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Sunday
December 31
- WHERE
TO SEE CANADA'S BEST ART: Art critic Blake Gopnik is leaving
the Canada's Globe & Mail to take up the same job at the Washington
Post. He leaves writing about what he likes best in Canadian art.
The Globe & Mail 12/30/00
- THE
DOME RECONSIDERED: The press beat up on London's hapless Millennium
Dome in 2000. But "if the Dome was vacuous or meaningless
- as has been claimed by newspaper editors who spent this year
filling their pages with articles about Nasty Nick and The Weakest
Link - well, so are most of the 6.5 million people who attended
and had a rare old time. Will posterity acknowledge their existence?"
The Telegraph (London) 12/30/00
Friday
December 29
- MUSEUM
VANDALS: Two men vandalized the Jewish History Museum in Bucharest.
"The men entered the musuem, which is housed in a former
synagogue, early on Thursday morning, asking 'Where is the soap
made of human fat? Is there any Auschwitz soap?' They punched
a 63-year-old guard in the face and choked him, smashing windows
and scattering exhibits on the floor, before leaving." BBC
12/29/00
- JOHN'S
"WINTER" HOME: Explorers report they have found
the "winter home" of John the Baptist" on the east
shore of the Jordan River. They also found a skull too, which
some say may have been John's. “Until now, testing on the skull
has not been completed, so we can only say it belonged to a hermit,
because the region of Wadi Kharrar was inhabited by many hermit.
The cave carved into the rock was dated to the 1st century AD."
Bahrain Tribune 12/29/00
- PARTHENON
PROPAGANDA: Last month Athens opened a new subway stop at
the Acropolis, decorated with replicas of the Parthenon marbles
that Greece wants to retrieve from Britain. Next up are plans
for a new Acropolis Museum, designed to up pressure on the English
to return the sculptures. The Art
Newspaper 12/29/00
- INVISIBLE
ARTISTS: "In a literate society, perhaps no form occupies
this zone of invisible visibility more completely than typography,
which makes type designers among the most influential, if anonymous,
artists in history." New
York Times 12/28/00 (one-time
registration required for access)
- THE
SISTINE CHAPEL OF PREDYNASTIC EGYPT: In Egypt "British
archaeologists have discovered 30 new sites filled with drawings
carved into rocks. Unseen by human eyes for up to 6,000 years,
the rock engravings depict cattle, giraffes, ostriches, hippos,
boats, and the men and women who lived in the area around 4,000
B.C." Discovery 12/29/00
Thursday
December 28
- CAN
ONE BUILDING BE ALL THIS? "The Tate Modern is literally
and figuratively the biggest thing to happen in the world of contemporary
art, anywhere, for the last 25 years. The mutant offspring of
such questionable immensities as the Pompidou Center and the Musée
d'Orsay in Paris, the Bilbao Guggenheim, and the Hamburger Bahnhof
in Berlin, the new Tate represents either the beginning of the
end of the British art scene, or the end of the beginning. It
makes you wonder if success will spoil the English art world."
Village Voice 12/28/00
- WHAT
PRICE SUCCESS? John Walsh has been checking out other museums
since he stepped down as director of the Getty in September. "I
keep thinking, what price success? Museums are drawing huge audiences,
but to what? To dazzling new buildings or renovated ones, very
often, or to ballyhooed exhibitions of overexposed art (even things
with a dubious place in art museums like motorcycles and guitars).
In settings like that, looking at works of art is becoming a point-and-click
sort of thing. There's a crowd flowing around you, noise . . .
glance, move on." Los Angeles
Times 12/28/00
- PROFITABLE
POST: A drawing on a Post-it note by the artist Kitaj was
sold for £640. "Guinness World Records has now declared the
price has made it the world's most valuable Post-it note. The
manufacturer, 3M, held the sale to mark the 20th anniversary of
its notes." The Independent (London)
12/28/00
- GERMANY'S
TOP TEN: What art the
top German collectors bought this year. Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 12/27/00
Wednesday
December 27
- THE
RICH GET RICHER: London doesn't just have a roll call of fancy
new arts buildings in which to play. There's a lot to go inside,
too. "The long-term effect of the building programmes of
recent years is now beginning to be felt; in terms of the number
and quality of our exhibitions, London's visual culture is now
the richest in the world." The
Telegraph (London) 12/27/00
- BACKGROUND
RIGHTS: A half dozen major museums, artists and univeristy
presses are being sued for "appropriation" of copyrighted
images. "The plaintiffs are seeking to hold the defendants
liable for promoting and selling the disputed image, which they
say was distributed on T-shirts, magnets, books, brochures, cards,
websites and street billboards, including two immense building
displays in New York arranged by the Whitney Museum. The lawsuit
raises the question of what happens if an underlying image used
in such a work is not in the public domain." The
Art Newspaper 12/27/00
- DOT-COM
SHARES WORTH THE PAPER THEY'RE PRINTED ON: "Call it stock
art: A group of New York artists are crafting what may be the
most beautiful and speculative shares on the market. Entrepreneur
Carol Braddock plans to sell the documents as art objects to fund
Webbittown, a commerce-cum-community Web site. Over the past few
months Braddock has assembled a roster of artists that reads like
a who's who of the downtown New York art scene. So far, the stocks
have been embellished with everything from simple sketches to
elaborate collages." The Standard
12/27/00
Tuesday
December 26
- WORLDWIDE
ART THEFT: The list of stolen art work is constantly growing.
