Category: visual

“The tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh King Sobekhotep I, believed to be first king of the 13th Dynasty (1781BC-1650BC), has been discovered by a team from the University of Pennsylvania at Abydos in Middle Egypt, 500km south of Cairo.”

“Archaeologists in China’s Sichuan Province recently conducted a rescue excavation of 600 cliff burials, the oldest of which date to the Eastern Han dynasty (AD25-220).”

“With nations hamstrung from competing, this would inevitably lead to private companies holding power over national governments. This situation has emboldened a group of artists to trump everyone and claim the moon for themselves.”

“In 1968, Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art bought a painting called LOVE — and made artist Robert Indiana famous. It became a sculpture, a stamp, greeting cards. And it obliterated the rest of Indiana’s career. The artist has been pretty much ignored by the art world for the past few decades.”

“Aaron Betsky is leaving his post as director of the Cincinnati Art Museum after seven years in the job.” Says the board chairman, “It’s time to give someone else a chance. He has done an incredible job and gotten done what he set out to do.”

“From war in Syria and Mali to labor problems at museums in the Gulf and the panopticon of government surveillance, these are some of the awful things that impacted arts and culture in 2013.”

“This obsession with new technology is based on the patronising belief that engaging the public means geeing them up and making the museum experience ‘fun-filled’ and purposefully ‘enlightening’. Even more pernicious is the belief that grabbing the young, before they know any better, will create future audiences.”