Sunday
September 30
HOW
SHOULD ARCHITECTURE WORK? Is a building important mostly for
how it looks or for how people interact with it? "Why are
architects so obsessed with models, which always take pride of
place in their offices? Why are buildings always photographed
empty? Too often, the 'user' is seen as an annoyance who gets
in the way of the rationality of the structure. But life is messy
and buildings have to take account of that." The
Guardian (UK) 09/29/01
A
CALL FOR CAREFUL CONSIDERATION: It seems like everyone has
a vision for the future of the World Trade Center space in New
York. Memorials, new skyscrapers, and a massive public park have
all been proposed. "This rush to design is worth thinking
about. It will be months and years before the cultural meaning
of the World Trade Center catastrophe comes into approximate focus.
But the collective projection of architectural fantasies bears
scrutiny as it is happening." The
New York Times 09/30/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
- TOWERING
LIGHTS: "A team of artists and architects is planning
to erect a massive light sculpture to simulate the outline of
the 110-storey World Trade Center. Beams of xenon light stabbing
skyward would coalesce into a kind of apparition of the fallen
twin towers." Toronto Star
(first item) 09/29/01
A
LAND NO LONGER THERE: "Written in 1977 by Nancy Hatch
Dupree, An Historical Guide to Afghanistan is a painful read.
The book evokes a country that has now completely vanished: of
miniskirted schoolgirls cruising round Kabul; of fascinating Buddhist
relics; and of donkeys plodding across the mountains loaded with
the wine harvest. Most of the chapters are now redundant. The
Taliban has pulverised the Kabul museum (chapter four) and dynamited
the Bamiyan Buddhas ('one of man's most remarkable achievements',
chapter seven)." The Guardian
(UK) 09/29/01
DOING
WHAT THEY CAN: The desire to help the victims of the attack
in one's own way has been ultimately visible in the multifaceted
artistic community of America's largest city. "In New York,
imprompt memorials to those lost Sept. 11 are going up, created
not only by artists but also by mourners and passers-by and children."
Baltimore Sun 09/30/01
Friday
September 28
SMITHSONIAN
HIT HARD: The world's most-visited musuem complex has been
crippled by the September 11 events. "Some days Smithsonian-wide
attendance has dropped almost three-quarters from the same day
last year. For example, last Sunday only 22,000 people visited
the Smithsonian's museums on the Mall, compared with 75,000 on
the same Sunday a year ago." Washington
Post 09/28/01
THREAT
OF SLOWDOWN: Generally, the New York terrorist attacks won't
have a big impact on the art and antiques business. "The
big problem will be the economic slowdown. Some dealers are already
doing less business, and finding it harder to extract payment
on antiques sold. Fairs will also suffer. The first victim was
this week's new 20th-century art fair organised by the indefatigable
London dealers Brian and Anna Haughton in New York." Financial
Times 09/28/01
Thursday
September 27
WHAT
IS POSSIBLE: "What was possible in Berlin in 1995 after
decades of preparation was no longer thinkable today. The euphoria
has faded, disillusionment and skepticism have taken over. Also,
discourse in art has struck more solemn notes in recent years.
The gestures and services known as "social action" are preferred
to singular, monumental works." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 09/27/01
IS
VAN GOGH ACTUALLY A GAUGUIN? Is a sunflower painting thought
to be by Van Gogh really by Gauguin? "After examining letters
between the two artists and other correspondence" a respected
Italian art magazine says the painting "was copied by Gauguin
from a genuine Van Gogh." National
Post (Canada) 09/26/01
ART(ISTS)
IN THE WTC: Few people knew that there were artists working
in the World Trade Center. "For the last few years the Lower
Manhattan Cultural Council had rented out floors to artists a
few months at a time. There was always the occasional empty space
in the towers because they were normally leased for 10 years at
a time rather then piecemeal." At least one artist is thought
to have died in the tower attack. The
Art Newspaper 09/24/01
IF
YOU AUCTION IT, WILL THEY BUY? Buyers, sellers, auction houses,
show organizers - everyone is worried about the Fall art season.
It's a half-billion dollar occasion, or it was projected to be
one. Now with postponements of shows, disruption of travel and
shipping plans, market jitters, and financial uncertainties, no
one is sure what to expect. The New York Times o9/27/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
TO
POSTPONE OR NOT TO POSTPONE: The Canadian Museum of Civilization
scheduled an exhibition featuring the work of 25 Arab-Canadian
artists, then decided to postpone it. One of the artists complained
that the museum had "missed an opportunity to promote understanding
of Arab culture at a time Arabs need it most." In
Parliament, an opposition MP and the Prime Minister both agreed.
The next move is up to the museum, which has so far been reluctant
to comment. CBC 09/27/01
POLITICS
OF REBUILDING: There is still a mountain of rubble where the
World Trade Center once stood, but already there are politicians
and fund-raisers and businesspeople and historians and cultural
critics and architects and Heaven-knows-how-many-others trying
to decide just what ought to be built in its place. If anything.
