Category: visual

“For the new museums that have opened with an old name, it’s important to ask: what do they get for the money – and is it worth it? They don’t always get the good stuff in return. It is estimated that Boris Johnson would need to raise £33 million for the Smithsonian in East London, and experience should tell us that such estimates are usually unrealistic and low.”

“Two handsome, virile naked men riding triumphantly on ferocious panthers … Academics in Cambridge will suggest that [this] pair of mysterious metre-high sculptures known as the Rothschild Bronzes are by the master himself, made just after he completed David and as he was about to embark on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.”

A look at the evidence – sculptural, thematic, biographical, cultural, pictorial, and graphic.

“This idea of following logic till its endpoint, when it becomes a solution to a problem we never really knew existed, is clearly visible in Salvador Dalí’s melting clocks and René Magritte’s paradoxical pipe. But it’s also in SkyMall’s ridiculously haphazard utilitarian offerings. What could be more invested in breaking the reign of logic than a rappel backpack or the Siamese Slanket?”

“Some scientists say they’re closer than ever to closing the emotional gap between humans and machines — that is, the ability to feel, which is essential to arts criticism.”

Melissa Chiu: “Building on the Hirshhorn’s international presence doesn’t preclude us from having a vital engagement with our more immediate community. I’m very aware that we can create energy around our programming only from building a loyalty and interest in the museum.”

“The award for the most compelling market tale undoubtedly goes to the third highest-selling painting, a rediscovered John Constable landscape, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831), that sold for $5.2 million, far exceeding its $3 million high estimate. The consignor had acquired the work at Christie’s London in July 2013, and paid a mere $5,300 for it.”

“I don’t want to sound like an insane art-critic version of Werner Herzog rhapsodizing about ‘albino alligators.’ All I know is that something seismic hit me …, some capacious cognizance, cryptic, wakeful.”

“Strangely enough, despite its rich cultural and artistic history, the country hasn’t had a large-scale national museum until now. … The new museum will make its home at the storied Pachacamac, an archaeological site southeast of Lima that’s passed through many hands since the Early Intermediate period.”

The decision, believe it or not, was the young Vincent’s insistence on trying to become a preacher, even after flunking out of divinity school.