Tuesday
July 31
THIEF
TO THE STARS: Michel Cohen was a dealer to the dealers - someone
the high-enders used "to sell their Picassos and Chagalls
- secretly - to each other. Then he disappeared with nearly $100
million of their money. Had they trusted the charming Frenchman
too much? Or their competitors too little?" New
York Magazine 07/30/01
RAIN
OF GLASS: Contrary to what the Melbourne Museum said last
week after glass panels in the museum shattered, the museum did
have people in it at the time. "Witnesses described hearing
a loud explosion and shattering glass as the three-metre by 1.2-metre
panel in the balcony, located on the lower-ground level, gave
way at about 10.15am." The Age
(Melbourne) 07/31/01
ADMIT
FREE: How about making America's museums free? "Relieving
every one of America's 8,000 museums of the need to charge admission
fees - would cost $1 billion a year. From political Washington's
perspective, that would be $1 billion sluiced out into every state
and every congressional district. And it would be a visionary,
big-tent gesture of magnanimity that would generate better press
and far more good will than the Bush Administration will ever
get from the income tax rebate checks hitting the mails right
now." Public
Arts 07/30/01
IMPRESSIONISM
- IT KEEPS ON TICKING: A Renoir show at the Art Gallery of
New South Wales has drawn the museum's highest daily attendance
since 1994, when yes, another Impressionist show was on view.
Sydney Morning Herald 07/31/01
MORE
THAN A CURIOSITY: Australian Aboriginal art is widely purchased
outside of the country. "But many Australians are deluded
about the health of the international market for Aboriginal art,
according to some experts." The work is not seriously collected.
“Aboriginal art is often regarded either as an ethnographic curiosity
or as an expression of mystic qualities associated with ‘new-age’
thinking.” The Art Newspaper 07/22/01
DUBUFFET
AT 100: Americans are generally protective of their beliefs
and priorities, and react badly against those who challenge them.
So it is difficult to explain the success in the U.S. of an artist
like the Frenchman Jean Dubuffet, who would have turned 100 this
week. Dubuffet's art was/is beloved by U.S. collectors, and the
devotion to his work is so great that his fans seem inclined to
overlook the artist's frequent calls for the destruction of the
American artistic canons. Chicago Tribune 07/31/01
Monday
July 30
UNDESIRABLE
JOBS: Regional British museums are having difficulty hiring
directors. "While billions of pounds in public funding continue
to pour into London and the South East, cuts in staff and opening
hours are the reality for impoverished museums in the North."
The Times (UK) 07/30/01
MAYBE
THE KIDS DON'T LIKE IT? When San Francisco's Zeum Museum for
kids opened three years ago, it was hailed as "a cross between
the Guggenheim Museum and the Starship Enterprise, a place where
thousands of teens could hang out and craft high-tech videos and
digital portraits." But the museum has drawn less than a
third of its expected attendance. Now "it now has a negative
net worth. And its debt is equal to its annual budget."
San Francisco Chronicle 07/30/01
SHOW
AUSSIE: For the past 14 years, a Willem de Kooning sculpture
has stood in the courtyard of Melbourne's Victorian Arts Centre.
Now the center wants the piece removed - and the quicker the better.
"The Victorian Arts Centre Trust's view is that they would
rather have a major Australian piece at the front of the Arts
Centre." The Age (Melbourne) 07/30/01
SAVING
THE ART OF A NATION: "Since the 1890s, the British government
has allowed owners of outstandingly important paintings and objects
to offer them to the nation in lieu of tax - aware that unless
such a mechanism existed, owners would sell their pictures abroad
in order to pay death duties." One man has "saved"
£150 million worth of art for the nation in this manner.
The Telegraph (UK) 07/30/01
CACHING
IN: German art experts are hoping that a cache of hundreds
of paintings lost in World War II are safe. "They suspect
that the 434 old master paintings, including three works by Michelangelo
Merisi da Caravaggio, did not perish in a bunker in the Berlin
district of Friedrichshain in May 1945 as long thought, and that
the works of art are now in storage in secret U.S. depots."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 07/30/01
SAVING
AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE: "How best to preserve our cultural
heritage is a constant behind-the-scenes battle at our museums
and galleries. A recent Australian Bureau of Statistics report
found that 41 per cent of all museum and gallery artefacts required
some treatment. While conservators at several institutions question
how such a figure was arrived at - virtually all artefacts require
conservation, argues one expert - all acknowledge that keeping
up appearances involves a difficult balancing act."
Sydney Morning Herald 07/30/01
Sunday
July 29
PORTRAIT
OF A YOUNG CURATOR: Frederick Ilchman doesn't believe in cappucinos
after the breakfast hour, insists his martinis be shaken, and
likes to help women navigate the bridges of Venice. He's the new
assistant curator of Renaissance art at Boston's Museum of Fine
Art, and he seems to have come from a different time.
Boston Globe 07/29/01
Friday
July 27
BRITAIN
WILL KEEP UNIQUE ART COLLECTION: The Wernher Collection -
Old Master paintings and a massive collection of Renaissance jewellery
- will stay in Britain and go on public display next year. The
collection, which had been stored in a Christie's warehouse during
negotiations, has been loaned to the nation for 125 years, ending
fears it might be sold overseas. The
Times (UK) 07/27/01
PROTECTING
THE HOME TEAM: The director of Australia's National Gallery
warns that Australian galleries better invest in Aboriginal art
or it will be bought by foreigners and taken out of the country.
"We'd better wake up. We are seeing before our very eyes one of
the great movements of our time in contemporary art."
