Thursday
May 31
THE
(GIFT)(TROJAN) HORSE SYNDROME:The
Smithsonian is probably not going to turn down a $38 million gift
to finance a special exhibit. On the other hand, "is this
the kind of exhibit that the Smithsonian's professional staff
would have chosen if the gift had come with no strings attached?
If not, what is the curatorial rationale for a permanent exhibit
that seems to open the door for commercial and corporate influence
at one of the capital's keystone institutions?"
The New York Times 05/31/01
(one-time registration required for access)
FINDING
FAKES: Is more fake art offered for sale in Australia than
elsewhere? Some experts say that fakes are bought in Europe and
passed Down Under. "At every big art auction, paintings are
withdrawn and although the salerooms rarely say why, often the
reason is that the pictures are not the real thing. Despite their
five-year guarantees of authenticity - which, they say, is why
they hit buyers with a hefty fee - the international auction houses
have been caught time and again." The
Age (Melbourne) 05/31/01
COMPLAINING
FOR SUCCESS: The short list for the Turner Prize has been
announced, but "complaints about short lists and and form
only serve to confirm the larger truth that the debate is fully
engaged. Modern art and artists are widely discussed, in a way
that they were not 20 years ago. The shock value is reduced
but the huge success of, say, the Tate Modern is a tribute to
the success of the prize. Modern art, with all its disputed warts
and lumps, is on the map. The Turner Prize has helped to put it
there. The Independent (UK) 05/31/01
BUILDING
CREDIT: How much of an idea or concept does an architect have
to provide on a project before earning credit? An architect sues
to get credit on a New York hospital project he worked on in the
1980s. The New York Times 05/31/01
(one-time registration required for access)
THE
NEW MUSEUM: "Museums have traditionally trafficked in
the economy of objects. But now, like everyone else, these institutions
traffic in the economy of attention, an inevitable step in their
evolution from respected repositories of prized objects to entertainment
centers and contested social engines. In the process, museums
compete for our divided interest and must persuade us of their
relevance. They have become political entities. How can they not
be political today?" The New
York Times 05/31/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
A
RECORD CANADIAN: A painting by Group of Seven Canadian Lawren
Harris has fetched a record price for a Canadian painting. "Baffin
Island, painted circa 1930, sold for a hammer price of $2.2-million
after a dramatic volley of bids that raised the price from its
conservative preauction estimate of between $600,000 and $700,000."
Globe & Mail (Canada) 05/30/01
Wednesday
May 30
IS
THE SMITHSONIAN FALLING APART? Robert Fri runs the Smithsonian's
National Museum of Natural History. Its attendance has jumped
50 percent since he arrived five years ago, and with 9 million
annual visitors, it's the most-visited museum in the world. But
Fri has become the fourth Smithsonian museum director to resign
this year; he says he's uncomfortable with Smithsonian Secretary
Lawrence Small's controversial reorganization. Washington
Post 05/30/01
- Previously: WILL
EXHIBIT FOR MONEY? Smithsonian director Lawrence Small is
in trouble again. A group of scholars at the National Museum
of American History has written to the Smithsonian's board of
regents to complain that Small has made questionable deals with
donors that compromise the integrity of the institution. They
charge that Small has allowed donors to determine content in
return for money. Washington Post
05/26/01
A
BIENNALE THAT MEANT SOMETHING: Last winter's Shanghai Biennale
was not, by international standards, cutting-edge. "But in
a country where contemporary art continually struggles against
the public's indifference and a restrictive government, the exhibition
was an important marker." It indicates a new openness to
contemporary art in China. The New
York Times 05/30/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
TURNER
TIME AGAIN: This year's finalists for the Turner Prize include
a film maker and a photographer. Artists on the all-male short-list
compete for a £20,000 prize; the winner will be announced December
9." BBC 05/30/01
RESTORING
A MEDIEVAL TEXT, AND A MEDIEVAL CAPITAL: A wax and wooden
psalter from the eleventh century, discovered and nearly demolished
by archaeological students, is being painstakingly restored in
Novgorod, Russia. Like the psalter, Novgorod itself is slowly
being put back together after centuries of domination by Moscow.
Time 06/04/01
THE
MODERN AT TEN: The Irish Museum of Modern Art is ten years
old. "The institution has been enormously important in the
Irish cultural fabric, not least in serving as a focal point for
projects designed to raise the profile of modern art in Ireland,
and to raise the profile and standards of contemporary Irish art."
But there have been missed opportunities too. Irish
Times 05/25/01
RUSSIAN SENSE
OF ART - OR IS IT HUMOR? Andy Warhol "visited Moscow
once in 1978 and said he could see no beauty in a place that had
no McDonald's." Despite that - or perhaps because of it -
several Moscow institutions are cooperating in an Andy Warhol
retrospective from now through July. The
Moscow Times 05/29/01
THE
OBVIOUS HEADLINES ARE IN BAD TASTE: He is an artist, touring
with his BraBall in a pink 1963 Cadillac. She also is an
artist, and finds his tour offensive; she has applied for a copyright
on her BraBall, calling it "a monument to women."
He accuses her of "soliciting bras under false pretenses,
and inciting gender anger." Only in America...
National Post (Canada) 05/29/01
Tuesday
May 29
DIS-COLLECT:
Did the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art offer Heinz Berggruen
$400 million for his Picasso-rich collection of modern and Post-Impressionist
art? Berggruen says so, but "museum director David Ross vehemently
denied the museum had made any offer at all. And Ross said it
was a self-aggrandizing statement on Berggruen's part. 'He threw
out such a high figure in hope of getting more for the work he
put up at auction'." San Francisco
Chronicle 05/29/01
ARTISTS
- WHAT AILS YE? Australia is embarking on a study of the state
of the country's visual arts. "Increasingly the sector is just
stretched to breaking point, both in terms of infrastructure and
in working conditions for artists." Sydney
Morning Herald 05/29/01
NOT
JUST ANOTHER TEAR-DOWN: The United Nations has criticized
Spain for its "£45 million plan to extend its most famous
museum, the Prado, by tearing down 17th century cloisters."
