Category: visual

Alastair Sooke: “In Vermeer’s day, Delft was anything but a backwater … [and] it is inconceivable that Vermeer was unaware of developments in Dutch art happening elsewhere.” And, says Louvre curator Blaise Ducos, “The verisimilitude of these paintings is high, but the realism is low. They are not like photographs. Rather, they are scenes that are arranged and rearranged.”

Daan Roosegaarde’s Smog Free Tower, which can reportedly clean up to 30,000 cubic meters of air per hour, has been tested in Rotterdam and will be installed in public parks in Beijing.

Paul Revere Williams received a posthumous American Institute of Architects Gold Medal this weekend, but there’s so much more to his story: “Battling the sort of prejudice that not only shaped his roster of clients but was entrenched in the built landscape of the city itself — whites-only covenants meant that he was banned from living in many of the neighborhoods where his most impressive houses went up — Williams never had the luxury of thinking of architecture and race as separate. His career was one long negotiation between the two.”

It was a dark time for a proud institution. The Hirshhorn opened in 1974 after philanthropist and financier Joseph H. Hirshhorn donated his renowned collection to the Smithsonian. The Gordon Bunshaft-designed building has hosted many internationally celebrated exhibitions, including shows focused on Ai Weiwei, Doug Aitken, Louise Bourgeois and Clyfford Still. But as it came upon its 40th anniversary in 2014, it had hit a “low ebb.”

“From the mid-nineteen-fifties to the early seventies, Kodak supplied commercial photographers who bought its film with so-called Shirley cards, images of women—always Caucasian—that were printed on card stock and used as the standard for lighting in studios. … The protocol was eventually updated to include black, Latina, and Asian models – but not for the same reasons that made Crayola retire its ‘flesh’ crayon. Rather, it was complaints from furniture manufacturers.”

Stephen Persing: “He knows his stuff, and his enthusiasm is infectious, but it nearly carries him (and us) away on Brobdignagian sentences that are roller-coaster rides of clauses and often unsupported concepts.”

And this year’s is sculptor Cornelia Parker. Parker “will observe the election campaign, which culminates in the vote on 8 June, and produce a piece in response.”

The financial hurdles are big, and the museum covers 5,000 years of history – but that’s not attractive to as many museumgoers as it used to be. Contemporary art is hot. Can the Brooklyn Museum compete, and survive?

That went over really well among the staff. “The timing was awkward. The call for contributions came as the Tate group, which operates four museums and art galleries across the country, was in pay negotiations with staff.”