Category: visual

“This is city-as-marketing-exercise, with all the blandification so implied. Addressing the annual conference of the Chicago-based Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in Sydney last week, I was struck both by the extraordinary chromosome imbalance of the audience – at least 90 per cent XY – and the competitive tone of the lexicon. It was all about the tallest, the wildest, the thinnest, the greenest, the most expensive. Even the richness of place-making was discussed primarily in terms of competing for global workers. Erectile? It was positively ejaculatory.”

Now that the CMA’s $320 million renovation and expansion is broken in, director William Griswold – having already said that he wants to boost attendance to one million annually – has a strategic plan to acquire $1 billion worth of art and increase the endowment by two-thirds, to $1.25 billion.

Eliminating the estate tax could mean fewer gifts of art.

“When Beatrix Ruf abruptly stepped down as artistic director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam three weeks ago under a cloud of suspicion, the art world reacted with shock and disappointment. … In her first interview since resigning, Ms. Ruf told The New York Times by email that the private consulting work at the center of the accusations against her had been approved by the museum’s board, and that claims of a conflict of interest were baseless.”

Analyst David Schick of Consumer Edge Research, who tracks Sotheby’s stock, wrote in a pre-call note that “we continue to see evidence of better deal-making” at Sotheby’s—presumably a reference to more restraint with guarantees, which can prove a black eye for a company’s bottom line if unsuccessful.

Style, handwriting, and documentary evidence all played a part. Details help: “The gnarled torso, the lightly sketched peripheral elements and the corrections made with parallel hatching are all hallmarks of Michelangelo.”

Tracey Emin, who uses a yellow-and=black striped pencil: “There is something about the act of drawing that bypasses mundane consciousness and reaches straight to the brain.”

It’s a simple scam, but it’s effective: “Criminals hack into an art dealer’s email account and monitor incoming and outgoing correspondence. When the gallery sends a PDF invoice to a client via email following a sale, the conversation is hijacked. Posing as the gallery, hackers send a duplicate, fraudulent invoice from the same gallery email address, with an accompanying message instructing the client to disregard the first invoice and instead wire payment to the account listed in the fraudulent document.”

Photographer Laura Aguilar says the project, photographing the working-class Latina butches and femmes who went to the Plush Pony bar, “didn’t get off to the best start. She offered to photograph the women for free and give them pictures in exchange for their time, but everyone reacted suspiciously. “‘They were like, ‘Who is this person who wants to take our picture for free?’’ she recalls. ‘So I said, ‘OK, five bucks.’ And then they said, ‘OK.’'”

Not that tourism is down a ton – 15% from last year – considering the independence referendum, anti-tourist demonstrations, and a terrorist attack, but still: When the first house Gaudí designed opens in a couple of weeks, it could be big. “Like much of the architect’s work, it is a glorious gallimaufry of styles, combining Japanese, Moorish-revival and original elements into an improbable success.”