Estimates worldwide of art theft run from $2 billion to $6 billion
annually. "And the possibility of getting your prized possession
back is slim to none. Recent UNESCO statistics show that only
five to 10 per cent of stolen cultural goods are ever recovered."
CBC 12/25/00
Sunday
December 24
- DARING
ART THEFT: Thieves have stolen three of Sweden's most prized
paintings - by Rembrandt and Renoir. "An armed gang entered
the museum on Stockholm’s waterfront just before it closed on
Friday. One of them, brandishing a submachine-gun in the museum
lobby, threatened staff and visitors, while another two, also
armed, ran upstairs and snatched the small paintings, valued by
police at about £25 million." Scotland
on Sunday 12/24/00
-
IN
BARS WITH GUITARS: For its current exhibition on guitars,
Boston's Museum of Fine Arts has been advertising in non-traditional
places - like bars and the sides of buses. "We're seeing
a lot of college students who, for the most part, don't come
to the museum that often. We really have seen an expanded audience,
a lot of people who say that other than a fifth-grade field
trip, this is their first time here.'' Boston
Herald 12/24/00
-
RETURNING
ART: "The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act, was signed by President George Bush in November 1990 after
years of discussion among scientists, museum curators and Indian
groups. It seeks to reconcile two profoundly different value
systems, one based on the primacy of reason and science and
the other revolving around spiritual and religious values. In
the decade since the law was passed, it has had a profound effect
on museums and the philosophy on which they are based."
The New York Times 12/24/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
Friday
December 22
- MOST-WANTED
LIST:
In an important step in the repatriation of artwork stolen during
World War II, the US Justice Department has released a list of
2,000 artworks seized by the Nazis. "The quality of many
of the paintings on the list is extraordinarily high, because
most of the items were stolen for Adolf Hitler and his Air Minister
Hermann Goering, and they demanded masterpieces."
CNN
12/21/00
- POINTING
FINGERS:
Why are so many people in the museum world hurling insults at
Guggenheim Director Thomas Krens, who has overseen some of the
museum’s most successful shows to date, as well as its opening
of Bilbao and planned projects all over the world? "To hear
some people tell it, the museum world hasn't seen anything like
this since Napoleon ransacked Europe to fill the galleries of
the Louvre."
Forbes
01/08/01
- PERHAPS
A PERSIAN PRINCESS? When she surfaced in October in Pakistan,
it was widely reported that the mummy was the Persian princess
daughter of ancient Xerxes. Bidding to acquire her quickly soared
to $11 million. But carbon dating of a piece of wood from the
mummy's coffin reveals it is only 250 years old. Archeology
Magazine 12/00
- RESTORING
THE QUEEN OF SHEBA'S TEMPLE: Archeologists have finished restoring
a temple in Yemen that they say belonged to the Queen of Sheba.
"According to scholars, the temple was built in the 10th
Century BC at the time of Balqis, the Queen of Sheba, and access
was restricted to the kingdom's elite." The structure is
so impressive, excavators say it could become one of the world's
great tourist attractions. BBC 12/22/00
Thursday
December 21
- SHADY
DEALS: "Martin Fabiani, a Paris dealer who was arrested
and fined by the Allies after the Second World War for dealing
in 'enemy property' and art plundered by the Nazis, supplied Canada's
National Gallery with several notable paintings, among them works
by Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas. Dealers,
such as Mr. Fabiani, took advantage of cut-rate prices on art
looted from Jews in Nazi-occupied countries. During the chaos
that ensued when France was occupied by the Nazis, dealers like
Mr. Fabiani were able to sidestep legal formalities in order to
make quick sales." National Post
(Canada) 12/21/00
- INTERDICTING
ART: The US Customs Service has started a new unit of six
agents to specialize in art seizures. "Art theft seizures
demand an ability to recognize valuable art, verify the authenticity
of a piece and properly preserve it, and the job requires a masterful
grasp of international regulations and the ability to work with
people of astounding wealth and expertise." Salon
12/21/00
- WHAT
HAPPENED TO THE CULTURE? Prague was named this year's European
City of Culture. But with so many state collections in the city
closed or in flux, one has to ask how seriously the city is taking
the designation. The Art Newspaper
12/21/00.
- MONUMENTITIS:
South Korea wanted to do something
big to mark the turn of the millennium. But those plans have been
drastically scaled back. "Gone are plans for 12 grand gate
structures that were to be built around the nation over the next
120 years, and one of the few remaining projects is hanging by
a thread."
Korea
Herald 12/21/00
- MAJOR
NEW PICASSO MUSEUM: The sale
of the Berggruen Collection to the city of Berlin means "that
Berlin will have a Picasso museum that is rivaled only by the
Musée Picasso in Paris. Of the 165 works, 85 are Picassos, spanning
every period of the artist's life. The rest include outstanding
examples by 20th-century masters like Braque, Giacometti, Matisse
and Klee. The new museum will fill a serious gap in Germany, since
most early modern art was driven out of the country by Hitler
as 'degenerate'." New York
Times 12/21/00 (one-time
registration required for access)
Wednesday
December 20
- POOR
SUBSTITUTES:
A couple of embarrassing art switcheroos have recently been pulled
off. "First, a $7 million Monet went missing from the National
Museum in Poznan, Poland, and a badly painted copy on cardboard
was left in its stead. Then, monks at St Josaphat's Monastery
in Lattingtown, Long Island, found themselves short of two rare
16th- and 17th-century English tapestry chairs - the earlier of
which Henry VIII once reputedly sat on.
