Friday
August 31
THE
AUCTION WARS: Amid rumors of a possible sale of Sotheby's
to Phillips, the auction house wars heat up. Competition and scandals
have squeezed profits at Sotheby's and Christie's, while costly
aggressive maneuvering by No. 3 Phillips has cost a small fortune
or two. It's possible in the not too distant future that all three
houses could be French-owned. The
Economist 08/30/01
LATIN
COLLECTION FINDS A HOME: "One of the world's great collections
of Latin American art is set to go on permanent display in the
Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. . . The Museum of Latin American
Art or 'Malba' will feature more than 220 works valued at some
$40m (£27m), from artists ranging from Mexico's Frida Kahlo to
Colombia's Fernando Botero." BBC
08/31/01
LESS
MAY BE MORE AT MOMA: New York's Museum of Modern Art is in
the middle of a massive expansion that will eventually double
its size by 2004. But for the moment, MOMA's exhibit space is
severely limited, forcing curators to make some very interesting
decisions on what hangs where. "With so little space, time
also collapses, continuity is destroyed, and works usually hung
galleries apart are brought into unaccustomed proximity..."
The New York Times 08/31/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
ART
FOR THE REAL WORLD: Much contemporary art is made to be displayed
in museums, large galleries or in the large homes of the very
rich. But what about art for the real lives of everday people?
"It is one thing to make and exhibit your work in the culturally
privileged context of a fine art infrastructure, quite another
to immerse yourself in the mundane demands of the wider world,
where you really are putting yourself on the line." Irish
Times 08/31/01
UNDERSTANDING
VERMEER: What is it about Vermeer that has captured the imagination
of so many people? "He has inspired five novels, three exhibitions
and an opera in the last six years. A new film based on the best-selling
novel Girl with a Pearl Earring — the title comes from
a Vermeer painting — is likely to add to the momentum." MSNBC
(Reuters) 08/20/01
Thursday
August 30
RETURN
TO SENDER: Why did Fort Worth's Kimbell Museum return a $2.7
million Summerian statue to a New York dealer seven months after
it was bought? "You don't do that in the art world. If you've
changed your mind, sell [the piece] back on the open market. This
is not like a sweater boutique in a department store, where they
would take something back in the name of good customer relations.
Why should the dealer take it back?" Fort
Worth Star-Telegram 08/23/01
ART
AS A BUSINESS - IT'S BAD: Australia's Bureau of Statistics
did a survey of art gallery economics and made some dismal discoveries.
"Overall, the gallery industry told the bureau it had a pretax
profit margin of 7 per cent - a return that suggests dilettantes
would be better off playing the stock market. Galleries had total
sales worth $218 million, of which $36 million was for Aboriginal
art." Sydney Morning Herald 08/30/01
DANIEL
DOES DENVER: Denver is not a city known for its architecture.
But the Denver Art Museum's plan for a dramatic new wing designed
by Daniel Libeskind and set to open in 2005, promises to deliver
the region's first signature piece of architecture. The
New York Times 08/20/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
WHY
NOT JUST CALL IT MUSIC? "Increasingly, museum- and gallery-goers
are being asked to both look and listen to the art on display,
as an emerging generation of artists explores a new territory
between music and art that is known, generally, as audio art.
So if an artist is interested in sound, why not become a musician?
Many audio artists like to distinguish between music and noise,
placing their allegiances firmly in the latter camp." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/30/01
McSMITHSONIAN?
Washington's popular Museum of Air and Space has decided to
allow a McDonald's to open inside the museum. Is it a smart service
for visitors or a corrupting commercial incursion for a federally-funded
institution? Washington Post 08/29/01
HIJACKING
HIS NAME: Canadian artist Freeman Patterson has had his name
hijacked for a pornographic website. When visitors click on the
artist's name as expressed as a web address, they are directed
to a porn site. The site offers to "sell" the address
to anyone willing to offer more than $550. The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/29/01
A
POSTHUMOUS CLASH BETWEEN ARTIST AND DEALER: The heirs of German
painter George Grosz are suing the estate of his former dealer,
claiming that because he surreptitiously bought many paintings
for himself, he cheated the artist of a higher open market value.
Heirs of the dealer say the Grosz family is just complaining about
the prices, 25 years after the fact. International Herald Tribune 08/30/01
Wednesday
August 29
A
MATTER OF CONSCIENCE: Former Metropolitan Museum director
Thomas Hoving believes that the 12th Century cross he acquired
for the museum back in 1963 is "nothing less than a medieval
version of a swastika, used to incite the massacre of Bury St
Edmunds' Jews in 1190 with a dark litany of anti-semitic inscriptions
carved minutely along its 20 inch length. He claims it marked
and helped speed the birth of English anti-semitism." And
he thinks the Met should return it to England. The
Guardian (UK) 08/29/01
COURTING
IN THE SOUTHWEST: Los Angeles' Southwest Museum has an important
collection of Native American artifacts. But the museum is poor
and is contemplating acquiring a wealthy partner. The suitors
are a movie cowboy museum or an indian casino. "But a partnership
with either the Autry or the Pechanga Band raises new questions.
Some Indian groups have criticized the Autry proposal as a none-too-subtle
attempt by the cowboys to take over the Indians, culturally speaking,
while some in the art world have expressed concern about whether
a casino would really be an appropriate overseer for a major collection
of Indian artifacts." The New
York Times 08/29/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
BUT
"ARTS" WILL ALWAYS GET TOP BILLING: In some art
circles, "crafts" is a dirty word. At their best, crafts
are treated as if they were the ugly step-sisters of the arts.
"Like realist painting and sculpture, though, crafts never
fade away. They continue to be practiced out of the spotlight
until another generation in the arts discovers them."