Sydney Morning Herald 07/27/01
A
FIBROUS DUFY: The Paris Museum of Modern Art has discovered
that Raoul Dufy's giant 1930s mural La Fee Electricite
is coated on the back with asbestos fibres. "The fibre will
be removed from the back of the 250 wood panels that make up the
6,450 square foot masterpiece." CNN.com
07/26/01
AS
HARD TO DEFINE AS ART ITSELF: In New York, as in other cities,
there's creativity everywhere. The question is, which parts of
it are art? "The term 'outdoor sculpture' may have outlived its
usefulness. And 'public art' or 'outdoor art' are only slightly
more commodious, partly because of outside pressure. No matter
what you call it, the category has expanded, but it is often overshadowed
by the rising tide of what might be called accidental or inadvertent
art." The New York Times 07/27/01
(one-time registration required
for access)
MELBOURNE
CLOSES: The Melbourne Museum is replacing a series of glass
balustrades at the museum. "On Monday, a large glass balustrade
in an interior balcony shattered, sending shards of glass falling
on to the foyer on the lower-ground level." The museum was
closed at the time. The Age (Melbourne)
07/27/01
Thursday
July 26
OWNERSHIP
DISPUTE: A prized work of art looted by the Nazis - Wassily
Kandinsky's Improvisation Number 10 - has been the object
of a protracted ownership dispute. "Negotiations over its
ownership broke down last week when its current Swiss owner definitively
chose to keep it after almost a decade of negotiation." Forbes.com
07/25/01
DOWN
TO TERRA: Chicago's Terra Museum was considering moving out
of the city (where it felt underappreciated). But a judge has
ruled that the museum foundation and its $100 million collection
must remain in Chicago (though the museum on Michigan Avenue can
be closed and its collection moved or merged with another museum).
Chicago Tribune 07/25/01
YOU
WANT TO SAVE... THAT? The drive is on to save the Wilde Building,
a glass-and-steel 1950s-era modernist office building in Connecticuit.
Such structures are hardly the usual focus of the preservation
movement - more often, they are the enemy. So why save such a
dime-a-dozen corporate campus? "The Wilde is a gem of its
kind. It's also important as an early and influential model for
the age of great corporate campuses." Boston
Globe 07/26/01
SKETCHING
AMERICA: There may be no more quintessentially American art
form than the political or celebrity caricature. From the Civil
War to the turbulent 1960s to the present day, cartoonists have
had their say, and then some. An exhibition at the New York Public
Library highlights some of the best of the form. Nando
Times (AP) 07/25/01
Wednesday
July 25
SURE
BEATS A BOX FULL OF PENNIES: UNICEF will be the beneficiary
of an upcoming auction of modern paintings valued at $40 million
from the collection of the late journalist René Gaffé. The items
to be auctioned include Picasso's 1908 cubist Étude pour Nu
dans une Foret and two large Joan Miró paintings, as well
as works by Renoir, Magritte, and Braque. BBC
07/25/01
BACK
TO BASICS: "Perhaps any talk of artistic 'rules' sounds
anachronistic these days. But to go by the majority of artists
featured in the graduate and postgraduate shows of the Royal College
of Art, the Royal Academy Schools, and the Slade, the rules are
being not only learnt, but positively embraced." The
Times (UK) 07/25/01
IF
ONLY SOMEONE COULD SOLVE THE "PIGEON PROBLEM": "Outdoor
sculpture collections serve varied purposes and constituencies.
By definition, more people will see them than will ever enter
a museum. The sheer numbers of visitors mean the contents of these
parks must be carefully thought through; too many of them end
up as surveys starring the usual suspects. And those in charge
must not knuckle under to the temptation to settle for the middlebrow
so as not to offend a general audience." Boston
Globe 07/25/01
ART
IN FASHION: "Can fashion — by nature both ephemeral and
functional — be on a par with fine art? Can an ad campaign be
counted as culture?" London dealer Jay Jopling has recycled
photographs seen in ads in magazines and made a show of them in
his gallery. The Times (UK) 07/25/01
HOCKNEY
IN L.A.: David Hockney is known mainly as a Pop Art painter
with Matisse influences, but as a new exhibit making its only
American stop in Los Angeles this summer shows, Hockney is also
an accomplished photographer. Nando
Times (AP) 07/24/01
Tuesday
July 24
REM
EVERYWHERE: Conde Nast has hired architect Rem Koolhaas. "Mr.
Koolhaas, who is known for his sometimes controversial architecture,
will not design a new cafeteria annex. Instead, the Pritzker Prize-winning
architect and author — along with about eight members of his staff
— will offer editorial and marketing advice." The
New York Times 07/24/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
BODY
SCULPTING: Plastic surgeons have engaged a sculptor to work
with them on their body reconstructions. "One of the surgeons
at the end of the course said you can do plastic surgery quite
easily but sculpting is really hard." BBC
07/23/01
DID
GAUGUIN CUT VAN GOGH? Did Van Gogh really cut off his own
ear in a fit of madness? Maybe not. A German art expert says that
"Gauguin, his fellow artist and a keen swordsman, sliced
it off when an alcohol-fuelled row degenerated into violence."
