“If development was just about economics, the whereabouts of ancient relics wouldn’t matter unless they had a particularly high monetary value. But it is not. Development is about culture, the strength of national, tribal and regional identities, the elevation of all countries to the level of international respect hitherto accorded only to a handful.”
Category: visual
The Secret Reason Behind All Of The New Galleries In Los Angeles
“Many galleries are fiercely, if discreetly, vying for market control over artists, with high-end galleries such as Hauser Wirth & Schimmel and Sprüth Magers competing directly for the startling number of major Los Angeles-based artists who lack gallery representation there.”
The Met Breuer Adds Space … And A Big Budget
“Integrating the Breuer has involved considerably more than giving the Brutalist building a new coat of paint. The museum spent the last several months rethinking everything from cooling systems to the training of 110 staff members to its curatorial approach to contemporary and modern art.”
It’s Good For Journalism, And For Art, To Loosen Copyright Restrictions
“Fair-use laws already technically protect the publication of images in relation to criticism and news stories. But the day-to-day on this is more complicated than saying, ‘Hey, this is fair use.’ Part of this is because navigating copyright is downright labyrinthine.”
The Ghost Towns Of Tourist Europe
“Both Andermatt and Gran Canaria struck me as crumbling vestiges that signify a dying generation of tourism — the type of vacation destinations that present-day visitors still book through a travel agent.”
Researchers: Taking Selfies Is Changing The Way We See Art In Museums
It seems many museum-goers “want to quickly ‘consume’ the work without actually engaging (much) in its content,” the researchers write. “That is, they seem to take it in quickly and then move on to the next work. But not before creating a visual record of the fact they were there.”
Seriously? Anish Kapoor Thinks He Owns The Rights To A Color?
“Painters are outraged that Anish Kapoor, the British sculptor who designed the blood-red Orbit tower for the London Olympics, has exclusive rights to the artistic use of this revolutionary new colour. NanoSystems has confirmed that he alone can paint it Vantablack.”
Claim: Repatriating Benin Bronzes Does Not Right A Wrong
“In fact, repatriating artefacts on the basis of what we feel about history would be a serious mistake. Not only would the world’s museums – and institutions like Cambridge University – be emptied, it would be allowing modern-day sensibilities to rewrite history in terms of simplistic goodies and baddies, when it is always more complicated than that.”
When Aztecs Made Catholic Icons Out Of Feathers
“Following their takeover, the Spanish encouraged amantecas, or feather artists, to continue their work … Crafted carefully with glue from orchid bulbs, feather art remained very much connected to precolonial history, even as the indigenous art was forcibly altered into a new fusion between the Old World and the New.”
French Police Seize Old Master Painting From Prince Of Liechtenstein
“A Paris judge seized on Tuesday a painting attributed to the artist Lucas Cranach the Elder from an exhibition in Aix-en-Provence after doubts were raised about its authenticity. Part of the Prince of Liechtenstein’s collection, the work is to be examined by experts.”