Monday September 30

GIACOMETTIS SOLD: A controversial auction of Giacometti sculptures was stopped prematurely Saturday night in Paris, after 24 of the 36 pieces were sold for $5.8 million. A Paris court had agreed to a sale of work up to that amount after the "executor of Annette Giacometti's [the sculptor's wife] will had persuaded the court that she needed the money to cover legal costs as well as the cost of insuring and storing some 700 sculptures, paintings and drawings." The New York Times 09/30/02

THIEVES STRIKE - FOR A FOURTH TIME: One of Ireland's most valuable art collections has been raided again - for the fourth time - by thieves. The five paintings taken include a Rubens, and two paintings that had been stolen before from Russborough House in County Wicklow. Nando Times (AFP) 09/29/02

THE FORCES AGAINST ART CRIME: "Nobody can give you an exact figure, but experts suggest the worldwide value of stolen art amounts to several billion pounds. That covers everything from paintings to candlesticks, etchings to antiques. If you consider paintings alone, you get an idea of the scale of the problem: some 479 Picassos are currently missing, 347 Miros, 290 Chagalls, 225 Dalis, 196 Durers, 190 Renoirs, 168 Rembrandts and 150 Warhols." To try to get it back, an impressive infrastructure has sprung up armed with databases and detectives. Financial Times 09/27/02

A PROPER MEMORIAL: Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic, architect Daniel Libeskind and author Sherwin B. Nuland debate the idea of memorial at Ground Zero. "There is something a little grotesque in the interpretation of ground zero as a lucky break for art," says Wieseltier. Libeskind argues for a memorable structure, while Nuland declares: "I am offended by the thought that there will be a piece of architecture on that spot because ultimately architecture is about the architect." The New York Times 09/30/02

Sunday September 29

ART AMONG THE JUNK: "A wistful painting of two young women that came with the furnishings of a dilapidated Canadian farmhouse, has been revealed as a long-lost Victorian masterpiece expected to fetch more than $7-million at auction in London, England." National Post 09/28/02

BARNES - A SINGULAR COLLECTION: News that the quirky Barnes Collection might move to Philadelphia from the nearby suburbs has in-town folks excited. The Barnes Collection is a collection like no other. "Barnes didn't collect systematically, as if he were filling in a stamp album. He seemed to be attracted to artists whose work he believed best illustrated his theories about the interaction of line, shape and color. The Barnes is quirky and unpredictable, something like a treasure hunt with a higher purpose. Pleasant surprises lurk beyond every doorway. You will find masterpieces throughout, because even though Barnes was unorthodox in his collecting, he acquired a bushel of them." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/29/02

INGROWN INTEREST: Why do artists think art about making art is so interesting? It's not, writes Russell Smith: "The desire to question the gallery experience, to take art outside 'the white box,' has been prominent since at least the late 1960s (it was largely behind both performance art and conceptual art). It is still going strong, and I still don't understand what's important about it. I don't understand the hostility toward gallery spaces and gallery viewing." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 09/28/02

PROMOTION THROUGH CRITICISM: Skidmore Owings & Merrill is one of the world's great architecture firms. But in recent years the company has been overshadowed by other star architects who have offered more imagination. To help turn its reputation around, the firm has produced a series of books about its recent buildings. But this is no ordinary puffery and hype - projects in these books are chosen and critiqued by outside critics - and the criticism can be blunt... The New York Times 09/29/02

Friday September 27

SCRUTINY FOR THE BARNES PROPOSAL: The Pennsylvania attorney general and trustees for the Barnes Foundation are examining the proposal by the Barnes to move to Philadelphia. To make the move, the Barnes will have to go to court to break conditions of the trust set up by founder Albert Barnes. The New York Times 09/26/02

Thursday September 26

MORGAN TO TATE MODERN: "Jessica Morgan, chief curator at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art since 1999, is leaving to take one of the top international jobs in her field: She will be a curator at the Tate Modern in London. Morgan, 33 and a British citizen, leaves Boston in November, after a decade of working in US museums... Her rise in the museum world has been rapid. She trained at London's Courtauld Institute of Art, came to the United States for a fellowship at Yale and another at Harvard, worked as a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, then as contemporary curator at the Worcester Art Museum, which she left after a year to take the ICA job." Boston Globe 09/26/02

SPACE AGE RESTORATION: A Monet painting damaged by a fire in the 1950s might be restored by a beam of oxygen. "Conservators are talking to space chemists at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, after hearing of their success in removing an overzealous art lover's lipstick from an Andy Warhol painting. Their trick? They vapourise contaminants by blasting them with oxygen. Right now, the painting is almost entirely blackened, but the team managed to transform the blackened paint chips to Monet's dreamy blues and greens." New Scientist 09/25/02

THAT'S ONE EXPENSIVE JIGSAW: "A series of restored ceiling and wall fresco paintings are being unveiled at the medieval shrine of St Francis at Assisi in central Italy, five years after an earthquake seriously damaged them. Four people were killed when part of the ceiling of the upper Basilica of St Francis collapsed in the 1997 earthquake, and a memorial service to them is being held as part of the ceremonies marking the restoration... New computer techniques have been used to solve what amounted to a huge jigsaw puzzle - the piecing together of hundreds of boxes of tiny plaster fragments carefully salvaged from the debris inside the basilica." BBC 09/26/02

FAMILY FEUD: "A nasty quarrel between two of the country's leading cultural institutions -- the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum -- has been ended amicably. In the process, one of the capital's architectural treasures -- the Old Patent Office Building -- has been rediscovered and is being restored to take its proper place in company with the White House, the U.S. Capitol and the Treasury as one of the great historic public buildings of Washington." Chicago Tribune 09/26/02

$150 MILLION DOESN'T BUY MUCH, APPARENTLY: As part of a plan to revitalize a blighted stretch of downtown, the city of Minneapolis several years back embarked on a plan to erect 'Block E,' a giant entertainment complex, at a taxpayer cost of $150 million. The plan was wildly controversial, and had much to do with the mayor of the city losing her job last year, but Block E is finally up and open for business. Unfortunately, it is arguably one of the ugliest, least original structures ever to rise in the architecturally diverse Twin Cities, possibly because Minneapolis chose to use a design from a Chicago firm known for building suburban strip malls. Says one local architect, "It's a cartoon version of a mall theme park." City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul) 09/26/02