Sunday Times (UK) 07/22/01
RENTING
FOR DOLLARS: SFMOMA's rental gallery has long been a way to
get art into people's homes at low cost and to give artists a
trickle of income. Over the years, the gallery has earned $10
million in fees for artists. But the museum has big plans for
the gallery and some Bay Area artists are upset. "They want it
to be bigger and produce more income." San
Francisco Chronicle 07/24/01
Monday
July 23
BRITS
FALL BEHIND: British museums are cash-strapped, underfunded
by comparison to American and European institutions. "In
Britain, museums and galleries have been left stranded between
successive cost-cutting governments that no longer see art purchases
as a priority and private sector funding that is well below that
in the United States. "We have slipped from being in a position
in the 19th century like the Getty to being among the poor men
of Europe." The Telegraph (UK)
07/23/01
PLAYING
NICE WITH OTHERS? Chicago's Field Museum has been aggressive
in its own promotion, staging popular shows and scooping up lots
of funding; the museum drew 2.4 million visitors last year, the
most in Chicago. But relations between the Field and the city's
other arts institutions have deteriorated... ChicagoBusiness.
07/23/01
THE
GETTY'S DISPUTED COFFIN: "In 1977 the J. Paul Getty Museum
in Malibu, Calif., acquired a 6th century B.C. sarcophagus that
sources in the art world say may have come from an illicit dig
in Turkey in the mid-1970s." Forbes.com
07/20/01
THINNING
THE HERD: "Does France have too many monuments? The situation
of many castles and churches is extremely precarious, and there
isn't enough money to keep them all up. Here is a modest proposal:
Tear down 100 of the cathedrals. After all, who needs that many,
and aren't a lot of them awfully ugly? Call it patrimonial euthanasia.
In with the new!" International
Herald Tribune 07/21/01
DIGITAL
ARTS: "There is this lovely idea that the Internet is this
medium where everyone can contribute and everyone has an anonymous
personality. They'll be looked at as themselves for who they are
as compared to what they are. In the digital art world, this may
actually be taking place." The
New York Times 07/23/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
TOO
MANY PAINTINGS: "Peter Howson, Scotland’s greatest living
artist, appears to be suffering the ill-effects of market forces.
Paintings which once fetched £10,000 can now be bought for £2,000,
and his drawings are available for as little as the cost of a
fortnight’s groceries. Art experts believe the award-winning artist
may have been too prolific for his own good." Scotland
on Sunday 07/22/01
MENAGE
A TROIS ANYONE? A new film is about to reveal the wild bohemian
lives of some of Australia's most prominent artists. "The
movie, When We Were Young, will centre on the six years from 1942
which are billed as the start of the modern art movement in Australia."
Sydney Morning Herald 07/23/01
Sunday
July 22
SHOCK
OF THE ME TOO: Shock art is in, but why? "Who decides
what is art in an age when torture, necrophilia, and self-mutilation
all pass for creative human endeavour? Is it up to the individual
who creates the piece to declare it as art, or should society
decide whether the work has any validity?" The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 07/22/01
HUMBLING
OF THE THAMES: The Thames is one of the great rivers cutting
through one of the great cities. But what has become of it? "For
centuries it was the capital's great artery, and its pleasure
beach. Today it is sadly underused, its banks lined with banal
apartment blocks." The Telegraph
(UK) 07/21/01
BLOCKBUSTER
101 - THE MAKING OF... It's taken 12 years of research and
planning, and more than 200 museum employees for the Art Institute
of Chicago to put together its Van Gogh/Gauguin show that opens
this fall. Product research, catalogs, installation details, marketing...The
modern blockbuster doesn't travel cheaply. Chicago
Tribune 07/22/01
WHAT'S
WRONG WITH CANADA: "Because of the way the tax system
works here, and the low levels of funding, Canadian museums are
not the best places to see the best Canadian art. The very best
Canadian art is not affordable to us. The question is, why isn't
this the big glittering Paris of Canada? Because it's treated
as a way station. Real culture, real life happens somewhere else.
We are still so colonized compared to the Americans. That is a
huge disappointment." The Globe
& Mail (Canada) 07/22/01
BUYING
ART: "Buying art today is, for those who can afford it,
easier than ever before. Dealers and auction houses are falling
over themselves to be less perfumed and exclusive, now that the
biggest wads of disposable income are in the hands of rich City
boys rather than braying aristocrats from Chelsea."
Sunday Times (UK) 07/22/01
Friday
July 20
THE
COLLECTORS: Each summer ARTNews ranks the top 200 American
art collectors. You can't see the complete list online, but the
top 10 is posted... ARTNews 07/01
DOODLING
FOR STALIN: A new Top Secret Soviet file has been uncovered
- it contains cartoons and doodles done by senior Politburo staff
made during their meetings with Stalin. "Not only did Soviet
leaders often doodle during their meetings, they also passed their
drawings around the room for each other's comments. Stalin joined
in the game too." The Telegraph
(UK) 07/20/01
LENIN
WAS A SOUP CAN? "A portrait of Vladimir Lenin by Pop
Art pioneer Andy Warhol has been stolen from a warehouse in the
German city of Cologne." Nando
Times (AP) 07/19/01
THE
MIGHTY VULCAN: A giant statue of Vulcan that stood over the
city of Birmingham is awaiting restoration - a job that will cost
$12.5 million. Statue advocates want some federal money to help
pay the cost. But critics (surprise surprise) are blunt: "While
the federal surplus is rapidly dwindling, why should federal dollars
pay for a face lift of a statue of a Roman god in Alabama?" The
New York Times 07/19/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
THEY'RE
DROPPING BARENBOIM NEXT: "A performance artist dropped
a bloody, headless bull from a helicopter in central Berlin on
Thursday after the city's highest court said it wouldn't stop
the show, which had drawn criticism from animal-rights advocates
and residents. Before the bull fell about 130 feet to the ground,
Austrian-born artist Wolfgang Flatz hung motionless from a crane
- naked and bleeding - with his arms outstretched cross-like as
industrial music blared at a factory construction site."
