ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

VISUAL

Anderson Cooper Visits Caligula’s Pleasure Garden

A gay silver-fox fantasy come to life? Nope, sorry. In 2006, workers excavating for an underground parking garage found what archaeologists determined was a garden designed for the notorious young emperor, and they've been working there ever since. 60 Minutes sent Cooper to have a look. - CBS News

Why Artists Should Have Resale Rights

Auction houses or other market intermediaries wishing to incorporate such activities into their equity practice could pledge a portion of the seller’s commission or the buyer’s premium back to the artist. - Artnet

How An Ancient Roman Mosaic Spent Fifty Years As A Coffee Table In A New York Apartment

A priceless Roman mosaic that once decorated a ship used by the emperor Caligula was used for almost 50 years as a coffee table in an apartment in New York City. - The Guardian

Zaha Hadid’s Final Buildings Are Opening Across The Arab World

More than five years after her fatal heart attack at age 65, she has a theater in Rabat, a petroleum research center and a metro station in Riyadh, corporate headquarters in Sharjah, the famous stadium in Qatar, and the central bank headquarters in her birthplace, Baghdad. - Vanity Fair

This French Town Has An Art Library That Lends To Residents. Turns Out It Also Has A €3 Million Gerhard Richter

For decades now, the town of Saint-Priest (in metro Lyon) has been acquiring works for its residents and businesses to borrow from the artothèque. One of those works, bought in 1988 for 100,000 francs (roughly $41,000 in 2021), was Richter's Abstraktes Bild 630-2. - Artnet

NYC To Give Brooklyn Museum $50 Million

“I’ve been dreaming of this since I joined the museum a little over five years ago,” Pasternak said. “Our exhibitions and public programs have been embracing ideas for 21st-century museums, but our building is absolutely mired in the 19th century. So it’s time to catch up.” - The New York Times

The Deep Emotional Appeal Of Nature Photos

Photos of animals bypass logic and get directly to the heart. One photographer makes sure her subjects are looking directly at the camera: "We don’t have a common language, and like eye contact between humans, it creates such a connection." - Hyperallergic

A Man Who Helped Loot Cambodia Wants To Atone, And Recover The Artifacts

Toek Tik was "an unschooled man from a thatch-roofed hut who recently began disclosing to authorities how he oversaw hundreds of confederates as they swept through temple ruins, pillaging sculptures and other treasures." - The New York Times

Why Are Online Art Shows Phoning It In?

After all, we've had nearly two years to experiment and make them at least decent, if not great. - Hyperallergic

An Archconservative Flips Out About The Met

The museum has an Afrofuturist room; therefore, civilization as "we" know it is ending. "Conservatives want to conserve. ... But if you value history, shouldn’t you value all histories?" - Hyperallergic

A Planned Virginia Woolf Statue Is Getting Pushback Because It’s By The Thames

The inventive author, who ended her life by walking into the River Ouse, absolutely deserves a statue. But, the local council asks, does it need to be beside a river? - The Guardian (UK)

Lubaina Himid Won The Turner When She Was 63

She wants her audience to understand difficulty - and the value of the grind. She says, "It’s not easy to make a painting, it’s actually very difficult. But it is possible to change something about yourself or about your surroundings or about the world.- The Guardian (UK)

TR (And The Horse He’s Riding On) Heading To North Dakota

The Teddy Roosevelt statue that's been in front of the American Museum of Natural History for decades will soon be bound for Minot, ND, "where it will eventually be displayed at the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library — located near Roosevelt’s former Badlands cattle ranches." - The New York Times

They’re Restoring The 1920s-Era Hollywood Sign

Crews uncovered in the foundation the names and handprints of some of the workers on the 1978 rebuild’s crew. The remnants of a “lean-to system” that was used to hold up the original 1923 Hollywoodland sign was also uncovered. - Deadline

Abu Dhabi Says It Will Build Two More Major Museums

“In Abu Dhabi there has been a very clear and conscious decision to invest in culture, and investing in culture does not just mean buildings. We’re investing in infrastructure, both soft and hard—whether it’s institutions, music programs, or school curricula.” - The Art Newspaper

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');