Category: visual

The Liebieghaus in Frankfurt is working with the Louvre and the Prado on new laser technology to analyze the stone and an agar-agar-based gel to clean it.

“I hate to say it, but I think we must now accept that the Leonardo is a wreck. Severe flaking was recorded as early as 1517 and according to Vasari it was ‘ruined’ by 1556. Vigorous overcleaning and retouching has only made things worse. It’s time for a proper debate on how much ‘original’ Leonardo is actually visible. Persuading people to queue around the block to see such a damaged painting is simply a triumph of marketing over connoisseurship. But that’s enough about The Last Supper.”

“How many pieces of furniture do you think you could rearrange in your mind? Is there a limit to how much we can imagine at once, or is our imagination truly unlimited?”

The planned sale has implications far beyond Pittsfield, Mass., which is why the San Francisco Chronicle‘s art critic is writing about it. “There is a real sense in which these collections belong to all of us. These institutions exist for the benefit of the public, and they subsist through public support, whether directly with government dollars, through tax deductions for their donors, or both. The law can be unclear on the particulars, but there is little doubt that, ethically, museums hold works of significant cultural value in the public trust.”

The show has work by Ai Weiwei, Mona Hatoum, Hank Willis Thomas and many more, all woven in Lahore and shipped to San Francisco specifically to respond to the president’s ban on travelers from certain countries. “Sanctuary is distinct in its melding of faith-based practices, especially its integration of Muslim and Christian traditions – and in a former military space, at that.”

Carolina Miranda, in a nuanced piece: “The debate that fills me with the greatest ambivalence centers on the frequently posited idea that only certain artists should be allowed to tackle certain subjects … Inequity undoubtedly persists — less than a third of solo shows at major museums in the U.S. go to women. But the nature of the debate on these issues threatens to constrain artists at a time when a multiplicity of voices and subjects is what’s needed.”

Martin Parr says it’s almost like the 1980s, now: “One of the things that galvanised photographers then was a dislike of Thatcherism, and we are in the same position. It is almost like a therapeutic process to examine your relation to these things, to this history. That is what I use the camera for.”

It’s not just a museum or gallery – it’s much, much bigger than that. “The site now features 98 apartments, 30 offices, a restaurant, a bakery, an auditorium, studios, workshops, and extensive exhibition spaces for both the Vervoordt art dealership and for the nonprofit Axel & May Vervoordt Foundation. Among the foundation’s current exhibits are three large-scale ‘Warrior’ paintings from the 1960s, painted (with those feet) by the now-coveted Gutai School artist Kazuo Shiraga.”

Hito Steyerl, this year’s number one in the Art Review Power 100 list, is a filmmaker who also delivers hypnotic lectures and whose ideas influence many other artists and culture creators. “Her previous texts don’t become dated; her ideas keep circulating. …People take her work and build upon it. And she’s not afraid of the truth of her time. That’s important for generations that come after her.”