New Statesman 12/20/00
- 'GREAT'
IS NOT SO GREAT:
The British Museum's new Great Court portico has been getting
raves from the critics. Except this one: "It is an inexcusable
eyesore. At first glance it is so alien that to mistake it for
some form of plastic substitute can be forgiven; at second glance,
so clumsily are its blocks cut, so chipped their corners, so fudged
and filled the junctions of the blocks and column drums that the
material must be stone, the masons' craft and workmanship unacceptably
flawed. The fault is beyond remedy and chucking buckets of slurry
at it - which might help in the open air - is not an option." London
Evening Standard 12/20/00
- HOW'RE
THINGS IN HAVANA?
"The art crowd from New York, L.A., San Francisco, New Orleans,
and the rest of the planet, has descended like locusts for
the seventh Havana Bienal. Drooling over disintegrating facades
and tail-finned vehicular carapaces, they're oblivious to local
anxieties of grinding to an irreplaceable halt. Amid palms, surf,
deprivations, and faded billboards in praise of Socialismo,
the permanent revolution has become an eternal fiesta. The people
party and clean their wounds with antifreeze on this entropic
island that seems both more spirited and more hopeless than any
Soviet satellite state ever was. You get the feeling that they
humor Fidel's oppressions as if he were their dotty uncle. But
in the artworld, a weird delusion of normalcy holds sway." Village
Voice 12/20/00
- THE
TASTEMAKERS: What do corporations look to when
deciding what art they want to buy to display in their buildings?
"All the companies have pressing practical concerns: that
the sculpture should not obstruct their buildings and brand names,
that is should not impinge on parking space, and that it should
be resilient enough to withstand the iconoclastic attentions of
the local residents." New Statesman
12/20/00
- CAPITAL
PLANS: The Mall at the US Capitol is running out of space
for historical monuments and markers. So a commission has released
a list of possible other places in the capital. "It is considered
a blueprint for Washington's third century, much as the Pierre
L'Enfant plan helped dictate the shape of the city at its founding
and the McMillan Commission enhanced and enlarged L'Enfant's work
in the 1900s." Chicago Sun-Times
12/20/00
- TRYING
TO FIX THE VANCOUVER ART GALLERY: It's been a rough year for
the Vancouver Art Gallery. The museum's director resigned under
storms of protest from the city's artists that he was forced out
by a board that had overstepped. Now the city is looking to a
new director, plucked from LA's Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/20/00
Tuesday
December 19
- NAZI
LOOT ONLINE: America's museums have entered into an agreement
to list all works of art that may have been stolen by the Nazis
in World War II. "Under guidelines, expected to be announced
next month, museums must disclose on Web sites the provenance
for all works acquired after 1933 and created before 1945."
Some critics say the deal doesn't go far enough. Boston
Herald 12/19/00
- WHAT'S
WRONG WITH MODERN MUSEUMS: A big new installation of Asian
art at Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario is a mess. "Intended
as a way of displaying the cultures of South Asia, the Ondaatje
Gallery instead delivers 2,500 square feet of incoherence. As
a work of design, it is almost bad enough to be in the Museum
of Civilization in Ottawa. It's one of those exhibits that somehow
manage to detract from the sum of human knowledge; at the end
you may feel you know less than you did when you entered."
National Post (Canada) 12/19/00
- FAITH
IN DESIGN:
Melbourne’s new $290 million museum (the largest museum in the
southern hemisphere) has created a landmark building for Australia
and has won international acclaim for its design, but its acceptance
has come after critics fervently fought the project every step
of the way. "The lesson to be learnt here is that you should
not allow early criticism to halt the creation of well-planned
civic assets."
The
Age (Melbourne) 12/19/00
- 16
WAYS TO CATCH A THIEF:
A report prepared by the UK’s Illicit Trade Advisory Panel has
recommended 16 measures to crack down on the rampant international
smuggling of cultural art and antiquities. (Britain currently
accounts for 30% of the global market in stolen artifacts.) Foremost
among the recommendations is that Britain accede to the Unesco
convention already signed by 91 other countries banning the international
trade in stolen art and antiquities. Financial
Times 12/18/00
- A
SIGNED TREATY MIGHT HELP:
After 30 years of objections, the British government is now
likely to sign the Unesco convention. "The worldwide
trade is worth billions, and Interpol and other police agencies
believe drug barons and other criminals are laundering profits
through stolen antiquities." The
Guardian (London) 12/19/00
- GIFTS
FROM THE UNDERGROUND:
It’s the rare transportation project that stirs as much controversy
as Athens’ new subway. Building was stalled for 35 years due to
fears of harming the monuments above ground and the artifacts
below. Now more than 10,000 objects have been uncovered during
the dig and are on permanent display. "The shotgun marriage
between archaeologists and builders has produced a wonderful new
vision of how ancient Athenians lived and died." New
York Times 12/19/00
(one-time registration required for
entry)
- WHERE
ART BEGINS (OR ENDS?): A "snapshot" exhibition of
art from around the year 1900 gives us the good, the bad and the
ugly. Was it the beginning of an era? The end? What does it tell
us about aesthetic debates then? What does it tell us about today's?