Chicago Tribune 08/26/01
THE
WORLD'S FASTEST PAINTER - REALLY: Maybe you favor Elvis on
velour, or waifs with enormous eyes. Can't help you there. But
if you like "whirling candy-colored planets in a shiny black
sky, surrounded by falling stars," Atom is your man. But
can't he paint anything else? "I could," he says, "but
people always want the spacey stuff." St. Louis Post-Dispatch 08/28/01
Tuesday
August 28
FREE
= MORE KIDS: Want to get more children into museums? Drop
the admission charge. That's what Britain did in 1999, and the
number of kids visiting museums jumped 20 percent, according to
the latest figures. BBC 08/28/01
ARCHITECTURE'S
'IT' BOY: Will the new Disney Concert Hall in LA be the crowning
achievement of architect Frank Gehry's career? As it rises, the
world seems ready to cede Gehry the title of North America's Leading
Architect. Not that Gehry seems anxious to accept the crown: "This
was designed 10 years ago, so a lot of crowning achievements have
happened since," he chuckles. The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/28/01
IT'S
NOT SCIENTIFIC, BUT DURHAM'S TOPS WITH BBC LISTENERS: What
building do English listeners to BBC4 like best in Britain? According
to a BBC poll, Durham Cathedral. "Other buildings also rated
highly by the 15, 819 people who voted included more modern structures
like the Eden Project, in Cornwall (22.5%), London's Tate Modern
(11.96%) and Stansted Airport (7.02%)." And the most-loathed
structure? Heathrow Airport. BBC 08/28/01
Monday
August 27
REPATRIATING
ART: Major British museums are about to return hundreds of
artifacts to their original cultures. "At least 40 institutions
are believed to be preparing to give back all or part of their
collections. The biggest beneficiaries are likely to be the Australian
Aborigines and native Americans who have been campaigning for
the return of such objects for decades." The
Telegraph (UK) 08/27/01
REDEFINING
THE BRITISH MUSEUM: The British Museum has some 4 million
objects that the public never sees because of lack of space. Now
museum officials have put together plans for an £80 million redo
of a 12-story post office building as a study center for objects.
This isn't just re-warehousing, they say - they hope the new space
will allow the museum's researchers to bring new context to the
museum's vast collection. The Guardian
(UK) 08/27/01
THE
GEHRY THING: Is Frank Gehry not only our finest architect,
but our best artist as well? "The notion that he might
be points to the new centrality of architecture in cultural discourse,
a centrality that goes back to some of the early debates about
Post-Modernism in the 1970s." London
Review of Books 08/23/01
Sunday
August 26
THE
MUSEUM CRISIS: What has happened to the idea of "museum"?
These days "it hardly matters what they contain, if anything.
They are our new theaters of conscience, memorials to suffering,
choreographed places of ritual genuflection, where we go to contemplate
our fallibility and maybe even weep a little while admiring the
architecture. They offer packaged units of morality, unimpeachable
and guiltlessly entertaining. They presume to bring us together,
physically and spiritually." The
New York Times 08/26/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
BUDAPEST
JOINS THE MUSEUM SWEEPSTAKES: To be great these days, a great
city must have a great museum. Fine if you're London or Vienna.
But Budapest, with fewer resources, yet wanting to join the museum
sweepstakes, has found a way to play. "But in a fast- changing
country that's still learning to sort out public and private interests,
the new projects present an emblematic mix of noble ideals and
slippery realities. Playing by the rules is hard to do, especially
where the rules are up for grabs." The
New York Times 08/26/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
THE
ART OF RANSOM: Are the people who stole the Chagall painting
from New York's Jewish Museum and "holding it for ransom"
until peace is achieved in the Middle East for real? Or is the
note itself "a kind of quirky, postmodern performance in
the manner of Brechtian political theater, which, by unmasking
illusion and artifice, provokes its audience to radical action."
Baltimore Sun 08/26/01
PRIVATE
PASSIONS: Swiss collector Gustav Rau accumulated the second
largest private art collection in the world. When a Swiss court
declared him incompetent and tried to take control of the collection,
he fought back, and now the art is on tour. Financial
Times 08/25/01
MET
SETTLES PAINTING CLAIM: The Metropolitan Museum has settled
a claim over a Monet painting in the museum's collection. A man
had claimed it had been stolen during the Soviet occupation of
Berlin in 1945. Washington Post (AP)
08/25/01
TELLING
NEW YORK'S STORY: Should New York City have a museum that
ties together strands of the city's history? "We've got curators
of ball gowns and curators of paintings. But we don't have a curator
of New York City." The New York Times
08/25/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
Friday
August 24
KEEPING
ART AT HOME: The French government has passed a law providing
for the government to buy art it considers national treasures
to prevent it from leaving the country. "If a work of art
is deemed of cultural importance and denied an export licence,
within the following 30 months, the government can make an offer
to purchase it on behalf of a public institution. Their offer
will be set at international market value." The
Art Newspaper 08/24/01
EVERYONE'S
AN ARTIST: An American scientist has developed a software
program that can transform anyoine's photo or drawin into the
art of a master. "The program can analyse a digital photograph
and transform it into the style of any chosen artist. The software
was inspired when he began wondering whether a computer could
analyse an artist's style and then apply it to pictures."
The Independent (UK) 08/24/01
NAME
VALUE: Typically, the value of an artist's work increases
when he dies. But Australian Aboriginal artist Turkey Tolson's
work presents a challenge to Christie's, which wants to auction
it. "In Aboriginal custom, particularly in the Central Desert,
where Tolson lived, a dead person's name should not be mentioned
or his or her image shown to his relatives, clan and wider tribe."
How to sell it then? Sydney Morning
Herald 08/24/01
SOTHEBY'S
CHICAGO TO CLOSE: Sotheby's announces it's closing its auction
house in Chicago. how much will it affect affect Chicago? "What
does it say, if anything, about the state of Chicago's art and
antiques market, or the future of fine art auctions in general?
'Running a regional house is a tough thing. The margins are slim,
there's a lot of overhead and there's a lot to managing property'."
