“Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang uses gunpowder to create two kinds of art. First, there is a performance event where Cai ignites gunpowder on huge canvases. Marked by the explosion, the new canvases reveal designs that resemble forces in nature such as tornadoes, earthquakes and volcanoes.”
Category: visual
The Smithsonian Weighs In On Video Game ‘Art’
“There is a tremendous amount of artistry that goes into video games. The final product, especially at the triple-A level, is a consumer good; it’s entertainment. You could certainly make the same argument ‘Is the movie Avatar art?’ I don’t think it’s an argument that can be won, but it’s an argument that can be had.”
What Might Timothy Potts’ Arrival At The Getty Mean For The Museum?
“The city’s existing institutions already have excellent base collections in areas outside the Getty’s current scope. What they don’t have is Getty-size acquisition funds. With Potts’ arrival, perhaps it’s time collegiality took a different, more productive turn.”
Researchers Claim To Have Found Leonardo Fresco
“Tiny probes, sent through drilled holes in Giorgio Vasari’s The Battle of Marciano in the Palazzo Vecchio, found black pigment also used in the Mona Lisa, project workers claimed.”
My Job At Sotheby’s
“It was obvious from my very first day that Sotheby’s would be exactly as I had come to imagine it. As the elevator reached each floor, archetypes spilled forth. Tweedy men got off at Rare Books, preppies at Impressionism, former sorority pledges at HR. The cool girls got off at Contemporary.”
Is It A Problem That Celebrated Artist David Hockney Doesn’t Draw Blossoms Very Well?
“All blossoms share a characteristic and a significance: they’re frail, and they have a transience that, in Potter’s words, reminds us of the ‘nowness of everything.’ In only one or two pictures does Hockney’s blossom suggest that. Mostly, the blossom looked solid enough to stick to its bushes for ever, writhing from branches like a crop of impaled yellow slugs. I never thought that blossom could look so evil.”
Frank Lloyd Wright, Doghouse Architect
“Frank Lloyd Wright designed hundreds of landmark buildings and homes during a prolific career that spanned more than 70 years. But in what is widely considered a first and only for the famed architect, Wright indulged a young boy’s humble request for a doghouse in 1956 and sent him designs.”
Artist Damien Hirst On Himself, Those Spot Paintings, And Much More
On his first spot painting: “I stuck it outside behind a barn. Millicent [Wilner] from Gagosian came down to visit and she was freaking out: ‘Why have you put it there? In the rain! Jesus Christ, Damien!’ It was like gold because it was me, but, really, it’s shit.”
Artist John Constable Loved “Going Skying,” But He Wasn’t Alone
What, exactly, might the 10 best skies in art history be? The Observer tells us – and while some on the list will be no-brainers, others might surprise you.
Texas Art Fraud, To The Tune Of $3 Million
A Dallas couple pleads guilty to bilking another couple for millions with the premise that the fraudsters would “invest their money by making short-term loans to museums in Europe. These loans would be secured by pieces of artwork worth significantly more than the loan value.”