Wednesday September 25

BARNES WANTS TO MOVE: The Barnes Collection says it wants to leave its home in the suburbs and move to downtown Philadelphia. "At a news conference, the foundation's officers said the sudden but long-awaited move was necessary to save one of the world's greatest art collections, but any move faces considerable legal hurdles. A relocation and other proposed changes would contravene the will of Dr. Albert C. Barnes, the eccentric millionaire who established the trove, with an estimated worth of $25 billion, as a quirky, anti-elitist academy that because of local restrictions only 1,200 visitors a month can see. The foundation is projected to run an $800,000 deficit this year and has less than $1 million in cash reserves. The New York Times 09/25/02

• FIRST AID: The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Lenfest and Annenberg Foundationshave have "agreed to provide $3.1 million in operating funds to the Barnes for at least the next two years. More important, they have promised to help the Barnes Foundation raise $100 million to build a museum on or near the Parkway, and to raise $50 million for an endowment." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/25/02
• CITY OF MUSEUMS: "If the ambitious move succeeds, the Barnes' collection of 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 60 Matisses, and other art from around the world would be within walking distance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rodin Museum, the proposed Alexander Calder Museum, and the Franklin Institute." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/25/02

HOME OF THE BRAVE: The art police are at it again. Last week a bronze statue of a falling woman was placed at Rockefeller Center. "Eric Fischl’s Tumbling Woman, which he sculpted during the weeks when he kept thinking of the image of bodies falling from the World Trade Center, was removed after a reactionary tabloid columnist for the New York Post attacked it in her column. Within hours of the column hitting the streets, "Rockefeller Center folded and announced that it would remove the work, which otherwise would have been on display through September 23." New York Sun 09/19/02

• AFRAID OF A LITTLE ART? Why did Rockefeller Center cave? "If we are to remain true to the repeated assertions that we must never forget, why silence a work like Fischl's? Displaying the sculpture was no more exploitative than airing those videos of the attacks we've all become so familiar with. But perhaps the real, solid presence of "Tumbling Woman" spoke with an urgency that could not be dismissed as easily as a TV news feed." New York Daily News 09/22/02

TATE ATTENDANCE DOWN: "Attendance figures for the Tate's four galleries - including the Tate Modern and Tate Britain in London - fell by more than 1.2 million in the 12 months to the end of March 2002. Some 5.25 million visitors went to the gallery in its first year, but that figure fell to 3.6 million in the following 12 months." Tate director Nicholas Serota says the Tate may face a £1.5 million budget shortfall. BBC 09/25/02

THE KIMBELL AT 30: The Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth is architect Louis Kahn's masterpiece "and, in the opinion of many critics, the greatest museum building of the 20th century. Simple in its forms, refined in its proportions and details, it speaks to everyone from art historians to bronco riders." The museum is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the building's opening. Dallas Morning News 09/25/02

TATE CUT OUT OF BUYING: The Tate Museum has been shut out of buying numerous artworks because its acquisitions budget has declined in real terms over the past 20 years. "Almost on a daily basis major works are offered to us which we cannot begin to contemplate." The Tate's budget for acquiring art is just under £2 million, compared with £2.2 million in 1982, and means that the museum doesn't have the funds to buy major works. The Guardian (UK) 09/25/02

PROTESTING NEW AUSSIE TAX LAW: Prominent Australian artists are withholding promised donations of their artwork to museums because of onerous new tax laws. "Tthe artists are disputing a requirement they believe casts doubt on tax-deduction entitlements when gifting works." Sydney Morning Herald 09/25/02

Tuesday September 24

RESTORATION MAY HAVE DAMAGED SHROUD: A new "restoration" of the Shroud of Turin may have irreparably damaged it. "Scientists performed a secret restoration of the shroud - which supposedly wrapped the body of Jesus after his crucifixion - during which they cleaned and restored the burial cloth. This may have caused potentially important dust and pollen molecules to be lost forever. It is feared the process could compromise the possibility of ever conclusively carbon-dating the shroud, which believers claim bears the image of Christ after his body was cut down from the cross." The Herald (Glasgow) 09/22/02

HONEST FAKES: John Myatt is a painter who made a good career as a master forger until he was caught. "When Myatt was freed in June 1999, he had 'pretty much decided to pack up painting,' he says. But friends asked for a Monet or another Nicholson. 'I said no, but if you're prepared to have something that looks like one ... ' was his answer. Gradually he built up a collection. Several London galleries apparently eager to cash in on his notoriety offered to show his work." Now he's got a show... Los Angeles Times 09/23/02

MUSEUM OF DESTRUCTION: The American military is turning over an old nuclear missile silo in South Dakota to the National Park Service, which will turn the site into a national park where "parents and kids will be able to see how the end of the world could have begun. 'It will really be kind of stunning to be able to see these things. There's almost something surreal about it, and this makes it more real. Probably people's impressions about this, to the extent that they have one, is based on movies'." New Jersey Online (AP) 09/24/02

Monday September 23

KRUGER WINS COPYRIGHT CASE: Can artists legally appropriate other artists' images into their work as part of something bigger? The US Appeals Court says they may, ruling in favor of artist Barbara Kruger. "Photographer Thomas Hoepker and his friend Charlotte Dabney, had sought damages stemming from the use and exhibition of an image of Dabney within a work created by Barbara Kruger." The pair had also sued the Whitney Museum and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art for selling copies of Kruger's work in their giftshop. The Art Newspaper 09/20/02

UNSOLICITED ADVICE: "Who can forget the booing that erupted spontaneously at the Javits Center two months ago after the presentation of six much-anticipated plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center site? The audience of 5,000 New Yorkers from every walk of life were not just being contrarians; they were expressing a collective demand for urban and architectural greatness, scaled to the magnitude of 9/11." Accordingly, New York magazine solicited designs from 7 leading architects, and is welcoming reader feedback. The designs range from imposing to subtle, from futurist to surreal. New York 09/23/02

LOOKING FOR THE NEXT BIG THING: Jay Jopling is the man who sold contemporary Britart to the public, introducing Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and others. Now, after ten years he's closing his original gallery and consolidating his four locations into one. Some critics have been saying he's lost his way in recent years, and the 39-year-old Jopling hopes consolidation of his spaces will help his focus. The Observer (UK) 09/22/02

