Category: visual

“Santiago Ramón y Cajal …, whose work in his field can be compared to Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur in theirs, is also among the best draftsmen of the 20th century. If his penciled linear, fractalizing networks and abstract webs were inserted into any art museum’s early-20th-century permanent collection they would stop people in their tracks and vie with the best the museum has to offer.”

“Sexual harassment, various instances of discrimination and retaliation are among the top complaints, according to these employees. They describe supervisors who are inept at scheduling, a workforce that is chronically understaffed and managers who are not held accountable for their actions.”

“Helen Molesworth, the chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art whose exhibitions have included the critically acclaimed 2017 Kerry James Marshall retrospective that was also a rare popular hit, has been fired, according to sources close to the museum. … [MOCA board member Catherine] Opie said she called [director Philippe] Vergne after receiving the surprise [news] and was told that Molesworth had not written a letter of resignation but was terminated for ‘undermining the museum.'”

“María Inés Rodríguez, the director of the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, was called into a town hall meeting last Tuesday, March 6, during which she was informed that her artistic program was ‘too demanding’ and she was being let go. … But a group of more than 50 art world luminaries … have now signed an open letter condemning Rodriguez’s forthcoming dismissal.”

“The Civil War memorial secretary was widely embraced as a folk art treasure. Fashioned from walnut, maple and oak, it was said to have been created circa 1876 to honor John Bingham, a Union infantryman who had fallen at Antietam. … The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford purchased the work and gave it prominent display.” Until last year, that is. And now the forger has (proudly) confessed.

Martin Gammon explains why the estimates some people use of the money that could be gained from deaccessioning are likely way, way off and couldn’t raise enough money to do any good.

“Previously, valuable works of art created fewer than 50 years ago were officially treated as ‘luxury goods’ and subject to 30% import dues. This changed on 29 January with the passing of a new law that is part of a radical revision of Russian art import-export regulations aimed at opening up the Russian art scene to the world.”

The NRA’s visual logic suggests a new twist in the culture wars. Cities, today, are thriving, and the old rhetoric of the city as a kind of cancer spreading into the heartland no longer works. So the NRA has adopted a new narrative: The city, no matter how successful, is a pernicious collective endeavor that will ultimately decay into violence and oppression. The video in which “Cloud Gate” appears is succinct in this prediction: From its opening images of public sculpture and architecture it moves directly into images of protest and violence and finally an urgent exhortation from the narrator

“Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has asked me to fill a new post called chief design officer for the city. In that role, beginning next month, I’ll be working in the mayor’s office to raise the quality of public architecture and urban design across the city — and the level of civic conversation about those subjects.”

No longer “just” for buying souvenirs, the modern museum gift shop seeks to extend the experience of the museum. Games out of art, art as products of any sort. Visitor engagement begins when you open your wallet.