Category: visual

La Monnaie de Paris, the mint originally established in 864 by King Charles the Bald and functioning ever since, has been remodeled and opened to the public as a working museum devoted to monetary metallurgy through the ages. (150 artisans continue to work there on specially commissioned coins.) La Monnaie may soon face its first repatriation controversy, however: among its opening exhibits is the Treasure of Hué, looted by French forces from Vietnam’s imperial palace in 1886.

“Their plan was poor to begin with, but the execution left everything to be desired. While he never confessed, the group’s alleged ringleader, a man with the appropriately cinematic New York name of Benny Nuzzo, is believed to have created the copy that was put into the place of the missing painting.”

The artist, who grew up in the shadow of London’s Battersea power station, says, “Once you become aware of the implications of climate change for future generations, it is almost as if you have to respond. But I’m not a scientist or a campaigner, I’m an artist. I’m interested in the philosophy of climate change rather than the hard science.”

Glenn Ligon, curator of a show at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, says, “Blue-black is the kind of black where you go, ‘Black!’ Perhaps that’s because blue-black traces its roots back to a mythic point of origin in Africa, whereas ‘black,’ along with ‘Negro’ and ‘African American,’ might be considered just one more stopping point on the way to an as-yet-unknown destination.”

The National Museum of African American History and Culture just had its first birthday, and it’s dealing with a lot – the weight of history, the intensity of the present moment. Its director: “Part of what you want is people to understand that the journey is long, the road is crooked, but ultimately the opportunity to effect change is still there regardless of what party is there and who is in the White House.”

Yes, she is the daughter of William Morris, and yes, their art is similar. But actually, we might think that because her work was mistaken for his for decades: “Subsequent archival research has revealed that it was actually the work of his daughter. May Morris was one of the leading artists of the Arts and Crafts movement whose designs for everything from wallpaper to baby’s Christening mittens became the defining feature of many a wealthy, progressive household at the beginning of the 20th century.”

The reason Barbara Carrasco’s mural was in storage for so long? Attempted censorship. “The CRA requested cuts of former African American slave-turned-entrepreneur and philanthropist Biddy Mason, the Japanese American internments during World War II and the 1943 Zoot Suit riots, in which Navy personnel attacked Mexican American youth. Carrasco refused to paint over her work, and the mural project was canceled.”

Twelve years and £20 million later, Tate St Ives has a large new room, and a lot of back-end improvements as well. “It is only a room, as Cézanne didn’t exactly say of Monet, but what a room.”