"Much of this exhibition’s 'new evidence' turns out to be
just bad art. As presented, '1900' is neither 'twilight or 'dawn',
but a grey haze that obscures distinguishing marks."
The Idler 12/19/00
- BOSTON
ONLINE: Boston's Museum of Fine Arts "launched its Online
Collections Database yesterday with nearly 15,000 objects from
its collection on its Web site, mfa.org. The works vary from ancient
Egyptian sculptures to European paintings." Boston
Globe 12/19/00
Monday
December 18
- MISSING
ART LIST: Right after World War II a list of claims for missing
works of art by Old Masters and pioneers of modernism such as
Degas, Renoir, Tintoretto and Tiepolo was made. But the list was
"hidden away in government archives for half a century, frustrating
efforts by a dying generation of Holocaust survivors and the art
world to track down thousands of paintings and sculptures. Now
a lack of funding and bureaucratic mishaps could again consign
those documents to an obscure shelf in the National Archives."
Chicago Tribune 12/17/00
- DIGGING
UP HISTORY: Digging the new Athens subway proved an opportunity
to unearth fascinating layers of history. Now that the subway
has opened, some of the finds are now on display, including relics
from "a mass grave from the time of the Peloponnesian war,
presumed to be full of victims of the plague which struck the
Athenians in 430BC, when people crowded into the city from the
countryside for protection." Financial
Times 12/18/00
- HOUSTON
ON THE MOVE: Houston's Museum of Fine Arts is undergoing an
ambitious expansion. "The most visible symbol of their goal
is the $83 million building that opened here in March, covering
an entire city block. It has made the institution the country's
6th largest art museum, a grand leap from its previous place as
30th." The New York Times 12/18/00
(one-time registration required
for entry)
- KOREAN
TAX VETOED: The Korean government proposed levying a tax on
art and antiques, but the National Assembly vetoed it. Says a
government spokesperson: "The rich have utilized the trading
of antiques and paintings to increase their wealth."
Korea Times 12/18/00
- SHOPPING
BY DESIGN: The fasion store Prada has chosen three A-list
architects to design its new stores: Rem Koolhaas's OMA, in Rotterdam,
Zurich's Herzog & de Meuron and Tokyo's SANAA. Between them,
these 'Pradarchitects' are designing six buildings that are meant
to 'reinvent the concept of shopping' Gradually, we are witnessing
a merging of theatre, worship, fashion, architecture, design and
shopping." The Guardian (London)
12/18/00
- ART
CONTRIBUTION: "Colombian artist Fernando Botero has donated
a collection of works of art worth an estimated $250 million to
two museums in Colombia, one in the capital Bogotá the other in
Medellin, the artist’s native city. The collection includes more
than 200 paintings, drawings and sculptures by Botero as well
as 100 works by Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas, Toulouse
Lautrec, Matisse, Chagall, Miró, Klimt, Dali and Henry Moore,
from the artist’s own collection."
The Art Newspaper 12/18/00
- ACTOR
ARRESTED FOR SLASHING PICTURES: A leading Polish actor is
arrested for slashing pictures in a gallery. The exhibition was
called "The Nazis" and depicted actors from movies in
Nazi uniforms. “I defend the right to say that there are some
frontiers of decency which were clearly overstepped in this exhibition,
and I reacted violently in the hope that my gesture will highlight
my objections." The Art Newspaper
12/18/00
Sunday
December 17
- WHAT
MUSEUMS SHOULD BE? "If the first current idea informing
much cultural planning is a version of technological determinism,
then the second is a belief in the increasing convergence of commerce
and culture. In this version of futurology, shops are becoming
more like museums - places for visual and aesthetic display -
while museums are becoming more like shops." The
Telegraph (London) 12/16/00
- MODERN
PRESERVATION: "An opportunity has arisen to examine the
issue of solidarity among architects today. An international group
of architects is dedicated to conserving modern buildings and
studying the ideas embodied by them. Who's against preserving
buildings and studying history? But Docomomo is beginning to change
the landscape of American architecture. It is forging a bond between
two groups that up to now have been opposed: historic preservationists
and enthusiasts of modernism." New
York Times 12/17/00 (one-trime
registration required for access)
- HELPING
THE BARNES: The Pew Charitable Trusts gives the financially-strapped
Barnes Foundation $500,000, adding to an earlier grant for the
same amount from the Getty Trust. The money will help stabilize
the ailing Barnes. Nando Times 12/15/00
- NEW
VANCOUVER ART GALLERY DIRECTOR: The Vancouver Art Gallery
appoints Kathleen Bartels, currently assistant director of the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, as its new director.
National Post (Canada) 12/16/00
- NATIONAL
GALLERY LISTS DOUBTS: The National Gallery of Canada added
two Spanish paintings to a list of suspected Nazi art booty. The
two paintings are some of of the museum's most important post-war
acquisitions, but they might have been looted by Soviet agents
during the Spanish Civil War. National
Post (Canada) 12/16/00
Friday
December 15
- POPULARITY
KILLED THE MUSEUM? "Are museums going to hell in a touring
exhibition of hand baskets? Is buzz a thing to be feared in a
place of high culture?" Directors of Boston's Museum of Fine
Arts and the Harvard Museums debate buzz and bang-for-the-buck.
