Art News from Around the World
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Thursday, August 20, 2009
India Art Summit Opens Without Country's Top Painter Due To Fears Of Violence "India's biggest contemporary art show opened in New Delhi on Thursday, but without works from the country's most acclaimed painter because of fears of attacks by Hindu extremist groups. Painter M.F. Husain, 94, who has been called the 'Picasso of India,' has angered hardline Hindus by portraying Hindu deities in the nude or in a sexually suggestive manner." Agence France-Presse 08/20/09
Critics: Architecture Of President's House Memorial Flawed "The house's dimensions are incorrect, the arc of a bow window is distorted, and the building's now-infamous slave quarters are incorrectly located, the critics assert. Some historians and members of a committee charged with reviewing the memorial's design and content say they are stunned by the vehemence of the complaints. Beyond that, they argue that the memorial ... is less about architectural detail and more about the difficult story of enslavement at the heart of the new nation." Philadelphia Inquirer 08/20/09
Looted-Art Law Overturned, But Adam And Eve In Limbo "A federal appeals court today struck down as unconstitutional a 2002 California law giving owners and heirs to artworks looted by the Nazis extra time -- until the end of 2010 -- to sue for their return." Left undecided: "Does the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena really own one of the most prized works hanging in its galleries," or should its Adam and Eve "be handed over to the daughter-in-law of a Jewish art dealer who left the panels in Holland when he fled the invading Germans in 1940?" Los Angeles Times 08/19/09
Calatrava: Here's Why Ground Zero Hub Costs $3.2 Billion "'The station itself is a fraction of this cost,' said Calatrava. Indeed the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey has swept a great amount of peripheral work into the station project -- including 500,000 square feet of retail -- which may prove far too much. ... 'I have designed stations in Zurich, Lisbon, and Lyons,' Calatrava said. 'And this is the most complex I have done.'" Bloomberg 08/20/09
Mona Lisa's Assailant Joins Long Tradition Of Art Attacks "Mentally, a large number of art attackers appear to be several sandwiches short of the full picnic. ... Nonetheless, such onslaughts on famous works of art cannot be exclusively explained by lunacy. There's a spectrum of motivation ranging from the batty to the (almost) legitimate." Bloomberg 08/20/09
Christie's Nixes Art-Investment Fund, Loan Division "Christie's International has scrapped plans to start an art-investment fund and a lending division, according to two people involved with the projects. The move is another sign that the global economic slump is hurting the once-booming art market. ... The closely held company wanted to compete more directly with Sotheby's Financial Services, a subsidiary of Christie's main auction-house rival." Bloomberg 08/20/09
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Fake Russian Constructivist Paintings Are Flooding Market "The avant-garde works by the likes of Malevich, Popova, Kandinsky and Goncharova are attracting bigger and bigger prices at auction - last year Goncharova became the highest-selling female artist - and decorate the mansions of Russia's oligarchs and new business elite. There is just one problem. Most of them are fakes." The Independent (UK) 08/16/09
'Lost Archive' Of Frida Kahlo Works Condemned As Forgeries "A cache of Frida Kahlo oil paintings, diaries and archival material that is the subject of a book to be published by Princeton Architectural Press on 1 November has been denounced by scholars as a cache of fakes." The Art Newspaper 08/19/09
Head Of Prince's Foundation Responds To Accusations The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment "is an educational charity which helps communities, developers and designers build places that compare favourably with Britain's most loved neighbourhoods, towns and cities. We also run training programmes for planners, urban designers and building craftspeople. ... I regularly meet other professionals to share ideas and discuss work. We certainly do not meet to review and approve one another's plans." The Guardian (UK) 08/19/09
UK Museum Stores Raking In The Cash "The National Trust says 2009 looks likely to be its commercial arm's 'biggest ever year' as perfumed drawer liners and lemon curd prove to be the season's must-haves. Its flagship stores at properties such as Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland and the Sackville-Wests' ancestral home at Sissinghurst, Kent are proving to be the culture sector's equivalent of Harrods and Selfridges this year.... Other leading institutions, from the Victoria & Albert Museum to the Natural History Museum, are also chalking up strong sales." The Guardian (UK) 08/18/09
Online, UK Museums And Galleries United In Retail Effort "David Gilbert, chairman of the Contemporary Arts Society finance committee, has set up an initiative that aims to generate up to 30% extra revenue for UK museums and galleries--a welcome move at a time of major funding and sponsorship worries. Culture Label (www.culturelabel.com) is an online venture that unites the retail outlets of 60 British arts institutions, allowing worldwide access to their products." The Art Newspaper 08/18/09
National Geographic To Sell Photos From Its Archive The National Geographic Society's archive encompasses "more than 11 million images richly documenting the life of the 20th century, from Uganda to the Mississippi Delta to remote lamaseries near the Mongolian border," a collection it is opening "to the fine-art market for the first time. National Geographic's goal is to find private and institutional collectors for the vintage black-and-white prints and later color images." The New York Times 08/19/09
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Mystery Behind Obama-As-Joker Picture Halfway Solved "When cryptic posters portraying President Obama as the Joker from Batman began popping up around Los Angeles and other cities, the question many asked was, Who is behind the image? Was it an ultra-conservative grassroots group or a disgruntled street artist going against the grain? Nope, it turns out, just a 20-year-old college student from Chicago." (The question of who added the word "socialism" and spread the image around remains unanswered.) Los Angeles Times 08/17/09
