Category: visual

In this art installation, silence is the plan, but maybe not the point. “In such a deadened room, a body bursts with life, spilling it out through every sense. I felt enraptured and paralyzed, as if I were a disembodied mind seared in the void, listening to a recording of silence played at top volume.”

“After his appointment was announced in January, [Eran] Neuman took up the post on a part-time basis Feb. 19. Yet, his discussions with the leadership about his salary and benefits, which are set by Israeli law, continued, according to the museum. Mr. Neuman’s turnaround was a result of “differing perceptions regarding his role and terms of employment,” the museum announced in a cryptic statement this week.”

The Work “will not go where historical Native American art is often found, in the galleries for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. They will go instead in the American Wing, among paintings and sculpture by Gilbert Stuart, John Singer Sargent, Frederic Remington and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, ‘to display art from the first Americans within its appropriate geographical context,’ as the museum says.”

Last week, the New York Post published news of a possible scandal: a 12th-century head of King David, said to be originally from the portal of Notre-Dame de Paris, may be a 20th-century fake. And, writes Noah Charney in his examination of the story, “there is a backstory that has even identified a potential forger, and it involves a former Monuments Man, James Rorimer, … [who had been] the curator for medieval art at the Met.”

The current right-wing nationalist government in Warsaw is not happy with the way history is presented at the Gdansk museum, which opened two weeks ago, and they’ve been trying since they took office to scrap the museum or merge it with one more to their liking. Now the country’s Supreme Administrative Court has given clearance to do the latter.

“A particularly destructive species, Monopis sp., also known as the pale-backed clothes moth, has recently been discovered for the first time by English Heritage, which is now enlisting the help of the public to map the spread and intensity of a menace that only a few decades ago seemed as relevant a historical plague as the Black Death. Anyone with a precious cashmere sweater now resembling a piece of lace will sympathise.”

Thanks to a $2.5 million gift from Comcast/NBCUniversal and the Roberts Foundation, the Philadelphia museum, which opens on April 19, has raised a total of $152 million for its building and endowment.

Columnist Carol Cling: “Seems we’ve heard this song before. Not that Las Vegas’ cultural boosters could ever ignore the siren call of a major local art museum. At least the folks behind the latest attempt – the backers of the proposed Art Museum at Symphony Park – seem to be doing the right things.”

As culture officials wait for a tourism revival, the revolution has had the positive side-effect of inspiring local interest in Egyptian heritage. The number of Egyptian visitors to the Islamic museum has “risen exponentially” since the reopening, prompting GEM to rethink its projected audiences.

“Data published by the Department for Communities and Local Government suggests local authority spending on museums fell by 31% in 2016. The MA report estimates there have been at least 64 museum closure since 2010 – 15 of which occurred in 2016. In addition, there have been staff cuts in a quarter of local authority museums, 55% of national museums, and just under 60% of independent former local authority museums.”