|
|
OCTOBER 2000
Tuesday
October 31
- FAIR
PLAY: What are the elements that make a successful world's
fair? The Hannover World's Fair is about to end. "No one
will consider it one of the best, despite the unexpected increase
in attendance over the last few weeks and although paying visitors
were always more impressed than the critics who received complimentary
tickets." Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung 10/31/00
- LESS IS STILL MORE: Germany’s 80-year-old Bauhaus design
movement, whose guiding principle of "less is more"
was popularized in the ‘20s, is inspiring a whole new generation
of designers ready Sto apply its tenets to enlivening urban architecture
and creating affordable design choices for the average city dweller.
"The idea here is not to reproduce the Bauhaus. The idea
now is to try to pick up where it was before it suffered an unnatural
death and apply it to today's challenges presented by globalization."
Los Angeles Times 10/30/00
- AN
EXPENSIVE WOBBLY BRIDGE: There are more engineers studying
how to fix the wobble in Norman Foster's Millennium footbridge
across the Thames than there are people who have been to the Millennium
Dome. "Yet the £5 million currently quoted for a remedy to
the famous wobble is a colossal sum compared both to the original
estimate of £9 million and the much increased 'final' figure of
£18 million. The Times (London) 10/31/00
Monday
October 30
- GETTY
MUSEUM BLOCKED: "The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles
has been blocked by a judge from building renovations and additions
to its villa overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At issue is the $150
million project to modernise the Roman-style structure that opened
in 1974 as the original J. Paul Getty Museum. The museum stands
on what is officially classified agricultural land."
The Art Newspaper 10/30/00
- SOMETHING
AMISS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM? For centuries the British Museum
has been the very symbol of British rectitude and order. But a
recent scandal over stone used for a new portico, and a new exhibition
about ancient Rome that features film clips from the movie "Gladiator"
has critics wonder whether the museum has sold its soul.
The Independent (London) 10/29/00
- HOW DO YOU SAY ‘KA-CHING’ IN ITALIAN?
Twentieth-century Italian art made quite a showing at Sotheby’s
recent London auctions, far outselling the work of other, more
well-known European artists. "Although lacking heavyweight
material by Modigliani or the Futurists, Sotheby's realised £7.5
million for just 54 lots and set half a dozen new artists' records
in the process. Were it a football match, the result, on the basis
of these figures, would have read Italy 4, Germany 2." The Telegraph (London)
10/30/00
- THE
GRAVES BUSINESS: "In the 1980s, Graves became the darling
of postmodernist architecture. Then he designed a tea kettle for
Alessi, with a bird on the spout, that became an icon of sophisticated
home design. Today, he is a self-proclaimed 'old fogey' who designs
toasters for Target - and, by the way, more buildings than ever."
Minneapolis Star-Tribune 10/30/00
- WHEN
IN DOUBT, SEE THE ART TEACHER: "Watching my class of
potential Rembrandts and Van Goghs in action last week, I reflected
for a moment on how it was that I had become that ever-popular
enigma: the 'art teacher.' You know who I mean. The teacher that
is always just a little lost, a little dirty and can never quite
seem to find anything. For the most part, we are popular with
the students because we never seem to be very concerned with discipline
and we remain close to the hearts of fellow colleagues who are
always in a constant search for bristol board and construction
paper." The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
10/30/00
Sunday
October 29
- THE
SHOCKING TURNER PRIZE: What happened to this year's Turner
Prize exhibition? We're used to controversy, shock, bad art. "This
year's show is tasteful, steady and, in two cases, highly accomplished.
There's nothing wilfully bad, flash or obscure here: the services
of the Tate's head of interpretation will not be required. Take
your grandmother, take your children - the only shock is that
there isn't a single video." The
Observer 10/29/00
- NEWLY
GLAMOROUS ARCHITECTS: Who says architects have to be dull?
The Stirling Prize, awarded for "the architects of the European
building which has made the greatest contribution to British architecture"
in the past year, has "taken a good look round and decided
that the best way to raise its profile, part of its self-conscious
rebranding, is to make its rather worthy annual awards glamorous."
The Telegraph (London) 10/29/00
- BRITAIN
AT THE VENICE BIENNALE: "Britain has made a mistake.
It has decided that Mark Wallinger should represent us at the
next Venice Biennale. The Biennale is the most prestigious art
event in the world. Quite how hilarious a mistake it is to send
Wallinger is made clear by the catch-up survey of his career so
far that has been organised by the Liverpool Tate. Actually, it
is one of very few things that are made clear by it."
