“The most enjoyable part of leading the art division of a private bank is working with the great characters of the art market. In my experience, serious collectors tend to fall into one of four ‘tribes,’ each with their own behaviors, insecurities, strengths, and motivations for seeking, acquiring, and appreciating art.” Herewith, Evan Beard of Bank of America taxonomizes The Connoisseur, The Enterprising Collector, The Aesthete, and The Trophy Hunter.
Category: visual
How To Diversify Your Museum? Here’s What Works
Whose point of view are art museums in the business of representing? As one interviewee at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) succinctly put it, if you have a diverse curatorial staff, you curate differently.
Dealer Of Works Stolen By Jasper Johns’s Assistant Can Be Charged With Racketeering, Court Rules
“A Manhattan district court has ruled in favour of the Equinox Gallery of Vancouver, Canada in its civil suit against the New York art dealer Fred Dorfman, who was implicated in a scheme to sell stolen work by the US artist Jasper Johns, but who has never faced criminal charges.”
Truck Driver Plows Over 2,000-Year-Old Geoglyphs In Peru
“A truck driver in Peru damaged the 2,000-year-old Nazca Lines, after officials said he ignored warning signs and drove over a portion of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Nazca Lines are large designs that were scratched into the ground’s surface between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500 on a coastal plain south of Lima. UNESCO calls the site one of the ‘greatest enigmas’ of the archaeological world.”
How Urban Design Polices Public Space
Hostile design–whereby public spaces are modified to deter certain activities such as rough sleeping and skateboarding–is a “stealthy way of policing public space. These designs legitimise the point of view that homeless people are the enemy. Instead they need support, often with addiction or mental health.”
Singapore Is Losing Its Place In The Art World To Hong Kong
“Hong Kong is a more mature market and the community is more spontaneous in terms of buying art. Singapore is a young market and apart from a small handful of established collectors, new buyers are a lot more considered, and they keep galleries on their toes.”
Museum Takes Down Painting Of Naked Nymphs – To ‘Prompt Conversation’
“It is a painting that shows pubescent, naked nymphs tempting a handsome young man to his doom, but is it an erotic Victorian fantasy too far, and one which, in the current climate, is unsuitable and offensive to modern audiences? Manchester Art Gallery has asked the question after removing John William Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs” – and visitors are leaving their answers on Post-It notes on the wall.
This Museum Isn’t Canceling Its Chuck Close Show – Here’s What It’s Doing Instead
At the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, “there was some discussion of removing the Close show [in the wake of the sexual harassment allegations against him], but officials believed [the issues] would be better served by keeping the exhibition up and instead using it to create very pointed conversations … [by mounting] an additional exhibit exploring issues of gender and power in an accompanying gallery.”
‘Sculpture That Goes ‘Vroom”
“For the past few years, [Eric van Hove] has been working in Morocco on a project called the Mahjouba Initiative, which involves building a series of motorbikes using only traditional craft materials. Eric calls this work ‘a socio-economic sculpture’, the idea being that the pieces can be exhibited as artworks but also used as the prototype for a new vehicle. Anna McNamee meets Eric and his team as he works on the latest model – the Mahjouba III.” (audio)
Giant Building-Size Murals And Hipster Culture
Like other novelties of the post-hipster age, the source of the value is not just the finished work, but also the tedious and rarefied conditions of its production. The spectacle of painters hanging from a wall is as much Colossal’s product as the murals themselves. Colossal offers time-lapse footage and photos for clients to share on social channels.