Boston Herald 12/15/00
- LOOKING
OUT:
A government inquiry into the British Museum’s possible evasion
of planning laws may lead to prosecution. In its latest controversy,
the recently redesigned museum has been criticized for blighting
the views of surrounding properties. The
Times (London) 12/15/00
- RIGHT
OF SALE:
The UK is strongly resisting a European proposal to give all EU
artists a share of the resale value of their work. The British
government has warned that its art auction businesses could suffer
greatly if the law is passed and sellers begin to take their work
elsewhere to avoid handing over a cut of every sale. BBC
12/14/00
- THE
ATTITUDE OF PARLIAMENT IS BIZARRE,
particularly as a number of leading European artists including
David Hockney have petitioned against the directive."
London
Evening Standard 12/15/00
- OLD
MASTERS AND EUROPEAN BIDDERS:
An interesting trend emerged at Christie’s successful old master
auction this week (during which a Rembrandt portrait sold for
$28.6 million): "British and European bidders accounted for
82.5 percent of the buyers, while Americans made up only 15 percent.
For a while now, we've been hearing that New York was becoming
the center of the old master market, but this is not the case."
New
York Times 12/15/00
(one-time registration required for
access)
- THE
REVIEWS ARE IN ON 'POLLOCK': Ed Harris's powerful biographical
film "Pollock" may be the first movie about a painter
to transcend the gushy clichés found in movies that try to unravel
the mysteries of artistic creation. The scenes of Pollock standing
over a giant canvas and creating his famous drip paintings in
graceful swooping gestures as the camera discreetly dances around
him offer a visceral thrill similar to watching a brilliantly
choreographed action-adventure sequence." New
York Times 12/15/00
(one-time registration required for
access)
Thursday
December 14
- GET
YOUR GOLDEN AGES STRAIGHT: It's quite easy to pick on the
follies of Post-Modernism. But to harken back to some "Golden
Age in the 1960s, as a new critique of po-mo does, is just wrong-headed.
The book appears "fixated on some late 19th century concept
of order on the art scene - the artist in his (yes, his) studio,
the work displayed in its correct place in the museum, the audience
properly intimidated by Masterpieces, the moral value of Art interpreted
by beady-eyed critics - perhaps the unhappy author of this book.
But much has changed since the 19th century, not all for the worse."
The Idler 12/14/00
- CREATIVE
FINANCING: Germany has decided to buy the Berggruen collection
containing more than 170 works ranging from Cézanne to Matisse.
The price was to be $200 million, with half the amount coming
from the private sector. But no one stepped forward with the money,
so the government will spend $100 million, keep half the art and
sell the other half to finance the purchase. Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 12/14/00
- THE
ART-LOVING SPY: The National Gallery of Canada is investigating
the provenance of some of its artworks after it was revealed that
they were purchased on the advice of a British art connoisseur
who was later unmasked as a Soviet spy. Anthony Blunt drew on
a network of fellow spies who acted as art dealers in Europe to
make some of his acquisitions for the National Gallery.
National Post (Canada) 12/14/00
- THE
GREAT BUILDING OF OUR TIME? "Bilbao is amazing, but the
proposed New York Guggenheim is more amazing (and also much bigger).
It's obvious that Gehry has given Bilbao a long hard look, figured
out what works and what doesn't, and taken a giant stride forward.
You might think he'd just settle for another Bilbao. Bilbao is
a great building, but it has some aesthetic problems it shares
with other Gehry buildings. Gehry attacks those problems in this
new design." Boston Globe 12/14/00
- NEXT
TIME SEND A CARD: An Oslo art student glued labels on about
20 soft-drink bottles filled with chocolate milk or his homemade
beer and mailed them as invitations to his art exhibition. But
beer in one of the bottles sent to someone in the Norwegian parliamnent
continued to ferment and it exploded in the parliament building.