The Telegraph (UK) 05/29/01
HIP-HOPPING
ALONG: San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center makes a museum show
out of hip hop culture. "Art museums have become a little
too confident of their ability to package moments of a society's
cultural life. The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Hip-Hop
Nation reminds us that it cannot be done." San
Francisco Chronicle 05/29/01
- ART
OF HIP-HOP: "Hip-hop has been called a folk art by
some and postmodern by others. Even though it is not foremost
a visual art, its possibilities as the subject of a show in
an art museum (as opposed to a music or historical museum) are
rich." San Jose Mercury News
05/29/01
BUILDING
MORE GLAMOR: From new airport structures to the new Disney
concert hall, Los Angeles is the latest city to spruce up with
a series of glitzy new building projects. The
Times (UK) 05/29/01
ALL
IN THE FAMILY: When Rene Magritte was a young struggling artist,
his younger brother often bought his paintings as a way of helping
the artist out. Now that collection is about to be sold.
The Telegraph (UK) 05/29/01
Monday
May 28
THE
GRAND UNVEILING: Australia's National Gallery unveils its
controversial new acquisition - a Lucien Freud painting purchased
as a point of national pride. "When a curtain was pulled
away to reveal the $7.4 million work, there was at first a stunned
silence, but the room quickly filled with spirited, perhaps nervous,
chatter from members of the public and dignitaries alike."
The Age (Melbourne) 05/28/01
WILL
EXHIBIT FOR MONEY? Smithsonian director Lawrence Small is
in trouble again. A group of scholars at the National Museum of
American History has written to the Smithsonian's board of regents
to complain that Small has made questionable deals with donors
that compromise the integrity of the institution. They charge
that Small has allowed donors to determine content in return for
money. Washington Post 05/26/01
REBUILDING
PETERSBURG: St. Petersburg, Russia is trying to reconstruct
its historic city center, a project that will cost billions. But
progress is slow because of corruption. Nonetheless, the World
Bank has authorized a $150 million loan to help boost the project.
The Art Newspaper 05/26/01
DEATH
BE NOT PROUD: "To many, mausoleums may seem like
an anachronism, reminiscent of the days of the Pullmans and the
Carnegies. But they're popular again, as are elaborate cemetery
monuments, with designers, craftsmen and artisans all having a
hand in creating these permanent memorials that have become a
means of artistic expression." Chicago
Tribune 05/28/01
HANGING
OUT IN MONTREAL: Photographer Spencer Tunick has been traveling
all over North America getting people to strip naked in groups
so he can photograph them This weekend he was in Montreal photographing
"2,200 people of all ages and colours" on the streets
of the city creating one of his nearly 50 "human sculptures, each
one created by photographing large groups of naked people in different
places around the world." Montreal
Gazette 05/27/01
MY
NEW ARTISTIC LIFE: Michael Stone was "one of the most
notorious terrorists in Northern Ireland." But since getting
out of jail he says he's become an artist. His supporters are
threatening to demonstrate against a Belfast gallery if it won't
show Stone's work. Sunday Times (UK)
05/27/01
Sunday
May 27
WRIGHT
ANGLE: The works of Frank Lloyd Wright have become so omnipresent
that it would seem there is little left to say about him. Not
so: a new exhibit makes the case that Wright was not only one
of the 20th century's greatest architects, but one of its finest
stained glass designers as well. Chicago
Tribune 05/27/01
REBUILDING
POTSDAM: Fifty years ago, Potsdam's Old Town Hall (which was
really more of a palace) was levelled by Allied bombing attacks,
along with most of Germany. Now, a new exhibition of surviving
artifacts has locals talking about a restoration effort. Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 05/25/01
BIG
BUCKS IN BOSTON: "Two years after the [Boston] Museum
of Fine Arts announced plans for a large-scale expansion, the
trustees yesterday approved a $425 million campaign to fund the
first phase of the project." Boston
Herald 05/26/01
Friday
May 25
MARBLE
WALL RETURNED TO CHINA: The US Customs Service has returned
a stolen 10th Century marble panel to China. "The relic,
which stands about 4 feet high, depicts a warrior holding a sword
with a phoenix on his shoulders. Thieves allegedly used dynamite
to access and remove the 480-pound marble relief in 1994."
It was being offered for auction at Christie's last year before
the Customs Service confiscated it. CNN.com
05/25/01
WHO
ME COMPETE? Newly released memos between Christie's and Sotheby's
reveal a cozy relationship. "The arrangements — beyond the
already admitted collusion of fixing the commission fees paid
by sellers — paint a picture of competitors operating not so much
as cutthroat rivals but almost as cozy partners, happy to consult
each other on matters big and small to the detriment of their
customers." The New York Times
05/25/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
ARE
YOU A STUCKIST? "Stuckists want to put painting back
on its pedestal, they want to see brush strokes on canvas and
recognisable objects. Down, they say, with all the detached, 'clever'
stuff that these days passes as art." The
Age (Melbourne) 05/25/01
OUT
OF THE SHADOWS: Why did women artists married to famous artists
take so long to develop careers? "Did Lee Krasner have no
choice but to wait for alcohol to kill Jackson Pollock? Did Elaine
de Kooning need to separate from Willem, Helen Frankenthaler to
divorce Robert Motherwell before their talents could really develop?"
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05/25/01
FUNDING
YES, BUT FOR WHAT? The National Gallery of Australia gets
funding from the Australian government for a major expansion,
but the plans for that expansion have come under attack from a
number of architects and critics. Sydney
Morning Herald 05/25/01
WHAT
ABOUT LATIN AMERICAN? Though Latino musicians seem to be gaining
popularity in the US, art by Latin American artists hasn't caught
on. Why? Forbes.com 05/24/01
Thursday
May 24
ART
AS INVESTMENT: A new business index tracks the value of art
from 1875 to the present. "Starting from a baseline value
of 100, the market peaked in 1990 at 2,476 before dropping 20
percent over the next four years. By last year, art prices had
fully recovered, reaching a level of 2,566, although the Impressionist
works still lag behind their top performance, according to the
index." New Jersey Online (AP)
05/23/01
ART
THEFT TRIAL: The trial of 10 men charged with the theft of
three Renoir and Rembrandt paintings from Stockholm's National
Museum begins next week. "Only one of the paintings has been
recovered, leaving much of the mystery unsolved."