Sunday Times (London) 10/29/00
- CLOSE
TO GREATNESS: Whether it's Jimi Hendrix's guitar or Leonardo's
snuff box, we've always had a fascination for relics. "Russell
Martin’s new book, "Beethoven’s Hair," is a wonderful contemplation
of how relics can become bridges between people separated by time,
culture and death. "Beethoven’s Hair" also gives us a long, inspiring
look at passion in several forms." The
Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 10/29/00
Friday
October 27
- THE
HOUSTON-MOSCOW CONNECTION: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
and the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow announce a
long-term alliance to share and exchange artwork. "The first
exchange will send 200 objects from the MFA's Glassell Collection
of African Gold to the Russian museum in 2001, the first time
in its 100-year history that it will exhibit African art. In December
2002, a trove of French paintings by such masters as Paul Cézanne
and Pablo Picasso will travel to Houston." Houston
Chronicle 10/26/00
- THE
ANTI-TURNERISTS: There are those who think that the best thing
about the Turner Prize is that it inevitably irritates a lot of
people. "This year, the Turner Prize's promotional budget
is being helped along by the Stuckists arts group, who are calling
for a return to the values of modernism and an acknowledgment
that painting is the only true expressive art form."
London Evening Standard 10/27/00
- BELLAGIO
COLLECTION ON THE BLOCK: Steve Wynn's collection from the
Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas is being sold off piece by piece.
New York Times 10/27/00 (onetime
registration required for entry)
Thursday
October 26
- TATE
TOPS WITH CROWDS: It only opened last May, but already this
year the Tate Modern has topped 3 million visitors, averaging
18,000 people a day. How does it compare to other attractions
in the capital? "The British Museum was top of last year's
list, recording 5.5 million visitors, and the National Gallery
was in second place with five million."
London Evening Standard 10/26/00
- A
SLIPPERY SLOPE: A set of big bronze Henry Moore sculptures
is resting in a park in central Beijing. How did they get there,
and why choose Moore to represent British art? Turns out they're
just the thing...The Guardian (London)
10/26/00
- FINDING
THE RIGHT MIX: Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art is back
from the brink of oblivion. But it's got to got to terms with
balancing good art and pulling in the crowds. New director Elizabeth
Ann Macgregor "is under great pressure to pull in the crowds.
But she is yet to prove that elaborately marketed shows with a
sometimes tenuous relation to art are the way to go. Asked about
the exhibition of elephant paintings, she laughed loudly."
Sydney Morning Herald 10/26/00
Wednesday
October 25
- COURTING CONTROVERSY: Works by the four artists shortlisted
for this year’s Turner Prize have gone on view at London’s Tate
Britain. The UK’s premier art award, the Turner (which will be
announced next month) has developed a reputation for generating
substantial controversy - Damien Hirst’s sheep in formaldehyde
and Chris Ofili’s cow-dung paintings were past winners - and this
year’s no different. Only one finalist is actually British, to
the consternation of many. BBC 10/24/00
- THE ABCs OF ART APPRECIATION: The first in a week-long discussion
of John Armstrong’s new book "Move Closer," a primer
for "those who sweat when confronted with art" on the
pleasures of viewing. "Can a stubbornly unvisual person -
someone who might love a picture but might be unable to describe
it coherently five minutes later - be taught to see things differently,
in a less ham-handed way?" Slate 10/24/00
- VIVA
LAS VEGAS: The Guggenheim and the Hermitage Museums are coming
to Las Vegas. What will their new buildings look like? "Whether
or not they succeed as architecture will go a long way in answering
a question that has secretly terrified the profession for more
than a decade: How does architecture assert its value in a world
saturated by manipulative advertising and mass-market entertainment?"
Los Angeles Times 10/25/00
- HIGH
FASHION/HIGH PAY/HIGH INFLUENCE? The Guggenheim's new show
of Armani fashion has reviewers in a tizzy. "Reviewers stumbled
out of this array of some 400 garments in a higher-than-usual
state of befuddlement, and have delivered themselves of reports
written in rapturous poetry or horror-struck prose or, in some
cases, both. And how do we factor in the US$15-million Giorgio
Armani has reportedly given to the Guggenheim for its worldwide
projects? Rich people have been giving tons of money to museums,
and getting back favours, since the beginning of time. That's
perhaps a horrifying idea. But has anybody really suffered?"
National Post (Canada) 10/25/00
- BACK
TO THE FUTURE: "William Thorsell, who was appointed head
of the Royal Ontario Museum - Canada's largest museum - four months
ago, wants to strip away decades of alterations that have left
the original galleries a dark shadow of their former selves."
Toronto Star 10/25/00
Tuesday
October 24
- CHINESE
RAPPROACHEMENT: Leaders of Chinese Palace Museums (in Beijing
and Taipei) meet to talk about exchanging artworks. The move is
historic because Mainland China has in the past charged that Taipei's
collection was plundered when the Nationalists left the Mainland.
