The wing’s design stresses each region’s singularity while fostering an atmosphere of cosmopolitan exchange. We’re meant to feel that the Met is no longer what the writer Ishmael Reed described a half century ago: “the Center for Art Detention.” - The New Yorker
To appreciate these works only as visual objects exacerbates the intellectual violence of decontextualization. The Met has responded to this by writing extensive object labels and wall texts, carefully parsed but unflinching even when subjects, such as headhunting, may make some visitors uncomfortable. - Washington Post
Critic Christopher Knight does not, let’s say, find it great: “Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ meets Beckett’s theater of the absurd.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
“After nearly half a decade, Vinnie Bagwell, a self-taught sculptor-artist, is still waiting for the million dollars that the New York City department of cultural affairs promised for her to work on monument Victory Beyond Sims.” - The Guardian (UK)
There are currently 129 full-time staff, and 29 of the 90 unionized staff will be affected. The cuts come after the VAG’s annual general meeting June 17, when it reported it had lost $2.85 million in operating revenue during the 2023-24 fiscal year, and was on pace to lose money in 2024-25. - Vancouver Sun
Chinese graphic artists are rapidly experiencing the impact of image generators on their day-to-day work: the technology enables copycats and profoundly shifts clients’ perception of their work, specifically in terms of how much that work costs and how much time it takes to produce. - The Verge
“Owning a Wright original — the architecture buff’s equivalent of owning a Picasso — comes with headaches as manifold as they are esoteric. … To address these hurdles … the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has created an ecosystem in which its 730 members can swap advice, trade stories and build community.” - The New York Times
“Unlike many other symbols in art history, the sunflower is relatively new. … (Yet it has) set aflame the imagination of countless artists and writers in the past, including among others Sir Anthony van Dyck, Maria van Oosterwyck, William Blake, Oscar Wilde, Dorothea Tanning, Paul Nash and Allen Ginsberg.” - BBC
The effort, publicly launched on Wednesday at Tate Modern in London, has already raised £43 million of its £150 million goal. Meanwhile, the Tate board of trustees approved, for this fiscal year, a second consecutive deficit budget. - Press Association UK (Yahoo!)
The 37-foot-tall living sculpture, created in 2000, is designed to nurture more than 50,000 flowering plants and will be seeded in August with the hope that it will be fully established by April, when architect Peter Zumthor’s new poured concrete building is scheduled to open to the public. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
"The Venice Biennale has long been a mirror of the profession. This year, we tried a different format: Could a biennale shift from being a mirror to a tool? Could it become not a polished celebration of current architecture, but a place where we confront the urgency of adaptation to a planet in flux?" - Bloomberg
“On Monday, the Italian government announced it will cut the country’s VAT on art sales from 22% — the highest in the European Union — to just 5% percent … now the lowest.” A recent study estimated that the reduction could see galleries, antique dealers, and auction houses in Italy generate €1.5 billion in three years. - ARTnews
The statues, from the city’s cathedral, became the city’s property in 1948 and were subsequently moved to Franco’s summer palace at his wife’s request. The dictator’s family held onto them after he died and claimed ownership, a claim the court has now voided. - ARTnews