Chicago Tribune 08/24/01
Thursday
August 23
SUING
RICHARD SERRA: Owners of a Richard Serra sculpture are suing
the artist to recover the piece. In 1989 the owners showed Serra
the piece they had bought, and he told them it was broken and
needed repairing, which he offered to do in return for a 50 percent
share of the resale. The owners say though Serra took back the
work, they have been unable to get it returned despite numerous
tries. New York Post 08/22/01
GUGGENHEIM
DELAYS VEGAS OPENING: The opening of the Guggenheim and Hermitage
Museum outposts has been delayed three weeks to Oct. 7. "There
is no single reason for the date change," Thomas Krens, Guggenheim
Foundation director, said in a prepared statement. "Rather, after
arduous and careful analysis of the construction and installation
paths, and after consultation with all of the construction managers
and museum professionals working on this project, we had come
to the conclusion that there was a real possibility that we might
not be ready if we maintained the Sept. 16 opening date."
Las Vegas Sun 08/23/01
- GOING
DOWNCULTURE: Hilton Kramer's not in favor of the modern
brand of museums - the Tates, Guggenheims etc. They are trashing
the traditional idea of the museum. Tate Modern, he complains,
is "a culture mall still pretending to be an art museum
but resembling—in spirit, in layout, and in noise levels and
general pandemonium—a cross between an airport arrivals terminal
and Times Square on a bad night." And the Guggenheim? Well...
New York Observer 08/22/01
CRUSHING
DECISIONS: The temples at Angkor, in Cambodia, are archeological
and architectural treasures. They also are slowly being crushed
by the jungle, which has closed in on them over the past five
centuries. Restoration poses a dilemma: "If the trees are
left in place, portions of the half-ruined structures will eventually
collapse. If the trees are removed, the structures may also collapse."
International Herald Tribune 08/23/01
WALLS
THAT DIVIDE: The Viet Nam Veterans Memorial is in the center
of a new controversy. A group of veterans plans "to add a
structure nearby to educate visitors, not about the war but about
the memorial itself. Critics, not least among them the National
Park Service, are appalled." MSNBC
08/23/01
Wednesday
August 22
WORLD
HERITAGE IDEAS: The United Nations lists some 700 cultural
treasures around the world as heritage sites. "But why limit
UNESCO's validating embrace to the realm of the physical? What
about manifestations of human genius that may be ubiquitous but
also happen to be intangible?" Like pizza, perhaps? The
Atlantic 09/01
WHAT'S
WRONG WITH PAINTING: "Every few years, some art critic
takes pleasure in making people furious with the declaration that
painting is dead. But what does it mean for painting to die? I
think it's impossible to declare any form of art to be dead, inasmuch
as anything is allowed these days, but why is it that painting
isn't, in the most general sense, good anymore?" The
Stranger 08/23/01
BOTTOM FISHING:
A Venetian island, submerged and ignored for 650 years, is being
uncovered. But it isn't the island itself that's most interesting
right now, it's a couple of ships that were grounded on it. Venetian
galleys have been well-documented in histories, but none has ever
before been salvaged in recognizable condition.
Discover 08/21/01
PRICEY CALENDAR
ART: Western (Western USA, that is) art appears to be riding
tall in the saddle these days. A watercolor by Charles Russell,
estimated at around $750,000, was auctioned for $2.4 million.
The picture, A Disputed Trail, is widely known, having
been used as calendar art for ninety years. The
Art Newspaper 08/22/01
CLEVELAND
CURATOR LEAVES: Diane De Grazia is leaving the job of chief
curator of the Cleveland Museum of Art. "An expert on 17th-century
European paintings and drawings, De Grazia came to Cleveland from
the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The
Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 08/22/01
BEAUTY
MAY BE IN THE CHILDHOOD OF THE OBSERVER: Pawtucket, Rhode
Island, sent a gift to its twin town in England. The English did
not like it at all. In fact, they seem rather insulted by the
seven-foot statue. The seven-foot plastic statue of Mr. Potato
Head. ABC 08/20/01
Tuesday
August 21
LOAN
OF PARTHENON MARBLES? The British Museum is discussing temporarily
loaning the Parthenon Marbles to Greece for the 2004 Olympics.
"Greece said it was willing to discuss a compromise under
which it would get the 2,300-year-old artefacts - or if necessary
only some of them - on temporary loan. In return, Britain would
borrow masterpieces of classical antiquity never seen here before."
The Guardian (UK) 08/20/01
- Previously: BRITISH
GOVERNMENT TURNS DOWN GREEK MARBLES DEAL: The British government
has turned down a Greek request to return the Parthenon Marbles
in time for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Greece had offered
to loan hundreds of newly discovered antiquities to Britain
in return for the return of the marbles. BBC
08/20/01
IT'S
A MONEY THING: Why did David Ross leave as director of San
Francisco's SFMOMA? It was money. Ross saw some opportunities
for himself to make some money. The museum's board thought Ross's
being the head of a website that sells art was a conflict. And,
as the economic downturn was affecting the museum, Ross was thought
not to be the person to get the museum through it. "David is an
entrepreneur - he comes up with 15 ideas an hour - and it's hard
for nonprofits to deal with that. Now he has come to a point where
there is an opportunity to go to a for-profit and benefit financially
from his ideas. We understand. When you tell someone like David
to stop, you destroy him." San Francisco
Chronicle 08/21/01
CHAGALL
FOR PEACE: The Jewish Museum in New York has received an offer
to return a 1914 Chagall painting stolen from the museum earlier
this year. Actually, it's more of a ransom note; the gist of the
one-page typewritten message says: " 'You get the painting
back when peace has been achieved between Israel and Palestine.'