New Jersey Online (AP) 12/14/00
Wednesday
December 13
- DESTROYING
TIBET: According to recent reports from Lhasa, capital of
Tibet, "much of the area around Barkhor Square, the centre
of the Tibetan city, has been fenced off, apparently but unconfirmably
for demolition. Such destruction has already happened in much
of the old town, although it is unclear whether this is due to
corruption or official policy." The
Art Newspaper 12/12/00
- COME
TO GEELONG: The remote city of Geelong, Australia has not
given up the idea of trying to lure the Guggenheim to locate a
branch of its museum there. The city is proposing to finace a
$1.5 million feasibility study for the project. The
Age (Melbourne) 12/13/00
- NEW
BOSTON MUSEUM: Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art chooses
architect finalists to design a new $50 million museum. "The
new ICA will be the first art museum built in Boston in almost
100 years." Boston Herald 12/13/00
- NO
SALE: A small Quebec auction house thought it had scored a
coup when it got a Renoir to sell and touted it as potentially
"one of the most important art sales in Canada." But
the painting "went as high as $1.45-million, but stalled
before the auctioneer pulled the painting off the block because
it did not meet the minimum price set by the owner. It had been
estimated at $1.5-million to $2-million." The
Globe & Mail (Canada) 12/13/00
- RECORD
REMBRANDT: A Rembrandt "Portrait of a Lady" sold
for a record $28.7 million at auction Wednesday at Christie's
in London. CNN.com 12/13/00
Tuesday
December 12
- THE
REAL PROBLEM: What was wrong with art in the last 15 years
of the 20th Century? "For a number of reasons, art had given
up the ghost under the weight of theory. The breakdown of distinctions
between high and popular culture led to all manner of cultural
produce and effluent being sifted and read as text. We were top
heavy with theorists (not to mention curators), who needed scant
visual stimulus to write the work into the flat ergo of post-modernist
irony: in short, what we had was nominalism. Artworks merely had
to ring the appropriate bell to set the Pavlovian critics slavering
for interpretation." The Guardian (London)
12/12/00
- FAILURE
TO KEEP TRACK: Did the Pompidou lose a sculpture? A nine-foot
tall one at that? The museum's director admits it was probably
destroyed. The New York Times 12/12/00
(one-time registration required for access)
- IMPRESSIONISTS
STRIKE AGAIN: With back-to-back record turnouts, Hartford's
Atheneum will record the highest attendance in the museum's 156-year
history. "This total marks a 41 percent increase from 1999
and a 63 percent increase from the average annual attendance in
1990 through 1999." Hartford
Courant 12/12/00
- DRESDEN'S
SUCCESS: The state museums in Dresden recorded an enormous
increase in attendance this year, even as other German museums
were scrounging for visitors. Even more impressive - the museum
staged more exhibitions this year despite reduced funding. Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 12/12/00
- ART
THUMBS: Police in Kent England are attempting to crack down
on the stolen photograph trade. "In an attempt to make buying
and selling stolen property more difficult, customers are being
invited to leave their thumbprint with the object they are offering
for sale." The Times (London)
12/12/00
- NEW
NATIONAL CHAIRMAN: The National
Gallery of Australia has chosen Melbourne businessman and philanthropist
Harold Mitchell as its new chairman. The
Australian 12/12/00
Monday
December 11
- STOLEN
PAINTINGS: Seventeen paintings, including works by Renoir
and Chagall, are discovered missing from a Japanese department
store. The paintings were stolen in August. Japan
Times 12/10/00
- CHEF
STEALS PAINTINGS? Financially-distressed Irish celebrity chef
Conrad Gallagher has been arrested on suspicion of stealing works
of art from the hotel in which he leases his restaurant.
Ireland on Sunday 12/10/00
- SPOTTING
FAKES: A new book has the European auction world in an uproar.
"The book, published in France, has attracted attention because
of the author’s ability to explain how fake paintings and furniture
are produced. Experts say the methods are authentic."
The Times (London) 12/11/00
- REMBRANDT
SALE: Rembrandt's painting "Portrait of a Lady aged 62,"
dated 1632, is to be auctioned this week in London. It is expected
to easily beat the previous record sale for a Rembrandt, the £5.5
million for "Portrait of a Bearded Man in Red" in New
York two years ago. London Evening
Standard 12/11/00
Sunday
December 10
- A
BIENNIAL FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM: For nearly a century Washington's
Corcoran Gallery has organized biennial exhibitions devoted to
contemporary American painting. Even in recent years - when painting
had long since ceased to be where the action was - the painting
Biennials persisted. Now, after decades of floundering around,
the Corcoran has stepped into the new millennium by confronting
art as it really is. The result is a show focused on how painting,
photography, video, computers and other electronic media have
intersected and influenced one another. Washington
Post 12/10/00
- THE
ART OF CANCELLATION: "In the last three years alone,
the Chinese government has closed at least 10 art exhibitions,
offering in most cases no other excuse to exhibitors than an announcement
that they failed to properly complete the official application
process. The hitch is, the government has never really explained
that process. An intriguing exhibition at the University of Chicago's
David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art takes a look at one such
closing that occurred two years ago in Beijing." Chicago
Tribune 12/10/00
- FOCUS
ON LATIN AMERICA: Thanks to a donor's gift, the LA County
Museum of Art opens a new center to showcase Latin American art.
"Belated as this development may appear in a region with
a large Latin American community, LACMA is in the forefront as
"one of the first major public institutions in the United
States to be fully committed to Latin American art."
Los Angeles Times 12/10/00
Friday
December 8
- GENDER
CONFUSION: Recent trends suggest
there is an increasing convergence of commerce and culture,
where "shops are becoming more like museums – places for
visual and aesthetic display – while museums are becoming more
like shops." The Independent
(London) 12/08/00
- BIGGER
IS BETTER? "Nowadays, museums
build bigger buildings and erect huge impersonal additions to
house uneven collections. Trustees, millionaires and board members
pick architects; they help lay out loading docks. Museums are
becoming architectural attractions in and of themselves. But is
bigger better? Is more more?" Artnet.com
12/08/00
- AND
THE WINNER IS... "Creating
a design award can be a daunting task. The challenge involves
conceiving an object that’s not only new but somehow noble, based
on a genre that is essentially kitsch (think bowling trophies).
At the same time the trophy should have a timeless, abstract quality
that doesn’t appear too suggestive of any style or period."
