Category: visual

“It is exactly this kind of painting — deeply tied to Washington, rich in local history and meaning — that is most in peril as the Corcoran is broken apart, its collection scattered, its community dispersed.”

“The network of 236 sandstone caves extend over an area of two to three kilometres in the vast, sparsely-populated autonomous Xinjiang region of China, along the ancient Silk Road. The caves were inhabited by Buddhist monks and used as temples between the third and the eighth centuries, and are lined with murals providing a rich picture of early Buddhist culture.”

“The Turkish government plans to reconstruct a demolished madrasa (religious school) next to Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Museum, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1985. But the local branch of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) strongly protests these plans, calling the proposed construction a ‘new fake historic monument’ that would undermine the area’s significance.”

“In the course of the Saturday protest, we were outraged to learn about the inadequate pay of the museum’s security guards. As part of their efforts to keep us and the priceless art on display safe, they are paid a mere ten dollars an hour by one of the wealthiest institutions in New York and indeed globally.”

The photographer got word of the Banksy removal via social media. He said that despite being busy with other projects, he grabbed his cameras and headed for what locals call the ‘Umbrella Girl.’ When he arrived, he said he saw that “guys had shown up and were chopping the Banksy out of the wall.”

“He comes from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where his track record includes the surprise success of the Internet Cat Video Festival, which brought 10,000 people together in a field in 2012 and then 11,000 paying customers at the 2013 Minnesota State Fair.”

“Staged in the midst of the museum’s newly opened Italian Futurism exhibition, the intervention, a term used by some members of the group to describe the action, received both applause from visitors who seemed excited by the commotion and reactions of confusion from others unsure what was going on.”

One art historian: “The more wobbly things are shoved to the side. The various kinds of evidence, their status and what job they do in proving the case are never really inspected.”

“Donna De Salvo, the museum’s chief curator and deputy director of programs, said the form is ‘extremely vital,’ offering opportunities in an art market that has become harder to penetrate. The Internet and social media allow artists to come together over many miles, and, as lines blur between disciplines, collectives fulfill the greater need for collaborations.”

“The bikes will be wrapped in a removable graphic paper with a design by the fair’s 2014 commissioned artist, Xu Zhen. Titled ‘Under Heaven (detail),’ the designs — based on a larger work by the artist — apply much like a decal and will be removed when the fair ends.”