Sunday September 22

THE TROUBLE WITH AUTHENTICATION: The purchase of a painting thought to be a Rubens for CAN$117 million this summer sparked a raging debate over the authenticity of the work, and brought to the fore the troubling difficulty of decalring a work of art to be genuine. "A tour through the international world of art authentication leaves one reeling with the complexity of a discipline that is in rapid flux. While a half-century ago, the legendary connoisseur Bernard Berenson boldly authenticated works of art by sight alone, authentication today is a painstaking collaborative process, and never more so than when the stakes are high." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 09/21/02

BEST/WORST DOCUMENTA EVER? This year's installment of the German Documenta festival was savaged by U.S. critics as virulently anti-American, out of touch with reality, and, according to the New York Times "puritanical and devoid of humor." Regardless, attendance was the highest it has ever been in Kassel, the average age of attendees has stopped escalating, and the bottom line is safe for the first time in years. America, it turns out, may need to grow a thicker skin: "Art has seldom been so insolently criminalized as with the absurd assertion that Documenta Director Okwui Enwezor was pursuing the same objective in the area of aesthetics as the mass murderers of Sept. 11, and that they only differed in the degree of their motivation." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09/20/02

THE NEW SURREALISTS: "Surrealism is alive and well in Toronto, and not just in the disproportionate number of light-bulb jokes on the Internet. Instead, the wild art has been experiencing a renaissance with a group of artists under the banner of Recordism." What-ism? Well, according to the web site of the International Bureau of Recordist Information, the movement is about non-standard expression, the blending of sound and art, and the artistic bliss of breaking free from typical constraints of what is pretty, normal, or expected. Sounds plenty surreal to us. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 09/21/02

SELLER'S MARKET IN PARIS: "The suspense may not match the tension in world politics, but for those who sell art the stakes have never been so high. At the 21st Paris Biennale, 96 dealers watch with apprehension the reactions of collectors thronging to the most sophisticated showcase of the art of the past for sale in the world. Their anxiety is matched by that of collectors wondering how much longer they have to find gems as supplies continue to shrink every year." International Herald Tribune (Paris) 09/21/02

WHERE'S OUR TECH BOOM? Digital art continues to have a tough time getting respect as a serious art form, and France's new digital art festival Villette Numérique aims to advance the cause with six days of installations, juries, club shows, concerts, and video game marathons. (Could that last one be a source of the public disrespect for the form?) But organizers of the festival lament the lack of understanding of their oeuvre, and gently suggest that they ought to be in line for some government funding, as well. Wired 09/21/02

Friday September 20

ARCHITECT SUES SKIDMORE: An architect who worked on the Bloomberg corporate headquarters in New Jersey is suing Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, alleging the architecture firm of copying hundreds of his drawings, perhaps at the direction of Bloomberg. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg may be called to testify. New York Observer 09/18/02

A CATHEDRAL TO FIT L.A.: Paul Goldberger is impressed with the massiveness of Los Angeles' new cathedral. It's the poor man's Getty, which is not an insignificant achievement. Architect Rafael Moneo plays with the past and is genuinely inventive at the same time. His best touch is both an homage to the traditional Gothic cathedral and a subtle, brilliant inversion of it." The New Yorker 09/16/02

SEATTLE ART MUSEUM TO EXPAND: The Seattle Art Museum announces a construction plan that will triple its exhibition space. Not only will the expansion not cost the museum, it will make money on the deal, a partnership with a major bank. The bank will build a 40-story tower on property owned by the museum next door. The museum will occupy the bottom of the tower, and in return for the prime downtown real estate, the bank will pay off outstanding construction bonds used to finance the museum's current home, a Robert Venturi building that opened in 1989. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 09/19/02

BUY AMERICAN: "Since 1986 the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has been quietly selling off its collection of European paintings to create a fund for the acquisition of American art. The decision to sell paintings by masters like Courbet and Boldini is a way of refocusing its mission in the 21st century, its officials say." The move towards American art will also help distinguish the Academy from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which holds a massive European collection. The New York Times (first item) 09/20/02

Thursday September 19

STOLEN TITIAN RECOVERED: A Titian painting stolen in 1995 is returned - dropped off in a brown wrapper at a London bus stop after its owner pays a $150,000 ransom. The painting was likely stolen by amateurs who didn't know what they had stolen, and who found it difficult to fence. The New York Times 09/19/02

PUBLIC ART OFF THE RAILS: The Los Angeles subways seems like a good place for art. But the projects designed for it are a disappointment. "In nearly every instance, the scale of the transit system dwarfs the art. The works come off as afterthoughts, decorative flourishes that are meant to add a bit of whimsy and individualism to an otherwise rational operation. Such thinking sells art short. When art is interesting, it embodies a lot more than idiosyncrasy. The biggest problem with this project is that it is based on the idea that art at subway stops is public and that art in museums isn't. That's simply wrong." Los Angeles Times 09/18/02

Wednesday September 18

MUNICH'S NEW MODERN ART PALACE: The Pinakothek der Moderne, one of the world's biggest modern art museums, has opened after six years of construction in Munich. "This is a great day for Bavaria, a great day for Germany. The museum rivals the Tate Modern in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York." Expatica.com (DPA) 09/17/02

DANGEROUS ART: Many of the guests invited to a boarded up gallery in London last week were angry at Santiago Sierra, the artist whose "work" the closed gallery was. But Sierra's art is usually much more dangerous and unsettling. "He goes beyond the limits of reasonable human interaction. He implicates the viewer and doesn't account for the effect. I am not sure I can handle it. I certainly don't approve of it. But here and there, through the shock of it, there is a superb formalist trying to get out." London Evening Standard 09/17/02

GERMAN ART WE'VE BEEN MISSING: German art of the 20th Century has never been popular in Britain. "The main reason? The high discomfort level of much German painting. The critical reason? The belief of so many critics that the sun shone out of Paris; Expressionism and Abstraction in Germany were of minor import. The emotional reason? Gut anti-Germanism, politics and war." The Times (UK) 09/18/02

