“Art as we now know it has narrowed. These days our definition of it is mainly art informed by other art and art history. Especially in the last two centuries — and tenaciously of late — art has examined its own essences, ordinances, techniques, tools, materials, presentational modes, and forms. To be thought of as an artist someone must self-identify as one and make what they think of as art. This center cannot hold. Why? It is far too tight to let real art breathe. “
Category: visual
UK’s National Gallery Sued Over Matisse Portrait By Heirs Of The Woman In It
“Portrait of Greta Moll (1908) depicts a fellow-artist and a pupil of Matisse. Moll’s heirs – Oliver Williams, Margarete Green, and Iris Filmer – say that Moll, who owned the painting, turned it over in 1945 to a student of her husband, Gertrud Djamarani, fearing it would be lost or destroyed during the Allied occupation of Germany. … Instead of preserving the painting, says the complaint, Djamarani sold it in Switzerland for her own gain.”
Is This Plaster Of The ‘Little Dancer’ Really By Degas? One Expert Says Yes
“In a twist to a longstanding debate that for years has riveted a corner of the art world, one of the leading experts on Degas has decided that a long-disputed plaster of that artist’s Little Dancer, which shows the ballerina in a slightly different pose, is indeed an earlier model of his famous 1881 sculpture Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans.”
Helsinki Guggenheim Construction Blocked By Finnish Nationalist Party
“A plan to build a Guggenheim museum on the Helsinki waterfront – joining the likes of those that grace New York, Bilbao and Venice – appears close to collapse because of a political row. It’s all about money and austerity. The co-ruling nationalist Finns party has blocked state aid for its construction.”
The Lost Art Of 9/11
“The task force estimated that a staggering $100 million in art from private collections, and an additional $10 million worth of public art was lost in the tragedy. Some works of art did survive, though.”
Jerry Saltz: The Lost Generations Of Critics
“I think we lost three generations of critics to academicism, writers made skittish about their own opinions, afraid, only following a party-line of preapproved taste, deluded into believing that there is such a thing as objectivity, and only writing for a tiny audience of employed institutionalists who might dole out a job. Or maybe I’m just trying to rationalize never being offered tenure or even a full time teaching job.”
Is The Balance Of Power Between Popular Artists And Galleries Shifting?
“Mega-dealers” have wielded increasing cultural clout since the term was coined in 2010, but now the balance of power is tipping in favour of artists who are playing the field by exhibiting with galleries that do not represent them, or calling the shots in their long-term relationships.
Getting A Solo Show At The Whitney At Age 101
“‘Frankly, she didn’t bloom late, she was noticed late,’ said Dana Miller, the exhibition’s curator and until recently director of collections at the Whitney. ‘She bloomed a long time ago.'”
Even Nicholas Serota Was Shocked By Tate Modern’s Wild Success And Popularity
“No one expected such numbers. Serota thought he had an art museum; what he got was a major tourist attraction.”
The Quiet, And Persistent, Power Of Maya Lin’s Art And Architecture
“Thanks to her culturally supportive upbringing, youthful acclaim, and preternatural self-confidence in following multidisciplinary pursuits without a careerist agenda, Lin has freed herself from the entrapments of the infernal fame machine.”