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Friday
March 30
AUCTION ENVY: There was heavy security at Sotheby’s
in London this week for the display of one of the greatest private
collections of 20th century art to ever hit the auction
block. American millionaire Stanley Seeger’s collection will be
sold in New York in May, is valued at up to £45 million,
and includes works by Picasso, Braques, Francis Bacon, Miro, Egon
Schiele, Jasper Johns, and a 1938 self-portrait by Max Beckmann
hailed as "the most important German painting to come up
for auction in living memory." The Guardian (London) 3/30/01
Thursday
March 29
A NEW LOUVRE DIRECTOR: The French Cabinet has named Musée
d'Orsay director and Degas expert Henri Loyrette as the new president
of the Louvre. Loyrette will replace Pierre Rosenberg, who after
39 years at the helm of the world’s largest museum is retiring
to manage the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. "The task now facing
Loyrette is by no means an easy one. With its staff of 2,000,
the Louvre is not only a giant culture machine, its very size
makes it vulnerable." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 3/29/01
A
GERMAN BACKWATER? Nineteenth Century Germany gave us Beethoven,
Schubert and Brahms - their music that has dominated our concert
halls ever since. But visual art? "Our own most influential
modern artists, critics and museum curators have tended in the
20th century to look upon 19th-century Germany as a backwater
as far as the visual arts are concerned."
New York Observer 03/28/01
TITIAN ON TOP: The history of Western art is usually
traced back to Vasari or Giotto, or even, as some would argue,
to 13th-century Rome or Serbia. "But here's another
proposal: the grand tradition of oil painting, as is develops
through Velazquez and Rembrandt down to our own day, springs not
from Florence, Rome or Kosovo, but from Venice. And Titian, more
than anyone else, is the patriarch at the head of that family
tree." Herewith a take on a newly published book of his complete
paintings… The Telegraph (London)
3/29/01
REBUILDING
THE BUDDHA: Buddhists in Sri Lanka are trying to raise money
to build a replica of the Bamiyan Buddhas demolished by Afghanistan's
ruling Taliban militia. "We have had a very good response
so far, not only from Buddhists. Many Muslims have said they are
keen to help us because this is not just a religious matter. It's
a part of our world heritage." The Times of India 03/28/01
DRAWING A MUSEUM LINE:
"What is the distinction... between a natural history museum
and an art museum? We tend to think of these two institutions
as vastly different, but increasingly nowadays they are looking
remarkably alike, displaying man-made objects in similar ways
and telling similar stories about human culture." First item.
Discover 04/01
THE
PHYSICS OF WINSLOW HOMER: "In Homer's day, thermodynamics
was not merely a branch of physics. It was also an instructive
social theory central to the works of a wide array of prominent
novelists, historians, and philosophers. Perhaps the most explicitly
thermo-dynamic of Homer's pictures is The Gulf Stream, in which
power is ubiquitous and man is reduced to an appliance in the
naturalist machine." American
Art Spring 2001
DISSING
JEFFERSON DAVIS: Graffitti from 140 years ago, uncovered on
the wall of an old Virginia courthouse. "May he be put in
the northwest corner [of Hell] with a southeast wind blowing ashes
in his eyes for all eternity." CNN (AP) 03/28/01
Wednesday March 28
THE
END OF DIGITAL ART? Digital art has hit the big time in terms
of recognition now that major museums are showcasing it. But "just
as dot.com was always a fatuous category, lumping together media,
corporate services, and infrastructure companies into one 'industry,'
digital art is a category of convenience that should be retired."
Feed 03/27/01
GIOTTO
INTERRUPTED: After 12 years of restoration, a Giotto crucifix
damaged in the 1966 floods that swept Florence was "due to
be returned to its original centre spot in the Florentine church
of Santa Maria Novella on April 7." But a new Italian law
has interfered with the plans. Financial
Times 03/27/01
RING
OF UNCERTAINTY: Korea had planned to build a massive "gate"
200 metres in circumference to mark the turn of the millennium.
But now the government has reduced the amount it is willing to
spend on the project, and a slow economy is making private fund-raising
difficult. Korea Times 03/28/01
WE PREFER SHAKESPEARE'S
DESCRIPTION: Of Cleopatra, that is. He wrote, "Age cannot
wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety." According
to a new exhibition at the British Museum, she was short, fat,
and unattractive. Discovery 03/26/01
Tuesday
March 27
"010101"
PAYS OFF IN SAN FRAN: "The San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art has received a $500,000 grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities, making it the only U.S. art museum to receive
an NEH Challenge Grant for 2001." San
Francisco Chronicle 03/27/01
GOING
BRIT: British artists have become a force in the current New
York art scene. “These people are important and the pictures will
become gold later on. It will be like looking back on the Warhol
crowd.” The Times (London) 03/27/01
Monday
March 26
MORE
PICASSOS FOUND IN TURKEY: Officials in Turkey have arrested
several men who attempted to fence stolen works of Pablo Picasso.
Eight Picasso paintings have now surfaced in Turkey in the last
year, although some experts have questioned their authenticity.
BBC 03/26/01
FIGHTING
THE BLOCKBUSTER CULTURE: Art experts are concerned that museums
are being forced to become slaves to their own visitor numbers.
Where once a museum's success was judged by the quality of its
collection, it is now considered a failure unless it can pack
the maximum number of people into its halls. BBC
03/26/01
- WALK
RIGHT IN: "I went to a museum the other day. I can't
think what came over me. One minute I'm on a crowded street,
fully engaged with the great issues of the day: What was Julia
going to wear and who would Russell have on his arm now that
Meg is no longer in the picture? The next thing I know, I'm
alone in a darkened, silent room populated with 14 ancient,
carved, Chinese figures, none of whom have just got out of limousines."
The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 03/26/01
FAR
TOO SERIOUS: "There is no world so humourless as the
world of art. No one so brain-meltingly self-regarding and serious
as the artist. Think, if you can bear to, of Tracey Emin. I can
scarcely conceive of a human being endowed with less humour. Yet
all the while, art and comedy have become virtually indistinguishable."
The Observer (London) 03/25/01
MARBLES
STAYING PUT: British Prime Minister Tony Blair on prospects
for returning the Elgin marbles to Greece: '' 'The marbles belong
to the British Museum . . . which does not intend to return any
part of the collection to its country of origin,'' Blair said
in an interview published Sunday in the Athens daily To Vima."
Toronto Star (AP) 03/25/01
A
NATIONAL STORY: The National Museum of Australia has opened
after 25 years of planning and debate. "This is a museum
which very explicitly tells a number of stories, the most uncomfortable
and most durable of which being the expropriation of land by the
whites and the marginalisation of the Aboriginals."
