Category: visual

“Manet portrayed his model as more than an object to be considered, but a subject who is also considering us. … [It] is her unflinching gaze that struck Manet’s contemporaries with feelings of violent unease. She was not just another nude model depicted for the pleasure of the spectator. Rather, in giving us a courtesan regarding us, Manet created a new kind of encounter between patrons and painting.”

“The portrait of the artist’s father has been valued at almost $4m (£2.7m) and has been stolen twice in the space of 10 years. Police recovered the painting 60 km (40 miles) south of Novi Sad, where it was stolen from the city museum.”

“In broad strokes, [Wayne] Reynolds … would expand the Corcoran College of Art and Design, adding a stronger focus on technology and new media, along with the traditional arts disciplines. He would de-emphasize the gallery, arguing that it can’t compete with the free, federally funded galleries in town. Most controversially, he proposes selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art that rarely, if ever, gets displayed” and use the proceeds to establish an endowment.

“The evergreen business of looting antiquities–plundering unprotected archaeological and other sites, then selling the booty on the black market–has become a particular scourge in today’s war zones.”

If “authentication” (so closely linked to attribution) is arrived at by consensus relying on scientific data, historical documentation and connoisseurship, “authenticity” is more nebulous, covering as it does concepts of genuineness, perceived historical consistency and notions of adequate communication of an artist’s ideas or a cultural norm.

“For some artists, 3-D printing has been a revelation. The ability to design and build objects layer by layer, rather than through traditional methods such as casting or handcrafting, has created a new level of freedom.”

“The city’s art museum isn’t going away. But recent comments by Charles Venable, its new director and CEO, coupled with last week’s staff cuts, make me wonder about the museum’s continuing relevance in this community.”

“[M]ining, industry and urbanisation surge across a landscape which harbours millions of images at more than 100,000 rock-art sites. State and territory heritage laws have proved weak in protecting the works, under governments keen to cash in on the mining bonanza.”

The Sikh temple in Wisconsin repaired everything but one bullet hole, next to which it placed a plaque reading “We Are One”. The multiplex in Aurora erased the two screening rooms where the murders happened, turning them into an “extreme digital” venue. That Pennsylvania Amish community razed the schoolhouse and planted the site with clover. And the summer camp near Oslo engaged designers to work an architectural transformation.

“Want to make a skyscraper look trendy and sustainable? Put a tree on it. Or better yet, dozens. Many high-concept skyscraper proposals are festooned with trees. On the rooftop, on terraces, in nooks and crannies, on absurdly large balconies. Basically anywhere horizontal and high off the ground.”