The letter was signed by a previously unknown group, the International
Committee for Art and Peace." CNN.com
08/20/01
OPENING
UP FRANCE: The French art market is about to open up. "Nearly
450 years of protectionism for the country's 458 auction houses
will disappear in a deluge of art sales in the next few months
dominated by the world's big two and the third-placed pursuer,
Phillips." The Guardian (UK)
08/20/01
PRESERVING
ALBANIA: Albania has some important archaeological treasures,
but most of them have not been cared for. Now there is a tourist
boom, and "the swell of visitors brings an opportunity and
a threat. The opportunity is to create, on an undeveloped stretch
of coast just north of Greece, a new tourism industry that can
bring prosperity to one of Europe's poorest nations. The threat
is that local greed, weak planning controls and powerful foreign
investors will combine to create the common Mediterranean mess
of badly built hotels, noise and pollution." The
Economist 08/16/01
GIULIANI
VS ARTISTS: New York mayor Rudy Giuliani intends to appeal
last week's court ruling that allows artists to display their
work on city streets. But is this a fight worth continuing? "Once
the city decides that an area is open to vending, it cannot arbitrarily
pick and choose whom it allows in." The
New York Times 08/21/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
BANNING
BILL: A Bay Area artist created a sculture of Bill Clinton
and a certain intern, entered a local fair, and won. He also won
a prize at the California State Fair, but the sculture has been
banned from display. :No fewer than five representatives of the
Fair ruled Loose Lips unfit for exhibition, particularly
because of 'the location of Monica Lewinsky to the overall position
of the president.' In this, the sculptor was simply striving for
verisimilitude, giving the work educational value." National
Review 08/20/01
Monday
August 20
BRITISH
GOVERNMENT TURNS DOWN GREEK MARBLES DEAL: The British government
has turned down a Greek request to return the Parthenon Marbles
in time for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Greece had offered
to loan hundreds of newly discovered antiquities to Britain in
return for the return of the marbles. BBC
08/20/01
LEADERSHIP
DISPUTE: Trustees of the British Museum are rejecting the
government's first choice to be the museum's next director. "Her
failure to win the endorsement of the trustees may owe something
to suspicions that she might be too eager to carry out the wishes
of the museum's paymasters in government. The museum's grant from
the taxpayer is £34.88 million for 2001, slightly more than half
its total income." Sunday Times
(UK) 08/19/01
SO
THIS IS WINNING? Earlier this year 200 employees of the National
Gallery of Canada went on strike for nine weeks. But though workers
have been back at work since mid July, they still haven't received
the promised retroactive pay, signing bonuses and salary increases
they were promised to end the strike. Ottawa
Citizen 08/19/01
THE
GREAT ART SCAMMER: Michel Cohen was such a successful player
in the art markets that he could borrow $100 million to buy paintings,
with few questions asked. But he also couldn't resist trying to
double his money in the stock market, and when the market crashed,
he vanished with a lot of other people's money. National
Post (Telegraph) (Canada) 08/20/01
SIGNS
OF A DOWNTURN? The downturn in the US economy is impacting
museums. "Attendance has dropped significantly at the Orange
County Museum of Art during the past two years. And after years
of surplus, the museum is expecting to just break even with a
lower budget for fiscal year 2000-01. In Laguna Beach, the Laguna
Art Museum is trying to get a handle on a large deficit that reached
$169,301 in fiscal year 1999-2000." Orange
County Register 08/19/01
LONGEST
PAINTING: A group of Thai artists is setting out to make the
longest painting in the world - 1 1/2 kilometers long. "The
project is in protest against a decision by the Thai authorities
to allow construction of a shopping centre on a site the artists
want earmarked for a museum of modern art." BBC
08/19/01
Sunday
August 19
ROSS
QUITS SFMOMA: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art director
David Ross has abruptly quit the museum, effective immediately.
"A statement from the museum said that Ross' 'priorities
diverge from those of the museum'." The move has surprised the
San Francisco artworld. SFGate 08/17/01
- SFMOMA
BOARD SAYS: Economic downturn squeezes museum. "Our focus
in the museum is on internal management, and David Ross is focused
on external matters, which he is a genius at. What is good for
the museum is not necessarily in his best interests. And we
thought it was mutually beneficial if we parted." The
New York Times 08/18/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
LA'S
NEW LOOK: Los Angeles doesn't have a tradition of great public
buildings. But in the past few years, "Los Angeles' civic
landscape has undergone a startling transformation. As the $1-billion
Getty Center was opening its doors in 1997 in Brentwood, construction
was starting up on Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall and
José Rafael Moneo's Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels - all
major works by world-renowned architects. More important, a sense
of civic flowering has spread beyond a few powerful downtown institutions."
Los Angeles Times 08/19/01
GOVERNMENT
KEEPS HITLERS: After World War II, the American government
seized some watercolor paintings by Hitler. For the past 18 years
the heirs to a Hitler friend who had owned the paintings, had
been petitioning to get them back. This week a court ruled that
the government had the right to keep the watercolors "because
it was never the government's intent to return them to their owner.
Because they were the work of Hitler, the Army seized the four
rather ordinary landscapes as potentially provocative." The
New York Times 08/18/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
AUCTION
SCANDAL - UH UH, WASN'T ME: Alfred Taubman, Sotheby's former
chairman, is defending himself against charges he was a central
figure in the auction house's collusion to fix prices. At a preliminary
hearing last week his attorneys argued that "price-fixing
discussions had been engineered by subordinates at the two auction
houses without his involvement." The
New York Times 08/18/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
REAL
FAKES: The dispute between Paris' Rodin Museum and the Royal
Ontario Museum in Canada over whether an exhibition of Rodin scultures
is "real" or not has heated up. The Rodin's principal
curator, "France's legal guardian of Rodin's legacy, urged
Canadians to stay home and avert their eyes from the allegedly
sham works about to go on view." But when you're casting
sculptures, what is real and what is fake? National
Post (Canada) 08/18/01
LOOKING
FOR KHAN: An archaeological team looking for Genghis Khan's
grave in Mongolia reported this week that they have found "a
walled burial ground 200 miles northeast of the Mongolian capital
that may contain the 13th-century conqueror's remains along with
priceless artifacts." Discovery
08/17/01
Friday
August 17
CYBER-AMERICA:
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History displays
less than 5 percent of its 3 million objects. "Some of its
exhibits have bare-bones labeling with no referrals to in-depth
materials." Now the museum is hoping that a new website will
make access to images and information about objects in the museum's
collection easier. The site is a modest start - only 450 objects
are up on the site so far. Washington
Post 08/16/01
DISPUTED
RODINS: Paris' Rodin Museum and a museum in Ontario Canada
are disputing the authenticity of a collection of sculptures the
Canadian museum intends to put on display. "Which Rodins
are authentic and which are reproductions is a thorny and complex
debate, with roots in the way the artist created such renowned
sculptures as The Thinker and The Kiss." National
Post 08/16/01
Thursday
August 16
CRITICAL
HISTORY: Looking back at a century of American art criticism
can be revealing. "Examples of high intelligence, shrewd
judgment and excellent prose command respect as well as envy.