The Art Newspaper 03/24/01
PROTECTING
INDIA: India is finally taking steps to help protect and conserve
its architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries. "Britain
has half a million listed buildings. In India, a country with
14 times the land mass, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)
protects (theoretically) about 5,000 monuments and the different
State archaeological departments together protect perhaps another
2,000. The overwhelming bulk of historic buildings in India are
unprotected." The Art Newspaper
03/23/01
OUT
OF O'KEEFFE'S SHADOW: Alfred Stieglitz is perhaps best known
in the wider culture for having been married to the great American
painter Georgia O'Keefe, but his career as a photographer, and
a great artist in his own right, has recently started to get the
attention it deserves. A new exhibit on display in the unlikely
town of Doylestown, Pennsylvania does much to flesh out the Stieglitz
legacy. Philadelphia Inquirer 03/25/01
CANADA
ONLINE: Canada's Minister of Culture launches a new Virtual
Museum of Canada. "It contains an art gallery with more than
200,000 images, including paintings from the Group of Seven, Inuit
sculpture and photographs." CBC
03/25/01
AFRICAN
CULTURAL QUANDRY: British explorer David Livingstone left
a collection of letters, sketches, books, Journals and maps when
he died in Zambia in 1873. Now "the museum that houses Livingstone's
legacy is crumbling, fast becoming a case study of the struggles
faced by Africa's cultural institutions." The
New York Times 03/26/01 (one-time
registration required)
Sunday
March 25
THE
CELEBRITY MUSEUM: Cities across America are building flashy
new museums. "That avant-garde architecture is playing such
a leading role in marketing these projects—both to potential benefactors
and to the public at large—is a sea change in the culture."
Newsweek 03/23/01
PHOTOGRAPHY
IS KING: "For better or worse, photography is the New
New Thing in the art market. Over the last two years, with fortunes
being won and lost on bets about our digital future, the most
searching visual invention of the 19th century has been charting
upward like a 1999 Internet stock." The
New York Times 03/25/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
TAKING
THE PLUNGE: The Meadows Museum in Dallas has always been content
to be nothing more than what it has been: a small university museum
with a top-notch collection of mostly Spanish art, well-known
to art experts the world over, but largely ignored in its own
city. But today, Meadows will inaugurate its new, much-larger
building, and hopes to use the greater visibility to get Dallasites
as interested in its collection as outsiders have always been.
Dallas Morning News 03/25/01
ALTERING
THE LANDSCAPE: Claude Cormier creates landscapes. More than
that, he creates altered realities. His vision of a perfect expanse
of open land is as likely to include plastic pink flamingoes as
not. "In 1996-97, for example, Cormier dyed parts of the
lawns at Montreal's Canadian Centre for Architecture vibrant blue
as part of its The American Lawn exhibition because, he says,
'the North American obsession with perfect grass deserved celebration.'"
The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 03/25/01
REARVIEW
MIRROR: Magdalena Abakanowicz has always been fascinated with
the human form - specifically, the back of it. Her massive sculpture
projects, which often consist of huge numbers of backward-facing
figures that can fill a gallery or hillside, are often even more
powerful for their lack of the traditional focal points of human
sculpture. Los Angeles Times 03/25/01
Friday
March 23
RECKLESS RETRIBUTION: The prevailing explanation for
Afghanistan’s destruction of its Buddhist art has been that it
was necessary to prevent idol worship. But the Taliban’s 24-year-old
ambassador tells another story - one of retribution to UNESCO
for using all its aid to save monuments, and not children. "I
know it is not rational and logical to blow the statues for retaliation
of economic sanctions, but this is how it is." Salon 3/22/01
OUT TO PROVE IT: Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders briefly reopened Kabul’s
National Museum (which has been closed to the public since August
1999) on Thursday, in order to prove that they had followed through
on their promise to destroy all the pre-Islamic relics in the
collection. "We will let you see inside the museum to show
that we have destroyed all the statues that were there."
Prior to their takeover, the museum had housed a priceless collection
of artifacts spanning Afghanistan’s 50,000-year history. International
Herald Tribune 3/23/01
MOVING
TO MIDTOWN: Christie's East, the "bargain basement"
franchise of the famous Christie's auction house in New York,
is selling the building it has called home since 1979. The company
is moving the "Christie's East" sales to its main headquarters
in Rockefeller Center, where a good deal of space was apparently
going unused. Art-loving New Yorkers are in a tizzy over the move,
(which will also include a name change,) as only New Yorkers can
be. New
York Times 3/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)
SLASH AND DASH: The 19th-century French
painting "Pool in a Harem" by Jean-Leon Jerome was sliced
out of its frame and stolen from St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum.
"The painting was not a masterpiece, but a well-known work
that would be impossible to sell." St. Petersburg Times 3/23/01
Thursday
March 22
PRESERVING
THE NEW ART: As digital and technological art becomes more
and more prevalent, the thoughts of collectors and museums are
turning to the issue of how to preserve the works once the technology
becomes obsolete, which will happen quickly. "The Guggenheim's
Variable Media
Initiative is an unusual proactive program that asks new media
artists to devise guidelines for translating their artworks via
alternate media, once their current formats expire or disappear
from the market." Wired 03/22/01
PLAYING
TO THE CROWD: You've got to say this for Bostonians - they
can turn anything into a sporting event. This weekend,
four architectural firms will compete to become the designer of
the city's new waterfront Institute of Contemporary Art. And,
in a sharp divergence from the closed door way in which these
things are usually done, the public is invited to the finals,
and will have a chance to voice its opinion. Boston
Herald 03/22/01
SCULPTURE
AWARD: Australian sculptor Karen Ward has won the $105,000
Helen Lempriere Award for sculptors. The prize is intended to
raise the visibility of sculptors. The
Age (Melbourne) 03/22/01
Wednesday
March 21
THE
THUNDERING HERD: The fiberglass art animals are taking over.
From a humble exhibit on the streets of Zurich in 1999, the artist-decorated
Animals-on-Parade concept has swept the US. Why? Some say it's
because the public has fallen in love with them. Others contend
it's for the money (Chicago raised a reported $3 million selling
its cows) But maybe someone should take a hard look at the so-called
neutral Swiss. They may appear harmless, but...
ArtsJournal.com
03/21/01
ARCHITECTURAL
FREE-THINKER: Shigeru Ban is making a name for himself in
architecture by doing the unexpected. "He has proved, for
instance, that wood is an effective fire retardant. He has designed
a floor that curves half-way up a wall... and has shown that recycled
paper tubes make impressive structural frames that grow stronger
over time." Globe and Mail
(Canada) 03/21/01
SACKLER/FREER
DIRECTOR LEAVING: The director of Washington DC's Sackler
and Freer galleries is leaving the job. "Milo Beach has left
his mark. The adjacent collections of mostly Asian art form a
single institution. More than anyone else, it was Beach who made
them a cohesive whole. Beach is the second Smithsonian art museum
director to announce his retirement this year." Washington
Post 03/20/01
Tuesday
March 20
LOOMING
CRISIS FOR UK MUSEUMS? Has lottery cash ruined museums? "The
huge expansion, bringing science, environment and art-based attractions
and extensions to museums, left the sector with an extra £29m
a year bill for increased costs in a static or declining market."
It's a recipe for disaster, says a new report. The
Guardian (London) 03/19/01
- Previously:
TOO
MANY MUSEUMS? A new study says that the UK has too many
museums, and too many are doing poorly. The solution? Some of
them must merge or close. "A coherent national museums' policy
is now essential, for without one it will be impossible to test
what should be saved and what should go." BBC
03/19/01
FREE
DEBATE: Free admission to British museums is coming, but not
without a fight. Some museums are resisting. They feel that "unless
the public is made to pay for admission to museums they won't
fully appreciate what they are being allowed to see. The confrontation
is as much ideological as financial, with many of the charging
museums wedded to Thatcherite dogmas of maximising revenue and
marketing, while the opposing camp, led by the Tate and National
galleries, stress the importance of public service, access and
education." The Guardian (London)
0320/01
IMAGINE
THAT: At a museum in Birmingham, visitors enter a blank gallery
and asked to imagine the art based on short descriptions. "There
is a history of producing artworks that are purely descriptive
- it's a questioning of what art is all about." BBC
03/20/01
DESIGN
IS ART/ART IS DESIGN? "Shopping is no longer just a pleasurable
activity, but a quest for aesthetic images and brands that extend
beyond clothing labels and logos to bricks, mortar, paint and
lighting, and to the brand name of the architect as well."