SEE ME, TOUCH ME: A 36-ton marble sculpture of the Roman God Janus that was recently placed in front of a public building in Denver, was designed partly, with blind people in mind. The sculptor wanted the blind to be able to touch the sculpture and trace its relief with their hands. But the piece has run afoul of the Americans With Disabilities Act which "mandates anything that protrudes 4 inches or more above a height of 28 inches requires some kind of warning for blind people using canes." New Jersey Online (AP) 09/17/02

Tuesday September 17

ART AS EVERYDAY: The second Liverpool Biennial takes the viewer out to the art. To see this biennial you have to be willing to explore the city: "You are in a world where anything can be art, from a ketchup v soy sauce battle (a symbol of East/West antagonism, apparently) to the appearance of Queen Victoria’s head in your hotel room to a fire engine belching eyebrow-singeing flame. It could all be — and often is — bewildering. The viewer quickly succumbs to sensory overload. And yet talent will out." The Times (UK) 09/17/02

COMPLETING SYDNEY: Joern Utzon designed one of the 20th Century's most identifiable buildings - the Sydney Opera House. But as it was being built, some three decades ago, he walked off the project after he thought his designs were being tampered with in a way he couldn't tolerate. Now, at the age of 83 he's been hired to finally finish the project. In all these years, he's never seen the building in person. Any plans to? "Oh, I don't need to do that. I see it every night when I close my eyes." The Telegraph (UK) 09/17/02

REDISCOVERING KOENIGSBURG: Archeologists are piecing together the ruins of the 800-year-old shattered city of Koenigsberg. It was leveled in the 1950s by the Russians, then built over with an entirely new city, Kaliningrad. "The castle was built in the 13th Century and was the centre of Koenigsberg's cultural life. It also housed the great wealth of the Museum of Prussia. 'It was the cultural and spiritual center of Koenigsberg. Here there were very many museums, picture galleries, archives, exhibitions.' The Soviet authorities claimed it was a centre of fascism." BBC 09/16/2002

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE: Memberships are the life's blood of a museum. They build loyalty and are an important source of income. But how good a deal are they for the consumer, wonders Huma Jehan? "Before taking out any gallery membership, be brutally honest. Look at the list of forthcoming exhibitions. Consider how many times you think you'll visit it, and then divide the number by three to get a more realistic idea." The Guardian (UK) 09/17/02

Monday September 16

ENDANGERED ART: The Philadelphia Museum of Art basement, an area "more than two acres" big, which stores "paintings, sculptures, books, carpets, furniture, ceramics, china and silver, including works by Monet and Alexander Calder" is a fire hazard, says the city's fire department. "More than half of the vast basement has no sprinklers or other fire-suppression system - a fire-code violation - according to a fire-inspection. The museum has been in violation of the city fire code since Jan. 2, 1952. In the cultural world, fire experts cannot name other museums that leave most of their art-storage areas unprotected. And it highlights a tension between art curators and firefighters - one group fearful of water, the other of fire." Philadelphia Inquirer 09/16/02

RICHEST NEW ARTS PRIZE: The Gulbenkian Foundation announces a £100,000 arts prize for museums to "raise the morale and profile of Britain's museums and galleries." The unexpected new prize is twice the value of the Booker prize, and more than the Booker, Turner and Stirling prizes put together. It is open to galleries large and small. It is designed to reward 'the most innovative and inspiring idea - an exhibition, new gallery, public programme or important new initiative - developed during 2002'." The Guardian (UK) 09/16/02

COLLUSION IN ART BUY? Last year the National Gallery of Australia and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery got together to jointly bid on a painting they wanted. They won the John Glover painting, and at a price of $1.5 million, had to shell out $1 million less than the picture was thought to be worth. But the agreement has run afoul of Australian regulators, who say the deal might have been anti-competitive. If the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission rules against the museums, they could face fines of up to $10 million. The Age (Melbourne) 09/16/02

JUST GIACOMETTI: A controversial sale of work by Giacometti this month in Paris draws attention the legal quagmire into which his estate has fallen. A foundation set up by the artist's widow has had great difficulty getting authorized by the French government, and some wonder if there is an ulterior (and selfish) reason the bureaucracy has ground to a halt. The Telegraph (UK) 09/16/02

Sunday September 15

HOW BIG IS TOO BIG? "According to C. Northcote Parkinson, the inventor of Parkinson's Law, the final and terminal decline of an institution is often signalled by a move into a gleaming, towering, purpose-built headquarters. If that is so, then the London contemporary art world is moving into a perilous phase, as more and more of its most notable movers and shakers are currently engaged in vigorous architectural expansion." The Telegraph (UK) 09/14/02

MORE WTC FALLOUT: New York continues to struggle with the question of what should eventually rise where the World Trade Center once stood. When the official proposals were unveiled a few months back, the New York Times and its lead critics wasted no time in decrying them as unimaginative and antithetical to any truly human response to the attacks which felled the towers. But a series of proposals by those same critics is now appearing at the Venice Biennale, and isn't garnering a much better response: "The proposals... commissioned failed to address all the complexities of the site, it was argued. Since it is a place of global significance, it was added, why was its future being treated as a parochial New York affair?" Is this project simply a no-win situation for any who undertake it, or is there a hidden solution still eluding the experts? London Evening Standard 09/13/02

HIGH-TECH NOSTALGIA: It's not exactly modernism, and it certainly couldn't be considered authentically nostalgic, but the new hot movement in British architecture is a combination of high-tech features and nods to classic styling called High-Tech, and there's a lot more to it than a first glance might suggest. "High-Tech architecture... is about an image of modernity fashioned a surprisingly long time ago, early in the 20th century, in a very different world dominated by heavy industry. In today's post-industrial world, there is something increasingly nostalgic about that image of modernity." The Telegraph (UK) 09/14/02

MORE THAN JUST GROUND ZERO: "This fall's architecture lineup is one of the most dynamic in recent memory, with signature buildings and high-profile exercises in urban planning dominating the stage... around the nation." Projects to keep an eye on include a new Gehry-designed business school in Cleveland, a 37-story tower in Chicago by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, and, of course, the question of what to do with the massive space formerly occupied by the World Trade Center towers in New York. Chicago Tribune 09/15/02