Metropolis 12/00
- SELLING
REVOLUTION: "As art resources become scarcer, auction
houses fight to the death to get works for sale and give in to
requests for high estimates and assorted ‘reserves’ demanded by
vendors. Every uction becomes a lottery. Some vendors make a killing
by hitting the jackpot, others kill their goods as failure to
sell is broadcast worldwide. As such mishaps multiply, the credibility
of the system crumbles to dust." The
ArtNewsroom 12/00
Thursday
December 7
- THREE-RING
MUSEUM: "Considering the Guggenheim’s latest proposal,
to appropriate a sizable portion of lower Manhattan for the purpose
of creating a mammoth fun-and-games cultural emporium: The Guggenheim
Museum is itself no longer a serious art institution. It has no
aesthetic standards and no aesthetic agenda. It has completely
sold out to a mass-market mentality that regards the museum’s
own art collection as an asset to be exploited for commercial
purposes." New York Observer
12/06/00
- OF
IMAGES MOVING AND STILL: Painting and cinema are still handcuffed
together on a one-way ticket to the morgue. When artists appropriate
images from film they always seem to be drawn to the melancholy
underside of the tinsel factory. Painting and cinema both create
fictional spaces, but the space of painting is static. So when
a moment in a film is snatched and turned into a painting, it
becomes deathly: you might call it painting noir."
The Guardian (London) 12/07/00
- BRITISH
MUSEUM GREAT COURT OPENS: The Queen opens the British Museum's
new Great Court. "She hailed the £100m development, with
its sweeping roof designed by Lord Foster, as a landmark of the
millennium." BBC 12/07/00
- BIG
SPACE: "The £100 million development has transformed
the world-famous museum's two-acre inner courtyard - hidden
for 150 years - into Europe's largest covered square, the
size of Wembley football pitch."
London Evening Standard 12/07/00
Wednesday
December 6
- ART
STING:
U.S. Customs officials in New York marked the opening of a new
art fraud investigation center by returning to Germany a 16th-century
painting stolen from a German castle by American soldiers after
World War II. About 65 percent of all U.S. art imports arrive
through the port of New York - investigations there this year
alone have already seized $10.5 million worth of stolen art. CNN
12/05/00
- GOING
AFTER THE GUY AT THE TOP: The US government is aggressively
going after Bernard Taubman, formerly chairman of Sotheby's, trying
to tie him to the price-fixing scandal with Christie's. The government
is attempting "to build its case against Mr. Taubman with
the testimony of assistants who could confirm meetings between
top executives from each company." New
York Times 12/06/00
(one-time registration required for
access)
- MORE
POSSIBLE NAZI LOOT: The National Gallery in Ottawa says it
has 100 works of art with undocumented provenance during the Nazi
era. The museum is posting the artwork to its website in an attempt
to track down details. Ottawa Citizen
12/06/00
- WHAT
ABOUT THE ART?
At a recent symposium for curators there was a lot of talk about
museum expansion, but very little about the transformative power
of art. "Museums are great. The problem is, too many of them
have started to believe what they're doing isn't just good, but
necessary. Too many curators seem to want to teach or preach to
us; many are more interested in being do-gooders than in doing
good by art." The
Village Voice 12/12/00
- SCHOLARSHIP
TAKES A BACK SEAT:
The British Museum’s redesign is certain to drive up attendance
and draw viewers who care more about the architecture than the
collection. "A more fundamental question, however, is how
much the museum's rush to modernize itself will threaten its scholarly
mission." New
York Times 12/06/00
(one-time registration required for
access)
Tuesday
December 5
- MARBLE
SNUB: The Greek ambassador declines a gala invitation to the
re-opening of the British Museum after the museum declines a Greek
request not to hold a reception in the room that houses the Parthenon
marbles. The Guardian (London) 12/05/00
- ADVENTUROUS
BUT NOT TOO ADVENTUROUS: The rhetoric
of art interpretation seems to have been frozen for the past century.
Pushing the edge is still valued as an ideal, but not pushing
it too much. "The image reservoir of art can be plumbed without
artists having to be aware of betraying their actual mission,
and the mere fact that they are still individual and autonomous
is exactly what makes them interesting to industry."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 12/05/00
- RATING
ARTISTS: Who are today's overated artists? Underrated? "The
terms can be harder to define than they might seem. Overrated
according to whom? The critics? The collectors? Taste and fashion?
"History sometimes has a different assessment of an artist
than the market does. Sometimes it coincides, sometimes it doesn't."
ARTNews 12/00
- THE
GOOG IN RIO: It looks as though Rio will win out in the global
Guggenheim sweepstakes to see who gets to host the next branch
of the museum. "The museum's most likely site is understood
to be by Praca Maua, in Rio's rundown dock area. A dramatic outcrop
of rocks between the Copaca bana and Ipanema beaches was initially
touted but then discarded, as the Guggenheim wants such projects
to regenerate urban areas." The Guardian
(London) 12/05/00
- HILLARY
THE PRESERVER:
Hillary Clinton is a fitting successor to New York Senator Daniel
Patrick Moynihan in more ways than her political acumen. She too
is a champion of public architecture, and as First Lady has proven
her commitment to preservation. "Our senator-elect may be
the second-most-scrutinized human being ever to walk the face
of the planet, but few have noticed her longstanding and still-evolving
interest and expertise in the built environment." New
York Magazine 12/11/00
- A
QUESTION OF SCALE:
First looks at the redesigned British Museum have focused on the
clean lines and superhuman scale of the new Great Court. But the
first exhibition in the new space is a diverse exploration of
the human form. "’Human Image’ is perhaps an attempt to bring
us down to earth again." The
Guardian (London) 12/05/00
Monday
December 4
- ARCHITECTURE'S
CHAMPION: For nearly four decades, Daniel Patrick Moynihan
has been a champion of architecture in the US senate. "The
secret is that, to Moynihan, aside from the gravest matters of
war, peace, and social stability, other issues simply are not
more important than the building and rebuilding of our cities."