Nando Times (AP) 07/19/01
Thursday
July 19
DR.
GACHET'S RUSTIC HOME IN AUVERS-SUR-OISE: During World War
II, works by Pissarro, Cézanne, Van Gogh and others were hidden
there, to keep them from the Nazis. Sixty years earlier, Pissarro,
Cézanne, Van Gogh and others were there in person. Next Spring,
it will open as a memorial to Impressionism. MSNBC 07/18/01
IMPERIAL
PAST: San Francisco city officials want to relocate statues
of the city's colonial founder and his royal patron. But critics
are decrying the art as "a symbol of imperialism and genocide"
that shouldn't be given prominence. San
Francisco Chronicle 07/19/01
DÜRER
NUDES, LOST AND FOUND, LOST AND FOUND: "Women's
Bathhouse," by Albrecht Dürer is worth probably $10 million.
It was part of an art collection that went somehow from a castle
in Nazi Germany to Soviet troops to the KGB to a museum in Azerbaijan
to a Japanese wrestler... it's all very complicated. Anyway, the
works now are going back to the Bremen Museum.
The New York Times 07/19/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
Wednesday
July 18
JURASSIC
MUSEUM: London's Natural History Museum has gone Hollywood,
hosting three advanced robotic dinosaurs to thrill visitors. The
museum has been packing them in; it "has invested £500,000
in the exhibition, most of which has been spent on the three animals,
with the aim of attracting one million visitors over its 10-month
stay." The Independent (UK) 07/18/01
A
REAL MICHELANGELO: Experts in Rome Tuesday declared that a
53-inch tall colored wood crucifix was made by Michelangelo, settling
a decades-old debate. The crucifix would have been made in 1493
when the artist was 18 years old. USAToday
07/18/01
PETTY
THEFT OR HARSH CRITIQUE? Police in Scotland have recovered
a valuable 15th century Rhineland tapestry stolen earlier this
year from a Glasgow gallery. "Following a tip-off on Saturday,
police traced the stolen textile to a litter bin outside an old
cigarette factory." The Guardian
(UK) 07/17/01
MUMMY
TROUBLE: A New York art dealer has been charged with illegally
selling an Egyptian mummy's head. "The 2,400-year-old skull
of Amenhotep III was sold by Frederick Schultz several years ago
to a London dealer for $1.2 million, according to court papers."
New York Post 07/17/01
Tuesday
July 17
ISRAELI
MUSEUM SUSPECTED OF "STEALING BACK" HOLOCAUST ART:
Bruno Schulz was a Polish-Jewish artist who was forced to paint
murals on the walls of a Nazi leader's home. In 1942, he was shot.
The murals were painted over and forgotten until six months ago.
Now, the murals have vanished. Who took them? "In an ironic
twist the Yad Vashem Museum in Israel, a guardian of the memory
of the Holocaust, stands accused." Time
07/16/01
REAL
RETURN: Returning art that was stolen by the Nazis is not
just an easy matter of giving back. "The British Museum, like
the National Gallery (of Australia) has got rigid legislative
infrastructure which prohibits it in most circumstances from disposing
of things. Many countries also compelled their galleries and institutions
by law to not only retain and exhibit items, but restricted them
from giving them back to victims." The
Age (Melbourne) 07/17/01
EXPORT
BAN: The Australian government imposed an export ban on seven
Aboriginal paintings last week before their auction at Sotheby's.
The ban resulted in lower sales prices as foreign collectors avoided
the work. "The law prohibits the export of artefacts considered
of national importance. Yet of the 950 applications over the past
13 years to take objects of significant cultural heritage out
of Australia, only 29 have been rejected. Of these, 10 were Aboriginal
paintings seven in the past two weeks." The
Age (Melbourne) 07/17/01
PHOTOGRAPHIC
DEEP FREEZE: Corbis, which owns the Bettman archive of 17
million historic photographs, is preparing to seal them up 200
feet underground in a deep freeze, after having them digitized.
"But once they are interred more than 200 feet below ground,
they will be out of reach, to the disgust of historians."
New Statesman 07/16/01
NO.
3 IN THE PASSING LANE? Louis Vuiton Moet Hennessy (LVMH) confirmed
it will merge the world's number three auction house, Phillips
with Bonhams & Brooks, the world's number four. Phillips has been
been expanding, trying to compete with the top two auction houses.
The Art Newspaper 07/16/01
SOUNDS LIKE A
MEL BROOKS MOVIE TO US: During the Russian Revolution some
members of the Imperial family fled with whatever loot they could
carry. "But some royals buried their heirlooms, hoping the
1917 uprisings would be short-lived. State Duma Deputy Konstantin
Sevenard announced last week he knows the whereabouts of a long-lost
royal cache in St. Petersburg." He's putting up $1 million
of his own money to finance a search. The
Moscow Times 07/17/01
Mondy
July 16
THE
ALLURE OF OLD MASTERS: London's Old Masters auctions racked
up £46 million in sales last week. "The Old Masters market
is becoming increasingly selective and polarised, with dealers
and collectors fighting for the best pictures and rejecting anything
sub-standard." The Telegraph
(UK) 07/16/01
- Previously: DRIVEN
OUT BY INFLATION: Prices of Old Master drawings are soaring,
but long-time connoisseurs are deserting the market, "driven
away by the most phenomenal inflation ever witnessed where art
is concerned." International
Herald Tribune 07/14/01
MORE
THAN CONCRETE BUNKERS: "Even the architecture of the
early Middle Ages is more familiar to us today than that of East
Germany. The public perception of the diverse architecture of
failed state-controlled socialism is just as limited as ever."