AND NEXT TIME, LOCK THOSE THINGS UP! "Seven paintings and about 20 statuettes stolen from the home of a Spanish billionaire have been recovered, wrapping up one of the biggest art heists in decades, officials said. The seven paintings were among 17 stolen from the Madrid penthouse of construction tycoon Esther Koplowitz while she was on vacation in August, 2001." The Globe & Mail (AP) 09/14/02

Friday September 13

SAATCHI VS TATE: Super-collector Charles Saatchi fired a shot at the Tate Modern this week by announcing that he's opening a new gallery across the street from the Tate Modern. And he'll open next spring with artwork that was denied to the Tate. "Saatchi will curate the shows himself and the Damien Hirst exhibition will pointedly feature the pickled sharks denied to Sir Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate, when he sought to honour the artist with a retrospective at Tate Modern." The Guardian (UK) 09/13/02

COLOR OWNERS: "If color is a language, Pantone is the Oxford English Dictionary — thousands of shades, from almond blossom to walnut, that can be printed, woven, or extruded anywhere in the world. Though Pantone doesn't sell inks, dyes, or paints, it has come to hold a monopoly on color. Of course, frequencies of light, like naturally occurring sounds, are free for anyone to use. But Pantone owns their names — or, more specifically, their designated numbers and spectro-photometric descriptions." So how much are you willing to pay? Wired 09/12/02

FALLING APART: Much contemporary art is made from materials that don't last. So how to preserve them for the future? "Artists today are experimenting with materials that were never intended to be used in art making—from chocolate to excrement, foam rubber and fluorescent tubes, bodily fluids and banana peels—materials that are difficult or impossible to preserve. Such works have compelled curators and conservators to come up with new preservation strategies." ARTNews 09/02

ENGORGED MISTAKE? China's giant $24 billion Three Gorges dam is about 70 percent complete. "Almost 650,000 people have been moved, some 140,000 of them to other regions of China." But there have been widespread reports of corruption on the project, and "environmentalists, scientists and archaeologists call the dam an expensive mistake. They say it will wreck the local environment, destroy cultural relics and be an economic drain." The project is supposed to begin producing power next year. Yahoo! (AP) 09/10/02

BATH TIME: The last time Michelangelo's David was cleaned was in 1873. "Next week restorers at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia will begin wiping away 129 years of dirt and grime from the Renaissance marble statue from Monday. It is the first time the statue has been cleaned since it was moved into the gallery in 1873 to protect it from weather and pollution." CNN 09/13/02

STAMPING OUT BAD ART: Beijing is sprucing up to get ready to host the Olympic games. To that end, city officials commissioned a study of public art in the capital, and determined that "up to 40% of sculptures in the Chinese capital are substandard." The "bad" art includes "a fat mermaid" and a "timid" tiger. The statues will be pulled down and replaced by work by "professional sculptors. Ananova 09/13/02

Thursday September 12

SHUT OUT: Guests invited to the opening of a new London gallery arrive to find it shut. Turns out the invitation to a closed gallery is Spanish artist Santiago Sierra's art itself. "The artist had used the stunt to make a political point, aiming to show how frustrating it is to turn up somewhere to find it closed due to economic reasons." Guests generally weren't amused. BBC 09/11/02

OVERSIMPLIFYING IN VENICE: The Venice Biennale is underway amidst howls from architects that the event is ignoring real-world context, and treating architecture as an art form in a vacuum. "Biennale curator Deyan Scudjic selected as the focus the word 'Next,' dedicating the exhibit to buildings, architecture and places projected for the next decade. A vague theme at best and at worst a curatorial cop-out, it felt as if, in the face of a growing schism in architecture between showcasing design and creating relevant public space, Scudjic decided to cling to the physical security of buildings themselves." The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 09/12/02

TOO MUCH BUILDING FOR THE SPACE: Why have proposals for replacement of the World Trade Center (by some of the world's best architects) been so uninspiring? Martin Filler writes that the reasons are obvious: "Given that the bulk of the space had been contained in the megalithic superstructures, it does not take an architecture expert to understand that if you redistribute the same quantity of volume in considerably shorter, safer buildings - deemed prudent by all concerned - then more ground will have to be covered. And because of the considerable - and to my mind justifiable - public pressure to leave the footprints of the towers vacant (a central demand of the missing victims' families and a feature of four of the six LMDC schemes), the gross overcrowding of the site is inevitable." The New Republic 09/08/02

• IMAGINATION RATHER THAN REBUILDING: The New York Times gathers a team of prominent architects and asks them to imagine a redeveloped WTC area. "Some of the West Street projects will appear bizarre or perhaps self-indulgent to those unfamiliar with contemporary architecture. But this is not a lineup of architectural beauty contestants. All are conceptually rooted, in step with the level of architectural ambition in Vienna, Tokyo, Rotterdam and many other cities overseas." New York Times Magazine 09/08/02

HOW TO SCREW UP A TRAIN STATION: Toronto is 'revitalizing' it's architectural jewel of a rail station, and according to Lisa Rochon, the city could not be doing a worse job. How did the process get to such a disastrous point? Too much secrecy, too many egos on city council, and a complete and baffling ignorance of anything to do with trains, architecture, and public relations. The process may be beyond repair at this point, and many observers are worried that Union Station will never be the same. The Globe & Mail (Toronto) 09/12/02

DESIGN MATTERS: Can anyone make a Mondrian? Can anyone tell a real Mondrian from a fake? "A psychologist at University College London, took studies by the giant of post impressionism, altered the balance of composition a little with a computer, and tested them on the public. 'The short answer is there is a very clear relationship between good design and the way people look at that, and the way people take in information from a painting, and whether they find it pleasing or interesting'." The Guardian (UK) 09/11/02

Wednesday September 11

MUSEUMS HURTING FOR MONEY: State museums in Europe and the US are being squeezed for money. "From the Louvre to Florence's Uffizi, the monumental showcases of Europe are getting battered by a huge funding crisis. Cash-strapped governments are refusing to hike grants in line with inflation, causing museums to close galleries, skimp on security staff, and put off much-needed restorations." BusinessWeek 09/16/02

STOLEN ART RECOVERED: Spanish police have recovered paintings stolen last summer in what was one of the country's largest-ever art heists. "Goya's The Donkey's Fall, valued at £8 million, was found hanging on the wall of the house in the resort town of Playa d'Aro, eastern Spain, together with 20 other stolen artworks." The art is believed to have been heading to the home of a Colombian drug lord. The Guardian (UK) 09/11/02