China Times (Taiwan) 10/24/00
-
TOTAL
WORLD DOMINATION: The Guggenheim seems bent on being the
Starbucks of the artworld - one on every corner. "The combined
Guggenheim collections now run to 8,000 paintings, sculptures
and installations and the pace of expansion seems unstoppable,
feeding on a barely tapped global appetite for democratic art
in spectacular surroundings." The
Independent 10/24/00
- AND
MORE POWER TO THEM: Two
of the most prestigious art institutions in the world, the
Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation of New York and the State
Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg, have reached a conclusion
that, until even a few years ago, would have seemed insane.
Las Vegas, better known as a desert shrine to all that is
base and gaudy, neon and greedy, is actually an ideal place
to show fine art. The Independent
10/24/00
- VIENNA'S
NEW HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL: Vienna's controversial new Holocaust
Memorial in the Judenplatz is a wonder. "The artist herself
has consistently refused to explain or interpret her work, but
it speaks for itself in a number of different ways. While from
a distance, it is reminiscent of a temple, close up it looks more
like a hermetically sealed library. Its walls are concrete casts
of row upon row of books. Yet the books are facing the wrong way.
Their spines, and titles, are facing inwards so we will never
know what these books are called and what they contain.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10/24/00
- IT'S
TURNER TIME: "This year's Turner prize show opens to
the public at Tate Britain tomorrow. The shortlist for the £20,000
prize, which will be awarded on November 28, has already generated
a small controversy. Only one finalist, Glenn Brown, is actually
British, although the other three all live and work in Britain."
The Guardian 10/24/00
- RUNNING
OUT OF WOOD? Kenya's $20 million wood-carving industry is
booming, born of the initiative of the Wakamba people of south-central
Kenya. "But it has reached a difficult juncture. Favourite
woods for carving, such as African blackwood, also known as ebony,
or mpingo locally, are rapidly being depleted. Carvers and conservationists
are assessing the future of the industry that each year fells
50,000 Kenyan trees, even as it employs 80,000 carvers."
Globe and Mail (Toronto) 10/24/00
- PAOLOZZI
ILL: Sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, one of the most prolific and
distinctive British artists of the 20th century, is in a persistent
vegetative state after collapsing at his studio. It is thought
unlikely that the prolific Scottish-born artist will recover."
The Age (Melbourne) 10/24/00
Monday
October 23
- SAYING
HIGH TO LOW: "Just last week, architect Daniel Libeskind
suggested that contemporary museum designers could learn a lot
from shopping malls. Contemporary experience is riddled with such
categorical confusions. The commonplace becomes the aristocratic,
an elite finds its values affirmed in the everyday. As much as
debate on high and low culture seeks to affirm their difference,
increasingly what emerges is a recognition of their equivalence."
The Age (Melbourne) 10/23/00
- SAN
FRANCISCO'S SPLIT FEELINGS ON GRAFITTI: "While Mayor
Willie Brown and a force of volunteers armed with solvents gathered
at Yerba Buena Gardens on Saturday for a city-organized effort
to stamp out graffiti, San Francisco-based video-game maker Sega
of America played host to an art show featuring some of the nation's
best taggers just a few blocks away." San
Jose Mercury News 10/22/00
- A
LOOK AT A NEWLY-DISCOVERED MICHELANGELO: One of Michelangelo's
early drawings, discovered recently, is being offered by Sotheby's
auction house for an estimated $8-11 million. "The drawing,
dated to around 1505, lay entirely unknown to art historians since
at least the mid-18th century. It is a striking work in ink, about
10 in. by 6 in., representing a draped figure in mourning. It
has about it the solemn air of antiquity." Christian
Science Monitor 10/23/00
Sunday
October 22
- NEW
MELBOURNE MUSEUM OF ART OPENS: "The overriding message
from the speakers was that this was a museum devoted to reconciliation,
at a time when issues surrounding reconciliation occupy a great
deal of our national consciousness." The
Age (Melbourne) 10/22/00
- HENRY
MOORE GOES TO CHINA: One of the largest exhibitions of Henry
Moore's sculpture ever assembled is on show in Beijing, part of
the British Council's drive to raise the UK's profile in China.
"This was as much a political event as a cultural one. For
the 12 giant bronzes shipped half-way round the world are the
first true pieces of modern sculpture that have ever been seen
in China. The Telegraph (London) 10/21/00
- PICASSO'S
RED PERIOD: Pablo Picasso was famously a member of the Communist
Party, which considered him one of its most important members.
He got a lot of attention for his political views (and a thick
FBI file). But then came that portrait of Stalin, and...
