Category: visual

“News of the Banksy heading to auction arrives in Detroit once again in the middle of another major debate about graffiti and street art, this time centered around the explosion of murals in Detroit, the role of street art in beautifying the city and the high-profile local arrest of Shepard Fairey, a rock star of the genre, for allegedly doing unauthorized work in the city.”

“You do something like this, and I had no idea whether it was going to be 100 people, 1,000, or 10,000 people,” Paul Allen said. “But we’re well over that.” Through Sunday, when the fair ended, more than 11,000 attended, organizers said. A host of satellite fairs, events and open studios were scheduled to coincide with it

“The architecture of the new plan, as if to compensate for the sober event-management calculations around which it is organized, tends toward the frenetic, like the second half of a Pixar movie. Its gestures are oversized and occasionally overwrought, its colors perma-bright.”

“A masterpiece is usually thought the work of a single artistic or design intelligence. But Riverside Park (including Riverside Drive, for they are inseparable as experienced) is the work not only of Moses, but of Frederick Law Olmsted, the great landscape genius behind Central Park, and the almost unknown Clifton Lloyd, the architectural engineer whom Moses picked to realize his vision.”

“Instead of coming up with something relevant to the place, telling a story about what came before or revealing previously overlooked visual details within a city, these structures don’t connect with any local authenticity or individuality in these cities. They’re not architecture at all, in a sense; they’re more like huge pieces of urban jewelry draped over a city’s chest, like some crazed husband throwing Bulgari at his wife, hoping it will finally make her love him.”

“The question naturally arises, then, of what to do in terms of contemporary programming — because the irony, at least in terms of the permanent collection, is that the institution can’t actually do anything. Unlike other large museums, the Barnes cannot rotate objects in and out of active display or organize special shows using these works to bring particular artists or styles to light. Each piece must remain exactly where it is, forever.”

“Whatever happens with the merged magazines, it looks bad. You can read it as another chapter in the sad decline of print. But scrutinizing the tea leaves, you can also see it as another augury that the discourse of art is more and more subordinate to fashion-obsessed celebrity and short-term finance.”

At the Philbrook, Randall Suffolk boosted attendance by 63 percent and almost tripled participation in educational programs. “We’ve tried to reinvent our relationship with our community,” he said. Suffolk spearheaded the planning for Philbrook Downtown, a 30,000-square-foot satellite facility that opened in 2013.