HERZOG BEATS UP ON BILBAO AND MOMA: Jacques Herzog, designer of the Tate Modern - Britain's most successful new museum, blasts two of the modern artworld's star institutions. "He said that New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the world's most powerful fount of public art, was driven by a cynical and elitist strategy. And in Bilbao, the Guggenheim Museum, designed by the architecture superstar Frank Gehry, left him totally cold because it was a 'very bad example for museums in the future'." The Independent (UK) 09/10/02

LIVING DOWN THE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS: "The American art world has been trying to live down abstract expressionism for four decades now. There is no abstract expressionist tourist industry. You won't find a Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Gorky, Still or Newman cafe, or encounter tour groups on the abstract expressionist trail. Sometimes it's as if the [New York's] most significant art movement never existed - indeed it can even be hard to find the paintings. Manhattan museums have their Tate-style rehangs, and curators love to iconoclastically shove those big macho paintings in the cellar to make way for, say, a slide show by Nan Goldin." The Guardian (UK) 09/11/02

TERMINALLY NICE? Have art critics become too nice? "Much art criticism is adulatory or merely descriptive. Many critics have never seen a show they weren't enthusiastic about. These days, negative criticism is branded as 'mean' or 'personal.' Future generations will peruse today's art magazines and suppose ours was an age where almost everything that was made was universally admired." Village Voice 09/10/02

SURVIVOR: It's estimated that $200 million worth of art was lost in the Twin Towers tragedy. Miraculously, one piece survived almost intact: Fritz Koenig's 27ft, 45,000lb bronze Sphere, commissioned in 1969 for the Trade Center Plaza. For more than three decades it stood as a symbol of world peace, 'the bellybutton of the complex,' according to its architect, Yamasaki. Now it's relocated at the tip of Manhattan in Battery Park as a temporary memorial." Financial Times 09/11/02

ON THE REYNOLDS TRAIL: A long-missing portrait by Joshua Reynolds has been found after a 70-year search. Soon after it was sold in 1930, Joshua Reynolds' portrait of Margaret Morris, a Welsh heiress who co-founded Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London, went missing. The painting is 250 years old, and a long and dramatic search for it included leads to the mafia, bombed-out buildings and midwestern U.S. hotels... The Guardian (UK) 09/10/02

Tuesday September 10

WHAT AUSTRALIA'S ARTISTS NEED: Australia's visual arts need help. What kind? About $15 million in government funds, suggests a new report. Also a royalty system for artists so they would earn a percentage of the price every time their work is resold, and generous tax incentives for those who donate artwork to museums. "In a nation that's pretty good at acknowledging sporting heroes, we might be able to move quite quickly soon to begin to acknowledge our great living artists as heroes of our country, too." The Age (Melbourne) 09/10/02

A TIME OF VISION: If we learned anything from the official proposals to replace the World Trade Center earlier this summer, it was that New Yorkers expect something grand, something extraordinary. New York Magazine asked six prominent architectural firms to deliver. "New Yorkers need buildings at the World Trade Center site that will make us stop, look, and feel. Buildings that will make us turn our gaze up and understand a larger order of aspiration. This is not the time to settle for real-estate deals dressed up with expensive curtain walls but the moment to prescribe curative doses of the beautiful, the poetic, the sublime." New York Magazine 09/09/02

Monday September 9

ART TO THE PEOPLE: Mao Zedong's Long March revolutionized China and inspired generations of Chinese. "Almost seven decades on, Mao's Long March is providing the inspiration for a new group of 'revolutionaries' - not cadres this time, but artists. Since July, The Long March, a travelling exhibition and interactive art show, has been retracing Mao's journey through China." The aim is to bring contemporary art to the people. Far Eastern Economic Review 09/12/02

CHINA'S NEW COMMERCIAL ART TRADE: In China, only the state and its wholly owned shops are allowed to deal in the trade of antiques. But a resolution passed by the recent People's Congress proposes opening up the antiques trade to private companies for the first time since 1949. The new freedom is not without its strictures. "The draft law defines categories of art that cannot be traded; mandates 'certification' by the central government of any art business, State-owned or private, and gives the State first refusal on any object." The Art Newspaper 09/06/02

DIANA MEMORIAL CRITICIZED: The selection of a design for a London memorial to Diana, the Princess of Wales, has been controversial. Now a judge makes his objections public... The Art Newspaper 09/06/02

Sunday September 8

BANNED ART: How to create a work of art which truly reflects, in both a realistic and human sense, the way in which our world has changed since last September? A new exhibit in San Francisco embraces the task in the most literal fashion - a Bay Area artist has assembled a series of collages made up entirely of the wreckage of aircraft and items seized by airport security officers since the new, more stringent restrictions on baggage went into effect. Gimmicky? Sure. But visitors and critics are finding it surprisingly powerful as well. San Francisco Chronicle 09/07/02

ROLE REVERSAL: Being a critic is significantly easier than being a creator, and most critics would tell you as much. But being a critic-turned-creator may be harder still, as the world lines up to see if you can take the heat you're used to dishing out. Such is the lot of Deyan Sudjic, the architecture critic tapped to head up this year's Venice Biennale. The government is against him, his plans are thwarted at every turn, and he speaks very little Italian. Somehow, it all comes together. Or so he hopes. The Observer (UK) 09/08/02

SUBTLE SELF-PROMOTION: Philadelphia's Print Center is trying something new to increase its profile in the city: art that no one notices. The plan is called "Imprint," and consists of works by six artists placed at various points around the metro area, on billboards, coffee cups, and in magazines, designed to gradually work their way into the minds of the viewer, rather than be analyzed in any one sitting. The images are described as simple but confusing, accessible but startling, and subliminal yet unavoidable. Sounds like art, all right. Philadelphia Inquirer 09/08/02

FOR THE LOVE OF ART: Many rich collectors acquire art for the status symbol, or the investment, or just to have it.George and Maida Abrams collect art because they love it. Not every piece in the Abrams collection is worth great gobs of money (although some, like Rembrandt's 'Farm on the Amsteldijk,' are priceless,) but every painting, every drawing, every sketch has something in it that caught the eye of either husband or wife and made it impossible for them to leave it behind. The Abrams collection is currently touring Europe, its first public display since Maida died of cancer last spring, and is garnering mostly rave reviews for the highly personal nature of the works included. "They constitute a loving, lingering look at everyday life -which accounts for their accessibility to a wide public." Boston Globe 09/08/02

