Category: visual

“The artist, who found global fame with his pop-up street art, [had] offered prints of his famous ‘girl with balloon’ for those who voted against Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative party in six constituencies near his Bristol home.” His reason for cancelling the offer is a good one, though.

“On a recent Saturday morning in a desanctified church in Upper Manhattan, 24 people were piled together in a naked fetal hug. On a balcony one story above them was the New York artist Angelo Musco, taking photos of the group for his latest project.”

“The four-day public dismantling of Sam Durant’s sculpture Scaffold, overseen by Dakota traditional and spiritual leaders, is nearly complete in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, after a week of protests, apologies and mediation … But in an interview on Monday, the Walker’s executive director, Olga Viso, said the Dakota were debating whether the wood fragments would indeed be burned, as previously announced.”

“The treasures of the Hispanic Society of America – works by Goya, Velázquez and El Greco, among other masters – are not a popular tourist draw at the group’s Beaux-Arts museum in Washington Heights. But through Sept. 10, the haughty portrait of the Duchess of Alba by Goya and 200 other works from the century-old Hispanic Society are finally receiving blockbuster recognition from thousands of visitors to the Prado Museum here – along with royal accolades, an international prize and souvenir folding fans.”

The outgoing director of the Tate, Nicholas Serota, the director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, and the new director of the V&A, Tristram Hunt, a former Labour Party shadow minister, are all concerned that these institutions will find it harder to retain and recruit expert staff from across Europe, potentially damaging their world-class status.

“Art Basel and its Swiss parent company MCH are suing Adidas over limited-edition trainers that the German sportswear giant designed using the art fair’s trademark and distributed during Art Basel Miami Beach last year. It is the first time that Art Basel has filed a lawsuit in the US, according to national records.”

“Invader” is the nom de guerre (if you will) of a French artist who sneaks pixel-mosaic works (inspired by, yes, the old video game Space Invaders) onto buildings. A lot of places – for instance, the Standard Hotel (of course) on the Bowery in New York – are happy for the hipster cachet of an “invasion”, but the diocese of Málaga in Spain is not one of them, and the city government may well agree.

The bi-annual Ramsay Art Prize, worth $100,000 Aus. and based in Adelaide, went to Sydney-based artist Sarah Contos for a giant quilt called The Long Kiss Goodbye. Michael Cogger looks at the new award, its winner, and several of the finalists.

“In the past, time-based, intangible work requiring an actively-engaged audience was typically left in the shadow of the more easily-accessed, traditional art object. So, what is it about performance that has suddenly become so alluring now?”

“In this moment—if everyone painted, and if everyone was more intelligent—we could all paint the greatest pictures, because we have unparalleled freedom. But nobody accepts it. Only us old sacks of shit live with it. But the youth isn’t interested. They’d rather save the world from extinction, or stop the poles from melting—that’s all nonsense.”