Before Fearless Girl came on the scene, the bull was an encouraging representation of a booming economy. Now, charging toward a tiny human, it’s a stand-in for the gendered forces that work against women’s success in the workplace. This isn’t the same kind of contextual shift that might result from a curator’s juxtaposition of two works; the girl is derivative. Arturo Di Modica meant his bull to stand alone—now, it’s as if Visbal and New York City have made a solo piece a diptych without his consent.”
Category: visual
In 1961, East German Police Went On Raids, Netting Tens Of Millions Of Dollars Worth Of Art. Now Germany Will Investigate The Plundering
“Stasi agents swept up jewels, gold, silver, clocks, porcelain, stamp collections, manuscripts, sculptures and paintings—including works by Lucas Cranach, Canaletto, Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt—and piled them into trucks. They also found hidden Nazi party membership books and medals potentially useful for blackmail, as well as savings books and life-insurance policies. The Stasi valued its findings at DM4.1m—around $10m at the time.”
Sculptor Who Made Wall Street’s Iconic Charging Bull Sculpture Says His Work Has Been Appropriated Without His Permission By “Fearless Girl” Creators
The sculptor who created the iconic “Charging Bull” statue in New York City’s financial district says the city and an investment company violated his rights by installing the newly popular “Fearless Girl” statue near his creation without permission for what amounts to a commercial ad campaign.
An Underwater Art Show At The Antarctic Biennale
A diary from art critic Adrian Dannatt’s trip to the art fair at the bottom of the world, featuring close encounters with whales, seals, and Alexander Ponomarev’s Alchemy of Antarctic Albedo (or Washing Pale Moons).
Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’ May Be Saved – By A Grocery Chain
“Perhaps you didn’t know, but The Last Supper … is deteriorating rapidly, mostly due to the factors of time, humidity, wartime bombs, and the fact that it was once housed in a prison.” But Eataly, the upscale food purveyor, is paying for a high-tech contraption that may help save the decaying mural. Nate Freeman has the details (and a bit of snark).
Lawsuit Against Art Historian Over Fake Rothko Settled Out Of Court
“The Las Vegas billionaire casino magnate Frank Fertitta has settled his claims against the Swiss art historian Oliver Wick in one of the ten lawsuits brought against the now-defunct Knoedler gallery for knowingly selling fakes. … Fertitta bought a fake Mark Rothko from Knoedler in 2008 for $7.2m.”
Remember “THE DRESS” Phenomenon A Few Years Ago When People Couldn’t Agree On The Color? (Now We Know Why)
“The phenomenon continues to be utterly fascinating to vision scientists like me, and for good reason. The very existence of ‘the dress’ challenged our entire understanding of color vision. Up until early 2015, a close reading of the literature could suggest that the entire field had gone somewhat stale—we thought we basically knew how color vision worked, more or less. The dress upended that idea.”
Jeffrey Deitch Returns To LA With A Gallery
Two years ago he reopened his gallery in SoHo. And now, he’s taken his first step toward a Los Angeles comeback: He has just signed a lease for a 15,000-square-foot warehouse in Hollywood with plans to open a gallery there in the fall. The art dealer’s new space, at 925 North Orange Drive, is a few blocks from the strip of galleries lining Highland Avenue, anchored by Regen Projects and Kohn Gallery.
Death, Destruction, And Deity: How Traditional Spanish Religious Art Was Incorporated Into Picasso’s ‘Guernica’
Experts and lay viewers alike have seen countless images and ingredients in the Picasso masterwork, but scholar Gijs van Hensbergen identifies a key influence little known outside Spain: the loose canvas works known as sargas.
After Smashing Antiquities In Mosul Museum, ISIS Used It As Tax Bureau
“Iraqi troops took the museum back last month from the militants, who left its once-famous collection in a sorry state. … In a basement room under the main exhibition halls, there was a pile of envelopes used to issue orders to pay Islamic tax, one of main sources of funding for the militants. ‘The Islamic State … seeks to levy your duties which were forced by God on the rich people’s money.'”