A HOME FOR THE MACABRE: "Edward Gorey never passed up a chance to give a gift -- unless it involved an event where an admiring stranger might thrust the shy author and illustrator into the centre of attention. So he probably would have grumbled aloud about the spotlight on his life at the Edward Gorey House, a tribute to all things Gorey that opened in July in his beloved Cape Cod home, where he had a fatal heart attack in April, 2000. Secretly, however, Gorey might have been pleased by efforts from friends, family and an anonymous foundation to preserve his eccentric legacy." The Globe & Mail (AP) 09/07/02

Friday September 6

POISONED HERITAGE: "As late as the 1960s, it was common practice for museums and collectors to preserve artifacts - and to ward off bugs and rodents - by applying a variety of toxic pesticides, including mercury, arsenic, and the now-banned DDT. In the wake of a federal repatriation law passed in the early 1990s, Native Americans have realized what was previously known only to museum workers: Virtually every organic artifact collected before the second half of the 20th century has been contaminated. Because the problem is so new, no data exist on the correlation between contaminated artifacts and health defects, especially among the little-studied Native American population." SF Weekly 09/05/02

LET'S GET SOME ROYALTY ACTION: The real money in art is made in the resale market after the artist is established. Collectors get rich if they pick the right artist to collect. But visual artists in the United States do not earn royalties on their work after it is first sold, meaning their capacity to earn goes to the grave with them. Australian artists - painters, sculptors, photographers and the like - are in exactly the same boat and right now are locked in a tussle with gallery owners and the Federal Government to grab a piece of that rock-star-earning action." Sydney Morning Herald 09/06/02

MEMORIALIZING AS A CONCEPT: Arthur Danto tries to make sense of the flood of post-9/11 art raining down on us from everywhere as the anniversary approaches. "I somewhat resist the idea of the anniversary, but at the same time acknowledge a deep wisdom in the way an anniversary marks a symbolic ending. The art that belonged to the experience of September 11 now constitutes a body of work that differs from the art that will undertake to memorialize it. The difference in part is this: One need not have shared the experience to memorialize it." The Nation 09/023/02

PROTESTS OVER HITLER STATUE: A lifelike statue portraying Adolf Hitler kneeling in prayer is being installed in Rotterdam (which was flattened by the Nazis in World War II) this week. The city's leading cultural critic has complained, but the museum showing the work defends it, saying: "By confronting this loaded theme with irony, the historic and ethical importance of this extremely dark period of our existence becomes clearer. It is particularly important to display this type of work now in a time of fear." Nando Times (AP) 09/06/02

MUSEUM ACCESS DENIED: Many museums are restricting access to parts of their collections deemed "inappropriate" for public scrutiny. "What’s significant and alarming about this story is not just that researchers and the rest of us may be denied a chance to study objects and their cultural importance. A situation where museum curators are no longer obliged to defer to the idea of research being integral to their employment by the museum is deeply disturbing. Instead they seem to be playing the role of high priests, hiding the ancient saint’s finger as a relic in the basement, only to be seen by the privileged few chosen by birth or background." The Spectator 09/07/02

RIFFING RESTORATION: The University of Canberra is dropping its art restoration program. "They are losing a huge amount of money because there's very low demand." Some warn that the preservation of Australia's art collections will be endangered without new conservators. Sydney Morning Herald 09/06/02

Thursday September 5

THE BEST NEW BUILDINGS? Here's a list of new American buildings (opened since the change of the millennium) that one panel of experts picked as buildings pointing to a new age. The list includes "an office building, a courthouse, two museums and even a public transit project. In a sense, the populism of these structures recalls another great era, that of 100 years ago. Back then, great architecture was represented by central rail stations: ornate, Renaissance-styled places that embraced the masses as they caught an eye-opening first impression of the big city. Then modernism came along, and we lost this..." USA Weekend Magazine 09/01/02

HIGH-END HEIST: "Works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Mexican painter Frida Kahlo have been stolen from a doctor's home in Texas. The haul, worth more than $700,000, was taken from the San Antonio house of Dr Richard Garcia while he was asleep upstairs... The most expensive item taken was a painting by Frida Kahlo, valued at $500,000. Dr Garcia, who has not publicly identified the paintings on the advice of his lawyer, said he had not insured the works because the premiums would be too high." BBC 09/04/02

AIMING HIGH IN BOSTON: Boston's Institute for Comtemporary Art unveiled its plans for a new museum on the Boston Harbor this week, and reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. But the ICA has a number of significant hurdles to clear before the museum can be built, and the exorbitant cost may be the least of the problems. "Is the section of the Harborwalk bordering the building going to be wide enough? And what about the dramatic, fourth-floor overhang that stretches to the water's edge? A stunning design, but didn't it violate the rules of the Municipal Harbor Plan? And would it create a wind tunnel like the one around the John Hancock Tower?" Boston Globe 09/05/02

HOW TO GET YOURSELF DECLARED AN 'ENEMY COMBATANT': Hlynur Hallsson probably could have chosen a better time and place to "stimulate discussion." The Icelandic artist installed an exhibit of his work in a rural Texas gallery with the stated intention of getting people to talk. The townsfolk haven't stopped shouting since: Mr. Hallsson's exhibit consists of bilingual graffiti-style sentences scrawled on walls, with the text reading "The real axis of evil are Israel, USA and the UK," "Ariel Sharon is the top terrorist," and "George W. Bush is an idiot." The New York Times 09/05/02

Wednesday September 4

THE DEPRESSING HOMEFRONT: So what if we create civic buildings of aesthetic quality? People can come and visit them. But then they go home to wretched mass-produced, unsustainable, depressing houses in suburbs. Could this be what people want? "But are these people offered, or have they experienced, anything different? How are they so sure when there are so many alternative ways of living? And just who gains from turning lark-sung meadows into acres of breeze-blocks tricked out in doll's house detailing?" The Guardian (UK) 09/02/02

