Category: visual

“Several New York shows in the past six months indicate that painting and photography remain locked in an uneasy, co-dependent relationship but have also learned to feed off each other in the digital era as never before.”

“The 5 million tourists who visit the Sistine Chapel every year are to be vacuum cleaned and cooled down before entry in an effort to reduce the pollution damaging Michelangelo’s frescoes, the director of the Vatican museums said.”

“Archaeologists who have completed the excavation of a 900-seat arts centre under one of Rome’s busiest roundabouts are calling it the most important Roman discovery in 80 years. The centre, built by the emperor Hadrian in AD123, offered three massive halls where Roman nobles flocked to hear poetry, speeches and philosophy tracts while reclining on terraced marble seating.”

“City officials say the redevelopment will preserve historic buildings (if necessary by rebuilding them). They also want to rehouse people living in communal apartments, which are a throwback to the Soviet era, and create new pedestrian zones.”

“Entering an oversize plumbing fixture to commune with classic modern art is like hearing Bach played by a man wearing a clown suit.”

One London council wants to sell the $30 million sculpture, but “lawyers for the Art Fund, a national charity, say they have uncovered evidence that the sculpture  – through a complex series of dissolutions and transfers among various London municipal entities over several decades – is actually the property of the Borough of Bromley, in Southeast London.”

The estate of the “painter of light” was in dispute between Kinkade’s wife and his girlfriend. “Lawyers say the women kept the artist’s message of ‘love, spirituality and optimism’ in their amicable resolution.”

But there’s pushback to the pushback: “We did not yank the paintings off the wall. We approached the school board, we advised them of what direction we were heading. We were applauded for that, and then we proceeded to carry out our recommendation.”

“Marysol: It’s always been about art, which is its basis, but now it’s taken over the social calendar. It’s just this huge social experience and celebrities, every year there’s more and more. … It’s interesting how in the beginning we worked with big art galleries, and then it started transforming into a few art galleries and fashion brands bringing the art element in.”

“The battle over the future of the Vancouver Art Gallery is playing out as a war of words, with influential collector and condo marketer Bob Rennie countering a recent VAG-commissioned study which is dismissive of Mr. Rennie’s alternative proposal for a new gallery home.”