CNN (AP) 05/23/01
FINALLY
FREE: After long debates, the last two British national museums
have agreed to make admission to their galleries free. "The
Natural History Museum bowed to the inevitable and voted to scrap
the £9 adult admission charge. Their decision was followed within
hours by the National Maritime Museum. The British culture secretary,
Chris Smith, who described free admission as 'a bit of a personal
crusade', was exultant." The
Guardian (UK) 05/24/01
NO, THE CAMERA DOESN'T
LIE, BUT..."In our image-glutted culture, our connection
to photographs — and especially to those that record atrocities,
wars, and other manmade disasters — resembles a bad but inescapable
marriage in which one unhappy partner distrusts yet depends upon
the other. Such photographs show us that great misery exists in
the world. But they cannot tell us what we most need to know,
which is why." Boston Review
05-06/01
PRICES
ARE UP, BUT FOR HOW LONG? "[T]he reality is that the
art market has softened, and buyers and sellers alike are wary...
the presence of new, younger collectors is distorting the market.
Rather than researching the dealer price for work by hot artists,
these younger buyers purchase the same pieces for inflated prices
at auction." Forbes 05/23/01
Wednesday
May 23
ART
IN IRAN: Iran's artists seem to be coming out to play again.
"While there has been liberalisation in the past five years,
it has taken the form of a general loosening of control rather
than a principled move away from strictness. Discretion is the
hallmark of the newest Iranian art — or at least of its presentation.
Timing may well be all." The
Times (UK) 05/23/01
NOT-SO-VIRGIN
MARY STAYS PUT: Catholic activists were infuriated when a
collage featuring the Virgin of Guadalupe in a bikini was included
in an exhibit at a Santa Fe museum. After considering the controversy,
museum officials have decided not to remove the piece, but the
entire exhibition will come down earlier than originally planned.
BBC 05/23/01
PETITIONING
ABOUT LEONARDO: More than 30 art scholars are protesting the
Ufizzi's plans to work on a Leonardo painting. "Several petitioners
said their main concern was the vulnerability of the Leonardo
painting (1481-82), which in its unfinished state is too fragile
to undergo the rigors of a restoration, or consolidation and stabilization
in the language of art restorers." The
New York Times 05/23/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
TERRA
LAWSUIT SETTLED: A lawsuit filed last year over the future
of the Terra Museum in suburban Chicago has reportedly been settled.
The terms of the settlement require that the Terra stay in Illinois
- a potential move was the reason for the suit - but would allow
the museum's collection to be merged with another area institution.
Chicago Tribune 05/23/01
IN
THE MONEY: Painter Katie Pratt has won the UK's richest award
to contemporary painters - the £30,000 Jerwood prize.
BBC 05/23/01
Tuesday
May 22
MONUMENT
ON THE MALL: Despite loud and persistent criticism, the US
Congress has voted to erect a monument to World War II on the
National Mall in Washington DC. "The turf war is over one
of the most visible and hallowed pieces of territory in America:
7.4 acres of the Mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington
Monument." The New York Times
05/22/01 (one-time registration required
for access)
RUSSIAN
HARD LINE: "According to German sources, a recent international
conference on looted art held in Moscow failed to make any progress
and, in the view of some, demonstrated a Russian reluctance to
return art works (taken in World War II) to Germany, Hungary,
Poland, and other countries." Radio
Free Europe 05/21/01
OUTSIDER
ART COMES IN: The $22 million Museum of American Folk Art
opening this December is "the first major art museum in New
York since the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1966. Its centerpiece
is the Contemporary Center, devoted to the exhibition and research
of contemporary self-taught artists. Business
2.0 05/21/01
HOW
TO REMAKE BOSTON: Boston's $14 billion project to bury the
main freeway through its downtown - the largest public works project
in the United States - has many dreaming of new parks and open
space. If only it were that simple. Washington
Post 05/21/01
NEW
MAN AT THE BMA: The British Museum gets a new chairman - Sir
John Boyd, master of Churchill College, Cambridge. Boyd defends
the museum in the face of a possible investigation as to how the
museum used the wrong stone on its new £100 million portico.
The Times (UK) 05/22/01
POOH
BEAR ON THE BLOCK: Two letters written by Winnie the Pooh
illustrator E.H. Shephard under the name of that famous bear,
and decorated with the ultra-familiar visages of the residents
of the Hundred Acre Wood, will be auctioned off this week in England,
and will likely go for more than $20,000. BBC
05/22/01
- TROUBLE
IN TOONTOWN: "The first drawings of Mickey Mouse have
failed to sell at auction, leaving the museum which owns it
in serious financial trouble... The Florida-based International
Museum of Cartoon Art offered the Mickey drawings and hundreds
of other items in an effort to repay nearly $2 million of debt."
BBC 05/22/01
Monday
May 21
LOOT
OR COMPENSATION? The Russians are reluctant to return art
they took from Germany in World War II. Now a new Russian policy:
"Beginning immediately, the European cultural treasures taken
to Russia as war spoils by army brigades in the postwar period
will no longer be regarded as 'looted art'. Instead, they will
be termed 'compensation' for losses suffered. Those in power now
plan to garner the greatest possible benefit from the art looted
in that era." Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 05/21/01
IN
JOURNALISM THEY CALL IT PLAGIARISM: Net photographer Michael
Mandiberg is challenging notions of originality with his latest
work. His new show "features his scanned reproductions of
photographs taken by the respected artist Sherrie Levine. The
catch: Levine's originals, shot in the late 1970s, are head-on
photos of black-and-white documentary photographs of Depression-era
Alabama sharecroppers, which were shot in 1936 by the legendary
Walker Evans." Wired 05/21/01
ARREST
IN PICASSO CASE: A member of the Turkish parliament has been
arrested for trying to sell two stolen Picasso paintings.