IT'S HIP TO BE DUMBO: It's where you want to be in New York - Dumbo - Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass - the latest neighborhood to make a claim for rising hipster status on the New York scene. In its 15 rough-hewn square blocks, about 1,000 artists and performers fill some 700 lofts." Washington Post 09/04/02

THE BATTERED BARNES: The Barnes Collection outside Philadelphia is one of the world's great collections of Impressionist art. "The Musee d'Orsay in Paris owns 94 works by Renoir. The Barnes has 181. The Museum of Modern Art in New York has 39 by Cezanne. The Barnes owns 69." But the Barnes is surely one of the most troubled of art institutions - trapped by the will of an eccentric founder and the wrath of angry neighbors. Can anything be done? Los Angeles Times 09/03/02

NEW BOSTON LANDMARK? Boston's new waterfront home for the Institute of Contemporary Art may be delayed because of financial dificulties. But that isn't stopping the ICA from unveiling its dramatic design for the building. "This is one of the city's great moments. We see this as quite the beacon of light on the waterfront. It will be as luminous outside as the work will be inside.'' Boston Herald 09/04/02

AWKWARD OPENING? The first cathedral built in the United States for three decades opened yesterday amid protests from Roman Catholics who say that the $200 million cost of the building should have been spent on the poor. All-night vigils were held by protesters describing the building as a 'fat cats' cathedral' and by others critical of the church's handling of the sex scandals engulfing it. The dedication of the cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels comes at an awkward moment for the church. Seventy-two current or former priests from the LA diocese alone are under criminal investigation and the church is embroiled in costly settlements with abuse victims." The Guardian (UK) 09/03/02

• Previously: BREATHTAKING ADDITION: The new Los Angeles Cathedral opened over the weekend. Not the best time in the history of the American Catholic Church to be into an expensive project. Architecturally, the building is impressive, writes Nicolai Ourssouroff. "If it struggles to find its place in the city, its intent is to offer a refuge from it. The relentless flow of Los Angeles' sprawling landscape is momentarily lessened. In its place is a monument to spiritual communion that certainly ranks among the great architectural achievements in recent American history." Los Angeles Times 09/02/02

Tuesday September 3

INNOCENTS IS BLISS? Controversy still swirls around the painting bought by a Canadian collector for £49 million at auction this summer. Is Massacre of the Innocents by Rubens (thus justifying its enormous price) or is it not? "The work is not a 'typical Rubens', but bears a marked similarity to the National Gallery's Samson and Delilah, itself an initially controversial purchase. 'To link this painting so strongly seems disturbing when Samson and Delilah's attribution has been challenged for all sorts of reasons'." The Guardian (UK) 09/03/02

BREATHTAKING ADDITION: The new Los Angeles Cathedral opened over the weekend. Not the best time in the history of the American Catholic Church to be into an expensive project. Architecturally, the building is impressive, writes Nicolai Ourssouroff. "If it struggles to find its place in the city, its intent is to offer a refuge from it. The relentless flow of Los Angeles' sprawling landscape is momentarily lessened. In its place is a monument to spiritual communion that certainly ranks among the great architectural achievements in recent American history." Los Angeles Times 09/02/02

• EARTHBOUND ART: The art commissioned for the new cathedral doesn't match the inspiration of the building. "The result is self-defeating. If you already believe, the art is superficial. If you don't, there isn't much to see." Los Angeles Times 09/02/02
  

WORLD'S LARGEST PAINTING? It's a lifesize painting of a tree. "The picture of an oak tree is 32ft by 22ft. It is going on display in the middle of Golden Square in Soho, central London. Artist Adam Ball used 100 litres of paint and varnish to create the vast work, entitled The Tree. He got through 35 brushes, as well as mops, brooms and builders' trowels, to cover the canvas. It will hang on a 12 metre (40ft) scaffold and be weighed down by 50 tonnes of concrete to prevent it from blowing over." The Guardian (UK) 09/02/02

Sunday September 1

COME TO BOSTONLAND! The city of Boston is about to have a big chunk of open land, once the major traffic artery through the city is shifted underground. And this week, a city councilor proposed that a parcel of the land be used to create a sort of colonial theme park, an idea which Robert Campbell calls "stupid... Hey, why not turn the Artery into Venetian canals? How about a bullfight arena? Maybe a giant balloon launcher for tourists? The problem isn't dreaming up ideas. The problem is that there's nobody in charge of sifting those ideas and figuring out what will really work, what will really make a better city." Boston Globe 09/01/02

THERE'S NEVER ENOUGH FREUD: The Lucien Freud exhibit at the Tate Modern has been the hot ticket of the summer in London. And it's not over yet - the final two works to join the exhibit have only just been completed, and, as previewed in a London broadsheet, they are as eclectic as one would expect from the UK's painter of the moment. One of the works features a dog lying at a man's bare feet; the other is a nude of pregnant supermodel Kate Moss. The Telegraph (UK) 08/31/02

OUTSIDER ART FROM THE INSIDE: An exhibition of sketches depicting life in a South African prison will go on display in London this week. The artist, who is an amateur, is hoping to raise money to support a children's charity in his home country, and actually returned to the prison in which he spent a quarter century incarcerated in order to make the sketches. So why would anyone care? Well, the sketches are reportedly quite good. And the artist's name is Nelson Mandela. BBC 09/01/02

AS IF TIMES SQUARE NEEDED MORE POP ART: "The Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein liked to parody the modernist styles of his day. So it's altogether appropriate that five years after his death, he has given the new Times Square, with its sci-fi glass towers and Tomorrowland electronic signs, a monumental mural that harks back to a bygone future — the future as it was evisioned in the machine age... The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which commissioned the piece and will unveil it on Thursday, may rightly see the work as an emblem of a revitalized, forward-looking Times Square. But it's also a Lichtenstein sendup of modernist visions of the future." The New York Times 09/01/02

THE OTHER OTHER TATE: "St Ives would like to be the Collioure of Cornwall. It was in Collioure, on the western end of the Côte d'Azur, in the early 20th century that Matisse, Picasso and the French avant garde drank Bandol and reinvented painting. Those days are long gone now. Collioure trades on its artistic heritage, but you have to go a long way to find a few slightly sorry traces of its glory days... The locals are in no doubt about the source of St Ives's new prosperity: it's the Tate St Ives." The Telegraph (UK) 08/31/02

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