They may even serve as models to emulate. But the all-too-frequent
instances of parochial taste, hidebound prejudice, political log-rolling
and moldy prose leave one in no doubt as to why criticism is not
a universally beloved enterprise." New
York Observer 08/15/01
VINTAGE
FRAUD: A series of vintage photographs supposedly signed by
photographer Lewis Hine are likely fakes. The photos appear to
have been printed on paper not available until the 1950s. Hine
died in the 1940s. Vintage prints have escalated in price in the
past few years, making them quite valuable. The FBI is investigating
for fraud. The New York Times 08/16/01
(one-time registration required for access)
THAT
OLD SEXPOT, MAGGIE THATCHER: "The 'erotic and iconic'
qualities of Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister,
are to be examined in a major art show planned for London next
year." The exhibition will be called There Is No Alternative.
Thirty artists who grew up during her terms as Prime Minister
have been invited to take part. National
Post (Canada) 08/15/01
Wednesday
August 15
THE
ODDS ON ART IN VEGAS: The Guggenheim and Hermitage museums
are opening branch galleries in Las Vegas. Certainly, no one else
has ever opened a major art museum in Las Vegas. The art world
is intrigued and aghast. Can [Guggenheim uber-director Thomas]
Krens compete with gambling, exploding volcanos and topless showgirls?
And has Krens driven a stake into the traditional notion that
art and entertainment are mutually exclusive? Krens likes the
odds, calculating the Vegas operation will take in $15 million
a year. The Age (Nelbourne) 08/15/01
CASTLING:
Many of Hungary’s baroque castles were converted to schools and
hospitals during the Communist period and then abandoned in the
early 1990s, now there are plans to restore and modernise them."
The Art Newspaper 08/14/01
FAMOUS DOG
NEEDS GOOD HOME. COST, $943,000: The Museum of Fine Arts in
Houston bought "The Molossian Hound," a rare Roman statue,
from its British owner. But the British government has delayed
the deal, to give the British museum a chance to meet the sale
price and keep the marble mastiff where he is. USAToday 08/14/01
ANYWAY, THEY
AGREE ON THE TITLE: The Prado bought "The Raising of
Lazarus" at Sotheby's for $1.8 million. Sotheby's insists
the painting is by seventeenth-century artist Jusepe de Ribera.
The ex-director of the gallery says "it is not by Ribera
and has no business to be in the Prado.” The painting is being
kept in storage while the experts duke it out. The Art Newspaper 08/14/01
Tuesday
August 14
WALL
ME IN: Since he visited the Berlin Wall in 1971, architect
Rem Koolhaas has been fascinated with walls. They're not just
divisions, they have philosophical dimensions that define ideas.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 08/14/01
YES
ON NUDE BARBIES: A US judge rules that a Utah artist can use
Barbie dolls as parody in his work. “The ruling doesn’t mean it’s
open season (to exploit products by) Mattel, it means there is
a certain amount of breathing room for artists who want to use
a commercial symbol that has tremendous cultural meaning, for
purposes of artistic expression.” MSNBC
(Reuters) 08/13/01
ART
ONLINE: "In Canada, where the art market is small and
dominated by a handful of established auction houses, the industry
is very nearly a closed sphere, where collectors and dealers do
business based on ties forged years, sometimes decades, earlier."
But a six-year-old company, by putting its entire catalogues online,
has quietly become the second largest art seller in the country.
National Post (Canada) 08/14/01
MILLION
POINTS OF LIGHT: Artist James Downey wants to recruit millions
of laser-pointer owners to shine their devices at a spot on the
moon and light it up. One problem? A scientist says the physics
of the project don't work out. MSNBC
(Space.com) 08/14/01
DEFENDING
THE NATIONAL: The director of the National Museum of Australia
is defending the museum from charges of accusations of "fabricated
exhibitions, too much razzle-dazzle, and excessive use of oral
history and audio-visuals." Canberra
Times 08/14/01
SLAVERY
MUSEUM: The city of Charleston South Carolina contemplates
building a museum about slavery. "It would be one of the
most daring steps yet taken to bring the story of slavery to large
numbers of people in the South, where there are still many monuments
to Confederate heroes and where generations of politicians embraced
the view that slave life was not all that bad." The
New York Times 08/14/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
DIFFICULT
CONCEPT: Provocative artist Tracey Emin speaks out about her
controversial conceptual art: "If people say it's a joke or a
confidence trick I'd say they're not very interested in art."
BBC 08/14/01
Monday
August 13
UNHAPPY
NEIGHBORS: The Metropolitan Museum is undergoing a 200,000
square-foot expansion, but the museum's Upper East Side neighbors
are rallying in protest. "For months now, the Met has doggedly
defended its plan, arguing that the expansion is vital to its
survival as a world-class cultural institution. But nearby residents
have come to view the Met as the Sherman tank of Upper East Side
institutions: hulking, unwieldy and seemingly invincible."
New York Observer 08/08/01
WHY
THE FRENCH LAG: Why have French artists lagged behind internationally?
