“The Iraqi Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Liwa Sumaism, has said that his government plans to build a new museum in west Baghdad that will house objects currently in the collection of the Iraq National Museum. The Iraqi government has reportedly invited the Iraqi-born, British architect Zaha Hadid to submit designs for the project; a spokeswoman for Hadid says that she is ‘unable to confirm or comment’ on the project.”
Category: visual
Hey, Why Not Sell Off Detroit’s Art And Replace It With Copies? Who Could Tell?
In what must be a parody of Slate-style contrarianism, Slate founder Michael Kinsley allows as how “the city of Detroit is not breaking new ground in facing the prospect of having to sell a few paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts in order to make ends meet. There is a rich tradition of wastrels squandering the family fortune, then taking a few canvases to the pawnbroker’s.”
When Marc Chagall Painted Jesus Over And Over Again
“Chagall had about a five-year period during the Second World War in which he became utterly obsessed with painting Jesus Christ. … Looking at the paintings, one thing is clear right away. The paintings have little to do with Jesus as we usually see him – the central figure in the Christian Passion narrative. Chagall’s Jesus is a Jewish Jesus through and through.”
What Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia Will Look Like When It’s Finished In 2026
“Confident that work will be completed in time for the centenary of the death of Antoni Gaudí, a computer generated 3-D video depicting how the final landmark will look has been released by the Sagrada Familia Foundation.”
Is There An Asian Pompeii Awaiting Discovery?
“One of history’s great disaster mysteries may be solved – the case of the largest volcanic eruption in the last 3,700 years. Nearly 800 years ago, the blast that was recorded, and then forgotten, may also have created a ‘Pompeii of the Far East,’ researchers suggest, which might lie buried and waiting for discovery on an Indonesian island.”
St. Petersburg’s Art Scene Hitting Bottom, Says Hermitage Curator
“St Petersburg’s contemporary art scene is at ‘a low point’, said Dmitri Ozerkov, the head of the State Hermitage Museum’s contemporary art department. … The decline, he said, ‘is connected to the fact that many have left for Moscow, or gone abroad, for various reasons that we won’t discuss now’.”
Tate Modern Develops Performance Art YouTube Channel
“Tate Live, funded by BMW, … is a four-year experiment in live performance on YouTube. … The eight works already posted online (out of 20 planned for the series) suggest that the approach is not only bringing this work to a broader audience, but also is creating a new artistic form.”
Tear-Down Of Ira Gershwin’s House Shows Difficulty Of Preservation In LA
“The recent demolition of a North Roxbury Drive residence where Gershwin lived, wrote and entertained Hollywood royalty is just the latest example of how difficult it can be to preserve the past in a city where residents are accustomed to doing as they wish.”
Norman Rockwell Loved America, And It Loved Him Back (For A While)
“Because America was a nation of immigrants who lacked universally shared traditions, it had to invent some. So it came up with Thanksgiving, baseball–and Norman Rockwell.”
Will A National Latino Museum Be Derailed By An Immigration Museum?
“The two proposals are not precisely rivals, since Congress conceivably could OK both museums.” Riiiiiight.