New Statesman 03/19/01
DIGITAL
GOES MAINSTREAM: It wasn't many months ago that art critics
were turning up their noses at digital art. Some suggested there
really wasn't yet such a thing. Now digital art is hot. "Digital
artists are about to break down another boundary: the one between
them and the art world's upper echelons. The Whitney's 'BitStreams'
exhibition, which opens March 22, is the first show devoted to
such work at a major New York museum." New
York Magazine 03/19/01
LONDON
W/O THE THAMES: What if the Thames didn't run through London?
It would be more than just the lack of water - the culture of
the place would be different. "The images are claustrophobic,
the city reduced to a futile parade of buildings. It's like coitus
interruptus, a joke without a punchline. There's a tremendously
strong sense of liquid being disastrously absent from a place
where it is sorely needed: think of a pub without any drinks."
Evening Standard (London) 03/20/01
Monday
March 19
EXPLAINING
THE DESTRUCTION: Taliban leaders decided to destroy artwork
after a delegation visited and offered money to help protect the
giant Buddhas. "They said, `If you are destroying our future with
economic sanctions, you can't care about our heritage.' And so
they decided that these statues must be destroyed. The Taliban's
Supreme Court confirmed the edict. The
New York Times 03/19/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
SOTHEBY'S
DOWN/CHRISTIE'S UP: After a year when both auction houses
were embroiled in price-fixing settlements, Sotheby's sales are
down 14 percent. Christie's is up 12 percent. The
Art Newspaper 03/16/01
TOKYO
MUSEUM CRISIS: Last year Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art
hung up a "deficit of ¥1.6 billion (then worth $15.2 million)
during the financial year ending in March 2000." Attendance
also plummeted. Now the museum is considering some radical moves,
including selling off some of its art. The
Art Newspaper 03/16/01
A
CRISIS OF FAKES: A former curator at the Getty Museum contends
some of the museum's drawings attributed to Renaissance masters
are fakes. The Getty denies the claims, but refuses to produce
evidence it says it has that they are not. Museums "The implications
of this controversy are far from trivial. Each year, tens of millions
of museumgoers walk through the entrance of the Getty, or the
Metropolitan or the Prado or the Hermitage, and never consider
the possibility of having to arbitrate for themselves the authenticity
of what they have come to see." The
New York Times Magazine 03/18/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
TOO
MANY MUSEUMS? A new study says that the UK has too many museums,
and too many are doing poorly. The solution? Some of them must
merge or close. "A coherent national museums' policy is now essential,
for without one it will be impossible to test what should be saved
and what should go." BBC 03/19/01
- OVER-EXPANSION:
“Museums need an additional £29 million each year to pay the
increased running costs of lottery-funded new buildings and
extensions. Part of the problem was the increased competition
from other attractions and static visitor numbers." The
Times (London) 03/19/01
LONDON
TOWERS: London has never been dominated by tall buildings.
And those skyscrapers it has had have not been particularly inspiring.
But now, a new generation of tall spires is about to rise in the
English capital. Will they be bland and ugly, or create a picturesque
cityscape? The Guardian (London) 03/19/01
EYE-WITNESS
PROOF: Taliban leaders say they may let journalists see the
destroyed remains of the giant Buddhas they destroyed as early
as Wednesday. The New York Times 03/18/01
(one-time registration required for access)
- UNDERSTANDING
THE TALIBAN: Difficult as it is for the rest of the world
to understand why the Taliban would destroy artifacts so old
and precious, a question arises: "In the deepest, broadest
sense, did the Taliban really have any idea what they were doing?
The movement's leaders are mostly young sons of illiterate peasants,
raised on mine-strewn battlefields and stark refugee camps,
and educated in rote sectarian blinders. Do they understand
that this act, more than anything else, will be how the world
remembers them?" The New York
Times 03/18/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
Sunday
March 18
THE
POLITICS OF LENDING: A rare exhibition of 92 drawings by the
Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli illustrating Dante's "Divine
Comedy" which opened in London last week, refused a stop at New
York's Metropolitan Museum because of fears by the Vatican (which
owns some of the drawings) about a California court case.
New York Times 03/17/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
COMING
SOON - CELL PHONE ART! The explosion of new technologies over
the last decade has meant an ever-increasing range of options
for artists looking to explore new mediums. The "digital
age" is starting to crystallize into a definable movement,
but there is still plenty of room for expansion. New
York Times 03/18/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
FROM
THE MOUTHS OF BABES: A unique collaboration is unfolding in
a gallery in Evanston, Illinois, and the organizers aim to educate
visitors about the growth of Native American stereotyping in the
U.S. This is nothing new, of course, but the method may be: the
Chicago Public School System is one of the collaborators, and
the children's impressions of mass media portrayals of minorities
is a large part of the exhibit. Chicago
Tribune 03/18/01
A
GALLERY THAT MATTERS: London's Whitechapel gallery is 100
years old. "Before Tate Modern was a glint in Nicholas Serota's
eye, the Whitechapel put on shows that made other British galleries
look tame. Almost all the most influential modern art exhibitions
in post-war Britain happened here." The
Guardian 03/17/01
WRIGHT
AGAIN: Architect Frank Lloyd Wright was nothing if not self-serving,
and a reenactment of one of his famously rambling speeches underscores
the point in humorous fashion. But "The Art & Craft of
the Machine" also reveals a shockingly accurate set of predictions
about the technologies that were yet to come, including computers
and the internet. Chicago Tribune
03/18/01
MONET
IN MINNESOTA: A flower show in the Twin Cities has taken on
the challenge of recreating Claude Monet's famous gardens in an
auditorium of a downtown Minneapolis department store. The intricately
detailed (if somewhat downsized) summer gardens are quite a feat,
considering that the Upper Midwest is still in the clutches of
winter. Minneapolis Star Tribune 03/17/01
ROSS
BOUNCES BACK: Remember David A. Ross? The top man at the Whitney
Museum in New York who for nearly a decade never saw his name
in print without the words "embattled director" before
it was practically run out of Gotham on a rail in 1998. But Ross
has found new life as the director of San Francisco's Museum of
Modern Art, and the gallery's newest exhibit is his proudest accomplishment.
Los Angeles Times 03/18/01
PORTRAIT
OF THE ARTIST AS AN OLD MAN: In the world of French Canadian
abstractionists, few artists can approach the legacy of Charles
Gagnon. A soft-spoken man with a thirst for knowledge and new
experience, he has produced some of the last century's greatest
abstract paintings. Now, as he reflects on his life and his career,
the sharp twists and turns of his evolving style become less mysterious.
The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 03/17/01
IT'S
ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS: Seven German artists are bringing the
spectacle of creating art to the public with a seven-day marathon
Internet broadcast. "Art lovers around the world can go to
www.live-art.tv and watch
one participant a day paint, develop or sculpt an original work
to be completed within seven hours in a studio at the Museum of
Fine Arts in the western German city of Celle." Nando
Times 03/18/01
Friday
March 16
THE
MOST DANGEROUS RELIGION (HINT: IT'S NOT ISLAM):
The world has watched in horror as Afghani fundamentalists willfully
destroyed cultural treasures. But destruction of art is only a
piece of a larger cultural battle going on here. Is
international cultural conflict replacing political Cold War conflict?