And yet, there are some bright spots among the prefab concrete
building complexes. Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 07/16/01
CRITIC
FROM AFAR: Peter Plagens "parachutes" into Dublin
to hold forth on the Irish Museum of Modern Art and its recent
directorship controversy: "In short, IMMA seemed to me a
nice combination of connoisseurship and openness, of pride and
intelligent modesty, a jewel of a place to contemplate art that's
on a par with (to name a couple of my favourites) the Kunsthalle
in Bregenz, Austria, and the Kimbell Museum (of Impressionists
and Old Masters) in Texas." Irish
Times 06/25/01
QUEEN
BLAMED FOR LACK OF MICHELANGELO: The National Museum of Scotland
recently wanted to buy a Michelangelo drawing. But the bid was
prevented by funding officials who believed that instead of buying
the work, the Queen might occasionally lend a Michelangelo from
her collection to the Scottish museum. Sunday
Times 07/15/01
Sunday
July 15
FIGURATIVE
BIAS: Anti-conceptual forces are on the rise. London's Tate
Gallery is looking for a new curator of modern British art. But
is there a catch? "The job that holds out the promise of
'recommending new acquisitions to Tate's director of collections'
also guarantees you will be vilified by a growing movement of
artists infuriated by the bias towards conceptual art largely
dictated by Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota and his Brit Art
cronies at the Saatchi gallery." Glasgow
Herald 07/13/01
SAVING
STONEHENGE: Stonehenge "has been a national disgrace
for as long as anyone can remember." The World Heritage Monument
is noisy and plagued with auto fumes and gawking tourists. A new
plan to fix the site around the stones sounds promising, but why
choose architects known more for their cement office towers than
historic sensitivities? The Telegraph
(UK) 07/14/01
A
MASS OF EGO? Peter Moores has plunged a fortune into making
a "museum for the masses" in an English country house.
"Fair enough, but, of course, the big question with any benefactor
is: what's he in it for, the art or the kudos? It may not matter,
but one likes to know." Sunday
Times (UK) 07/15/01
ANIMAL
HOUSE: "In the old days, when we were still improving
as a species, the Natural History Museum was a place to which
we went in order to acquire a deeper knowledge of the natural
world and to familiarise ourselves with a selection of plangent
truths about it. We went in search of wonder, beauty, the unfamiliar,
the extraordinary. But that was then. These days, we go for the
rides, for the gore, and in order to push lots and lots of buttons."
Sunday Times (UK) 07/15/01
DRIVEN
OUT BY INFLATION: Prices of Old Master drawings are soaring,
but long-time connoisseurs are deserting the market, "driven
away by the most phenomenal inflation ever witnessed where art
is concerned." International
Herald Tribune 07/14/01
Friday
July 13
A
BARGAIN AT JUST UNDER $8.4 MILLION: "One day after a
small sketch by Leonardo raised the world record for the artist
to a £8.14 million ($11.47 million), a Michelangelo study of a
woman mourning became the second highest Michelangelo drawing
at £5.94 million ($8.39 million) . Far more beautiful than Michelangelo's
study for 'The Risen Christ,' which sold last year at Christie's
for a record £8.14 million ($11.49 million), the Michelangelo
sold at Sotheby's was comparatively reasonably priced."
International Herald Tribune 07/12/01
- Previously:
RECORD
LEONARDO: A Leonardo sketch sells for $11 million, equaling
the record for an Old Master drawing. "Prior to Tuesday's
Old Master Drawing sale at Christie's in London, the auction
house had been billing Horse and Rider as the most significant
piece to come up for sale since the 1930s, being one of the
last still in private hands." CNN.com 07/10/01
CANADIAN
STRIKE SETTLED: The 200 creative and technical staff at Canada's
National Gallery have settled their strike against the museum.
"The 63-day strike was often acrimonious. The gallery accused
the strikers of harassing visitors to its major summer show, a
retrospective of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt." CBC
07/12/01
RIPOFF:
Three years ago a thief tore an $8 million James Tissot painting
from its frame in the Auckland Art Gallery in a daring theft.
The painting was later recovered and the thief jailed, but it
has taken two years and $140,000 to restore the ripped canvas.
Still, experts say the damage has resulted in a $4 million loss
in its value. New Zealand Herald 07/13/01
PSYCH
THROUGH ART: A British psychologist has developed a system
of analyzing children's artwork to determine if they have psychological
problems. "It uses 23 separate indicators to analyse drawings
of individual figures and family groups by five to seven-year-olds.
These include: omission of body parts, position of figures, whether
the figures appear to be 'floating' in mid-air, whether they appear
to be unusually large or small, and whether the child drew over
the picture several times before getting it right."
The Times (UK) 07/13/01
Thursday
July 12
WANDERING
IN E-SPACE: "The coming years promise a virtual flood
as more and more institutions chase after the new-media bandwagon,
eager to find and nurture the next avant-garde - if such a thing
exists - and fearful of being left behind. But art and architecture
have yet to convincingly define, much less master, this brave
new world, and so what happens at their high-profile intersection
- the new-media art space - is invariably experimental and often
problematic." Metropolis 07/01
REINVENTING
ARCHITECTURE: Twenty-five years ago America sowed the seeds
of an architectural cultural revolution. "How could that
ruling class of architects ever be overthrown by a renegade band
of amateur philosophers and impudent pamphleteers?"