Washington Post 09/26/01
Wednesday
September 26
THE ON-LINE HERMITAGE:
With 3 million items spread over 14 square kilometers, Russia's
Hermitage Museum is one of the largest - and least-fully-explored
- art treasuries in the world. Many of its prized pieces from
each period are now on display on-line, along with views of the
inside of the museum itself. The
Moscow Times 09/26/01
ENSURING
ADDED COST: A new Australian law mandates that Aussie museums
start getting commercial insurance for exhibitions. "The
outsourced insurance policy supersedes a Commonwealth-managed,
self-funded insurance program, Art Indemnity Australia, which
for 20 years operated with internationally recognised success
at almost no cost." The new commercial alternative will cost
$1.5 million a year." Sydney
Morning Herald 09/26/01
SCROLLING
ON BY: The Dead Sea Scrolls were supposed to be put on display
in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Olympics. But concerns over
travel and the precious documents' security have forced cancellation.
BBC 09/25/01
SIMPLE
SHRINES AND STREET-CORNER ALTARS: In the wake of sudden and
violent and public death, we are more and more finding simple
shrines. "They are personal. They are peaceful. They are
human. And they seem to be part of an increasingly common way
of publicly mourning the dead in this country, in New York, in
Oklahoma City, in Colorado, and in Chicago." Chicago Tribune 09/25/01
Tuesday
September 25
WTC
ART LOSSES: Estimates of losses of art (only in the destroyed
World Trade Towers, not in surrounding buildings) are estimated
at $100 million by AXA Nordstern Art Insurance, the world's largest
art insurer. The Art Newspaper 09/24/01
POWER
OF IMAGE: Looking at photographs of the World Trade Center
destruction "I know that I am not the only person who is
uneasy about the magnetic pull of these photographs, about the
hold they have on us, about the need we seem to have to keep looking
at them. What, I ask after a while, is the point of looking at
such pictures, at least the point of looking at them so much?
Perhaps some insight can be gained by thinking about the need
that the English had to make a visual record of the calamities
raining down on them, of the urge they had to record the weird
horrific beauty of the Blitz." The
New Republic 09/18/01
Monday
September 24
THE
GREAT AUCTION FRAUD: Now it can be revealed that a glittering
art auction held 11 years ago, involving work by Picasso, Modigliani,
Dubuffet, Derain and Miró and netting £49 million, involved
a tangled story of embezzlement, paper companies, and "the
exploitation of two elderly art lovers who entrusted their collection's
disposal" to the respected Drouot auction house. The
Observer (UK) 09/23/01
WHY
HER? What is it about the Mona Lisa that has made it such
a cultural icon? "The renown and meanings of the Mona Lisa
have been the product of a long history of political and geographical
accidents, fantasies conjured up, connections made, and images
manufactured.There is no single explanation for the origins and
development of the global craze surrounding this painting."
New Statesman 09/24/01
Sunday
September 23
ROTTEN
RODIN: Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum major show of Rodin
sculptures is likely to be remembered as Canada's most controversial
and most frustrating exhibition of the year. Controversial because
of the disputed nature of the sculptures and the show's lousyt
scholarship. Frustrating because the art in this show gives no
sense of its context. The Globe &
Mail (Canada) 09/22/01
THE
HORROR OF IT ALL: The last 50 years in British art have been
a battle for realism. And violence. "It is no coincidence
that two of the most important artists since the second world
war should both dramatise extremes of violence in an attempt to
heighten our awareness of our own mortality. In fact, you could
argue that the most important British art of the past 50 years
has been preoccupied with the subject."
The Guardian (UK) 09/22/01
THE
ARCHITECTURE OSCARS: What's wrong with a prize for architecture?
"Like the Booker, which exists mainly to sell more books,
or the Oscars, whose primary purpose is to decorate cinema posters,
the Stirling Prize is mostly about marketing. The prize was dreamed
up during one of those waves of self-pity to which architects
are prone. What hurts is not that nobody loves them, it's that
everybody ignores them. Enter the Stirling Prize, an event made
to get architecture out of the ghetto. Let's get on television,
let's show that we matter." The
Observer (UK) 09/23/01
THE
FUTURE OF SKYSCRAPERS: "Until September 11, the skyscraper
enthusiasts felt that everything was going their way. In this
country [England], they were confident of winning next month's
public inquiry into the proposed Heron Tower at Bishopsgate in
the City of London and of pushing through Renzo Piano's much higher
tower intended for London Bridge. Now they are nervous, as can
be seen in a statement Norman Foster put out on Tuesday this week,
stressing the risks to all buildings with high concentrations
of people, not just towers, and calling for a period of calm reflection
and careful analysis." The Telegraph
(UK) 09/22/01
HOCKNEY'S
HERESY: David Hockney's theory that Ingres worked from a projection
of an image brought the "predictable, dismissive response:
Hockney was mad, he had a bee in his bonnet. To which the artist
calmly replied when we recently spent an evening discussing the
subject: 'Well, I know something that they don't.' Now, with the
publication of this book, he lets the rest of us in on the secret.
And his contentions are pretty astounding - not merely that some
artists used certain bags of tricks, but that, effectively, the
photographic way of looking at the world, through optical equipment,
pre-dates, by centuries, the invention of photography itself."
The Telegraph (UK) 09/22/01
Friday
September 21
ART
FAIR CANCELED: "The third annual International Art and
Design Fair, 1900-2001, scheduled to open at the armory on Sept.
