Category: visual

“The New York of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s day did not respect female artists, did not prize contemporary artists and did not appreciate American artists. Mrs. Whitney set out to change all that.”

“It is hardly debatable that the employment of animals (beings incapable of consenting to spending days, weeks, or merely hours, confined to, and on display in, galleries or museums … ) is exploitative, reflecting a form of domination that does not simply regard living animals as material so much as it deforms animals into material.”

The canvases by Tintoretto, Mantegna, Rubens, and Pisanello were stolen from the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona in November; 13 suspects were arrested for the thefts in March. (Last month, a different set of old masterworks, taken from a Dutch museum ten years ago and held for ransom by a Ukrainian militia, were recovered.)

“Like so many things in Washington, it has been debated, refined and amended. In the process, it has become both a better and a worse building than the 2009 winning design concept presented by the team of Freelon Adjaye Bond.” Philip Kennicott gets into the details.

The new decor “feature[s] details such as bookcases, sconces, decorative wall and ceiling panels, and scenes from the sumptuous gardens” – all made and installed with a new specialized plastic film developed by 3M. The company has also partnered with the Musée d’Orsay to create Impressionism-themed cars for several intercity trains.

“The long-planned — and much-promoted — inaugural exhibit, ‘Never Part,’ highlighting artifacts of Palestinian refugees, has been suspended after a disagreement between the museum’s board and its director, which led to the director’s ouster.”

“Their Tate extension, which is partly a new building and partly the adaptation of previously inaccessible parts of the old power station, enlarges the already-not-small institution’s floor area by 60%. At £260m and nine years in the making, it will have cost more in time, money and agony than the first version.”

“One of my first photo teachers told me to avoid making this kind of portrait at all costs – their recommendation (or commandment!) was meant as an encouragement – to get to know people, explore something deeper, make a connection or challenge me to engage on a deeper level. But what can this sometimes frowned-upon approach disclose in gesture or body language?”

“But San Francisco probably won’t be the only suitor if Lucas gives up on Chicago. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti reportedly has come up with a possible location for the museum in the city’s arts-rich downtown, and just days ago he issued a statement saying, ‘We would welcome it in Los Angeles.'”

“Faced with putting paintings in storage or donating artworks to museums, which rarely exhibit them, a solution — especially for collectors in cities like Los Angeles, land of rolling lawns — has become the backyard museum, complete with high-tech lighting, humidity controls and 25-foot ceilings.”