The Art Newspaper 05/18/01
Sunday
May 20
STAR
POWER: Clients are rushing to sign up the biggies in architecture
- the brand names - because they think doing so will help them
get donors and publicity and, maybe, more exciting buildings.
'Signature buildings' is another term you hear, as if architects
signed their work like painters."
Boston Globe 05/20/01
DEAD
ART: An exhibition of dead bodies in Berlin has caused much
debate about their value as "art." "Without visiting
this extraordinary circus of plastic dead people, it's hard to
understand why such a grim concept could be so popular. Disgust
soon gives way to fascination: a group of teenagers queue up to
get a chance to hold a real city dweller's lung, mottled with
black spots, or feel the gallstones of a middle-aged liver."
The Observer (UK) 05/20/01
MICKEY
MOUSE AUCTION: The debt-ridden International Museum of Cartoon
Art hoped sellng its original drawings of Mickey Mouse would bail
the museum out from under its $2 million debt. But the auction
failed to generate anything close to that and the drawings remain
unsold. Washington Post 05/20/01
Friday
May 18
SINGING
GEHRY'S PRAISES: Is Frank Gehry the world's greatest architect?
No surprise - the Guggenheim thinks so. Financial
Times 05/18/01
- MAYBE
THEY'RE RIGHT: A critic takes a look at the Guggenheim's
fawning Gehry retrospective, and finds himself agreeing with
the museum's assessment of the architect's career. Los
Angeles Times 05/18/01
THE
HOT NEW... Christie's New York sale of contemporary art breaks
record for contemporary sales. The
New York Times 05/18/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
MUSEUM
IN THE CENTER: A new national museum for Scotland is being
planned as the centerpiece of an ambitious new £1 billion urban
redevelopment program in Edinburgh. The
Scotsman 05/17/01
HARD
TO MISS: "A giant sculpture by New York artist Frank
Stella will be installed outside the East Building of the National
Gallery of Art by late summer. More than 30 feet high, it looks
like a whirlwind of curving aluminum and painted fiberglass forms
anchored to the ground by steel trusses and cables." Washington
Post 05/18/01
Thursday
May 17
HOW
TO ABUSE A GENEROUS OFFER: Joe Brown owns the best collection
of Australian art still in private hands. He wants to give the
$60 million collection to the Australian government. "The
400 paintings date from the moment of white settlement to the
present" and the collection includes 50 sculptures and 3500
art books. So why has the government not jumped at the opportunity?
The Age (Melbourne) 05/17/01
STAY
OF EXECUTION: A house in Illinois thought to have been Frank
Lloyd Wright's last creation was saved from demolition when the
buyer who planned to knock it down walked away from the deal.
But there is no guarantee that a buyer can be found to keep the
house intact. Nando Times (AP) 05/16/01
CONTEMPORARY
BATTLES: There's a battle going on over the future of Sydney's
Museum of Contemporary Art. "It has all the hubristic elements
of great drama - ambition, vanity, greed, bitterness, upthemselves-osity
etc - plus a characteristic specific to Sydney. In this case,
it's the catastrophic tendency of this city to tangle public heritage,
private gain, personal vendettas and political ambition into a
knot, which I fear will lead to us having no MCA at all."
Sydney Morning Herald 05/17/01
RUN
LOLA RUN: The Canadian art magazine Lola has, in only
four years, risen from a no-budget 'zine to one of the influential
voices in Canadian culture. It is simultaneously slick and substantive,
and caters largely to a young demographic, but without resorting
to the sulky tone of so many other similar publications. In fact,
more than anything else, Lola seems, well, happy. The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/17/01
HOLDING
ACCOUNTABLE: "A British art dealer living in New York
went on trial near Paris yesterday on charges of possessing a
17th-century Dutch masterpiece that had been stolen from a French
family on the orders of Hitler during the Second World War."
The Times (UK) 05/17/01
ANDY
GETS ANOTHER 15 MINUTES: "As the stock market leaped
upward yesterday, so did the art market. At Christie's sale of
postwar art last night, works of modern masters ranging from Warhol
and Calder to Sam Francis and Gerhard Richter brought prices far
above estimates. Warhol was the undisputed star of the evening."
The New York Times 05/17/01
(one-time registration required for access)
MONKEY'S
PAW: Jeff Koons' sculpture of Michael Jackson and his pet
monkey Bubbles was sold at auction in New York for $5.6 million,
a record price for a Koons. BBC 05/16/01
O'KEEFFE
PROJECT CANCELED: A long-anticipated movie biography of Georgia
O'Keeffe, which "was to have starred Linda Fiorentino as
O'Keeffe and Ben Kingsley as Alfred Stieglitz, has been canceled,
after Fiorentino didn't show up for shooting and producers were
unable to find a replacement. Producers are suing the actress.
The Art Newspaper 05/17/01
ALL
ABOUT THE KIDS: "The National Arts Centre in Ottawa is
establishing an open-ended trust to support the artistic development
and art appreciation capabilities of young Canadians." The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/17/01
Wednesday
May 16
THE
GREAT POWERFUL OZ: The Sotheby's/Christie's indictments have
blown away the facade of the privileged world of art auctioneering.
"Their customers, many of them, are so rich and careful of
their reputations that trust is presumed to be at the core of
their activities. This has always been fantasy, of course. But
all illusions have been blown apart by the strong-armed methods
of the judicial system in the United States." Sydney
Morning Herald 05/16/01
DOING
VERMEER: There's something of a mini Vermeer industry going
on - a major exhibition, new books..."To read about Johannes
Vermeer and to look at his pictures is sometimes to think you
have entered a fairy-tale domain. There’s an Arabian Nights flavor
about a painter who leaves so few traces of himself (we have no
knowledge of his working methods, or who if anyone he studied
with, or if he had any pupils); dies fairly young (at forty-three,
in 1675); and is represented by a remarkably small body of pictures,
each of which is somehow a precious link in the story."