29, was canceled this week. The fates of dozens of other fairs
are now in question, too, including the International Fine Art
and Antique Dealers Show and others like it, which have been part
of the New York social calendar for decades." The
New York Times 09/21/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
SELLING
ART TO RAISE MONEY: The Church of England has decided to sell
a collection of valuable paintings housed by the church in Durham
since the mid-1700s. They're reported to be worth £20m. "They
are works in the series Jacob And His Twelve Sons by the 17th
Century Spanish painter Francesco de Zuberán, a contemporary of
Velasquez and El Greco."Church officials say the sale will
"raise much-needed funds, particularly for the north east."
BBC 09/21/01
REBUILD, YES. BUT WHAT?
"The urge to make buildings higher and higher has been fading
for the last few years, for purely practical reasons. Constructing
towers of a hundred stories or more isn't much of a challenge
technologically today, but it is not particularly economical,
either. It never was." In fact, "smaller
buildings on the World Trade Center site might be necessary.
After all, what businesses or residents will want to occupy the
upper floors of replica towers, and what companies would want
to insure them?" The New Yorker & ABCNews 09/24/01
THE
MODERN REACH FOR THE SKY: The great modernist skyscrapers
weren't built just to be big. They were meant as a statement repudiating
decoration and clutter. "A building should not derive meaning
and character from the historical motifs that cluttered its skin,
but from the direct, logical expression of its purpose and materials.
This was the edict of functionalism, that—as Louis Sullivan put
it—'form follows function'.” The New
Criterion 09/01
Thursday
September 20
SAVING
ANGKOR WAT: "Angkor Wat in Cambodia, said to be the world’s
single largest archaeological site, is being worked on by a multi-national
force of restorers. "In this free-for-all, there might well
be the temptation to experiment on new techniques and chemicals,
in the knowledge that there will be little monitoring of what
is being done." But things are harmonious. "This is
largely thanks to the efforts of UNESCO, which recognised Angkor
as a World Heritage Site in 1992 and formed an International Co-ordination
Committee (ICC)." The Art Newspaper
09/20/01
ANOTHER
SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM DIRECTOR QUITS: Spencer Crew, director
of the National Museum of American History, is leaving to become
chief executive officer of the National Underground Railroad Freedom
Center in Cincinnati. Although he is "the fifth Smithsonian
museum director to leave since Lawrence Small became secretary
of the institution 21 months ago," Crew insisted his departure
was "not related to the decisions or management style of
Small." Washington Post
09/20/01
REBUILDING
THE TOWERS - A COMPLEX ISSUE: The towers of the World Trade
Center now are such a powerful image that there's already much
discussion about re-building them. But is that a good idea? The
record shows that, from the time they were proposed, many critics
thought they were ugly, and worse. Another factor is our fascination
with ruins. "Can a way of life that has been so fractured
ever truly be put back together?" Boston
Globe & The New Republic 09/20/01
ATLANTIS MAY HAVE
BEEN RIGHT WHERE PLATO SAID IT WAS: A speculative survey of
the coastline of Western Europe 19,000 years ago - when the sea
level was 130 meters lower than now - shows "an ancient archipelago,
with an island at the spot where Plato described Atlantis."
It's just beyond the Pillars of Hercules, what we now call the
Strait of Gibraltar. The New
Scientist 09/19/01
A VENETIAN GUGGENHEIM,
WITH SWISS HELP: "A deal has been brokered between the
Guggenheim Foundation and the Banca del Gottardo, based in Lugano,
Switzerland. Under the terms of the agreement, the Swiss bank
will provide 'considerable', but as yet undisclosed, sums of money
to fund the Guggenheim’s expansion plans in Venice."
