Category: visual

Yes, people like their selfies in Infinity Rooms (and that’s fine), but she’s more than that – and not stopping. “Now 88, Ms. Kusama works nonstop and, if you’re wondering, does all the painting herself, save for a ground color applied by assistants. Recently she shifted her workweek from five days to six, saving Sunday for writing, reading, talking on the phone and making smaller paintings.”

The list of the top 100 most powerful in the art world is put out by ArtReview, whose international editor said, “The way she works, not just her actual work but the way she runs her studio, is an influence and an inspiration to many younger artists. She looks to disrupt power networks that you can probably see run through the Power 100 and run though the art world.”

“Rome’s Galleria Borghese is launching a three-year partnership with the Italian luxury goods brand Fendi to create an international study centre dedicated to Caravaggio. The museum inside a 17th-century villa is one of 20 leading Italian institutions, including the Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence and Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, that gained financial independence from central government in 2015, allowing them to cultivate private funders for the first time.”

“A portmanteau of ‘architecture’ and ‘ecology,’ arcology was first theorized by the Italian architect Paolo Soleri in the late 1960s. Billed by its creator as the blueprint for a “city in the image of man,” arcologies challenged the notion of the urban environment as something separate from and antagonistic to nature. In Soleri’s cities, cars would be useless and the very notion of roads would be abolished as divisive constructs. Work and living spaces would be nearly indistinguishable. There’d be no need to ever use a light bulb during the day or air conditioning during the summer, even in the desert.”

Officials will host a ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday for the $150 million memorial on its four-acre site on Independence Avenue between Fourth and Sixth streets SW. Construction on the controversial project is expected to take three years, with an opening date set for 2020.

The debate over the appropriateness of the redesign comes down to priorities. What’s more important: the integrity of an important work of architecture, or how well it functions as part of the contemporary city? Behind that question lurk others. How important is AT&T, really? (One scholar described it as “banal” and “a mediocre building” in 2015.) And how well can we assess a building’s role in architectural history at a remove of only 30-odd years?

“Like most great art, Benton’s murals require context and history,” said Lauren Robel, the school’s executive vice president and provost, in a statement, calling the works a national treasure. “Many well-meaning people, without having the opportunity to do that work, wrongly condemn the mural as racist simply because it depicts a racist organization and a hateful symbol.”

The Ex-Convent of San Guillermo Abad in Totolapan, founded in 1534, suffered severe damage in the 7.1 magnitude quake on Sept. 19 – and security cameras recorded that damage from multiple angles. (includes video and audio)

Because of its relationship to development — and the rigid nature of that policy — public art mainly grows in the shadows of new building projects. That means large swathes of the city’s inner suburbs have been neglected. The report recommends pooling art funds contributed by developers and by the city’s own capital projects to target underserved areas.