New York Review of Books 05/31/01
HELP
WANTED. STEEPLEJACK. MUST DO WINDOWS: Philadelphia's Kimmel
Center for the Performing Arts will open late this year. Its most
striking architectural feature is a canopied roof made of glass,
which covers a full city block. That's more than four acres of
glass, and already people are wondering: How are they going to
keep it clean? No one seems to have figured that out yet.
Philadelphia Inquirer 05/16/01
THE
TWO SIDES OF AUSTRALIAN ART: The rest of the world recognizes
Australian aboriginal art, but at home Australian scholars have
focused on art out of European traditions. So a new book that
considers the two from equal footing is being called a fresh look
at the country's art history. Sydney
Morning Herald 05/16/01
Tuesday
May 15
THE
MET'S NEW BLOCKBUSTER: The Jackie Kennedy show at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art is breaking records. And racking up sales. "The
Kennedy show's catalog, $50 in hardcover and $35 in paperback,
has been selling at the rate of 600 a day and has gone into a
second printing. A CD of Mrs. Kennedy's favorite music, including
that of "Camelot," has sold 2,000 copies." The
New York Times 05/15/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
STILL
STANDING: Many dotcom companies financed with millions of
dollars have gone out of business in San Francisco, while the
city's art galleries, pressed and squeezed by soaring rents caused
by the dotcoms, are still around, and finding their rents returning
to more reasonable levels. San
Francisco Chronicle 05/15/01
SIZING
UP THE CONTEMPORARY: Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art is
trying to build a new building. But will it be successful? "Sydneysiders
seem to be a rather lazy lot - they will amble into the MCA at
street level, provided it's free, but will they travel more than
once up to the fifth floor to see it? On evidence, they don't
make much of an effort now - will they in the future?"
Sydney Morning Herald 05/15/01
DUMPING
GROUND: The Museum of London is like that shelf at the back
of your closet that stores anything you can't quite bear to throw
out, but don't particularly want to see daily. "Sentimental
memorabilia, keepsakes, relics, tokens and reminders of times
past as well as the city's trophies of an ancestral archaeological
yore, the museum is, alas, housed in a postwar building remarkable
only for its hostile ugliness." London
Evening Standard 05/15/01
MICHELANGELO
ON SALE: A Michelangelo drawing found last year in England
is expected to sell for £8 million at auction. "The
three-quarter length drawing in pen and brown ink is called Study
of a Mourning Woman and will be auctioned in London by Sotheby's."
BBC 05/15/01
RACE
AGAINST THEFT: "Renovation may save the colonial churches
of Brazil, but it will be tough to save their sacred art. Since
the 1970s, crime has been increasing at churches around the country
as religious art became more popular among collectors. With little
security at churches and no specialized police force, art thieves
have been able to work relatively unhindered." BusinessWeek
05/14/01
STAIRWAY
TO HEAVEN: Were the pyramids inspired by meteorites falling
from the heavens? A British scientist argues that "from evidence
of the orientation of the pyramids - always to the northern pole
star - and from the names given to estates to finance funerary
cults, and the shape of the pyramids themselves, that they could
be seen as launch pads for the pharaoh's journey to the afterlife
among the stars." The
Guardian (UK) 05/15/01
Monday
May 14
ART
SLUMP? A Picasso expected to sell for $30 million failed to
sell at all last week. "Despite the record of the highend
art business defying market slumps, the big money is not out there
this time. The mixed quality of the paintings also meant that
collectors were not rushing to sell, experts said, because they
feared the value of art works had been eroded."
Irish Times 05/13/01
RAISING
MONEY THROUGH ART: Should charities be able to sell off their
artwork in order to raise money? In England, a court will rule
this week on whether a charity can sell its prized collection
of "150 paintings, including works by Hogarth and Gainsborough."
The Independent (UK) 05/13/01
SELLING
MICKEY: The International Museum of Cartoon Art in Florida
says it will have to sell off one of its prizes to keep creditors
at bay - the original first drawings of Mickey Mouse, done in
1928. "The museum will offer the drawings and hundreds of
other items for sale to defray nearly $2 million in debt, most
owed to a bank which holds the museum's mortgage."
New Jersey Online 05/13/01
Sunday
May 13
HOPING
FOR CALM: In a city as artistically saturated as Vancouver,
there are bound to be a few ongoing arts-scene soap operas. The
Vancouver Art Gallery has been embroiled in one of them for years,
with the central controversy being the fact that the gallery goes
through directors the way most of us go through t-shirts. The
newest appointee seems bound and determined to end the cycle.
The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/12/01
TAKING
ON THE TURNER: The Turner Prize has become one of the most
controversial arts awards in the world, thanks to the last several
winners, which included a dead and bisected calf, a mattress soaked
in bodily fluids, and other such traditionally off-putting material.
One London newspaper is on a crusade to find out how the winners
are chosen, when nominations are supposed to come from the general
public. London Evening Standard 05/11/01
TORONTO
DOES SOME INTROSPECTING: Toronto is a difficult city to define:
a U.S.-style metropolis in many ways, but with much in common
with European cultural centers. So as the city looks for the right
men and women to lead what it hopes will be an architectural renaissance,
questions about what such an overhaul should look like arise.