ArtsJournal.com
3/16/01
PROVOKING THE BULLIES: Most of the world has been
outraged over the Taliban's destruction of the giant Buddhas.
Now Pakistan's foreign minister urges other nations
not to shun the Taliban, fearing the regime will use international
hostility as an excuse to make life even more difficult
for the Afghan people. Pakistan is one of three countries that
offically acknowledges the Taliban regime. The Times
of India (AFP) 3/15/01
DUTY TO PROTECT: Destruction of Afghani
art certainly didn't begin with the Taliban's assault on the
giant Buddhas. The Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's
Cultural Heritage (SPACH) has been fighting to save artwork in
Afghanistan since 1994 (without much luck). "Monuments were being neglected, if not badly damaged by the
war, historic sites had been and were still being illegally
excavated and, most importantly, the Kabul Museum, which houses
an important collection, was being damaged and plundered." Purabudaya 2000
PRESERVATION AT ALL COSTS? In an effort to protect the deteriorating
Giotto frescoes in Padua’s Scrovegni Chapel, visitors are now
only allowed into the chapel for scheduled 15-minute visits, and
must view the work from glass enclosures. It alters the experience. "Maybe we should at least consider
the radical notion that masterpieces - like so much else in this
mutable world - have a life-span, and ask ourselves if preserving
them is worth making it so unpleasant to experience them." The Atlantic Monthly 04/01
THE PROSECUTION RESTS: Indecency charges against London’s
Saatchi Gallery, raised over a current exhibition of child photos
by Tierney Gearon and Nan Goldin, were dropped Thursday after
the Crown Prosecution Service concluded a conviction in the case
was highly unlikely. BBC 3/15/01
FINDERS, KEEPERS? An urgent appeal to raise £7.5 million
has been launched by the National Galleries of Scotland to prevent
a drawing by Michelangelo from being sold on the open market.
The 500-year-old drawing - considered the most important Michelangelo
discovery in living memory - was found last October in a scrapbook
in a castle in North Yorkshire. If the money is collected, the
work will go on permanent display in Edinburgh. The Telegraph (London)
3/16/01
MAKING A POINT: Italian architect Renzo Piano has
released his initial drawings of the 1,000-foot glass tower to
be built above London Bridge, which would make it the largest
building in Europe. "The tower would bring the city's stumpy,
lumpy skyline to a refined point. I can't see why it shouldn't
be built, except fear, and a city cannot live on fear." London Evening Standard 3/16/01
DRIPPER'S
LEGACY: Ed Harris's riveting portrayal of one of the 20th
century's most fascinating artists has earned "Pollock"
an Oscar nod and critical raves. But art historians have been
irked by Harris's decision to make it seem as if Jackson Pollock's
innovations were nothing more than an outgrowth of his descent
into madness. "Pollock's epiphany likely didn't arise out
of locking himself in a Greenwich Village walkup for three weeks,
as the film suggests. Abstract Expressionism built on European
modernist painting." The Globe
& Mail (Toronto) 03/16/01
Thursday
March 15
UK
JOINS EFFORT AGAINST ART THEFT: After years of campaigning
by museums and archaeologists, the British government has agreed
to join a worldwide convention allowing cultural treasures to
be recovered if they turn up in member countries. The
Times (London) 03/15/01
THE
FINE LINE OF ART AND... Tierney Gearon's photographs of naked
children displayed at Charles Saatchi's gallery brought out Scotland
Yard last week. Do the pictures qualify as child pornography,
as the police charged? Where is the line between art and exploitation?
The Scotsman 03/13/01
ART
WITHOUT LABELS: There's a charity "blind auction"
of art in Edinburgh - all of the art sells for £200. But
the identity of the artist is hidden. You might be bidding on
a valuable work or it could be an amateur photo - you takes your
chances. "There is endless potential for art snobs to be
wrongfooted - picture the art 'expert' who, convinced he has cleverly
spotted a rare abstract work by a world famous artist, ends up
going home with a child’s finger painting. The
Scotsman 03/15/01
A NEW BRAND
OF RUSSIAN ART... AND ARTIST: Mikhail Chemiakin once was hounded
by the KGB; now he's buddies with Russian President and former
KGB officer Vladimir Putin. He's a litany of contradictions. "Critics
are disdainful, but he is adored by art buyers in Middle America
and among Russia's new rich. His fans describe his work as mystical,
supernatural and exotic. 'Chemiakin's work is the kind of stuff
you don't need a fancy art education to appreciate,' one British
critic sniffed." The
Globe and Mail (Toronto) 03/15/01
Wednesday
March 14
GALLERY GETS A REPRIEVE: The threat of an immediate police
seizure of controversial photos from Charles Saatchi's London
gallery has been lifted after Scotland Yard announced that a legal
decision on the matter was unlikely before the gallery reopens
for business Thursday. The police had earlier said they would
prosecute the gallery under the 1978 Protection of Children Act,
which made "indecent photographs of children" a crime
- yet says nothing to clarify what ‘indecent’ should be taken
to mean. "The law has never been used against art exhibitions
in its 22 year history." The Guardian (London) 3/14/01
WASHINGTON
STAYS IN WASHINGTON: Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington
will stay at the Smithsonian. The painting, on loan from a British
collector, was to have been sold at auction if the Smithsonian
couldn't come up with $20 million. Now a Las Vegas foundation
has donated money to keep the portrait where it is.
Washington Post 03/14/01
ATTENTION
GETTER: The world is still trying to figure out why the Taliban
destroyed their art. Was it just to get attention for a country
the rest of the world has been ignoring? "For Mullah Omar,
who had spared the statues in the hope of improving relations
with the West, the increased pressure indicated he had nothing
left to lose. His response to the rest of the world: If you want
the monuments to survive, then recognize us as we are." Newsweek
(MSNBC) 03/13/01
DUMPING
CHARGES: Ontario's McMichael Gallery is set to dump as many
as 2000 works of art from its collection now that the government
has ruled the gallery can return to its Group of Seven roots.
But the province's art community is "worried that such an
unprecedented disposal could flood an 'extremely fragile' market,
devalue certain artists and send a discouraging message to scores
of donors. There's even talk of possible lawsuits against the
province from those affected by the changes." Ottawa
Citizen 03/14/01
Tuesday
March 13
ART
OR PEOPLE? Who can explain the Taliban's destruction of art?
"For example, why are they doing so? Was the destruction
of statues a stupid act, or was it a shrewdly calculated move
to attain international attention? Then, who created the Taliban?
And who is pushing them against the wall now? After the world's
reaction over the statue issue, many in Afghanistan might ask
whether the stone statues were more important than millions of
starving human beings." Middle
East Times 03/12/01
GUGGENHEIM
ON THE STRIP: Another new Guggenheim Museum is on the way,
in, of all places, Las Vegas. The (naturally) outsized new gallery
is sure to draw plenty of interest, but it is drawing plenty of
unfriendly fire as well, from critics and artists who wonder,
"When you've already got Manhattan in your palm, why should
you stoop to playing Vegas?" The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 03/13/01
NEW
WINDS OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN: "Of all the notions
that have gained currency in the last two decades, this has been
perhaps the most damaging: the suggestion that clarity is the
enemy. It left us with critical writing and built projects that
were oppressive and leaden—worse yet, that wore their drudgery
as a badge of honor—and a slew of schemes that sought to reflect
rather than transcend the unsteady nature of what became known
as 'decentered', 'postindustrial' life." But now a new notion
of design. Metropolis 03/01
THE
VANISHING: Leonardo's "Last Supper" is damaged
almost to the point of obscurity. Nonetheless, restorers have
spent the past 20 years trying to lighten and brighten the images.
