Category: visual

The Prix Pictet Award rewards realism with a message. “As photographers have become increasingly fascinated by conceptualism, the award champions the unfashionable notion that photography’s primary duty is to show the world as it is — and, if possible, to change it.”

“Luisa Amelia Garcia Rodriguez Hurtado was born on Nov. 28, 1920, in Caracas, Venezuela. And over the 97 years that have passed between her birth and the current moment, she has lived at the center of the art world — yet also at its margins. … Just in the last two years she’s had two solo exhibitions, but before 2016 her last solo show was back in 1974 at L.A.’s Woman’s Building. You could say that at 97, Hurtado is a fresh face in art.”

Their song “Apeshit” has been viewed tens of millions of times on YouTube since it came out, and the Louvre is not unaware of their influence. Now the museum, “which already has a tour based on the US rapper will.i.am’s hit ‘Smile Mona Lisa,’ has created another based on the Carters’ night in the museum. It follows the video through 17 paintings and sculptures which feature in the six-minute clip, going from the monumental white Greek marble ‘Nike of Samothrace’ to Marie Benoist’s ‘Portrait of a Negress.'”

The curator was pregnant – visibly so – when she “continued to have face-to-face meetings, conversations and correspondence with Mr. Eleey and with Klaus Biesenbach, PS1’s director, according to the complaint. In fact, she says she saw Mr. Biesenbach just eight days before she gave birth to her first child, a son, in late July.” But later, he seemed shocked that she’d had a baby – and the job offer was soon off the table.

The carving’s cartoonish appearance has provoked the outrage and concern of experts who fear the defacement may be irreversible. Commenting on the bungled operation, social media users have drawn unflattering comparisons with Pee Wee Herman’s simpering pout. Others have detected a resemblance to Sheriff Woody, the lanky cowboy doll in Toy Story, as St George is left to wander clumsily into eternity and beyond.

“Last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was in crisis. On June 28, it announced that more people visited the museum, across its three campuses … than ever before. So whether the Met is ‘a great institution in decline,’ as one former curator described it, or whether its problems are merely temporary is debatable.” Sebastian Smee talks to president and COO Daniel Weiss about the state of the Met.

“The two vastly different architectural traditions face off against each other across the popular Oval Maidan playing field, where enthusiastic young cricketers hone their skills. On one side lie imposing and rather austere 19th century buildings housing the Bombay High Court and Mumbai University, with their spires and lancet windows. On the other side stand sleeker buildings boasting curved corners and balconies, vertical lines and exotic motifs.”

The late-period painting, found in the artist’s studio when he died, had been dramatically changed over the years, including being cut down on the sides and trimmed at the top, as is demonstrated by a photograph taken by Fernard Lochard in a studio inventory. Overpainting included an added signature (“Ed Manet”) and filling in the trellis-like background, which was less “finished”. The syrupy top, dark layer of varnish is a type typically used for musical instruments or wood furniture, also muted the painting’s sketchy energy. Even the subject’s right eyebrow was changed during the earlier restoration from a raised arch to a more neutral and passive line.

“The [Peter] Zumthor project is about six months behind schedule. The process, including building permits and entitlements, is taking longer than expected, [museum director Michael] Govan says. And the museum’s $650-million fundraising campaign, he adds, is ‘in pace with the project.’ Which is to say: going slowly.”