum in Nalanda, eastern India, in 1961. It is believed it changed hands several times over the years before eventually being sent to a London antiques dealer for sale.”
LA’s MoCA Extends Reasons To Question Its Choices
If programming under new director Klaus Biesenbach continues to privilege male artists and spectacle, and the board continues to make decisions that appear more self- than public-serving, how does an art community assert its agency? In recent years, members of the Los Angeles artworld have tried to do just that, protesting decisions by MOCA directors that seemed insensitive to the lived experiences of vulnerable artists.
The British Museum Gave Back Something? Well…
This week’s headlines invoked a fantasy version of the British Museum’s role in international relations. The director of the museum may have shaken hands with Iraq’s ambassador to the U.K., but he has not performed a genuine act of restitution. The British Museum has been styled in the press (and styled itself in its own press release) as a bulwark against looting. But the museum is a cathedral to the practice.