Now the controversial results are revealed - here are comparisons
between pre-restoration and after. University
of Chicago Press 03/12/01
Monday
March 12
HOW
THEY KILLED THE BUDDHAS: "After failing to destroy the
1,700-year-old sandstone statues of Buddha with anti-aircraft
and tank fire, the Taliban brought a lorryload of dynamite from
Kabul. A Western observer said: 'They drilled holes into the torsos
of the two statues and then placed dynamite charges inside the
holes to blow them up'." The Telegraph
(London) 03/12/01
- SMUGGLED
OUT OF HARM'S WAY: A wave of art has been smuggled out of
Afghanistan and is being sold on the black market in London.
It's a trade that has been active for some time, but the Taliban
destruction has upped the stakes. The
Observer 03/11/01
DISAPPROVAL
FROM THE TOP: Britain's Culture Minister gets into the issue
over the police raid of Charles Saatchi's London gallery. "We
must be very careful in this country before we start censoring
things that are happening, either in newspapers or in art galleries."
The Independent (London) 03/12/01
- GALLERY
RESISTING: "Despite the police warnings that the pictures
must be removed by Thursday, the gallery said it had no plans
to take down the photographs. 'We have received legal advice
from barrister Geoffrey Robertson and been told that the police
have used the wrong definition of what is indecent'."
The Observer (London) 03/11/01
- Previously:
SAATCHI
GALLERY RAIDED BY POLICE: Scotland Yard has raided Charles
Saatchi's London gallery and said that it would seize images
from the show if they were not removed before the gallery reopened.
Police say they will do so under anti child-pornography legislation.
"The exhibition features the work of a group of artists
and photographers selected by Charles Saatchi himself and taken
from his personal collection of photographs and paintings."
The Guardian (London) 03/10/01
COPIES
THAT SAVE: Spain's Altamira caves contain some of the best
examples of prehistoric paintings. But "throughout the 1950s,
'60s and '70s, throngs of tourists flocked to the cave to seek
a connection with early humans" and the 14,000-year-old paintings
were threatened. So next door in another set of caves, high technology
is being used to make exact copies of the paintings for visitors.
Wired 03/11/01
NEW
VERMEER? A rediscovered Vermeer has been certified as a 36th
surviving work by the master. "Vermeer’s surviving works
are so rare, with only 35 fully accepted paintings, that any new
addition to his oeuvre will generate great excitement."
The Art Newspaper 03/10/01
MAASTRICHT'S
OLD MASTERS SHRINKING: The number of Old Master paintings
for sale has been dwindling. As a consequence, "although
it is known mainly as an Old Masters fair, Maastricht has expanded
its other categories in recent times and this year includes some
stunning Impressionist and 20th-century pictures."
The Telegraph (London) 03/12/01
SEVERED
HAND MISSING: A marble hand from an ancient Greek statue has
been stolen from the British Museum. Nando
Times (AP) 03/12/01
LIFE
SHREDDING: Artist Michael Landy has finished shredding and
granulating everything he owns. People found the "artwork"
appalling, and gave Landy's cat presents since Landy maintained
he couldn't own anything at the end. "The thousands of visitors
to the event seemed more traumatised than Landy himself. Many
I spoke to were suspicious of his motives - the term 'self- indulgent'
cropped up several times - but all expressed a kind of appalled
envy." Sunday Times (London)
03/11/01
OF
MYTH AND POLLOCK: The new bio-pic of Jackson Pollock has a
lot to cram into it. But, beautiful as it is, it's not possible
to fully put into perspective the artist's life, legend and myth.
Herewith an attempt at clarification. The
Idler 03/12/01
Sunday
March 11
MUSEUM
VISITS DOWN: The American economy isn't the only thing slowing
- since October museum attendance across the country has been
down - Boston's MFA, for example had 22 percent fewer visitors
compared to the same period last year. Minneapolis
Star-Tribune (WSJ) 03/11/01
SAATCHI
GALLERY RAIDED BY POLICE: Scotland Yard has raided Charles
Saatchi's London gallery and said that it would seize images from
the show if they were not removed before the gallery reopened.
Police say they will do so under anti child-pornography legislation.
"The exhibition features the work of a group of artists and
photographers selected by Charles Saatchi himself and taken from
his personal collection of photographs and paintings. It has been
running for eight weeks and has been reviewed in most of the broadsheet
papers and magazines from the Tatler to the Telegraph, without
any public complaints to the gallery." The
Guardian (London) 03/10/01
BUDDHA
WAS RIGHT: So now the giant Bamiyan buddhas have been destroyed.
The Metropolitan Museum had offered to buy and transport the statues
to New York in order to preserve them "It's hard to imagine
a more perfect or succinct misunderstanding of the issue. Absence
is absence, no matter if the Buddhas become dust in Afghanistan
or dusted objets d'arts in some far away museum. That this seemed,
if briefly, a plausible solution indicates what is truly at stake
here, and that it is not so simple as preserving 'the world's
cultural heritage'." Killing
the Buddha 03/08/01
- STAY-AT-HOME
ART: "In recent years, the dispute over the right to
antiquities has tended to favor those who argue that art treasures
belong near their origins, rather than in collections continents
away." But the Taliban destruction has changed some thinking
on the issue. "Museums [in the West] are saying, 'We should
have protected this material.' " Los
Angeles Times 03/10/01
- WRONG
ON RELIGIOUS GROUNDS: Islamic intellectuals in Los Angeles
have objected to the Taliban's destruction of art. "In
a unanimous statement, the eight intellectuals said the Taliban's
destruction of statues violated the Koranic requirement to tolerate
those of other faiths. The Koran's sixth chapter, for instance,
tells Muslims: 'We have not set you as a keeper over them, nor
are you responsible for them. . . . Abuse not those whom they
worship besides Allah, lest they out of spite abuse Allah in
their ignorance'." Los Angeles Times
03/09/01
SPOTTING
THE FAKES: It's not such an easy matter - how about knockoff
art created 1000 years ago, or mass-produced copies? The art of
finding the fakes. Toronto Star 03/11/01
- THE
ENDURING FAKE: What becomes of fake art once its exposed
as fraudulent? Some wind up in classrooms where they are studied.
"A few become 'famous fakes': Museums sometimes organize
shows displaying them. And some deceived collectors even decide
to keep their fakes - for sentimental reasons or because the
works have become valuable in their own right as clever copies."
Christian Science Monitor 03/09/01
A
FIASCO AT THE MALL: Why is the issue of memorials on Washington
DC's National Mall so charged? The latest proposal - for a $100
million World War II memorial is being pounced on by critics.
"As presently envisioned, it is an aesthetic disaster, a
prime example of bureaucratic high kitsch style not implausibly
described as watered-down Albert Speer by a few critics."
The New York Times 03/04/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
THE
ART OF SCIENCE: Recently artists have been vigorously taking
up science as fodder for their art. Why? "Ever since art uncoupled
from its traditional concerns it has been in search of a subject.
