“Architects have long sought to design so sensitively to circumstances that the result looks inevitable, as if it emerged without the hand of the designer. Mr. Gehry has so subsumed his bravura tendencies to Facebook’s pragmatism that Mr. Zuckerberg’s vision—for better or worse—emerges with extraordinary clarity.”
Category: visual
LA’s Architecture Patron (And What He Expects For His Largesse)
“Now that private philanthropy largely finances American arts institutions, private donors deploy dollars to wield vast influence over those public entities. No one has used such power like Eli Broad. With his generosity comes an obsessive involvement that can drive away allies, just as his gifts and unstinting commitment have raised millions for causes he cares about.”
“Repairs” Ruin Priceless Roman Mosaics
“Before and after photos taken by Daskapan show the extent of the damage. Some of the mosaic stones have been replaced with stones of different shapes and colors. Consequently, the facial expressions now appear awry and skewed.”
Why The Closing Of The Tiny Museum Of Biblical Art Matters
“The absence of religious context for religious art in American museums was not, as one might assume, a product of the culture wars or a precocious expression of the new atheism. It was actually the result of several hundred years of aesthetic politics.”
The New Whitney: Thinking About The Future
“Finances permitting, the Whitney should one day revert to its original intention to operate in both its old and new buildings. This could occur after the Metropolitan Museum’s eight-year lease on the Whitney’s former home runs out. Historic art was seen to better advantage in architect Marcel Breuer’s more structured confines.”
Rem Koolhaas: Why Do We Destroy Buildings We Could Still Use?
“It would be madness for an entire period of architectural history — that had a major influence on cities around the world — to disappear simply because we suddenly find the style ugly. This brings up a fundamental question: Are we preserving architecture or history?”
Artist Wins $25K Prize, Uses It To Buy Other Artists’ Work For Seattle Art Museum
“We don’t like it at all when people say, ‘You’re so generous. The intention of it wasn’t to be generous, really… I’d like it to be understood as an art project that was trying to start conversations and have symbolic value in the community around how artists and artworks are valued, how museums make value.”
Tax Break On Selling And Then Buying Land Is Being (Ab)Used By Art Collectors Flipping Paintings
“Now, this little-known provision in the tax code, known as a like-kind exchange, has become a popular tactic for a new niche of investors: buyers of high-end art who want to put off – and sometimes completely avoid – federal taxes when upgrading their Diebenkorns for Rothkos.”
How The Hell Do You Install A 40-Ton Richard Serra Sculpture?
“The artist’s latest work, Equal, a series of paired 40-ton stacked steel cubes now on display at David Zwirner’s West 20th Street gallery, required master riggers, hydraulic gantries, and a custom runway just to be installed in a building itself expressly designed to accommodate artists’ big ideas. Now, if you were to buy one, just imagine trying to get installing it [past] your co-op board.”
And Now We Have… Graffiti Painted By Drones (For Those Hard-To-Get-To Places)
“KATSU, a well-known graffiti artist and vandal, used a hacked Phantom drone to paint a giant red scribble across Kendall Jenner’s face on one of New York City’s largest and most viewed billboards. By all accounts, it is the first time that a drone has been deployed for a major act of public vandalism.”