“A amphitheater at the base of the Washington Monument. A glass-enclosed restaurant overlooking the Constitution Gardens pond – and a winter-time ice-skating rink where the pond currently sits. A lively new Union Square, with streams of water arching into the Capitol Reflecting Pool. Those are among the ideas that architects and designers have floated for redesigning and reviving three sites on the National Mall.”
Category: visual
What’s The Great Art Of The Future? Data Visualization
“Why are we picking at [Damien Hirst’s] carcasses of creativity? We should instead be celebrating the really new and relevant: the rise of the data visualizers. Their medium is the one with momentum, the one genuinely changing how we think and feel. And it’s about to boom.”
Thieves Steal Artefacts Worth £1.8 Million
Thieves stole two 18-century jade works from Durham University’s Oriental Museum in a night raid. Three people have been arrested, but the items have not been recovered.
Critics Mock Kinkade – But Why Did His Work Matter So Much To So Many ?
Andrea Wolk “Rager defines Kinkade’s appeal as ‘the aesthetics of nostalgia.’ She notes that sociologists consider nostalgic longing a response to feeling uprooted or unmoored, while some psychologists link it to an unconscious desire to return to the womb. She contends that Kinkade’s images, with their soft light, rain-slicked streets, and general aura of gentle reassurance, speak to both of those primal pulls.”
As Modernist Buildings Age, Will We Save Or Destroy Them?
“Many of the stark structures that once represented the architectural vanguard are showing signs of wear, setting off debates around the country between preservationists, who see them as historic landmarks, and the many people who just see them as eyesores.”
Proposed US Law Would Shield Art Loaned To Museums From Seizure
“Russia banned art loans to the United States after a 2010 federal court ruling that a historic collection of Jewish religious books and Rabbinic writings belongs not to Russia but to the U.S.-based Hasidic group, Chabad, and must be returned.”
Sotheby’s Gets To Keep Cambodian Antiquity (For Now)
“Ruling against the immediate seizure of a 1,000-year-old Cambodian statue the United States and Cambodian governments say was looted from its temple site, a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday gave Sotheby’s continued custody of the antiquity and called a hearing for April 12.”
Exploding Onto The Art Scene: Fireworks Artist Cai Guo-Qiang
“For Cai Guo-Qiang, every time feels like the first time. His nerves still tingle, his mind still races – during that climactic, split-second moment before he lights the fuse and the gunpowder goes boom. It’s an intensity that time hasn’t dimmed, not even after 30 years. That’s how long Cai’s been making art with explosions.”
US Museums Recover (But Confidence Still Isn’t High)
“Leading US museums are finally in recovery mode and their directors are much more optimistic about the financial outlook than a year ago, but few are feeling bullish.”
Why Are Blockbusters All-Male?
“Wait a moment. Yes, it is Everyman. After all the revolutions in art over the last couple of centuries, the gender bias is apparently as deep as ever.”