The New Republic 07/11/01
REINVENTING
SCULPTURE: If "painting is an art we have inherited from
the past, is sculpture is an art that the modern age has been
obliged to reinvent for itself?" New
York Observer 07/11/01
Wednesday
July 11
RECORD
LEONARDO: A Leonardo sketch sells for $11 million, equaling
the record for an Old Master drawing. "Prior to Tuesday's
Old Master Drawing sale at Christie's in London, the auction house
had been billing Horse and Rider as the most significant
piece to come up for sale since the 1930s, being one of the last
still in private hands." CNN.com
07/10/01
- NOT
BAD FOR A SKETCH: "A drawing by Michelangelo, discovered
last year in the library of Castle Howard in North Yorkshire,
is expected to fetch up to £8m when it goes on sale on Wednesday."
BBC 07/11/01
CUTTING
THE COURTAULD: The renowned Courtauld Institute has been told
by London University that it ought to consider affiliating with
another institution. University officials believe that "the
University of London is not big enough financially to act as the
custodian of the Courtauld if the institute faced a real financial
crisis." The Art Newspaper 07/07/01
SÃO
PAOLO LIVES ON: The São Paolo Biennial is one of the most
unlikely success stories of the art world. Plagued by government
interference and general instability, the event has nonetheless
survived for 50 years, and gained worldwide respect. "It
is difficult to overstate the biennial's impact on Brazilian and
Latin American art. As the first event in the Southern Hemisphere
to gain a place on the international art calendar, it has molded
two generations of artists, curators and collectors." The
New York Times 07/11/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
A
SMALL INVESTIGATION: Controversial Smithsonian chief Lawrence
Small has made a lot of enemies. Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service has reopened an investigation into the private collection
of Amazonian tribal art owned by Small. Washington
Post 07/10/01
Tuesday
July 10
RARE DA
VINCI SKETCH MAY BRING $5 MILLION: "A Leonardo da Vinci
sketch of a galloping horse is expected to fetch over $5 million
when it goes under the hammer... which is over 500 years old,
is the most significant to come up for sale since the 1930s, being
one of the last still in private hands." CNN
07/09/01
SOMETHING
FROM NOTHING: London has been experimenting with filling Trafalgar
Square's empty fourth plinth with temporary artworks. "People,
especially municipal councillors, have a problem with empty spaces
and get itchy fingers every time they spot one." But Rachel
Whiteread's commission for the plinth makes nothing of something
- and maybe that's just what's needed. New
Statesman 07/09/01
Monday
July 9
IMPROPER
SALE: A French court has convicted a New York art dealer over
his purchase of artwork looted by the Nazis from a Jewish family
in World War II. He purchased the Flemish Master painting in 1989
and the French court ruled he had not made the purchase in good
faith. Chicago Tribune 07/08/01
YOURNAMEHERE.MUSEUM:
Plans for a .museum domain name include provisions to certify
which institutions can claim the domains, a kind of Good Housekeeping
Seal for museums. But what are the criteria, and who gets to play?
The New York Times 07/09/01
(one-time registration required for access)
A
JARRING LANDMARK: "It is seven stories of a shiny greenish
glass façade, through which massive tubes can be seen undulating
through the building. It is the Sendai Mediatheque. Its goal was
to put this north-central Japanese city, population about 1 million,
on the world’s cultural map. And in a sense, it has succeeded.
But at what cost?" Newsweek 07/09/01
MIES
IS IN THE DETAILS: Two New York museums are simultaneously
displaying exhibits of the work of architect Mies van der Rohe,
he of the famous quotation, "God is in the details."
Mies, as he is usually called, has been a favorite of museums
for years, but many critics have called his buildings cold and
distant, even as they acknowledge the brilliance of the overall
design. So as for the current exhibits, "Why Mies? Why now?
What are the cultural politics of this aesthetic rigging?"
New York Magazine 07/09/01
IRREPLACEABLE:
A large mural by Josef Albers created for New York's MetLife building
has a significant modernist history. But the lobby of the building
is being renovated and MetLife says it doesn't intend to rehang
the mural. Preservationists are critical. The
New York Times 07/09/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
WHO
OWNS ART? A former internee at Auschwitz was amazed to learn
that seven of the paintings she had painted while in the concentration
camp had survived. She wants them back. But "officials in
Poland insist that returning the paintings could set a dangerous
precedent that might threaten the museum’s very existence."