"French artists are very little present on the world stage,
particularly at the great contemporary art fairs and sales – Basel
and New York, for example." The
Art Newspaper 08/10/01
MUSEUMS
IN INDIA: "Arguably, the very idea of the museum remains
alien to millions of people in India in the absence of an identifiable
museum culture. Indeed, if Indian museums, for the most part,
have virulently resisted being decolonised, this phenomenon needs
to be linked to the absence of any sustained attempt to re-imagine
their postcolonial condition." ARTIndia
08/01
LEONARDO
TOUR: To celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 50 years on the throne
next year, the queen is sending her collection of priceless Leonardo
drawings on a tour of the country. BBC
09/13/01
Sunday
August 12
CAN'T
RESTRICT ART: A US federal judge has ruled that New York mayor
Rudy Giuliani's administration can't force street artists to get
permits to show their work on city streets. City attorneys say
they will appeal. The
New York Times 08/11/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
NUMBERS
GAME: To hear some museum directors talk these days, you'd
think the most important part of their job was to get as many
people possible through their front doors. "So museums have
reached admirable attendance numbers. Now the question is, at
what cost? How do museums balance education and entertainment,
all the while keeping track of their admissions?"
Chicago Tribune 08/12/01
FRANCE
ON THE RISE: Reforms in French auction law should propel the
country to the top of the auction world. "It [France] sits
on a hoard of works of art that, unlike Britain's, has notbeen
bled dry. It retains a vast constituency of passionate collectors
in every field, at every financial level, who represent a force
as essential to the successful outcome of an auction as a supportive
public is to a football team's victory." International
Herald Tribune 08/11/01
LACK
OF VISION: Visual art is the poor relation at the Edinburgh
Festival. "The contents of the official programme are enough
to show that the planners are interested only in opera, concerts
and plays. The exhibitions aren't mentioned even in passing. According
to the man at the top, festival director Brian McMaster, the visual
arts are more than capable of looking after themselves."
Sunday Times (UK) 08/12/01
MORE
CURATORS (OR ELSE): Glasgow's museums have been given an ultimatum
by the National Heritage Lottery Fund - hire 21 more curators
and fire some of those overpaid janitors and security guards or
you won't get this year's £8 million grant. Sunday
Times (UK) 08/12/01
INSIDE,
OUTSIDE: Shouldn't a museum reflect (even just a little bit)
the experience awaiting inside? The Texas State History Museum
has plenty of colorful stories to tell inside. But on the outside,
its new building is as sober as the Federal Reserve. Dallas
Morning News 08/12/01
TEAMWORK
OR COMPETITION? Baltimore has two large museums - the Walters
and the Baltimore Museum of Art. But the city is shrinking - fewer
people, less resources. So there's a proposal to combine operations
of both in an attempt to give them both greater prominence. But
is the city better served by the "genteel rivalry that traditionally
has existed between the two museums?" Baltimore
Sun 08/12/01
HERITAGE
SELLING: "Today's Aboriginal art has little to do with
the ethnological image of atavistic tribal culture. Besides representing
the creation myth of the Australian natives, the so-called 'Dreamings,'
it has begun to rewrite colonial and postcolonial history."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 08/12/01
Friday
August 10
SELLING
GERMAN TREASURES: The sale of a rare map, made in 1507, to
the American Library of Congress for $10 million, violated German
laws on the export of national treasures. The map "was the
first to map the continent of America, erroneously naming it after
the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci," and the German
government okayed the sale as a "token of friendship."
But what does this say about the state of German culture? Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 08/10/01
IN-COUNTRY:
The English government has placed an export ban on seven works
of art and is lookignfor buyers for the works within the UK. The
Art Newspaper 08/08/01
LAS
VEGAS - CITY OF CULTURE? “The Venetian Guggenheim and Hermitage
represent a quantum leap forward in the development of Las Vegas
as a place that has redefined the meaning of entertainment.” The
Economist 08/09/01
MAKING
IT IN ART: "Over the last couple of decades schools and
other institutions have recognized the art student's need for
more practical guidance. So they have designed programs to help
young artists figure out how to achieve and sustain rewarding
careers as professionals in a market- driven art world."
The New York Times 08/10/01
(one-time registration required for access)
WHAT
ROLE MUSEUMS? The wave of new museums featuring splashy architecture
misunderstands the environment in which art wants to be. "Museums
should not be built. They should be places which already exist,
established by proclamation, chosen by acclamation."
The Art Newspaper 08/08/01
Thursday
August 9
PHOTOGRAPHED
NAZI LOOT: Dresden's Deutsche Fotothek has recently discovered
a photography archive of 1,000 glas negatives thought to document
artwork bought for Hitler's personal museum. The trove had been
held by the Stasi, the former East Germany's secret police, and
the photos could shed significant light on missing artwork looted
by the Nazis. Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 08/09/01
SPANISH
THIEVES MAKE A MAJOR HAUL: More than 20 important works of
art have been reported stolen from a home in Madrid. The works
include "The Donkey's Fall" and "The Swing"
by Goya, "Eragny Landscape" by Pisarro, and "St.
Anthony's Temptations" by Brueghel. BBC 09/09/01
Wednesday
August 8
ART
FOR HIRE: Should artists be paid by the hour? An Australian
group "comprising economists, researchers and gallery representatives,
have proposed a per hour, sliding scale of earnings, dependent
on the artist's seniority. Top dogs of the art world who are commissioned
to place work in public foyers should receive $125 per hour, they
say, while emerging artists should be paid at a rate of $30 per
hour." Sydney Morning Herald
08/08/01
BUILDING
BIND: Critics might be raving about the new Gehry-designed
Disney concert hall in Los Angeles, but the workers building it
hate it. "Forget about that construction site standard, the
blueprint. Forget about anything that covers a trifling two dimensions
- the way construction documents do in more standard buildings.