What better subject than science, to help us address our place
in the universe? My hope is that science-art collaborations will
become so accepted that people will stop regarding them as unusual."
The Telegraph (London) 03/10/01
ANIMALS
ON PARADE (ANGELIC VERSION): Los Angeles had planned to populate
its downtown streets with 6'4"-tall angels, decorated by
artists. "But due to rain, red tape, tardy artists, cash-flow
problems and the logistics of carting the 500-pound artworks (a
100-pound angel on a 400-pound base), Community of Angels is taking
flight more slowly than project organizers had hoped. Los
Angeles Times 03/10/01
WHITNEY
CLOSES STAMFORD: The Whitney Museum closes its outpost in
Stamford Connecticut. The museum says it can't afford to stay
at the Stamford gallery it has occupied for almost 20 years."
Stamford Advocate 03/10/01
Friday
March 9
ALTARPIECE MYSTERY SOLVED? An Antwerp policeman claims to have
solved one of the most enduring mysteries in all of art history:
the missing panel of van Eyck’s 15th-century Adoration
of the Lamb altarpiece, which was stolen in 1934. "The 12-panel
polyptych is considered to be one of the most important works
in Western painting; over the centuries it has also earned itself
the reputation of being the world's most stolen masterpiece."
The motives for the theft have never been established, but theories
are rampant…
The Telegraph (London) 3/09/01
GOODBYE, MONET: For the first time in six years,
no Impressionist exhibition featured among the top 20 shows in
the world last year, according to the Art Newspaper’s latest survey.
Surprisingly, a London exhibit on the image of Christ was the
most popular in all of Britain and came in fourth in popularity
worldwide. Sydney Morning Herald 3/09/01
THERE GO THE RELIGIOUS GROUNDS: Rudy
Giuliani's attack on artist Renee Cox's "Yo Mama's Last Supper" proves
he knows less about the religious issues he claims to defend than
does Cox. But "falling back on free speech to defend one's
art from political attack is tantamount to saying that art transcends
politics. A lovely sentiment, but not very likely. The only thing
high art transcends is the debate the rest of us who express ideas
accept as part of public discussion."
Killing the Buddha 03/03/01
PRICE OF THE IRISH...
Everything Irish is hot these days - after years of weakness,
the Irish economy is one of the hottest in all Europe. Paintings
too. Irish art is the fastest-rising sector of the art market.
"Fifteen years ago the top Irish price was $30,000; currently
the most expensive Irish painting, Lavery's 'The Bridge at Grez'
of 1883, sold for $2.4 million." Forbes 03/19/01
MACHU PICCHU
THREATENED BY LANDSLIDE: Earth beneath the ruins of Machu
Picchu is shifting rapidly; geologists warn that the lost city
of the Incas could be split in two by a landslide at any time.
Hidden on a spur a mile and a half high in the Andes, Machu Picchu
was the last refuge of the Incan empire; it was discovered in
1911 by a US archaeologist. UNESCO lists the city as a World Heritage
Site. The
New Scientist 03/07/01
MAYBE
THEY COULD FOCUS IT ON CRITICS: It seemed like a great idea
- a dazzling sculpture to attract attention at a playhouse in
the British city of Nottingham. The giant concave steel mirror,
set up in front of the playhouse, will reflect the sky. Unfortunately,
for about four months of the year, it will also reflect sunlight.
Focus it sharply, in fact. So sharply that it could instantly
barbecue birds flying overhead.
ABC 03/07/01
MCCAUGHEY
LEAVES YALE MUSEUM: Patrick McCaughey, Director of the Yale
Center for British Art, is leaving that post to "do research
and writing and seek other opportunities in the arts." McCaughey,
formerly director of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, increased
attendance at the Yale Center, and oversaw extensive renovations
to the building. His departure comes as a surprise to most observers.
The Hartford Courant 03/09/01
Thursday
March 8
D.O.T.
GIVES KENNEDY PLAN A BOOST: The U.S. Department of Transportation
has issued a report recommending a massive $269 million expansion
of Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center. The purpose of the expansion
would be to alleviate the center's physical isolation from the
rest of the district by building an 11-acre plaza over several
nearby highways. Director Michael Kaiser is, naturally, thrilled
with the report. Washington Post 03/08/01
COMPUTING
ANGLES: Computers have been part of the architect's studio
for a full generation now, but "until the last few years
they were mainly tools that helped make conventional architecture
easier to produce." Now, "software that is affecting
the creation of new designs. Computers produce shapes of extraordinary
complexity, with swoops and bends and twists so baroque that no
structural engineer could ever have figured out how to build them."
The New Yorker 03/05/01
WHY
OH WHY? So what is the religious justification for the Taliban's
destruction of the giant Buddhas? "The deed is being perpetrated
in the name of Islam, in which there is no basis for such vandalism.
Indeed, the Islamic world has admired the two sculptures almost
from the day Islam became entrenched in the area around the ninth
century." International Herald
Tribune 03/07/01
EARLY
DESTRUCTION OF ART: Egyptologists are debating whether to
restore a toppled 3,200-year-old 50-foot-high statue of Ramses
II or leave it on the ground in pieces where early Christian monks
felled and dismembered it to discourage idolatry. "The face
was attacked, as the early Christians often did, and traces of
hammering can be found all over the place, clearly showing that
the destruction was willed." Middle
East Times (Egypt) 03/07/01
MUSIC
GETS A NEW LOOK: The University of Illinois has unveiled an
exhibit that focuses on the visual side of the music world. "Between
Sound and Vision" is no high-tech, cutting-edge, multimedia
effort - what the creators of the exhibit have done is take the
truly "inside baseball" parts of the contemporary music
world (scores by John Cage, unconventional in the extreme, make
up the lion's share of the exhibit) and displayed them as artworks
that stand on their own. The idea is to explore the ever-expanding
definition of music. Chicago Tribune
03/08/01
BEHIND
THE SCENES: Audio artist Janet Cardiff has been awarded Canada's
$50,000 "Millenium Prize," one of the largest arts awards
in the history of the country. Cardiff's latest piece, "Forty
Part Motet," consists of a massive array of 40 speakers,
and very little else. "Each of the speakers emits the sound
of a distinct voice singing one part from . . .a 12-minute choral
work written by the British composer Thomas Tallis in 1575. During
the performers' intermission, we hear the singers chatting, working
out difficulties in the score, or discussing their various jobs
and interests before the performance resumes again." The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 03/08/01
Wednesday
March 7
PHILLIPS
REMAKING AUCTION MARKET: Now even Sotheby's board members
are selling their art at No. 3 auction house Phillips. Observers
say that Phillips is "guaranteeing collectors so much money
that neither Sotheby's nor Christie's can come near the offers.
As a consequence, the high-end auction world — a cozy gentleman's
club until the federal investigation into price-fixing and collusion
shattered its decorum — is becoming an ever more free-wheeling,
up-for-grabs marketplace, which makes officials at both houses
worry that tight profit margins could evaporate completely."