The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/12/01
SPENCER
AT THE TATE: Stanley Spencer did not fit in the narrow pigeonholes
of the 20th century art world, and that may be why his work remains
so provocative, even as much of what passed for innovation in
the last hundred years slips into obscurity. Spencer's paintings,
currently on display in London, embraced a strange and beautiful
set of contradictions, not the least of which was the intertwining
of religion and sex. Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 05/11/01
INCHING
TOWARDS HUMANITY: "Artist and University of California
at San Diego art professor Harold Cohen has been working on the
art-creating program, "Aaron," since 1973. It's roughly 1.5 megabytes
of LISP code, and this ever-evolving project has spawned articles,
college lectures and an entire book analyzing just what Aaron
is and does." Wired 05/12/01
"OVERALLS"
ALL OVER BEFORE IT BEGINS? Cedar Rapids, Iowa, plans to get
into the cows-on-parade-inspired public art craze with some fifty
statues of the couple from Grant Wood's famous "American
Gothic" painting. But the project, which is called "Overalls
All Over," is running into trouble from representatives of
Wood's heirs, who may have a right to royalities. Washington
Post (AP) 05/11/01
UP
NEXT - THE DALAI LAMA EATEN BY A DINOSAUR: The artist who
caused outrage all over Europe with his installation depicting
the Pope being crushed by a meteorite has come to America. The
controversial piece will be auctioned this week at Christie's
in New York. The New York Times 05/13/01
(one time registration required
for access)
THE
HEALING POWER OF ART: "A remarkable program at an Ontario
hospital has put original artworks into the wards. Its aim: to
bring tranquillity to patients and staff." The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 05/12/01
Friday
May 11
TATE
IS TOPS: The Tate Modern is celebrating its first birthday,
and the attendance numbers tell quite a success story. Some 5.25
million visitors crammed into the fledgling museum in the last
year, nearly twice the number officials expected. The blockbuster
year makes the Tate the most popular modern art museum in the
world. BBC 05/11/01
SALES
UP OVER DOWN UNDER: Recent art sales in Australia have galleries
and auction houses cooing over a sizable buying boom. "The
fears of an imminent recession that were evident earlier this
year have clearly evaporated and people with disposable incomes
are looking for new forms of investment." Sydney
Morning Herald 05/11/01
- BUT
DISAPPOINTING SALES IN NEW YORK has the art world worried
there. "The sales came amid a string of other lackluster
art auctions in the first stretch of the all-important two-week
spring sale of Impressionist, contemporary and modern art."
Washington Post (AP) 05/10/01
SOLVING
THE SPACE CRUNCH: More and more, museums and the trustees
who love them seem to be concerned about the amount of artwork
locked away in storage. So now come calls in Edinburgh to build
a new museum to house some of the 90 percent of objects in storage
at the National Museum. The Scotsman
05/10/01
WHAT
LIES BENEATH: A new exhibit of paintings by Piet Mondrian
does more than show off the finished product. Mondrian was famous
for changing his artwork to suit new situations and his own changing
tastes, and the exhibit uses various technologies usually only
used by collectors and curators to allow the public to view the
original aspects of the works that Mondrian later covered up.
Boston Globe 05/11/01
SEGALOT
STEPS DOWN: "After running Christie's contemporary art
department worldwide for three years, Philippe Ségalot has decided
enough is enough. But contrary to rumors, he is not leaving the
auction house. Rather, he will work with Christie's top clients
and direct special projects about contemporary art." The
New York Times 05/11/01 [third item]
(one-time registration required for access)
Thursday
May 10
A
TALE OF TWO AUCTIONS: Sotheby's got a much-needed boost this
week in New York when an auction of 20th century artworks from
a private collection earned $54 million, better than expected.
But a scant few blocks away, at Christie's, major
paintings by Picasso, Degas, and Cezanne failed to sell, and
the auction took in only slightly more than half the money it
had expected. Nando Times (AP) 05/09/01
& BBC 05/10/01
DEFINING
MODERNISM: "The definition of modernism seems to be inseparable
from its genealogy: Where and how did it originate? Who were its
progenitors and who are its legitimate heirs? The formation of
early collections of modern art in the United States helped to
validate and thereby shape the historical perspective through
which American modernism has been assessed." American
Art 05/01
ANY
EXCUSE FOR A PARTY: "Institutional birthdays aren't often
measured in quarter-centuries. But the Philadelphia Museum of
Art, which considers 1876 to be its founding year, isn't waiting
for a centennial to throw its next big party. The museum will
launch its 125th anniversary celebration at 11 this morning at
Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park, the museum's first home."
Philadelphia Inquirer 05/10/01
PICTURES
OF A TRAGEDY: A Washington, D.C. gallery has teamed up with
New Mexico's Sandia Pueblo tribe to present a new exhibit of 19th
century photographs documenting the effects of U.S. policies on
Native Americans. The photos are both historically and artistically
significant, having been taken by some of the most noted photographers
of the era. Daily Oklahoman (AP) 05/09/01
Wednesday
May 9
BETWEEN
LAW AND DIPLOMACY: Germany has yet to fully untangle its responsibilities
and claims for art looted by the Nazis. But resolving conflicting
claims will take something between the law and good diplomacy.
So why'd it take so long? Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 05/09/01
ART
TO THE PEOPLE: As part of a plan to bring artists into non-traditional
spaces, some British regional arts councils have put artists on
trains, sketching passengers and talking about art. The
Times (UK) 05/09/01
Tuesday
May 8
SLOGGING
TO VENICE: Now that there are some 55 international art biennales
chasing the art crowd for attention, what is the role of the Venice
Biennale? How to stay fresh and interesting and not be just another
stop on the art slog? Artforum 05/01
THE
HITLER PAINTINGS: Since World War II the US government has
locked away a set of watercolors painted by Adolph Hitler. "But
the need to keep them hidden is challenged in a lawsuit that has
been making its way through the courts for 18 years," and
was heard in court this week. The
New York Times 05/08/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
LET
IT ALL HANG OUT: The typical museum only has a fraction of
its collection on display at any one time. That's changing though
- "In the last decade the idea of letting the public roam
freely through what a library would call open stacks, and what
some museums have called open study centers, has been winning
converts among major museums." The
New York Times 05/08/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
SORTING
OUT THE DESIGNS: Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art is choosing
a design for its new building. The finalists' designs are controversial,
and now the museum has released details of the designs it rejected.
Sydney Morning Herald 05/08/01
- WHAT
WENT WRONG: So what's wrong with the designs that didn't
make the cut? Sydney Morning
Herald 05/08/01
BLAME
IT ON CHICAGO: Chicago's placement of decorated fiberglass
cows on its streets two summers ago was such a financial success,
by now every city in America is littering its streets with critters.