In Frank Gehry's world, everything is 3-D, and the construction
workers are swept along - or left behind." Los
Angeles Times 08/07/01
BUY
BRAZILIAN: Brazil is awash in art - and pretty good art at
that. But Europe and the US know little about it. "For once
this is no bad thing: the artists have such an eager market at
home they have little need for us tourists."
The Times (UK) 08/08/01
ANYBODY SEEN A MONET AROUND
HERE? KLEE? HOW ABOUT DEGAS? During their reign in the Philippines,
the Marcoses accumulated a great deal of art. But the Presidential
Commission on Good Government, though it did track down a once-missing
Picasso, still is unable to find some "20 paintings with
an estimated value of around $1 million each," including
work by Degas, Klee, and Monet. inq7.net Philippines) 08/07/01
UNIQUELY HATEFUL
ART: The centerpiece of the medieval art collection at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art is an ivory cross, the Bury St. Edmunds
Cross. The ever-irrepressible Thomas Hoving, former director of
the Met and the man who acquired the cross, calls it an anti-Semitic
work, "as if Hitler and Michelangelo collaborated."
The Met's curator of medieval art disagrees. U.S. News 08/13/01
WHO
NEEDS CLOTHES WHEN YOU CAN FLY? The granite mural on the floor
at Los Angeles International Airport is "meant to depict
early man's desire to fly," according to the artist. Perhaps
to emphasize the idea of freedom, the men in the mural, leaping
skyward, are nude. Complaints were made. The City Cultural Affairs
Commission says it will not reconsider its original approval of
the work. Freedom Forum 08/07/01
Tuesday August 7
A
"FOR-PROFIT" PRADO? The Spanish parliament is considering
whether to turn over control of the Prado - one of the world's
great museums - to a commercial company, following the recommendation
of an American consulting group. "Virtually every curator in the
Prado has signed a letter objecting to the Boston Consulting Group's
report, the basis of the proposed law."
The Art Newspaper 08/06/01
PRETTY
EXPENSIVE FOR A NEWFIE JOKE: A furor has erupted over the
planned construction of "The Rooms," a new CAN$47 million
arts and culture complex in St. John's, Newfoundland. The Rooms,
which is to be modelled partly after aspects of local homegrown
architecture, is being built on top of some rather significant
old ruins, and some local authorities are outraged. Supporters
claim the complex will be Newfoundland's answer to the Sydney
Opera House. Opponents call it "a Newfie joke in glass, steel
and concrete." The Globe & Mail
(Toronto) 08/07/01
ART
SEIZURE: The French government has seized the archives of
the Giacometti Foundation (the collection is worth £90 million).
The seizure is the latest move in a legal dispute between the
government and Giacometti heirs about whether the foundation was
set up for the purpose of avoiding taxes.
The Art Newspaper 08/06/01
Monday
August 6
PAYING
TO PLAY: The Smithsonian has been flailing about from one
controversy to the next this year. Among other things, the institution
is trying to sort out overlapping donations from two of its biggest
donors. And for a project that has been heavily criticized both
in and outside the museum. The New
York Times 08/06/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
OUR
KINDA TOWN: The Guggenheim and Hermitage museums are set to
open in Las Vegas next month. The $30 million project will consist
of two separate museums - the 63,700-square-foot Guggenheim Las
Vegas, and the 7,660-square-foot Hermitage Guggenheim Museum,
featuring works from both the Hermitage and the Guggenheim. "Today
the profile of a typical Las Vegas visitor increasingly approximates
the profile of the visitors upon which every major museum in the
world - including the Hermitage and the Guggenheim - depends,
and to which they communicate." Las
Vegas Sun 08/05/01
MUSSELS
ANYONE? "Until recently, the architectural mainstream
was determined by the dictates of absolute stringency. The colder
and stricter, the barer, purer and finer, the better." Now,
thanks to new computer design techniques, new shapes based on
biological objects are popping up all over. Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 08/05/01
OFF-PEAK
VIEWING: Overcrowding of popular museums has done much to
spoil the museum experience. So more and more British museums
are extending their hours late into the evenings to smooth out
the crowds. The Guadian (UK) 08/04/01
Sunday
August 5
EDINBURGH
KICKS OFF: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival just happens to be
the biggest arts festival in the world, but it prides itself on
quality, not quantity. The massive celebration has set a record
for ticket sales this year, and "acts booked for the official
festival include the New York City Ballet, the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project, and the
Vienna Burgtheater." BBC 08/05/01
PILING
ON THE TATE: As Britain's Tate Modern continues to search
for someone to take on the increasingly thankless task of "recommending"
new works for its collection, critics of the museum's reliance
on "conceptual" arts are becoming louder. "Allegations
of cronyism and insider dealing abound. At stake is nothing less
than the future of art in 21st-century Britain, and the war has
become most focused in the power struggle between figurative and
conceptual art." The Herald (Glasgow)
08/04/01
MUSEUM
MERGER TALK IN BALTIMORE: "A group of Baltimore cultural
leaders is urging administrators and board members of the city's
two nationally significant fine art museums to explore the long,
largely unmapped road toward a merger. The idea is neither new
nor universally welcomed. But it is gathering force at a time
when the city has reduced its financial support of arts institutions
and is fueled by a growing desire in art circles for Baltimore
to hold its own as a cultural destination against cities such
as Philadelphia and Washington." Baltimore
Sun 08/04/01
ADAMS
EXHIBIT OPENS IN SF: "The first comprehensive exhibition
of Ansel Adams' work since his death in 1984 reinforces his status
as America's foremost nature photographer and secures a place
for his work on museum walls." Detroit
News (AP) 08/05/01
- WHAT
IF ADAMS HAD GONE DIGITAL? With the advent of digital technology,
the art of photography is likely to change forever. Many famous
photographers of the pre-digital era would likely have had little
use for the new technology, but Ansel Adams, who was so eager
to control every aspect of his work, would likely have embraced
the form. San Francisco Chronicle
08/05/01
CAPTURING
A SOLDIER'S GROWTH: Photographer Rineke Dijkstra has always
been fascinated by the changes people go through as their lives
progress, and her photos reflect the uncertainties of such change:
"frankly expressive, roughly life-size, head-on views of
people at points of change in their lives or moments when they
are vulnerable or not quite composed before the camera."