The Art Newspaper 09/20/01
Wednesday
September 19
CONQUERING
STATUE: A three-stories-high giant statue of a conquistador
astride his horse is set to be erected in the Texas city of El
Paso. "There's only one hitch. Don Juan de Onate is no graceful
symbolic Lady Liberty welcoming the huddled masses but a real-life
perpetrator of atrocities, who thought nothing of ordering his
men to chop off the legs of uncooperative Indians and was eventually
condemned by his own superiors for using 'excessive force'. More
than four centuries after Onate forded the Rio Grande at what
is now El Paso with 300 Spanish-speaking settlers hungry to make
their fortunes, his name for many still has an ugly and bloody
resonance." The Telegraph (UK)
09/19/01
YOUR
INNER PORTRAIT: What could capture your essence better than
a strand of your DNA? "London's National Portrait Gallery
has unveiled its first entirely conceptual portrait - DNA of the
leading genetic scientist Sir John Sulston." BBC
09/19/01
NEW
YORK'S OUTSIDE(R) ART: Last week's World Trade Center tragedy
"has already created, virtually overnight, a new category
of outsider art: the astounding impromptu shrines and individual
artworks that have proliferated along New York's streets and in
its parks and squares. Alternating missing-person posters with
candles, flowers, flags, drawings and messages of all kinds, these
accumulations bring home the enormity of the tragedy in tangles
of personal detail." The New
York Times 09/19/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
Tuesday
September 18
38
MUSEUMS AFFECTED IN LOWER MANHATTAN: The American Association
of Museums sets up a website to provide information on museums
and staff in the affected area of lower Manhattan. There are 38
museums within the zone. American
Association of Museums
THAT
BURNING IMAGE: What images will come to symbolize last week's
World Trade Center disaster? There were too many pictures all
at once. "Typically, words precede the creation of iconic
images. A story is told, then a picture forms. What is an icon,
after all, but art's equivalent of the word made flesh. But the
word comes first. Icons illustrate existing faith and doctrine,
which is often inchoate until the picture comes along and suddenly
sorts out the disarray. Then, a gathering critical mass of people
sees the image and collectively knows, 'That's it!' " Los
Angeles Times 09/17/01
$10
MILLION IN PUBLIC ART LOST IN ATTACK: "Experts familiar
with the public art displayed in and around the World Trade Center
estimated its value alone at more than $10 million. Among the
prized works were a bright-red 25-foot Alexander Calder sculpture
on the Vesey Street overpass at Seven World Trade Center, a painted
wood relief by Louise Nevelson that hung in the mezzanine of One
World Trade Center, a painting by Roy Lichtenstein from his famous
"Entablature" series from the 1970s in the lobby of Seven World
Trade Center, and Joan Miro's "World Trade Center" tapestry from
1974." San Francisco Chronicle
09/18/01
RENEGING
ON ART: A man runs up a bill of more than $1 million at Sotheby's
tribal art sales, then refuses to pay the bill later. What's an
auction house to do? The Art Newspaper
09/17/01
ROYAL
ART HISTORY: England's Prince (and future king) William's
"decision to take history of art at university has created
a major dilemma for the relatively small community of academic
art historians in UK universities. William will focus an unprecedented
spotlight on the discipline but, in doing so, he may only reinforce
the stereotypes the subject is so desperately trying to rid itself
of." The Guardian (UK) 09/18/01
Monday
September 17
NEW
NATIONAL GALLERY HEAD: The British Museum is said to be ready
to appoint Neil MacGregor as head of the National Gallery. He
has been "described as a national treasure for his inspirational
stewardship of the Trafalgar Square gallery and leadership of
the campaign to scrap admission charges." The
Guardian (UK) 09/17/01
ANTI
ART-EATING: Bugs are causing so much damage of museum collections,
the British Museum is convening a major conference on what to
so about the problem. "Moths, flees, booklice, woodlice and
termites are among bugs that thrive on organic matter. Entire
objects — even entire collections — have been lost in museums
and libraries." The Times (UK)
09/17/01
AUCTION
COMPETITION: No. 3 auctioneer Phillips is merging with English
auction house Bonham. Together they'll make a formidable challenge
to the auction world's rulers "with four salerooms and two
warehouses in London, 64 premises in the provinces and 769 employees."
The Telegraph (UK) 09/17/01
SINGLES
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art has
reinvented. Forget art. While "in the past the MCA has been
in the news mainly because of its hard-fought battles against
financial ruin, now it suddenly seems to have become the new hot
spot for the city's hip young singles." Sydney
Morning Herald 09/17/01
HOLBEIN
DISCOVERY: The Victoria & Albert Museum discovers it has
a Holbein it didn't know it had. "This is an extremely important
discovery in the context of the subsequent development of the
English portrait miniature. When we cleaned the picture we realised
it was of extremely fine quality." The
Telegraph (UK) 09/17/01
Sunday
September 16
OLD
TRUTHS: How did great artists create masterpieces of enduring
vitality when they were old? Mostly it was an abiding curiosity.
"This curiosity about art assumed various guises. Some artists
addressed their loss of physical prowess by changing their medium.
When painters like Degas found themselves without the ability
to masterfully wield a brush, they turned to sculpture. In turn,
the sculptor Rodin turned to drawing." Christian
Science Monitor 09/14/01
CARING
FOR A MONUMENT: LA's Watts Towers have "endured a litany
of indignities ranging from a 10,000-pound stress test—conducted
by supporters in 1959 to prove that it wasn't a public hazard—to
vandalism, inept restoration, political corruption, bureaucratic
indifference and natural disasters." Since 1994 the towers
have been closed after earthquake damage. But as they reopen,
the question of who will look after them remains open. Los
Angeles Times 09/16/01
Friday
September 14
ASSESSING
THE V&A'S NEW DIRECTOR: "With its 12 acres and more
than 100 galleries the Victoria & Albert Museum is like a gigantic
oil tanker that will take many years to turn round. Some of the
galleries on its upper floors may linger in obscurity for a long
time to come, but after a succession of flamboyant, pressurised
and dogmatic directors the V&A seems to have acquired a steady
hand for its traditionally jittery tiller." Financial
Times 09/14/01
FIVE US MUSEUMS
RETURN TLINGIT ARTIFACTS: A century ago, an expedition led
by railroad tycoon E H Harriman plundered a Native American village
at Cape Fox in what is now southern Alaska. "The settlement
appeared abandoned, so Harriman’s party went ashore and helped
themselves to totem poles, a decorated house, ceremonial blankets
and other items, some of which later ended up in museums."
This summer, five prominent US museums - Smithsonian Institution,
the Field Museum of Chicago, the Peabody Museum at Harvard, the
Johnson Museum at Cornell, and the Burke Museum at the University
of Washington - returned a large part of the Harriman plunder.