Now that he's retiring, who will take his place? Metropolis
12/00
- MUSEUM
MAKEOVER:
The British Museum’s major redesign, including its controversial
centerpiece Great Court, will be unveiled to the public this week.
CNN
12/03/00
- IMPORTANT
TO WHOM?
Is there a problem with labeling London art auctions as "important
British art"? The answer is yes if the work can’t live up
to the billing. "Christie's and Sotheby's labelled their
main London sales as ‘important,’ though the catalogues looked
anything but that." Buyers were accordingly cautious, and
a succession of over-priced paintings went unsold. The
Telegraph (London) 12/04/00
- VERSAILLES
RESTORATION: Last Christmas, storms roaring through France
blew down 10,000 trees at Versailles. A year later much of the
damage is repaired and the palace looks again to receive 10 million
visitors this year. The restoration effort is an example of the
way the running of Versaille is changing. The
Globe & Mail 12/04/00
Sunday
December 3
- WHAT
MUSEUMS WANT: What exactly do museums want today? New York's
fall schedule of shows at major museums is perplexing. "The
lineup of fall shows suggests that museum professionals, driven
by the desire to be financially secure, wildly popular or socially
relevant, opt for one of two alternatives: exhibitions that look
like upscale stores, or exhibitions that look like historical
society displays." New York Times
12/03/00 (one-time registration
required for access)
- BERLIN'S
UNSETTLED MUSEUMS: Berlin's museums are in disarray. Rumors
are flying about breaking up longtime collections and reorganization
of the city's museums. And ambitious new projects seem to find
favor one minute, then just as quickly lose steam. Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 12/02/00
- LITTLE
AUCTION FIRM WINS MAJOR SALE: The most important art auction
in Canada this year features a big Renoir and Chagall. But it's
not being sold by one of the major auction houses. Instead, a
self-described "fussy little firm" that usually specializes
in rugs and jewelry snagged the sale from a distressed Japanese
collector. The Globe & Mail 12/02/00
- THE
NORTON SIMON WAKES UP: "Long known as a sleepy, essentially
private enclave and only open four afternoons a week, the Simon
has been transformed during the past year, since the grand opening
of a celebrated $6.5-million renovation designed by architect
Frank O. Gehry. Officials have extended its hours, expanded its
outreach and upped its advertising budget. The payoff has been
dramatic." Los Angeles Times
12/03/00
- THE
DISAPPOINTING TURNER: "The last time we had a worthy
and substantial winner of the Turner Prize, a winner who was going
to be remembered in the annals of British modern art for decades
to come, was four years ago, when the intelligently transgressive
Gillian Wearing won. Since then, the prize has gone to a succession
of irredeemably minor artists for whom winning the prize will
be seen as the summit of their careers. When petits maîtres like
Tillmans win, we can be sure that the Turner has had to resort
to some serious barrel-scraping." The
Sunday Times (London) 12/03/00
Friday
December 1
- SALES
SLUMP:
After booming sales earlier this year, Australia’s art market
is showing signs of cooling off. At this week’s major auctions,
buyers were cautious and even important works attracted scant
interest - due in part to the recent imposition of a countrywide
GST. "Instead of the frenetic bidding that had turned the
big art sales of the past into gladiatorial contests, the salesroom
at Christie's was as quiet as a picnic." Sydney
Morning Herald 12/01/00
- EXCLUSIVITY
SELLS:
Online auctions were supposed to transform the world of art sales,
democratizing the bidding process and thus driving up prices.
"But so far, that hasn't proven to be the case. Fine art
collectors, perhaps missing the posh surroundings of the auction
house, don't seem to feel comfortable shopping online." Wired
11/30/00
- HORSE
SENSE:
A painting by George Stubbs (an equine painter who died in 1806)
fetched an astonishing £2.7 million at auction this week. "The
story of how Stubbs rose from minor specialist artist to auction
house megastar involves an American millionaire, a Derby winner,
and a contender for the Turner prize…" The
Guardian (London) 12/01/00
- UNLIKELY
BENEFACTOR: Russia's struggling Sakharov Museum, which "aims
to promote the ideas of human rights and civil society,"
has been offered a boost from an unlikely source. Boris Berezovsky,
the industrialist accused of embezzling $1 billion from Aeroflot
airlines and who fled the country last month, has gievn the museum
$3 million. "The donated sum is almost twice the museum's
total budget over the four years of its existence, which was about
$1.7 million. That money had come from foreign grants, the bulk
of which were from the U.S. Agency on International Development,
which stopped funding this fall." Moscow
Times 12/01/00
- MULTIPLE
EDITIONS? Just before the Turner Prize winner was announced
this week, Glenn Brown, one of the nominees was accused of plagiarizing
the work of a science fiction artist. Now another artist has come
forward to make a similar claim about another Brown painting.
The Times (London) 12/01/00
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