Her newest project finds her following a new recruit to the French
Foreign Legion. Arizona Republic (NYT
News Service) 08/05/01
Friday
August 3
RODIN
DISPUTE: A show of 60 casts of Rodin sculptures set to open
later this year at the Royal Ontario Museum is under attack by
the director of Paris's Rodin Museum; he says some of the casts
weren't made while the artist was alive. CBC
08/02/01
BILL
GATES' ART SPREE: Billionaire Bill Gates has been active in
the art markets in the past year - $10 million for a William Merrit
Chase here, $20 million for a Childe Hassam there... "They
[Gates and his wife, Melinda] have given a shot in the arm to
American art," says one informed source. "Gates's collection
has grown to include more than a dozen top–quality works, all
by American artists." ARTNews
07/01
LOOKING
FOR THE ART IN PUBLIC ART: The town of Hammond Indiana wants
to be a center of public art. As a first step, the city has painted
a 17-foot-tall reproduction of a Salvador Dali on a wall above
downtown. "It is the type of painting that brings notice, and
it is the kind of work that has people talking and scratching
their heads about it by its mere presence. Our goal is to invite
patrons of the arts and other interested parties to make this
location a Midwest mecca for public art - be it sculptures, murals,
fountains or reproductions such as this one." Ottawa
Citizen (AP) 08/03/01
Thursday
August 2
PRESERVING ANCIENT
MONUMENTS IN FRANCE: The French government has comitted Ffr
600 million ($86 million) for restoration and preservation of
sites in the South of France. "These include the arena and
amphitheatre at Arles, the amphitheatre at Vaison-la-Romaine and
the amphitheatre and triumphal arch in Orange. Most of the sites
attract a large number of visitors and have suffered as a result,
to the point where they are forced to be partially closed to prevent
further damage. " The Art Newspaper 08/01/01
BURIED
HISTORY: An important work by David Alfaro Siqueiros, the
Mexican muralist, made during an exile of several months in Argentina
in 1933, has been stored buried in five rusty barrels outside
Buenos Aries since a judge ordered it there in the early 1990s.
Historians worried the fresco may be damaged, want to unbury it,
but a decade-old legal battle stands in the way. The
New York Times 08/02/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
CURATORS UNDER ATTACK:
Is the traditional curator a dying breed? If not dead, then certainly
under attack: "The most penetrating attack is one that some curators
themselves are abetting. Instead of insisting on carte blanche
to research the past and present it to the public, they are beginning
to welcome to the table members of the communities whose stories
are being told. In the best cases, this can result in more authentic
and revealing exhibitions; in the worst, blandness, incoherence,
or self-congratulation." The
American Prospect 08/13/01
EVEN THE QUEEN
SUFFERS FOR THE SAKE OF HER ART: It's hot in England this
summer. While commoners are buying air conditioning at a record
pace, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother will have to grin and bear
it. “In certain rooms there are delicate artefacts and collectibles
which need to be kept in controlled environments to preserve them.
Consequently, it is generally thought that air-conditioning is
not suitable.” The Times (UK)
08/01/01
US EMBASSIES
WILL DISPLAY DONATED ART: "Donations of American art
- 245 items worth about $15 million - will be made available for
display in U.S. embassies around the world. Most items are late
20th century works by artists who include Andy Warhol, Andrew
Wyeth, Frank Stella and their contemporaries. A few go back to
earlier in the century - pictures by John Sloan and George Bellows
- while one is a portrait done by John Singleton Copley in 1782."
Nando Times 08/01/01
SOMEWHERE
BETWEEN OEDIPUS AND FATHER KNOWS BEST: Thirty
years ago a US sailor took a chunk of marble from an amphitheatre
in Athens; now his son has returned it to the Greek Embassy. A
simple case of returning an artifact to its original site, you
may say. But if you remember those ancient Greeks, the relationships
of fathers and sons was anything but simple.... Washington Post 08/01/01
Wednesday
August 1
WILL
PURGE FOR FOOD: The secret sale of an important old map -
the first to chart the existence of the New World - to America
by German officials entrusted to protect Germany's national treasures,
is an indication of how broke Germany has become. It is "a
scandal of the first order." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 07/31/01
CANADIAN
EXHIBIT DEFENDED: "A Canadian exhibit featuring the work
of Auguste Rodin is authentic, says the man behind the project,
even though a Paris museum devoted to the famous sculptor has
suggested the display is a fraud." Ottawa
Citizen (CP) 08/01/01
THE
RETURN OF MODERNISM? The free-thinking purveyors of Modernist
architecture enjoyed a brief period of wild popularity in the
mid-twentieth century, but their work was soon overtaken by a
return to traditionalism as the Cold War imposed a more sober
mindset on the world. But now, the work of the Modernists is regaining
the respect it originally had, and more Modernist structures are
being built than ever before. But some worry that the trendiness
of the movement has caused its principles to be forgotten. Nando
Times (CSM News Service) 07/31/01
GETTING
ON THE FRONT PAGE: The recent record-setting auction of a
sketch by Leonardo made front-page headlines all over the world.
But the stories didn't seem to be much about anything to do with
art. "Good art is difficult, slippery stuff, hard to get
a handle on for even the most expert. That's why we love an occasion
when we can substitute talk about something we're all at home
with -- like buying and selling, or an artist's life and times,
for that matter -- for real art talk. We believe that important
art is the kind of thing we ought to read about in our high-class
morning papers. But it can only make the news when it gets pulled
out of the bog of aesthetics, into the good, crisp world of business,
politics, sex or scandal." The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 08/01/01
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