The New York Times 03/07/01
SMITHSONIAN
HITS THE JACKPOT AGAIN: The Smithsonian American Art Museum
will receive a $10 million gift to go towards the $180 million
renovation of its main museum building. The donation is the Smithsonian's
second $10 million windfall in a month. Washington
Post 03/07/01
A
VENEER OF VERMEER: What makes a 17th-century painter into
a bona fide 21st century superstar? Well, it can't hurt when a
couple of high-profile (some might say blockbuster) exhibits inspire
four novels, a book of poetry, and an opera. But in the case of
Jan Vermeer, to whose legacy all these things have recently been
added, scholars are concerned that most of the hype is just that,
and that little of the artist's actual life story remains intact
in the face of all the tribute. Chicago
Tribune 03/07/01
MONEY
TRUMPS ENVIRONMENT: Japan's World Expo 2005 was meant to be
an environmentally friendy effort. "We wanted to change this country
through this Expo. People are so used to destroying nature and
installing rows of houses. So through this masterplan we wanted
to change this process, and the relationship between this Expo
and future town planning in Japan." Unfortunately the whole master
plan is unraveling fast. The Independent
(London) 03/05/01
GIULIANI
WOULD JUST HATE THIS: One of Paris's hottest art destinations
is, quite literally, illegal. "Squat du 59, rue de Rivoli"
is a commune of artists squatting in a downtown building, and
producing volumes of experimental art that have caught the Parisian
public's attention. But come spring, when city authorities begin
evicting squatters, the commune faces extinction, unless a donor
can be found to buy their building. The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 03/07/01
DREAM
GARDEN NIGHTMARE: The City of Philadelphia goes to court today
to try and save the historic "Dream Garden" mural that
hangs in the lobby of one of downtown's oldest buildings. The
mural, which is thought to be worth between $5 million and $20
million, is in danger of being moved or demolished by its owners,
the estate of deceased art patron John Merriam. Philadelphia
Inquirer 03/07/01
CITIES
OF TOMORROW: What will cities be like in the future? "Are
we in for a Bladerunner future, where an increasingly glamorous
aristo-class reclines atop a vast prole-tariat whose members slug
it out in the dirty and disenfranchised bilge waters of life below
decks? One of the many metaphors for cities proffered by the international
experts gathered in Adelaide evoked just such a Titanic image,
complete with distracted pilot and impending iceberg."
Sydney Morning Herald 03/07/01
THE
BRITISH MUSEUM'S NEW AFRICAN GALLERIES: The British Museum's
new galleries of African art are gathering fans. "Purists
will worry - purists always do worry - that such objects are being
shown outside the religious, ritual or domestic contexts for which
they were made. But 20th-century artists, from Picasso and Modigliani,
taught us to aestheticise these things, and, once something has
been seen as art, it is very difficult not to see it that way."
The Telegraph (London) 03/07/01
- FINALLY
SOME PROMINENCE: Amounting to more than 200,000 objects,
the collection ranks among the most comprehensive surveys of
its subject anywhere in the world. The
Times (London) 03/07/01
Tuesday
March 6
PROUD DESTROYER : Despite condemnation from around
the globe - even from their few allies in Pakistan and the UAE
- the Taliban’s leader broadcast a message throughout Afghanistan
Monday telling his countrymen to be proud of his decision to destroy
all the country’s pre-Islamic art and Buddhist sculpture. "The
Taliban maintains its action would help create the world's purest
Islamic state saying their mission to destroy ‘false idols’ will
continue." CNN 3/05/01
FAITH-BASED VANDALISM: "Christians needn't be entirely
smug on the subject of destroying holy images. Iconoclasm
(literally, the breaking of images) was the name of an eighth-
and ninth-century movement in the Eastern church against the
worship of holy pictures… It's partly that, as Saul Bellow
wrote, different minds inhabit different centuries. If you
take your beliefs seriously, and are consistent in marrying
deed to creed, then you may see, with blinding clarity, the
need to eliminate blasphemous inconsistencies." Time 3/05/01
INTO THE INNER CITY: Facing low visitor turnout and
the ongoing difficulties of drawing arts patrons outside the city,
the Barnes Foundation is contemplating a move from its historic
suburban home to a site in Philadelphia’s center. "Underlying
the pressures to transform is the view that wealthy donors and
foundations are reluctant to open their wallets and portfolios
to an institution whose access is so limited. Given its secluded
location and burdensome 60-day advance reservation requirements,
the collection draws only 85 percent of its visitor quota." New York Times 3/06/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
THE ART OF TOMB
ROBBING: "When I first started out in this business,
many of the objects I handled crumbled to pieces. They were too
fragile. Now, I have a more scientific approach...The first rule
of tomb-robbing is never take anything home and never put anything
in your car. If the police find you in possession of anything,
you're in trouble... I love history. If I had studied, I'd be
a great archaeologist...I've taken my son out with me three or
four times, but he's not really interested in tomb-robbing. There's
no passion." The
Art Newspaper 03/06/01
YO
MAMA, YO PATHETIC: The Cardinal of New York slammed the
Brooklyn Museum of Art as being publicity hungry and artist Renee
Cox - who posed as a nude Christ figure in a 1996 photograph
- a "pathetic individual." The museum is currently showing
Cox's work "Yo Mama's Last Supper" and New York mayor
Rudy Giuliani has also criticized the work.
New York Daily News 03/05/01
IT ISN'T JUST
FOR SUBWAY CARS ANY MORE: Graffitti-inspired commercial art
is "in" right now, and the originators aren't happy.
At least, their scholars aren't: "The downside occurs when
an artist takes his work out of its underground context and begins
to produce commercial work. Then the elements that made his work
unique can conspire to make it over-familiar, and in danger of
crossing the line from tag to logo." spark-online 03/01
MONEY
TALKS:
Engravings on old Confederate bills reveal a great deal about
slavery. "We hear a lot these days about how the Confederacy
was really about states' rights and not slavery. But the currency
itself tells the truth. It shows how they saw us, and how they
wanted to keep seeing us." The New York Times 03/06/01
(one-time registration required for access)
TOO
MANY PICASSOS: The State Painting and Sculpture Museum in
Ankara is delighted with its trove of Picassos. But are they real?
"Even an ordinary person would understand that these are
not the real pictures but very bad copies that look like they
were made from postcards. Even the signature of Picasso on the
back [of one] is a copy of a signature from another period."
Washington Post 03/05/01
Monday
March 5
TOP
ART THEFTS: What were the top art thefts of the 20th Century?
Theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911 ranks high. Here's
a list of the top ten... Forbes.com
03/05/01
FALLOUT
FOR SOTHEBY'S/CHRISTIE'S: Fallout from Sotheby's and Christie's
auction house legal woes is mounting. Sotheby's website has been
a money sinkhole, there're those big settlements to pay, and it
looks like customers are turning to other sellers. And look, there's
No. 3 auction house Phillips in the passing lane... The
Economist 03/03/01
DEAD
BODIES AS ART? "In a show that pushes the boundaries
of the controversial, a German doctor is displaying real cadavers.
