“It has been a huge year for museum construction, with many institutions—public and private, established and upstart—spending, in total, hundreds of millions of dollars on new buildings, with even more on the way.”
Category: visual
Menil Collection Director To Step Down
“Under Josef Helfenstein, the Menil doubled its annual attendance, increased its endowment by almost 54 percent, and added more than 1,000 works to the collection, including pieces by Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra and Kara Walker.”
Damien Hirst, Curator? (Shudder)
“Now Hirst, too, has reached an uncomfortable stage in his career, embedded in the establishment he once goaded. On past performance, he might be expected to try even harder to shock, to prove his relevance. Instead, by founding Newport Street, he is doing something far more likely to shore up his status and secure his legacy. In promoting his own view of contemporary art through the medium of a big, public gallery, he is testing his power to shape tastes and markets, and his ability to exert control.”
The Hunt For The Last Few Missing Faberge Eggs
“Today seven imperial eggs are still missing, along with many of their “surprises”, but an impassioned group of experts and enthusiasts from Russia, the UK, the US, Switzerland and Finland are on their trail. Géza von Habsburg, one of the world’s leading Fabergé experts, has been on the egg hunt for more than 40 years.”
Museum Quandry: In A World Of 3D Printers, What Happens To Originals?
The proliferation of replicas does stand to diminish the value of the real thing. Susan Ades, who is in charge of the exhibit’s 3‑D-printing operation, told me that she believes the technology ought to be carefully deployed and fully disclosed in galleries. “For museums,” she said, “the real thing is what we have going. Authenticity.”
Retired Baby Boomers Become Docents Gone Wild
“Managing a generation of volunteers who grew up as rebels isn’t always easy.”
Remember That Photo Of The Nine-Year-Old Smoking?
“When she came along and took those photos, I thought, ‘Well, hey, people will see me and this may get me the attention that I want; it may change things for me,’ ” Ellison says. She thought someone would see the images and come rescue her. “I had thought that that might have been the way out. But it wasn’t.”
Public Art: Nuisance Or Blessing (Or Both)?
“Undistinguished work warrants critical drubbing; strong work is a catalyst for dialogue. Isn’t it the presenting organization’s role to stimulate that conversation? Doesn’t diverse opinion fulfill the ambitions of a democracy?”
How Art Is Helping Charleston Unite After The Massacre
“People use creativity to make sense of all of this. They use the arts to express these deep emotions of sorrow and pain and loss. … The arts can do that. They can help us heal.”
The Japanese Photographer Who Spent Decades Taking Pictures Of The Navajo Code Talkers
“‘My father said the war ended early so he could come home,’ Mr. Kawano recalled. ‘That’s why I was born and I came to America, taking pictures of the former enemy.'”