The Art Newspaper 09/14/01
THE
BIGGEST BUILDING JOB EVER: When it was planned, and for many
years after it was built, the World Trade Center was the biggest
architectural project on earth. A New Yorker archive profile
details what went into the construction of that symbol whose destruction
is now a major image in American history and culture. The
New Yorker 09/13/01
Thursday
September 13
WHY
ARCHITECTURE MATTERS : "[D]estroying architecture for
political reasons is nothing new. The more important and powerful
its symbolism, the higher a building is likely to rank on the
target list of a bitter foe. The reasons are always the same.
Architecture is evidence - often extraordinarily moving evidence
- of the past. Buildings - their shapes, materials, textures and
spaces - represent culture in its most persuasive physical form.
Destroy the buildings, and you rob a culture of its memory, of
its legitimacy, of its right to exist." Washington
Post 09/13/01
DRAWING
AT HOME: The British government has banned a Michelangelo
drawing from traveling outside the country. The drawing was sold
to an American in 2000 and the government hopes to raise enough
money to buy it and keep it in the UK.
BBC 09/12/01
A QUARTER-BILLION
DOLLAR HEADACHE IN SEOUL: The National Museum of Korea was
designed to be the world's fifth-largest, and was scheduled for
completion next year. But, "In the wake of a highly critical
parliamentary report, NMK... is undergoing a comprehensive review.
The report... called on the government to re-examine the entire
project, stating that construction work so far had been shoddy
and calling into question hastily-made decisions on the museum’s
design and construction." The
Art Newspaper 09/13/01
CRITICAL
COLLECT: Critic Clement Greenberg spent a career collecting
art, often art by artists he wrote about. "Such an easy give
and take between artist and critic would be outrageous in the
current art world, with its sensitivity to the slightest appearance
of a conflict of interest. But this wasn’t the case in Greenberg’s
day, though to be sure he must have thought about it." MSNBC
09/12/01
WATER
DAMAGE: Monuments at Luxor and Karnak are in danger. "Scientists
have determined the lower portions of the ancient stone monuments
are slowly being corroded by water that contains a very high percentage
of Sodium Chloride (salt). The water is a result of a poorly designed
water disposal system constructed around the populated areas around
the priceless ruins." Egypt Today
09/01
IN
HIS LIFE: In less than a year, the John Lennon Museum has
drawn some 200.000 visitors. It presents "a serious, almost
scholarly look at Lennon's life, from his birth to his final days
in New York. His widow, Yoko Ono, cut the ribbon at the opening
ceremony and has provided the museum with about 100 of the 130
items on display." Remarkably, it's in a small suburb of
Tokyo. International Herald Tribune
09/13/01
- Previously:
IMAGINE
THIS: The world's first John Lennon Museum opens this week,
and it's not in Liverpool, London, or New York. It's in a Japanese
town 30 km north of Tokyo. Why there? "Could have something
to do with money. Construction company Taisei Corp. reached
an agreement with Yoko Ono last year to build the museum on
two floors of the spanking-new Saitama Super Arena."
Daily Yomiuri (Japan) 10/05/00
Wednesday
September 12
CAN
WE AFFORD OUR MUSEUMS? Artistic quality of our museums is
increasingly measured in terms of its popularity. But "can
we maintain the daily, costly and wide-ranging operation of our
museums? Should individual items be sold off from collections
to finance operations? Should we finally consider art collections
as nothing more than a fund - a type of savings deposit - to be
activated when necessary for superficial and alluring exhibition
events?" Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 09/12/01
TATE
WAKES: "When it opened last year, Tate Britain tried
its best not to be a great art museum. Thematic displays set aside
nearly the entire collection in favour of a thin and unenthusiastic
sample." Now the Tate has gone back to a conventional chronological
presentation and the Tate seems to have greater confidence in
its collection. The Guardian (UK)
09/12/01
TURNING
AROUND THE V&A: The Victoria & Albert Museum has a
problem with leadership. "It recruits directors like Henry
VIII took wives. It bashes them around. Then it spits them out.
Either the curators gang up on them, or the trustees do. Somewhere
in the V&A’s seven miles of labyrinthine corridors a wicked fairy
must lurk. Not for nothing is the place known as the Violent and
Angry Museum." But the new V&A director believes he can
turn things around. The Times (UK)
09/12/01
HOW
TO BE A STAR: How does star architect Norman Foster turn out
so many high-profile projects? It's the team, he says. "Employing
590 people, with a turnover of £35 million, the practice is currently
working in 18 countries from its offices in London, Berlin and
Singapore." The Telegraph 09/12/01
TURNING
CRIMINAL PASTS INTO ART: "A group of longtime... prisoners,
working with artists associated with the Village of Arts and Humanities,
a North Philadelphia community organization, have created self-portraits,
installations, monologues, videos, story quilts and poetry. Their
works are being presented at four venues throughout the city under
the collective title 'Unimaginable Isolation: Stories From Graterford.'"
Philadelphia Inquirer 09/12/0
WHAT
MAKES GOOD ABORIGINAL ART? "Aboriginal art is more than
just ochres on bark or paper, or acrylic compositions on canvas.
