No, not the human kind. "The District was, all jokes aside, a lush swamp back in the Cretaceous period. Dinosaurs, muck-dwelling mollusks and megalodons patrolled the humid wetland" - and left their mark. - NPR
It's not a simple tale. The Orange County Museum of Art asked him what to say to viewers who were made uncomfortable. He responded, "I’ve never believed my role as an artist was to make work that ensured comfort, ... My paintings are purposefully subject to alternate interpretations." - Artnet
A staffer who spoke to The Observer last week was fired, and others were told not to say anything about the union in public. "The move appears to have backfired, however, with six staff members signing up to the union last week." - The Observer (UK)
Those attempting to preserve the space in the Lake District are having to sell due to England's budget cuts. Schwitters' "use of found objects and rubbish to create collages and surprising imagery laid the foundations for both pop art and today’s thriving conceptual art scene" - The Observer (UK)
Artist Hilma af Klint's first abstract painting came years before Kandinsky's. But "she saw her art as a spiritual message to mankind. She had much bigger ambitions." And because she didn't become famous, almost all of her work is concentrated in one foundation in Stockholm - The Observer (UK)
Tentatively, that is - the workers in the union still must vote to ratify the new contract. "Management compromised on all five of the demands that prompted the strike," and workers vote today (Sunday). - Hyperallergic
Britain’s premier contemporary art fair seemed to demonstrate, by sheer weight of numbers, that London’s contemporary art trade is alive and thriving, despite Brexit, a domestic economy in turmoil, a new rival fair in Paris and other challenges. - The New York Times
The museum also announced Thursday that its $750-million fundraising campaign has reached the $700-million mark. The public-private partnership includes $125 million in Los Angeles County taxpayer funds. Eighty percent of the funds, the museum said in the announcement, will be paid for by private donations. - Los Angeles Times
"Visitors to Florence's Casa Buonarroti can watch a team of experts as they work to restore Artemisia Gentileschi's Allegory of Inclination, using technology to determine how it would look without the prudish draperies that have censored the artist's nude woman for hundreds of years." - Artnet
When I started working on it, I thought about a show that would be about metamorphosis and transformation. But the fact that the pandemic then exploded in front of our eyes made those reflections extremely concrete and real. - Los Angeles Times
"Selected from a pool of shortlisted projects, the outstanding new building replaces a library gifted to Magdalene by Samuel Pepys 300 years ago and provides the students of the University of Cambridge with a new space that includes an archive and an art gallery." - ArchDaily
Not that they've stopped gluing themselves to art, mind you. A pair from the group Just Stop Oil went to London's National Gallery and threw tomato soup at van Gogh's Sunflowers, then glued themselves to the wall beneath the painting (which, thank heaven, is covered by protective glass). - The Guardian
The value of auction sales of contemporary and modern African art surged by 44% to a record high of $72.4m (£65.6m) last year, according to consultants ArtTactic. - BBC
The artist told buyers who bought pieces from his latest collection to choose either the physical artwork or the NFT representing it. Those who chose the NFTs were told their corresponding physical piece would be destroyed. - BBC
