Category: visual

This is big. “The reason it is so eerie to think of a Neanderthal making a hand-image is that the painted hands – not to mention bison, horses and mammoths – found in European caves have come to be seen as the moment when the modern human mind itself is born: the first evidence not just of the intelligence of Homo sapiens but our capacity to imagine and dream, to reflect, in short to possess consciousness. What does it mean if another kind of human species shared those traits? Is there nothing special about us at all?”

The painting, stolen in December, 2009, from a museum in Marseille, was (randomly, it appears) found in a suitcase on a bus outside of Paris during a customs check. “France Culture Minister Françoise Nyssen called the find a ‘happy rediscovery of a precious work belonging to the national collections, whose disappearance represented a heavy loss for French impressionist heritage.'”

This time, it’s National Museum of Wales director David Anderson, who said in a speech that he never wanted to stand under a banner claiming Britain to be “great” – and he added, “The words are a lie. They contributed to the collective delusional madness that is Brexit.”

“One of the most positive things to come out of the #MeToo movement is that it gives a framework and a vocabulary to egregious actions that I feel was missing before. Many women are now tuned in. That alone is a very positive step.”

The institution is the brainchild of former Guggenheim Museum director and a Mass MoCA founder Thomas Krens, who sees the building as the catalyst for a new “Bilbao Effect” in North Adams, helping to attract even more tourism and economic opportunity to the area. The railroad and architecture museum will be located just a few blocks from Mass MoCA, the town’s creative engine which wrapped up a massive expansion this spring.

It was a long, tricky, expensive, and contentious process to get Katastwóf Karavan fabricated and transported to Louisiana, even though Walker can laugh about it now.

“A design over two years in the making, [Hiroshi Sugimoto’s makeover] transforms the museum’s entrance and lobby area, turning the information desk into a coffee bar, and providing a more inviting seating area next to it. Sugimoto’s armchairs reference both the iconically circular shape of the building and coils of DNA, and the tables are made from the roots of a 700-year-old Japanese nutmeg tree he found 15 years ago. … Benches stand on legs of the same kid of optical glass used in camera lenses.”

“How much appetite there will be for another art fair in Los Angeles, however, remains to be seen. L.A. is home to a pair of established fairs: the L.A. Art Show, which is generally held downtown, and the glitzier Art Los Angeles Contemporary, staged at Barker Hanger in Santa Monica.
But the city is not generally regarded by collectors as an art market destination.”

Around 20 active family estates and foundations are now known across Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. However, charging up to €2,000 for authentication certificates also raises questions about the motives and expertise of artists’ relatives, particularly where conflict has damaged other archives, museums and libraries.