Last summer Chicago tried again with decorated ping pong tables
- they were less successful - but isn't about to stop trying to
recreate the magic. This summer's object(s) is furniture - sofas,
ottomans, televisions, chairs... Nando Times 05/07/01
Monday
May 7
WAR
RESTORATIONS: Negotiations between Russia and Germany for
the return of artwork the Soviets took from Germany during their
occupation after World War II have become more heated and difficult.
One old-style Russian diplomat says: "the atrocities committed
by German aggressors on Russian soil automatically disqualified
Germany from any form of legal redress."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 05/06/01
THE
POLITICS OF INDICTMENTS: It took a long time for prosecutors
to finally indict execs at Christie's and Sotheby's in the price
fixing investigations. “I think that prosecutors generally felt
that art was a corrupt business, that there were a lot of things
going on that were not appropriate: tax evasion schemes, smuggling,
all kinds of stuff. Now they have made it a price-fixing case.”
The Art Newspaper 05/04/01
THE
WILL TO SURVIVE: Last fall the Barnes Collection sent out
an SOS and the Pew Charitable Trusts and the J Paul Getty Trust
stepped forward with some emergency help. Pew and Getty explain
their support, but some critics worry that the Barnes is reinventing
contrary to the provisions of its founder's will. The
Art Newspaper 05/04/01
ST.
PAUL OVERHAUL: Minnesota's capital city has undergone drastic
changes in the last decade. Neighborhoods have been cleaned up,
a downtown skyline has appeared, and a local organization has
erected some twenty works of public art. They hope for fifty more
by 2005, and the Snoopy On Parade statues don't count. St.
Paul Pioneer Press 05/07/01
NO
FINGER PAINTING HERE: A New Jersey elementary school teacher
conceived of "Art Night" as a way to get her students
interested in the arts on a personal level. She never imagined
that the works they created would draw crowds of thousands, and
become one of the community's most anticipated events. Philadelphia
Inquirer Sunday Magazine 05/06/01
MORRIS
GRAVES, 90: Artist Morris Graves, a founding member of the
Northwest School of art and the last of the Northwest Mystics,
has died at the age of 90 in Northern California. New
Jersey Online 05/06/01
Sunday
May 5
MORE
PROBLEMS AT THE V&A: "The architect behind the Victoria
and Albert Museum's controversial spiral extension, costing £80m,
has been asked to reduce the cost of the project. German architect
Daniel Libeskind has been told the extension is not top priority,
and that it may be delayed while other work is done." BBC
05/06/01
WRONG
TURN IN ART? Is modern art a sort of intellectual mistake?
A French philosopher argues we've made a wrong turn. "In
the case of modern art, one of the fundamental villains is the
same as one who has been fingered - by the philosopher Karl Popper
- in the matter of Marxism. The guilty man was Plato, who held
that everyday, visible items such as chairs and people are merely
inadequate derivatives of the 'real', abstract concepts of furniture
and folks." The Telegraph (UK)
05/05/01
ART
IN A WEAK ECONOMY: "Despite stock fluctuations - the
NASDAQ has declined more than 50 percent from its March 2000 high
- art dealers haven't seen major shifts in sales, said Marc Porter,
international managing director of auction house Christie's."
Taipei Times (Bloomberg) 05/05/01
Friday
May 4
FEARS
IN FIRENZE: The Ufizzi's plan to restore Leonardo's Adoration
of the Magi has drawn criticism from experts who fear the painting
will be damaged in the process. "After 10 years of research
by our experts on how to save the painting, it's astonishing these
people have decided to raise their objections now, and to do so
through the press." National Post
(AP) 05/04/01
DRESSING
DOWN: The Metropolitan Museum's new show on the fashions of
Jacqueline Kennedy is a "ludicrously overproduced biopic
of a dress show. Museums are becoming outposts of the E! channel.
And recent events at the Metropolitan give us the clearest imaginable
demonstration of the power of the fashion marketers."
The New Republic 05/01/01
BITTER
BIENNALE: Last year the Ukraine announced it would fund the
first Ukrainian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. But the project
has "unleashed a vicious mud-slinging match between two of
the country’s leading contemporary curators and the artists they
represent." The Art Newspaper
05/04/01
Thursday
May 3
AUCTION
HOUSE INDICTMENTS: The former chairmen of Christie's and Sotheby's
auction houses have been indicted by a grand jury in New York.
Christie's ex-chair says he has no intention of returning to New
York to face charges. Sotheby's ex-boss denies charges, but faces
hefty fines and possibly three years in jail. The
Telegraph (UK) 05/03/01
LIVING
LARGE IN LONDON: Surely London is the most fun place to see
art these days - and to be an artist. Even New Yorkers are beginning
to acknowledge as much. And it's not just about the Tate Modern...
The New York Times 05/03/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
BIG
ON ART: Art seems to be getting larger and larger. And with
it the enormous new gallery spaces museums are building to accommodate
it. "An off-the-cuff canvass of art historians and artists
suggests that today's whoppers can trace their origins — at least
in part — to the federal programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency.
Hired by the government to make murals and other adornments for
official buildings, artists enlarged their studios, got used to
working in bold scale and kept right on going." The
New York Times 05/03/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
SAVING RUSSIA'S
ART TREASURES: The Hermitage in St. Petersburg houses one
of the world's largest collections of art. It's also an uncatalogued
and endangered collection. The Canadian curator who was asked
for advice fell in love with the place, quit his job, and now
regards saving the Hermitage collection as a crusade.
Ottawa Citizen 05/02/01
FREE
RESISTANCE CRUMBLES: The few remaining British national museums
holding out against making their admissions free are giving up
their opposition. The crumbling of resistance is seen as a validation
of government culture secretary Chris Smith's policies.
The Guardian (UK) 05/03/01
IT'S
AUCTION HYPE SEASON: Ah, it's May, and the twice-yearly art
auctions are here with their inevitable predictions of record
prices. So is the Cezanne that No. 3 auction house Phillips is
planning to put up going to fetch a record price for a painting?
