Category: visual

“Men and women could buy cases decorated with geometric designs in enamel, eggshell, and lacquer, as well as portable lighters, a relatively recent innovation.”

“Their behavior in recent months has been oddly out of sync with their stature as antique world luminaries. A buying spree this spring left them with nearly $600,000 in debt and spurred legal action from two auction houses. More bizarrely, in several instances during one auction, the brothers, who are partners in at least one business, bid against each other. Their competing efforts sent the price of routine items soaring.”

“The main mission of the night was to paint a highway spot. I quickly lost track of where we were as we drove through canyons of high-rises and tangles of highways, occasionally glancing a prominent throw-up or a tag on a roadside structure.”

“As was the case after the attacks on Charlie Hebo and Paris, the artwork is raw, cathartic, and essential.”

“One of the lessons of the Archibald prize is that it’s impervious to criticism. … The prize runs by its own rules, which are really just a set of guidelines – more like a surrealist parlour game where inclusions are governed by exceptions.”

“New research in the yellowing archives here makes clear how relentlessly Nazi families pursued the Bavarian officials, badgering them, often successfully, to return art they brazenly continued to view as their property.”

“Curatorial and conservation jobs are likely to be cut by an additional 5 percent, and administrative staff — including marketing, human resources, and digital personnel — may see staff cuts of 15 to 20 percent.”

“In a paper published Wednesday in the Journal of Optics, Francis O’Neill lays out a theory that Rembrandt set up flat and concave mirrors to project his subjects — including himself — onto surfaces before painting or etching them.”

“The drawing was given to the [octogenarian] by her father, an antiquarian in the center of Bordeaux, and had been in her possession for several years. … The supposed expert, with the sketch in tow, vanished quickly thereafter, but not before liquidating his company and leaving no trace of his whereabouts.”

“Before assuming the directorship of the Mexico City’s Museo Nacional de Arte, Agustín Arteaga served as director of Puerto Rico’s Museo de Arte de Ponce. He was founding director of the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) Fundación Costantini, which focuses on contemporary art, and director and chief curator of the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.”