Newsweek 07/16/01
GETTY
GETS SOME NEW MONET: The J. Paul Getty Museum has often found
itself under fire for some of its acquisition techniques, and
the gallery's main curator has been feeling the pressure to score
some major works that do not invite controversy. The new Monet
ought to do the trick - the impressionist master's painting of
the famed Notre Dame cathedral is one of 535 new acquisitions
soon to be hanging in the Getty. Los
Angeles Times 07/09/01
PHOTOGRAPHIC
MEMORY: Imagine a world without photographs. In the modern
landscape it's difficult - they're everywhere around us. So one
can imagine what a revolution photography must have been back
in the early 1800s... USNews 07/09/01
HIGH-TECH
GOSPEL: "The Irish monks who labored 1,300 years ago
to create the intricate illustrations of the famed Book of Kells
would be surprised to know that their artwork can now be seen
anywhere in the world, on a home computer. Until last year, when
the ancient Latin manuscript of the four Gospels was put on a
CD-ROM, the pages could be viewed only at the Old Library of Trinity
College Dublin, where the 680-page volume resides behind thick
glass and tight security." Philadelphia
Inquirer 07/09/01
CAVE
RIGHTS: French archeologists are ecstatic to have discovered
ancient cave engravings that could date back 28,000 years. But
French pride is dampened somewhat by the discovery that an English
couple actually owns the land where the caves are located. "Their
second home, bought for just over £100,000, could now be valued
at millions of pounds by the French courts." The
Times (UK) 07/08/01
ART
ON THE RAILS: "With a scheduled opening three years away,
planners of Houston's 7.5-mile light-rail line have engaged 11
artists to boost the project's aesthetics. The city's Metropolitan
Transit Authority has set aside $500,000 of the $300 million cost
to bring in painters, photographers and a sculptor to turn the
line's 16 stations into works of public art." Dallas
Morning News 07/09/01
CENSORING
STUDENT ART: A Texas art teacher has filed a lawsuit against
the administration of the school that fired him last year after
he defended the work of some of his pupils. The controversy arose
from a mural painted by students which depicted, among many other
images, two men kissing. Despite a unanimous vote of support for
the mural from the school's faculty, the school's administrator
had the wall with the mural whitewashed, and fired the art teacher
after he publicly stood up for his students. Dallas
Morning News 07/09/01
Sunday
July 8
DEALER
GUILTY IN NAZI ART CASE: "A British art dealer has been
found guilty by a French court of handling a Nazi-looted painting.
Adam Williams, 49, who is currently in the United States, was
given an eight-month suspended prison sentence." BBC
07/06/01
THE
GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY OF ART SCHOOLS: Trying to force
something as fluid as art into a rigid curriculum is often a losing
proposition, but nearly every successful artist these days has
attended an art school. "Art has always been a difficult
fit with school because making new art does not conform to objective
criteria that schools can readily test and evaluate. That's one
reason most art schools are Bad art schools. They emphasize technique
because technique fits the demands of pedagogy and testing for
the typical academic curriculum." Los
Angeles Times 07/08/01
HOLDING
ONTO NATIVE ART: Australia's Cultural Heritage Act requires
that any Aboriginal art more than twenty years old not leave the
country without an export permit. This week, two such works will
be auctioned off, and the high level of foreign interest has reopened
the debate over whether such export restrictions help or hurt
makers and purveyors of aboriginal art. The
Age (Melbourne) 07/08/01
Friday
July 6
ALL
ROADS LEAD TO LA? No city can dominate the art world like
Paris in the late 1800s and New York in the 1900s. But Los Angeles
is seeing a flood of artists moving in. "There is increasing consensus
in the art world that there is more exciting new work coming from
young artists in Los Angeles right now than in any other city
in the world." Christian Science Monitor
07/06/01
KIDS
IN THE HOUSE: A record number of children visited British
museums last year. Why? Admission charges were dropped. "Since
17 of England's national museum abolished entry fees for children,
attendance figures have grown steadily from just under 5m in 1998-99
to more than 6m in 2000-01." The
Guardian (UK) 07/06/01
THE MAGAZINE RACK
AS ART GALLERY: Why did photography have so little impact
at the Venice Biennale? "For every terrific photo I see on
a gallery wall, there are 10 in the pages of a magazine.... Many
of these images would look great in a frame; most don't belong
there. They were made for the printed page, often in an interlocking
series, and outside of that hectic environment they often seem
awkward, lost, pointless." Village
Voice 07/04/01
Thursday
July 5
A
CHURCH IN LA: Los Angeles is awash in high-profile public
buildings under construction. "But most exciting of all is
the first major cathedral to be built in North America in a century.
It is 11 stories high with 57,000 square feet of interior space
and will seat 3,000 people. The interior is being decorated with
six-story-high 'windows' of translucent Spanish alabaster through
which muted light will shine. The extravagant church, which on
its own costs $75 million, will contain more alabaster than any
other religious structure in the world." New
Times LA 06/28/01
NO
APPETITE FOR NEW: Taiwanese artists protest turning a public
contemporary art gallery over to a private operator. "Given the
fact that contemporary art has not yet gained general approval
in Taiwan, the running of a gallery featuring contemporary art
is definitely not a profitable business." Taipei
Times 07/05/01
REALLY
OLD ART: Engravings dating back 28,000 years have been found
in caves in western France. "Officials said hundreds of yards
of detailed engravings in the Cussac cave depict animals - including
bison, horses and rhinoceroses - and human figures." The
engravings predate the Lascaux cave paintings, which were produced
18,000 years ago. New Jersey Online
(AP) 07/04/01
NOW
THAT'S RESOURCEFUL: An alternative gallery in Connecticuit
is showing an exhibition of artwork by the state's prison inmates,
most of whom had no access to traditional art supplies. For instance,
the exhibit includes "a mock, working Ferris wheel fashioned
from 11,472 pieces of potato chip bags." Hartford
Courant 07/05/01
BIDDING
ON HARRY: "Two original illustrations for the first Harry
Potter book are to go on sale at Sotheby's auction house in London
on 10 July. The watercolour of Potter himself is expected to fetch
between £20,000 and £25,000." BBC
07/05/01
POPULATION
PRESSURE: The ancient temples of Karnak and Luxor in Egypt
are in danger of being eroded away by rising groundwater. "The
water is a result of a poorly designed water disposal system constructed
around the populated areas around the priceless ruins."
Egypt Revealed 07/01
Wednesday
July 4
FRIDA-MANIA:
Overshadowed by her husband - famous muralist Diego Rivera - during
her lifetime, Frida Kahlo is now a global cult figure. The feisty
woman with the striking stare and tempestuous love-life has inspired
ballets, operas, books, biography, films and plays. Dozens, if
not hundreds, of websites pay homage. A religion, Kahloism, worships
her as the one, true god. Kahlomania is about to hit Australia.