It represents a social history, an encyclopedia of the environment,
a place, a site, a season, a being, a song, a dance, a ritual,
an ancestral story and a personal history." So how do you
judge it? "What is the beauty and what is the beast? This
is the dilemma faced by judges of the annual National Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (this year's winner will
be announced in Darwin on Friday)." Sydney
Morning Herald 09/12/01
Tuesday
September 11
LESS
WAS MORE: Berlin's Jewish Museum is finally filled with material
after two years standing empty. Strangely, filling the building
diminishes its impact. "The 20 painful years of waiting that
preceded the founding of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the overpowering
force of Daniel Libeskind's empty rooms, the absurd dimensions
of the opening ceremony on Sunday evening: All these things were
bound to raise expectations to insane levels." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 09/11/01
ODD TIME TO QUIT: London dealer Anthony d'Offay is one of
the most successful, unpredictable and powerful international
art dealers. "One thing no one had foreseen was that, last
Tuesday, the 50 or so artists represented by his gallery - who
include Howard Hodgkin, Rachel Whiteread, Michael Craig-Martin
and Ron Mueck - would each receive a pro-forma letter, delivered
by courier, announcing their dealer's intention to shut up shop
at the end of the year." d'Offay intends to shut his four
London galleries. Financial Times
09/11/01
- LONG
LIVE THE KING: "While d’Offay’s name may be little
known outside the art scene, he is its commercial emperor, and
his gallery’s closure has the impact of an abdication."
The Times (UK) 09/11/01
CLEVELAND
PICKS AN ARCHITECT: "Rafael Vinoly, a 57-year-old native
of Uruguay who gave up a career as a concert pianist to become
a world-famous architect, has been chosen to design the renovation
and expansion of the Cleveland Museum of Art." The
Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 09/11/01
VENICE
UNDERWATER: "The mean sea level in Venice is 23 cm higher
than it was a hundred years ago, partly due to subsidence, partly
due to a rise in the water level of the lagoon. By the end of
this century, due to climate change sea levels generally are expected
to rise by 20 to 60 cm." This means the city will be under
water and uninhabitable unless something is done. The
Art Newspaper 09/10/01
Monday
September 10
REAL
FAKE/FAKE REAL: Of two Rembrandt self portraits, one was considered
authentic and the other a copy. But ten years ago, an expert concluded
that the real portrait was the copy and the copy was real. Now
they're sitting side by side in a Nuremberg museum so the public
can judge for themselves. Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 09/10/01
JEWISH
MUSEUM OPENS: "This opening of Berlin's Jewish Museum,
more than 10 years in the making, brought the German president,
Johannes Rau, the chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, and many others
to what had become an unmissable event. It was a bizarre and redemptive
mixture of social need and societal sorrow, so wrenching and compelling
that it seemed to encapsulate Germany's paradoxes."
International Herald Tribune 09/10/01
GETTING
BIGGER TO KEEP UP: Sotheby's moves into enormous new quarters
in London. "Millions of pounds have been spent on leasing
and altering the premises in an attempt to win back lost ground
in the middle market. Sotheby's needs to do this because it wasted
time and huge amounts of money on an ill-judged internet auctions
project, while Christie's traditional sales at its mid-market
South Kensington saleroom increased by seven per cent to £99 million
last year." The Telegraph (UK)
09/10/01
DEPARTING
DIRECTOR TAKES SHOTS: Outgoing British Museum managing director
Suzanna Taverne says the museum is in trouble and may have to
"cut opening hours, restrict access to certain galleries
and call off exhibitions because of a cash crisis." She also
said her short tenure at the museum was due in part to outdated
views by BM curators and board members about how the museum should
be run. Sunday Times (UK) 09/09/01
VENICE
DIGS UP THE PLAGUE: Venetian authorities are excavating a
long-submerged island in Venice's lagoon to look at two ancient
ships. "The island - the site of an abandoned 11th century
monastery - became a mass grave for scores of thousands of victims
of the plague, the Black Death, in 1348." BBC
09/07/01
FRESNO
DIRECTOR RESIGNS: Dyana Curreri-Ermatinger, who became director
of the Fresno Art Museum only six months ago, has resigned over
differences of direction with the museum's board. "We're
an institution trying to find a balance between being a sophisticated
contemporary art museum and still connect with all segments of
the population in an agrarian community." Fresno
Bee 09/10/01
Sunday
September 9
ART
ON TV: An ambitious new PBS series Art21: Art in the 21st
Century debuts this week. "Art21 rewrites the possibilities
for art on television. Its true subject is inspiration, and its
method scraps all the formulas by getting rid of narrators and
allowing artists to tell us in their own words how they work and
why they do what they do." The
New York Times 09/09/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
- HOW
WE DO IT: "The series features 21 contemporary artists,
famous and little-known. It's refreshingly free of artspeak.
The artists have been encouraged to talk plainly about what
drives them to make their art and to show how they go about
it. The series avoids traditional art terms that might help
explain some of the work at the price of distancing viewers
from it. Here there's no choice but to consider the art on its
own terms without the security blanket of labels."
