“The animated map shows how Union and Confederate markers accumulated over time and where. It also allows you to compare and contrast the language with which the two sections valorized their respective causes. As time progresses, monuments dot the map, accelerating at certain historical moments.”
Category: visual
What In The Heck Happened To The Suddenly Closed Gene Autry Museum?
“The museum, which opened in 1991 under the same roof as the town’s post office, contained movie posters, record albums, storybook covers, coloring books, tin lunchboxes, cereal boxes and other memorabilia and trinkets featuring images of the late actor and recording artist.” But is any of that left? Not even the director is talking.
China’s Great Wall Endangered
“Citing a recent report from the Great Wall of China Society, the newspaper claims that more than 30% of the original structure has disappeared. Approximately 74.1% is poorly preserved, and only 8.2% is in good condition. While concerns about the wall’s condition have deepened in recent years, the study appears to be the first to actually quantify the problem.”
In Its Most Challenging Year, Whitworth Museum Wins £100,00 Art Fund Prize As UK Museum Of The Year
“The Whitworth underwent the largest physical transformation in its 125-year history in 2014. The project doubled its size and connected the building with its surrounding park. During its redevelopment the Whitworth continued to offer pop-up projects all over the city, maintaining established audiences and building new ones ahead of its February reopening.”
Sotheby’s Just Had Its Biggest Ever Sale Of Contemporary Art
“Warhol’s ‘One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate)’ fetched £20.9m, smashing its pre-sale estimate of £13-18m. This was Warhol’s first such work of a dollar, painted by hand in 1962. A bidding frenzy powered Lucien Freud’s 2002 work ‘Four Eggs on a Plate’, which was originally a gift to the late Duchess of Devonshire, to sell for £989,000, nearly ten times the pre-sale estimate of £100-£150,000.”
Greece Needs Money. Britain Wants The Parthenon Marbles. A Deal To Be Made?
“For the last few years, amidst her financial crisis, Greece has flirted with the idea of selling off state historical assets. Since Greek independence, Graeco-British relations have been shadowed by the Elgin marbles: relief panels from the Parthenon, along with major pediment sculptures, which were purchased by the 7th Earl of Elgin in 1798.”
Paris Okays Its First Skyscraper In 40 Years – A Giant Pyramid
“A common sight in most major capitals, skyscrapers have faced deep opposition in Paris ever since the 300-metre high Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Universal Exposition. Paris’s socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, diluted opposition to the new Tour Triangle last November after some of its planned office space was sacrificed for childcare and cultural centres.”
A Havana Biennial Of Change And What Art Can Still Do
“There is much we can learn from the 12th Havana Biennial — a performed, dematerialized show — about what art can be, where it can exist and who it is for. From Tania Bruguera’s performance, we are learning what art can do — risky, truth-revealing things — for artist and audience alike. It may well be that her performance, end not in sight, is the one for which this biennial will be remembered.”
The New Helsinki Guggenheim – Where’s The Sizzle?
“It is extraordinary that a design that triumphed over 1,700 competitors should turn out to be rather ordinary. It is respectful, yet teases out no identity unique to Helsinki. The design considers no new way to look at art that would make it a must-visit. (The Guggenheim Bilbao transformed yet belongs.) It does not look like a gaudy franchise of a global brand bent on commodifying culture, as opponents feared it would, but neither does it look essential.”
What Tech Startups Can Learn From The Art Market
“The art of the startup and the business of art are flip sides of the same creative process. The Gagosian Gallery and Kleiner Perkins use the same method to spin creativity and value out of manmade volatility. The goals of this volatility are twofold: primarily to create disruptive innovation that generates the unique, the original, and the most valuable; and next to raise the price paid for the new value, whether it is a Monet or an Airbnb IPO.”