Category: visual

A couple of prominent indigenous artists (along with one Indian-Australian taking umbrage on behalf of people of colour) have broken with their dealers in protest over the “appropriation” by certain white artists of dots, cross-hatching and other techniques characteristic of indigenous painting. Others argue that the indigenous motifs are now an integral part of contemporary art’s visual vocabulary and should be available to all.

“East German works of art that have largely been kept in store since German reunification are emerging from obscurity. Thanks to the online database Bildatlas: Kunst in der DDR (Picture atlas: art in the German Democratic Republic), 20,000 works have been catalogued and made publicly accessible. The project sheds light on a period that many had relegated to the dustbin of art history.”

The director of the Musée du Louvre, Paris, Henri Loyrette, has announced that he will leave the museum next April after 12 years in the post.

A Q&A with James Balog, founder of “the Extreme Ice Survey, a long-term visual art and science project to record the shrinking of the Earth’s glaciers using dozens of time-lapse cameras placed in 16 glacial locations around the world, such as in Alaska, Greenland and the Himalayas.”

“Gallery ‘loyalty’ is valued in the industry, especially when the stakes are this high. According to Forbes, Gagosian’s reported turnover is $925-million (U.S.) and The Sunday Times reports personal wealth at Hirst’s $346-million. So their success was, at least to some degree, mutually beneficial.”

“Three-quarters of visual artists in Scotland are earning less than £5,000 a year, according to a new report.”

“Planning permission was granted last week for a gallery and arts centre on what was originally built as a ‘model farm’ dating back to 1760. There is a cowshed, a piggery, stables, barns, a farmhouse and land.”

No, says China’s starchitect, Wang Shu. “Modern Chinese cities don’t have memories, but in their deep heart they need memories.”

Damien Hirst isn’t the only dot-making artist leaving the gallery.

“The 40 exhibits include a ‘wall of fire’ made up of laser lights that teaches kids about geometry and a square-wheeled tricycle that still manages to produce a smooth ride thanks to a wavy track.”