San Jose Mercury News 09/09/01
JEWISH
MUSEUM OPENS: Berlin's Daniel Libeskind-designed Jewish Museum
opens tonight (Sunday). "The opening is being celebrated
as a state occasion, attended by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and
President Johannes Rau. Berlin's great Jewish tradition will certainly
be mentioned on Sunday, not only because the new Jewish Museum
grew out of the Jewish department of the Berlin Museum, but above
all because it also reinforces the city's status as the old-new
capital." Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 09/09/01
NAZI
STOLEN ART SUIT TO PROCEED: A New York judge has ruled that
a suit against the Wildenstein family can go on. "This is stolen
property that turned up in the possession of the Wildenstein family
50 years later." New York Post 09/07/01
TATE
RETURNS ORDER: Tate Britain, which 18 months ago unveiled
a rehanging of its collection along thematic lines among great
fanfare and critical irritation, has decided to return to the
traditional chronological arrangement. "We never really thought
the thematic arrangement would be anything other than temporary.
In many ways it was like an extended exhibition forced on us by
circumstance. But in terms applying it to the complete national
collection, it is not a realistic way of setting it out."
The Guardian (UK) 09/07/01
SEROTA
DOES TATE: Tate Modern is still looking for a new director.
But in the meantime Nicholas Serota is taking over the job. "Apparently,
Serota misses running a gallery. He is even going to curate an
exhibition himself, devoted to the American artist Donald Judd."
Sunday Times (UK) 09/09/01
BRITISH
MUSEUM DIRECTOR RESIGNS: The managing director of the British
Museum has resigned. "She is the first and last person to
hold this post, which is to be abolished. The trustees will now
return to choosing a single director noted primarily for his or
her scholarly and curatorial skills." London
Evening Standard 09/07/01
Friday
September 7
THE
GREAT WWII ART CON: At the end of World War II a Yugoslav
con man talked Americans supervising the return of art stolen
during the war into turning over 166 art objects to him. Ante
Topic Mimara claimed he represented the Yugoslav government, but
shortly after he was given the art, he - and it - disappeared.
Now it has turned up in museums in Belgrade and Zagreb... ARTNews
09/01
ANNENBERG
GIFT: Walter and Lenore Annenberg give $20 million to the
Philadelphia Museum of Art - the largest gift in the museum's
125 year history. "The Annenbergs gave the money through
the Annenberg Foundation for the museum's current capital campaign,
which is seeking to raise $200 million. To date, more than $128
million has been received." Philadelphia
Inquirer 09/07/01
Thursday
September 6
CLIPPING
A CLASSIC: Eero Saarinen's swooping TWA terminal at New York's
JFK airport is one of the city's architectural wonders. But a
proposal to expand and preserve it by fitting an enormous bland
collar around it is a defacement of criminal proportions. "The
oafish design being proposed must be reconceived top to bottom:
TWA can't be isolated as an object but has to be lived in - arrived
at, walked through, flown from." New
York Magazine 09/03/01
INCONCEIVABLE:
What's wrong with conceptual art? "The sad and very pertinent
fact is this: Conceptual artists haven't escaped the confines
of media. They've simply chosen a very crude and rudimentary form
of media—the artist statement—and they've chosen to channel all
of their 'pure' ideas through that thin and puny medium. Without
the artist statement, the concept simply ain't shared." *spark-online
09/01
MOTIVATED
BY MEMPHIS: For designers in the 1980s, the Memphis group
of designers was a revelation. Memphis has had a major influence
on a generation of designers. "The whole point of Memphis
was to demonstrate that design could mutate like bacteria, that
it was as open to change as Pop art." But was it good change?
The Guardian (UK) 09/06/01
"SUCCESSFUL"
ONLINE AUCTION HOUSE APPARENTLY ISN'T: "The fine arts
auctioneer eWolfs has suspended its business and laid off
most of its staff. The company, which for 25 years was a classic
auction house, went entirely online in 1999 and was often cited
as one of the few success stories for selling art over the web."
The Art Newspaper 09/04/01
A
"NAZI LOOT" LAWSUIT WILL CONTINUE: "The heir
of a Jewish art dealer whose collection is said to have been looted
by the Nazis has won a round in his bid to reclaim the works."
At stake are eight rare manuscripts in the possession of New York
art dealers. A State Supreme Court judge has ruled that the lawsuit
can continue, because the dealers have not submitted any proof
of where they got the manuscripts. BBC
09/06/01
Wednesday
September 5
OF
ART AND SHOPPING MALLS: Artists rally to protest a plan by
the Bangkok city governor to build a museum in a shopping mall.
