“Walking around the Making Colours exhibition, I was dazzled by the ultramarine blues and daffodil yellows. But was that a big patch of green in Degas’s La Coiffure? The sign said it was red, but my eyes said something different.”
Category: visual
When Museums Behave Badly, Sanctions May Not Be Enough
“I’m wary of anything that hamstrings cultural institutions with more rules. But with major public art collections hanging in the balance (think: Detroit Institute of Arts), it might be worth considering ideas that go beyond sanctions.”
Before Art Was A Job… (And What We’ve Lost)
“Before the 80s art was not a job. If you wanted to be an artist you would have to do a lot of side jobs to make a living. People became artists out of necessity. Now one wants to be an artist to travel, go to parties, and it’s really cool to be an artist. Of course, this tendency is not very good, but I think time will be the final judge of this.”
A Museum That Lets You Use Its Work As Raw Material For Creativity
“With their pen, visitors can download all their selected items into a screen, and begin designing: They could decorate a room, or modify a classic piece of furniture.”
Here’s How Superstar Artists Got To Be Superstars
“According to Don Thompson, the economist and author, some 45,000 artists in New York and London alone are struggling to make a living; around 75 in New York have superstar status, earning seven figure sums. But this figure can be read the other way as well: probably at no moment in history have there been so many, and so many very rich, artists.”
The Great Brazilian Architect You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
Lina Bo Bardi, who immigrated to Brazil in 1947 at age 33, is admired for the care she took to make her buildings people-friendly and has been called “the most underrated architect of the 20th century.”
How 3D Printers Could Change What We Know About Architecture
“Surprisingly, the biggest challenge had little to do with mastering the machines or exploring the material science of the steel, but rather letting go of old design thinking.”
UNESCO Warns About Danger To Iraqi Cultural Heritage Sites
The statement adds that the “main threats to Iraq’s heritage are the military use and targeting of monuments and sites and the looting and illicit trafficking of cultural property.”
Massive Redo Of Miami Beach Convention Center Will Impact Art Basel
“The forthcoming redevelopment programme for the Miami Beach Convention Center is likely to have an impact not only on Art Basel in Miami Beach itself, but also on the fair’s closest neighbour, Design Miami, and the city’s satellite fairs.”
The Strange Case Of China’s Half-Built ‘Ancient’ City
“In the last few years, Datong has made a massive push to draw those tourist groups to its inner city, a place that was first settled in the Han dynasty around 200 BC. It’s all part of an ambitious plan to raze the old city and replace it with a new ‘ancient’ Tang-style city.” Naturally there are complaints that the new “historic” buildings are ersatz; worse is what happened after the mayor left town.