Skinned and dissected, the preserved bodies, which were donated
by fully informed volunteers, are recomposed in abstract and representational
forms for aesthetic effect. 'I don't show pure anatomy, it's more
something like anatomy-entertainment'." Washington
Post 03/05/01
FOUNDER
BEGINS DISMANTLING ART COLLECTION: Last year the Canadian
provincial government of Ontario wrested control of the McMichael
Collection, a public art collection, away from its board and gave
it back to its founder, Robert McMichael. Now "the founder
has described 3,000 of the works out of the gallery’s collection
of 6,000 as 'unsuitable', but that he, nevertheless, might focus
his initial energy on 12 pieces 'that he really dislikes'.” These
he will dispose of. The Art Newspaper
03/03/01
ARTS
PATRON: Chicago is getting an architectural makeover, led
by mayor Richard Daley. "So firm is Daley’s grip on power
that he has conflated the traditionally separate roles of patron
and planner into a single autocratic whole. He reviews every single
major project built in his city (bad news for Modernists, because
the mayor is no fan of steel and glass). He also is a public-works
fanatic who scribbles notes to his aides as he rides around the
city in his chauffeur-driven limousine—fill this pothole, fix
that streetlight, trim that tree. Plenty of architects can’t stand
him; but the vast majority of voters love him." Metropolis
03/01
ARCHITECTURAL
SHOOT-OUT: Two high profile building projects are in the planning
stages in New York. An interesting competition between the two
is possible. "Let's see who can build not only taller or
faster but who can build best. An architectural free-for-all on
the East River: that's my idea of fireworks on the Fourth of July."
The New York Times 03/05/01
(one-time registration required for access)
CUBAN
FAKES: "Rapidly escalating prices for paintings by Cuban
masters have led to a notorious parallel market for fakes. Damaging
the artists' legacies, the fakes have turned up in the United
States, Spain and Latin America. Many forgers are aided by Cuba's
political isolation and the scarcity of resources and experts
on Cuban art who can certify a work's authenticity." Miami
Herald 03/05/01
WESTERN
MUSEUMS TO MERGE? Los Angeles' Southwest Museum and the Autry
Museum of Western Heritage are considering merging and creating
a new National Center for Western Heritage, which would function
as an umbrella for the two museums. Los
Angeles Times 03/05/01
Sunday
March 4
AFGHAN
ART DESTROYED: "Taliban Information Minister Quadratullah
Jamal announced that, in apparent defiance of international condemnation
and pleas to preserve the world's tallest standing Buddha statue
and other ancient artifacts, two-thirds of the country's statues
had been smashed. 'They were easy to break apart and did not take
much time,' he said." Washington
Post 03/04/01
WILLFUL
DESTRUCTION: Last Monday Afghanistan's Taliban leaders
were assuring a delegation that they had no intention of destroying
art treasures. By Thursday they were methodically obliterating
them. "They set about what was once Afghanistan's most
famous tourist attraction - two enormous statues of Buddha,
38 and 55 metres high, carved into a cliff-face. Using tanks
and rocket launchers they began to destroy the two works,
which had survived since the second century AD."
The Guardian 03/03/01
OUTSIDE
OFFERS: New York's Metropolitan Museum offers to buy the
giant Buddhas and other artifacts. Meanwhile, the trade of
smuggled Afghani artifacts has increased in recent weeks.
The Times (London) 03/03/01
SHAKEN,
NOT STIRRED: Seattle is a hotbed of glass art, with dozens
of internationally known glass artists working there. They didn't
fare so well in last week's 6.8 earthquake. Galleries lost hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of glass art, and several large
installations by Dale Chihuly were destroyed. Who pays for damage?
Mostly the artists - most galleries didn't have quake insurance.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer 03/02/01
THEY'RE
CALLING IT LONDON'S EIFFEL TOWER: Of all of London's projects
marking the turn of the millennium, perhaps the most popular is
the Eye - a giant ferris wheel in the middle of the city that
began turning about a year ago. Whereas the Millennium Dome was
richly funded and bombed with the public, the Eye was financed
on a shoestring and has come to help define the city's skyline.
The Telegraph (London) 03/03/01
INFLATED
NOTORIETY: Let's take a step back from knee-jerk reactions
over controversial work like that in the current Brooklyn Museum/Giuliani
flap. Celebrity conveyed by such disputes is unreasonable and
unwarranted. "With so many things competing for the public's
overburdened, shortened attention span, any sort of distinction
is positive for an artwork. Remember the salesman's motto: 'If
you can't make a good impression, make an impression'." Chicago
Tribune 03/04/01
MUSEUM
AUDIENCE GROWS WHILE MUSEUM CLOSED: In the month before it
closed for a five-year renovation, the Smithsonian Museum of American
Art attracted 54,000 visitors. A year later - in the same month
- the museum received almost 60,000 visitors online to see its
artwork. "Online visitors can see a lot more than what used
to hang on the walls. For example, the museum could display fewer
than 1,000 photos, paintings, sculptures and other artifacts.
During the renovation, online visitors can download 16 virtual
exhibits and 4,000 objects at any time." New
Jersey Online 03/04/01
Friday
March 2
WRITING A WRONG: What do most authors do when they
get a bad review? Well, absolutely nothing, other than maybe complaining
to friends and moping. "But there's still an enduring category
of author who feels that a bad review is no mere difference of
opinion, however ill-informed and wrongheaded the reviewer's take
may be. It's an injustice that must be remedied." But, calling
critics at home? Offering bounties? Threatening legal recourse?
Come on… Salon 3/02/01
WORTH A REFUND: As part of the massive settlement
of Christie’s and Sotheby’s price-fixing scandal, the auction
houses have agreed to refund foreign art dealers and collectors
the fees charged on their transactions over the last six years. The Age (Melbourne) 3/02/01
NEW APPROACHES IN
AN OLD GENRE: Landscape painting has been around forever,
it seems. Early cave drawings were, in a sense, landscape art.
But landscapes have changed greatly in the recent past. Environmental
destruction. Pollution. Industrialization. Black-top. A new breed
of landscape painters is producing art that notices.
ArtNews 03/01
STARBUCK'S ON THE NILE?
The Egyptian Railway Authority plans to convert Cairo's historic
train station into a shopping mall, "to increase the revenue
of the station and thus allow us to upgrade the whole system."
No, argue preservationists. Its "a historical catastrophe...
a national disgrace... doing away with history in return for a
few bucks." Al-Ahram (Egypt)
02/28/01
VAN GOGH'S
ASTRONOMY: It's not unusual to know the year a famous painting
was done, but the exact hour? Van Gogh's "White House at
Night" has been pinned down quite precisely: 7 PM on the
16th of June, 1890. The information comes, not from Van Gogh,
but from astronomers who studied the position of Venus in his
nighttime sky. New Scientist
02/28/01
RETHINKING THE MUSEUM: San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art Director David Ross is largely responsible for SFMOMA’s new
computer generated-art show, "010101: Art in Technological
Times." He’s also a vocal proponent of incorporating new
technologies into museums. "The contemporary museum's role
today is no longer purely as a vehicle for showcasing art, but
also as a space to discuss the contrast of values and ideas." Wired 3/01/01
Thursday
March 1
DESTROYING
ART IN AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan's ruling Taliban run an oppressive
regime. Now the country's Ministry of Vice and Virtue has announced
plans to destroy every statue in the country, including the world's
tallest Buddha, almost 2,000 years old. Why? "Worshippers
might be tempted to pay homage to the idols, the Taliban's youthful
leaders have decided, even though Afghanistan is devoid of Buddhists."
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/01/01
THE DOME. NOW
LEEDS. WHERE HAVE THE TOURISTS GONE? Leeds museum was the
the first attempt to run a British National museum as a business.
A private contractor was brought in, along with displays from
the Tower of London. Initial estimates were for a million visitors
a year, more or less. Less is what they got. Last year, 180,000.
Consequently, the Royal Armouries "took over responsibility
for running the museum.... leaving the private company to retain
some services: catering, car parking and corporate hospitality."
The Art Newspaper 03/01/01
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