Some say it'll get $82 million. Some say Phillips is just trying
to grab attention and that such conjecture is usually just fodder
to hype interest in the sales. Forbes.com
05/02/01
BE
KIND TO ARTISTS: A homeless artist in Bath, England, had a
couple of his pictures chosen for inclusion in a show at the Tate
Britain. There an American couple saw them, tracked the artist
down, and bought him a boat to live on. The
Times (UK) 05/03/01
Wednesday
May 2
PLEASE,
CAN I BORROW THE KEYS TO THE CAR? Being curator of the Whitney
is a dream job that many people believe they could do better than
the incumbent - whoever that happens to be. Current curator is
Lawrence Rinder. But maybe it isn't such a dream job after all
- lousy pay, lots of criticism and unable to have final say on
what shows you'll do. Then there's this tidbit from the man who's
in charge of plotting the museum's aesthetic course: "We can't
have art in our offices. Only the director can. It's too dangerous
because the work could get damaged." Uh-huh. The
New York Times 05/02/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
LURE
OF THE NEW: Why is controversial contemporary art so popular
today? "Politicians, fear-ridden arts bureaucrats and sensation-seeking
media have got it wrong: the main reason that exhibitions of contemporary
art keep on being popular is, I suggest, because they are answering
public needs. That is, at least some of the art is engaging with
the most important issues of our time, and doing so in full-blooded
ways." Sydney Morning Herald
05/02/01
AN
AWKWARD FIT: After an agonizing process, Sydney's Museum of
Contemporary Art chose an architect and a design for a new building.
But the winner doesn't really fit the space, and besides, with
costs soaring to $100 million, is it it likely the thing will
ever get built? Sydney Morning Herald
05/02/01
ESCHEWING
THE MUSEUM AS ART: Museums planning new buildings or additions
seem to feel the building needs to make a bold art statement to
attract attention. But Renzo Piano's plan for a $200 million addition
to the Art Institute of Chicago is more modest. "What the
museum and its architect are offering instead is a subtle late
modern statement that promises to strike just the right balance
between architectural spectacle, as exemplified by Gehry's triumph
in Bilbao, and architectural sobriety, as seen in Chicago's stolid,
uninviting Museum of Contemporary Art." Chicago
Tribune 05/02/01
BEHIND
THE FACADE: When it opened just over a year ago, Los Angeles'
Latino Museum seemed to have everything going for it. "But
below the surface, everything was in turmoil. The museum was racking
up debt. Operations and exhibitions were run on credit; employees
were not being paid and morale was plunging. As a stopgap, the
California Legislature reallocated $1.6 million in educational
and capital grants for salaries and daily expenses. But Gov. Gray
Davis vetoed the plan." Now the museum has closed.
The New York Times 05/02/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
AFRICAN
AMERICAN MUSEUM PROPOSED: In the US Congress, legislation
to create a new African American Museum on the National Mall.
The plan "resurrects an intense and vocal effort from the
'80s and '90s to get the Smithsonian Institution to dedicate a
structure on the Mall exclusively to the story of black Americans."
Washington Post 05/02/01
THE JUDGE AS
ART CRITIC: Gary Saderup sold T-shirts with his drawing of
The Three Stooges on them and the Stooges' estate sued, charging
infringement of trademark. The Supreme Court of California ruled
against Saderup: "In deciding what is truly art, a judge
must determine whether it contains enough creativity to 'be transformed
into something more than a mere celebrity likeness or imitation.'
Experts said the case is likely to influence courts across the
nation and may force judges to become art critics."
Los Angeles Times 05/01/01
WHAT,
THEM WORRY? The downturn in the economy has auction houses worried.
The high-profile Impressionist Impressionist, modern and contemporary
sales beginn in Manhattan next week, and "the mood within
could best be described as jittery. Among them these three auction
houses are to offer more than $600 million worth of art, a considerable
sum given the rocky economy and the auction business's dependence
on the mood of buyers whose split-second decision determines the
stability of the market." The New York Times 05/02/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
THE FIRST CITY
IN THE AMERICAS: About the time the Egyptians started building
the pyramids, ancient Peruvians were building Caral, the first
city in the New World. "Other early cities around the globe
show traces of outside influences, but Caral was 'not being influenced
by anything earlier or anything bigger, so it may offer our first
view of pristine development of complex society'."
New Scientist 04/27/01
Tuesday
May 1
TALLEST
SCULPTURE: What is thought to be the tallest sculpture in
the world has been installed in Dublin. "Dozens of workmen
and three cranes took several hours to put the 116 ft-tall Irish
Wave in position in a business park. The 20-tonne structure, a
twisted vertical spiral, took more than two years to build."
The Telegraph (UK) 05/01/01
SCOTTISH
MUSEUM ATTENDANCE SOARS: Attendance at Glasgow museums has
soared in recent months, and officials are wondering if the foot-and-mouth
disease scare in the countryside has encouraged people to take
in city attractions. Glasgow Herald
04/30/01
SETTING
THE DATE: Britain's Victoria & Albert Museums have announced
that November 22 will be the date when visitors may begin wandering
the galleries for free. The plan had been in the works for some
time, and the date was selected to correspond to the opening of
the Museums' much-anticipated "British Galleries." BBC
05/01/01
JUST
ADD A STARBUCKS®: The Detroit Institute of the Arts is
the latest in a string of American museums to announce that massive
renovations will be necessary for it to continue to draw the public
to its exhibitions. "Once reflecting an academic atmosphere,
today's museums are attempting to become modern-day meeting places
for informal discussions about art, history and science."
Detroit Free Press 04/30/01
KIDS
RULE! Even as most museums scramble to attract enough visitors
to pay their costs, children's museums are experiencing an unprecedented
boom. The U.S. has nearly six times as many children's museums
as it did a quarter century ago, and attendance has exploded in
the last decade, with 33 million people visiting one of the nation's
215 such museums in 2000. Washington
Post 05/01/01
THE
ART OF RESTORATION: Conservationists restoring an English
Cheshire estate have turned to a painting done in the 1730s for
a record of how the estate looked originally. "The paintings provide
the only authentic record of how the estate looked at the time,
and thankfully they are a very fine source from which we can recreate
the geometric avenues of yesteryear." The
Independent (UK) 04/30/01
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