Category: visual

“For his senior graduation project, Turkish student Murat Palta crafted a portfolio of paintings in the style of 16th-century Ottoman miniatures. … The trippy part: These illustrations take iconic scenes from Inception, A Clockwork Orange, Alien, Star Wars, The Godfather, Scarface, The Shining, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day as their subjects. Gangsters wear taqiyahs; Arnold Schwarzenegger rides a graceful steed.”

“New York financier Leon Black paid Sotheby’s nearly $120 million for The Scream, Edvard Munch’s 1895 pastel of a terrified man holding his head, according to several people close to the collector.”

“Sixteen of the 26 new World Heritage sites are from outside of North America and Europe, signalling Unesco’s commitment to addressing the list’s geographic imbalance by including more sites from Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the Arab states.”

“Their claims were met with scepticism by many scholars, while the custodians of the archive said they were unaware that the two art historians had been researching the collection. The withdrawal of the book raised questions about why the historians’ claims, which garnered worldwide media attention, had not been peer-reviewed.”

“I never intended to rip off Chuck Close, so when he emailed me in November 2010 threatening legal action, I did exactly what he said and took my filter offline immediately. Still, I feel obligated to point out that Close is the 14th richest living artist, worth a staggering $25 million. I really don’t think any work I make is going to “jeopardize” his career or his livelihood.”

“In the last few weeks, groups of Occupy activists have hunkered down in Berlin, where they were invited to take part in this summer’s Berlin Biennale as part of a living exhibition. But protesters ended up turning on their host, demanding an abandonment of its hierarchical management structure.”

“Though it’s a strangely mixed bag, this games, more than any other since Barcelona, seems tightly focused on leaving an extraordinary legacy for a part of east London that’s seen little investment. Transit improvements, for example, now make the Stratford gateway better connected than any part of greater London outside the center.”

“The export of art to Syria has been banned by the European Union as part of a luxury-goods embargo confirmed in June. The sanctions, which also cover jewellery and luxury vehicles, are the latest in a string of diplomatic actions against the regime following its continued violence against anti-government protesters.”

Tomás Libertíny “started working with bees five years ago when he let the creatures swarm over vase-shaped beeswax frames in his studio in Rotterdam. The shapes they created were more beautiful, organic and natural-looking than any he could have envisaged.”