"No art museum in the world should be built in a shopping
mall. The governor's new plan could cause an unpleasant impact
on the pride of artistic beauty." Bangkok
Post 09/05/01
INSTITUTIONAL
THEFT? Are major museums acting against an ethics code in
the ways they fail to rigorously nail provenance details for objects
they acquire? "We have just published a booklet, Looting
in Europe, and there is no completely safe museum—whether
it be in Italy or Sweden." The
Art Newspaper 09/01/01
CRACKING
THE FORBIDDEN VAULT: During the 80 years of Communist rule
in Russia, sex was a taboo topic, not fit for discussion, and
certainly not an appropriate focus for the nation's artists and
writers. But the Russian State Library has blown the lid off the
Bolshevik claims of prudishness, revealing that for the better
part of the last century, its walls have housed one of the world's
largest collections of erotica, including work by some of Russia's
artistic and literary luminaries. The
New York Times 09/05/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
JEWISH
MUSEUM GETS ITS INSIDES: Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum
in Berlin has been a hit with the public, even though there's
been nothing in it. "Opened to the public from the beginning
of 1999 to the end of 2000, the Libeskind building—still completely
empty—was visited by no less than 350,000 people." After
two years of collecting, the museum is now ready to open with
objects inside. The Art Newspaper
09/01/01
HOW
TO BE A VEGAS MUSEUM: So the new Las Vegas Guggenheim Museum
is delayed. There are plenty of other museums in the City of Fun.
"The museums here reflect the obsession with fantasy that
is the essence of Las Vegas. There is a gambling museum, a neon
museum, and two that are devoted to performers who came to personify
the city: Liberace and Elvis Presley. All four attract steady
streams of visitors, many of whom pore over the displays just
as intently as visitors to more conventional cultural attractions."
The New York Times 09/05/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
MAKING
A HABIT OF ART: Sister Wendy is a phenomenon in her native
Britain, a nun in full habit who has made it her life's mission
to bring the fine arts to the masses. Her accessible descriptions
of complex artistic endeavor have made her a hero to some, while
her frank dislike of some beloved creators (Picasso, for example)
has caused others to dismiss her as a Philistine. She brings her
act to America with a public television series that begins this
week. Baltimore Sun 09/05/01
Tuesday
September 4
BLOCKING
A LOAN? Italy's undersecretary of culture says Italy might
prevent panels by the 15th century painter Masaccio from being
loaned to Britain's National Gallery because "it would amount
to 'sexual tourism' in which art was abused. Other paintings would
be banned from travelling to the UK unless its museums and galleries
became more generous in lending artworks to Italy, he said."
The Guardian (UK) 09/03/01
PERUVIAN
PYRITE: Over 20% of a Lima museum's prized 20,000-piece collection
of Incan and pre-Incan gold is fake, according to a government
investigation. How the fakes found their way into the collection
is not known, but the museum is removing the offending pieces
for "further investigation." BBC
09/04/01
STRAIGHT-UP
TRADE: A new program promotes exchanges of art between regional
French and American museums. "The American museums have been
given the kind of access to the French system hitherto available
only to major museums and, at the same time, are learning to cooperate
regionally in this country themselves. The French museums are
learning about the great cultural diversity of American collections,
which range from antiquities to contemporary art (as well as about
American-style fund-raising)." The
New York Times 09/04/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
TOO
WEIRD TO BE BIG? Turner Prize finalist Mike Nelson is being
touted as the Next Big Thing, successor to the YBA crowd. But
is his art too weird to really make it big? The
Guardian (UK) 09/04/01
OWNING
AMERICANA: "Two lawsuits have been filed, one by a prominent
Indianapolis family that controls The Saturday Evening Post and
the other by the heirs of the magazine's former art director,
disputing ownership of three Norman Rockwell paintings."
Chicago Tribune 09/04/01
Monday
September 3
SELLING
ART TO LIVE: The Church of England has decided it must sell
a valuable collection of art. The church says its "financial
problems means it has not much option but to sell the collection
of paintings by 17th Century Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbaran."
Some fear the paintings will be sold outside the country. BBC
09/03/01
WEIGHING
THE RISKS: London's National Gallery is opening a show that
reunites the surviving panels of a 1426 altarpiece by Masaccio,
one of the most important painters of the early Renaissance. The
panels are being loaned from four museums, but a leading art historian
charges that "the risks in transporting the works far outweigh
any benefit to the public." National
Post (AP) (Canada) 09/03/01
Sunday
September 2
AGENTS
TO THE NAZIS: A five-year study of Switzerland's conduct during
World War II concludes that Swiss art dealers sold art plundered
from Nazi victims to Hitler for his private collections. The report
concludes that "Switzerland was a trade center for looted assets
and flight assets from Nazi Germany and the occupied territories."
Basler Zeitung (Switzerland)
08/31/01
CRACKING
THE SPANISH THEFT: The $65 million theft of paintings in Spain
a few weeks ago, the biggest art theft in Spanish history, still
has police puzzled. "The thieves apparently had a shopping
list of what they wanted to take from Spain's finest private art
collection. The Spanish Ministry of Culture has said that many
of the 19 works figured on an official list of national treasures,
and it has called for a special effort to recover them. The police
have offered a reward, hoping that underworld informers will betray
the thieves." International Herald
Tribune 09/01/01
SMALLER
DEFINITION: New York's Museum of Modern Art is expanding.
But first it has to contract while construction begins. "With
so little space, time collapses, continuity is destroyed, and
works usually hung galleries apart are brought into unaccustomed
proximity." The New York Times
09/01/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
A
REINFORCING IDEA: Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater is one
of the most famous houses of the 20th Century. But though Wright's
engineer warned him that the house's beams weren't strong enough,
the house was built according to the architect's plans. Now it
requires $11 million of structural redesign, and the house's owners
are charging admission to watch. Dallas
Morning News (NYT) 09/02/01
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