Hindu Extremists Threaten To 'Cut Off Fingers' Of Indian Artist Painter and installation artist Subodh Kerkar is about to open an exhibition in a beach resort town in Goa featuring images of the elephant-headed god Ganesh in various guises: as Rodin's Thinker, performing a Maori war dance, as an Oscar statuette, and so on. Several militant Hindu groups are threatening demonstrations and violence against the show and the artist; Kerkar protests that he is himself a devotee of Ganesh. Agence France-Presse 08/18/09
Another Issue About LACMA's Director: He Spends A Lot Of Time, And Per Diem Money, In New York Michael Govan receives a per diem of "$1,000 a night to stay in his own New York condominium, while there on museum business," to a maximum of $36,000 a year. Says Christopher Knight: "It's about time, not money. Do the math: The payment means that out of 1,095 days total, the director was paid for working 103 days in New York. On a six- or even seven-day work week, that's 10% of his time." Los Angeles Times 08/18/09
In Britain's Burgeoning Muslim Community, Where's The Good Islamic Architecture? While there are a few showplace mosques, many houses of worship for British Muslims are drab little storefronts or repurposed churches with a dome or minaret tacked on. Sometimes, immigrants from simple South Asian villages are recreating the modest spaces they knew at home; other times, grander plans for mosques encounter fierce local opposition. Might the neighbors be won over by genuinely beautiful architecture? Financial Times 08/14/09
Where The Marble Has Bewitched Sculptors For Centuries (And Still Does) None other than "Michelangelo built a road up to the mountain [near Pietrasanta], which he named Altissima (the highest). His reward was a marble of unsurpassed whiteness, ideal for sculpture. Artists - from Giambologna and Vasari to Joan Miró, Henry Moore and more recently Damien Hirst and Marc Quinn - have been flocking to Pietrasanta ever since." Financial Times 08/14/09
LACMA Director Gets Almost $1M Per Year, But Should He? "In good times, eyebrows might be raised over whether $1 million a year is a fair wage for a director of a nonprofit museum. But in the midst of a recession that has forced budget cuts and layoffs at museums around the country, the issue becomes more loaded." Michael Govan's "compensation, about a 50% increase over that of his predecessor, places him in an elite group of art museum directors who for the most part preside over institutions more prestigious and many times richer than LACMA." Los Angeles Times 08/18/09
The Care And Feeding Of Herb And Dorothy's Artworks "After-hours at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin," a scene unfolds "that has already taken or soon will be taking place at 49 other museums, one in each state: the opening of a gift of 50 works of art sent by Herb and Dorothy Vogel. ... Unlike some donors, the Vogels imposed only two minimal conditions to their gift: that the entire gift be exhibited together once within five years, and that it be deaccessioned only as a whole." Wall Street Journal 08/18/09
Monday, August 17, 2009
Toledo Museum Director To Head Walton's Crystal Bridges "The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., today announced that it has hired Don Bacigalpi, current director of the Toledo Museum of Art, to be its new director. The announcement means that the Toledo Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art will be looking for new directors simultaneously this fall." Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 08/17/09
Charles To National Trust: Change HQ Design Or I Quit "A senior royal aide told the trust and its architects that [Prince Charles] could not accept the design of a proposed £14.5m building in Swindon and said it should be changed or they would face the prospect of his stepping down as its president, according to a source involved in the project at the time. ... Clarence House has no minutes of the meeting but said any argument was about the sustainability of the building." The Guardian (UK) 08/17/09
Charge: Capa's Iconic Falling Soldier Was Staged "After nearly three-quarters of a century Robert Capa's 'Falling Soldier' picture from the Spanish Civil War remains one of the most famous images of combat ever. It is also one of the most debated, with a long string of critics claiming that the photo, of a soldier seemingly at the moment of death, was faked. Now, a new book by a Spanish researcher asserts that the picture could not have been made where, when or how Capa's admirers and heirs have claimed." The New York Times 08/18/09
Shepard Fairey: Why I Protect My Building Against Graffiti "I'm a champion of free speech. I think it is important for people to be able to speak freely, but if I'm watching a channel whose content is not my cup of tea I may choose to change the channel. It does not make me an opponent of free speech. Preferring my brick unadorned does not make me anti-graffiti. Every time I put a piece of art on the street I know it may be cleaned. That is the nature of the art form." The Eastsider LA 08/14/09
Reimagining Penn Station (And Shooting For Greatness) "The first shovel has been turned on the ... $8.7 billion Mass Transit Tunnel from New Jersey that will double the number of passengers arriving from across the Hudson River" into Manhattan, though not at Penn Station. "With a little architectural vision, the tunnel could link with a spruced-up Penn and spur as much as 40 million square feet of commercial and residential development," transforming "the far West Side the way Grand Central replaced a smoke-belching ditch with tree- lined Park Avenue." Bloomberg 08/17/09
Prince Tried To Get Nouvel Replaced On St. Paul's Project "The Prince of Wales lobbied for one of the world's leading architects to be dropped from a £500m office and shopping complex beside St Paul's Cathedral so one of his preferred designers could take over, the Guardian has learned. The developer who commissioned the Paris-based Jean Nouvel to design One New Change has revealed that the prince called for an alternative architect to be considered for the sensitive site yards from Christopher Wren's masterpiece." The Guardian (UK) 08/17/09
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