Category: visual

“The displays are inspired by an annually updated exhibition called Russia – My History, which was launched in 2013 by Tikhon Shevkunov, a Russian Orthodox bishop who is reportedly close to President Putin. … The presentation is meant to encourage patriotism by offering positive interpretations of Russian and Soviet history. Ivan the Terrible’s bad reputation is presented as a product of Western fake news, for example, and Stalin is credited with restoring the Russian empire.”

Koons says, “They touch on the metaphysical: the right here right now and its connection to the past and the future. They’re about shine, the basics of philosophy, passion, what it means to be a human, what it means to be an animal, the idea of transcendence.” Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? Lady Bracknell is not amused.

The 1919 oil-on-canvas work, known variously as Boy Asleep with Hoe, Taking a Break, and Lazybones, was stolen from the front hall of a Cherry Hill, NJ family home in 1976.

“A painted wooden crucifix by Michelangelo Buonarrotti has returned to its original home, the Basilica of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito in Florence, after a fresh restoration and a year on the road. Carved by the artist when he was 18 or so, it’s one of his earliest extant works.”

So far, the bureau has identified 40 fake works. They fear that many others exist, including some that were sold through New York auction houses, causing for the warning to be released: “There could be hundreds more that were sold to unsuspecting victims.”

“This is an industry that is troubled — at least in the West — by a sense of uncertainty. Britain, one of the world’s largest art markets, is leaving the European Union; auction sales were down in 2016; and established contemporary galleries such as Andrea Rosen in New York and Vilma Gold and IBID in London are closing, as is a Christie’s salesroom in the British capital.”

Why does the artist, who was jailed for 10 months in 2014 for trying to release pigs with the names “Raúl” and “Fidel” on them in a public park, use humor? “People want to laugh. And with humor, you can demystify these people. They have these uniforms that they’ve invented for themselves, this status; with humor you can pick it apart.”

The director of a museum mostly devoted to Eric Gill’s work held a series of workshops to discuss the various concerns. The director: “My view as a curator was: he’s an artist, and we show his work. I hadn’t felt it [his biography] would be an issue for us, until one day I found myself looking at work we would feel uncomfortable showing. There was one object in particular, and it really brought home the fact that Gill abused his daughters.”

For one thing, the entire metaphor has changed: “What began as an organic black form spreading across the landscape of the Miracle Mile, in homage to the color and texture of the La Brea Tar Pits adjacent to the museum, has become a less fluid, harder-edged and more muscular form in sand-colored concrete.”

Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros painted “América Tropical” in 1932. It was literally whitewashed – covered in white paint – for decades after. Now that it’s fully visible again, there are other issues, says a conservator with the Getty Institute: “We look to to monitor for changes. And what we see is that the mural is filthy — just from all of the particulates in downtown Los Angeles.”