The Age (Melbourne) 07/04/01
PICASSOS
IN THE PIPELINE? In Britain it's National Children's Art Day.
But is such a day likely to unearth child geniuses? "Unlike
certain composers — Mozart being the most obvious example — none
of the 'great' painters ever produced anything much of interest
before puberty. Those precocious seven-year-olds that pop up occasionally,
touted around as 'Picassos in the pipeline', are simply the creations
of greedy dealers looking to turn gullibility into gold."
The Times (UK) 07/04/01
ARTIST
ROYALTIES: The European Parliament passes a law that gives
artists royalties of four percent on work resold and valued at
between $2,540 and $42,340 - and on a declining scale after that."
But will the new law do anything to help less well-known artists?
CNN.com 07/03/01
Tuesday
July 3
THE
SILVER LINING OF CONTROVERSY: All too often buildings get
thrown up without much input from the people who are going to
have to look at them. So the furor over design options for Sydney's
new Museum of Contemporary Art is something to celebrate - everyday
people are becoming involved with what could be a significant
building. Sydney Morning Herald )7/03/01
MURAL
IMPERATIVE: Graffiti sprayers in Los Angeles used to stick
to fences and walls for their canvases. But LA is home to more
than 2,500 murals, and taggers have discovered authorities take
much longer to wipe away their work if they paint over top of
a mural. The state transportation agency is trying to figure out
new ways of removing the paint without damaging the murals underneath.
Sacramento Bee 06/27/01
MINING
FOR MIES: Two big new shows of the work of architect Mies
van der Rohe in New York lead to the obvious question - why now?
New York Magazine 07/02/01
MAJOR AUCTION OF AFRICAN
ART: A collection of African art, built over 30 years, has
been auctioned in Paris for more than $10 million. More than 600
masks, statues, and pieces of furniture and jewelry were sold
"during a two-day auction billed by art experts as the most
important sale of African art in 35 years."
Africast 07/02/01
Monday
July 2
"BLOOD
SWEAT AND WORSE": Vienna opened a new museum quarter
this weekend. It is 15 acres large, making it one of the ten biggest
cultural sites in the world. But though the project is a major
accomplishment, it was marked by more than 20 years of squabbles
to make it happen. Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 07/01/01
THE
ART OF LAS VEGAS: Why is Las Vegas interested in art? This
fall the Hermitage and the Guggenheim both open Las Vegas branches.
"You have 35 million people or more coming to this market
per year. The gaming component, while still important, is not
the driving force for tourism in this city. The driving force
is other things: great hotel rooms, restaurants, retail, great
night clubs, shows, etc. From our perspective it’s a diversifier.
It makes Las Vegas more interesting. It makes the hotel more interesting."
The Art Newspaper 06/29/01
INVESTIGATING
THE SMITHSONIAN: A celebrity commission has been appointed
to evaluate the operations of the Smithsonian museums. The Smithsonian
has been under attack for some of its director's recent policies
for exhibitions. Chicago Tribune 06/30/01
FAKING
OUT SOTHEBY'S: A forger faked out London's Sotheby's last
month, passing off a fake Jacques Villon, which the auction house
sold. "The ruse was discovered only after the buyer took
the canvas to Paris where a Villon expert declared it was a forgery.
'It just shows how easy it is to get a fake through'."
Sunday Times (UK) 07/01/01
THE
LONDON AUCTIONS: A Monet haystack painting sold in London
last week for $14 million, well above its auction estimate of
$10 million. Americans were noticeably absent from this year's
London season. The New York Times
07/02/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
STEALING
FROM THE CHURCH: "A new report says theft of artwork
from churches is common. "In Italy, 89,000 objects have been
recorded as stolen from churches since 1980. Ultimately the solution
is in the hands of the customer or collector, and the situation
cannot improve as long as objects continue to be purchased with
no precise indication of their origin.” The
Art Newspaper 06/29/01
Sunday
July 1
PROGRESS
IN BEIJING: The People's Republic of China does not have a
particularly good record of promoting contemporary art. In fact,
for the last several decades, artists whose work was seen to be
questioning or criticizing the status quo were very likely to
have their careers, and possibly their lives, ruined by the harsh
Chinese cultural censors. So when Beijing's National Art Gallery
agreed to sponsor a travelling exhibit of contemporary Chinese
painting this year, it was quite a step forward. International
Herald Tribune 06/30/01
STOP
THE PRESSES - VERMEER NOT PERFECT: With British museumgoers
lining up for blocks to purchase tickets to a rare exhibit of
the works of newly trendy painter Johannes Vermeer, some critics
worry that the buzz surrounding the exhibition will lead many
patrons to be disappointed by the reality of what they find on
display. London Evening Standard 06/29/01
YEAH,
BUT HOW MANY CONTAINED ANY GOOD MUSIC? "Since its birth
more than 60 years ago, the album cover has mirrored popular culture's
obsessions, from jazz crooners to hot pants, from tattoos to all
things digital. Now "The LP Show," one of the summer's most unusual
and daunting exhibitions, surveys more than 2,500 of these cardboard
icons from the past six decades." The
New York Times 07/01/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
STRIKE
HAS AN IMPACT: "Two exhibitions scheduled for this summer
at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography have been postponed
indefinitely because of the continuing strike by workers at that
museum and its parent organization, the National Gallery of Canada."
Ottawa Citizen 07/01/01
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