The Guardian (London) 10/21/00
- POLITICS
OF IMPERMANENCE: Museums generally take great pains to protect
and care for the artwork that comes to them. But what is their
responsibility toward conceptual art in which the artist often
intends its decay or obliteration to be part of the work?
Chicago Tribune 10/22/00
- GUGGENHEIM
LAS VEGAS: "Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect
Rem Koolhaas, it will feature 20 works from the Russian museum
and 20 from Guggenheim that will rotate every six months. For
larger displays, plans call for a 63,700-square-foot building
between the hotel's casino and the parking garage for large-scale
traveling exhibitions, director Thomas Krens said."
Las Vegas Sun (AP) 10/21/00
- AFTER
THE PO-MO IS GONE: "As we enter an era that could well
be post-post-modern, questions are increasingly being asked about
just what Modernism was or even whether it was really anything
at all. It is almost as if Modernism were now being recast in
the image of pomo. Modernism, in these reinterpretations, is gnomic,
ironic, wavering. The New York Times
10/21/00 (one-time registration
required for entry)
Friday
October 20
- DONATION
WITHDRAWN: The art collector who had promised Canada's National
Gallery $20 million of art - 1600 mostly Chinese antiquities -
and then abruptly withdrew the donation last week, may have had
some provenance problems, a chinese art expert says.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 10/20/00
- DONOR X: An anonymous French art collector
has donated an astonishing collection of more than 100 masterworks
- by Cézanne, Manet, Picasso, and others - to France. Although
the mystery donor insisted on remaining nameless, rumors abound
that it’s actually a well-known and wildly generous Parisian medical
researcher. "I can think of no comparable donation in the
recent history of this country's museums." BBC 10/19/00
- TATE
TURNER DEAL: The Tate Museum has struck a deal with insurers
over the 1994 theft of two of its Turner paintings. The insurers
had paid out £24 million on the loss. But the museum was afraid
to spend the money lest the paintings turn up and the insurance
had to be paid back... The Art Newspaper
10/20/00
- CRITICAL
MASS: Clement Greenberg's personal art collection of 152 works
has been given to the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. "It
wasn't a consciously assembled collection: All the artworks were
gifts to Greenberg. These were all people we knew. These were
the people absolutely the closest in our lives. They were family
and still are." Seattle Times 10/20/00
- "ONE
LAST BINGE" BEFORE OLD AGE... The Museum of Modern Art's
temporary home for the years that its main campus will be under
construction "will be a radical departure from the tasteful,
cosmopolitan feel of MOMA's 53rd Street home. With a labyrinthine
entry leading to gaping, warehouse-like galleries, the project
recalls Frank O. Gehry's Geffen Contemporary, which was originally
designed in 1983 as a temporary space for Los Angeles' Museum
of Contemporary Art."
Los Angeles Times 10/20/00
- OPPOSITES ATTRACT: In a bizarre meeting of high and
low culture, Russia’s Hermitage Museum is joining forces with
New York’s Guggenheim Museum to open a minimuseum in the lobby
of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. The museum will be designed
by Rem Koolhaas and will exhibit two rotating exhibits from each
museum’s collection every year. The project marks the first step
in a collaboration between the two museums announced last June.
New York Times 10/20/00 (one-time registration required for access)
- THE
V&A CONSIDERS OFFLOADING ART: London's Victoria &
Albert Musem is suffering from falling attendence and aconfused
mission. Now a suggestion that the V&A offload some of its
artwork to other museums. “We have marvellous pictures, but people
don’t come to see them here and they don’t immediately think of
Constables at the V&A. Even when they come for the paintings,
it is hard to find them. Either we should rehang the paintings
in the galleries where they were originally shown or offer them
on long-term loan to other museums."
The Art Newspaper 10/20/00
- SCHIELE SURPRISE : A 1918 portrait by Egon Schiele
stirred up a surprising amount of interest among bidders at a
London Sotheby’s auction Wednesday and sold for $10 million -
more than twice the highest price ever paid for one of his works.
CNN 10/19/00
- APPARENT
HEIR: Boston's Museum of Fine Art has made a deal with the
heirs to a painting sold under court order in Nazi-occupied Paris
during World War II. "The parties came to a part-purchase,
part-donation agreement that will allow the painting to remain
in the MFA's collection, and on display in its European paintings
galleries." Boston Globe 10/20/00
- The
MFA purchased the painting from
a London dealer in 1992 and has had it on display since. The
museum was notified of the claim in February and first discussed
the situation at a federal hearing on Nazi-looted art in New
York City in April.
Boston Herald 10/20/00
Thursday
October 19
- MOMA'S
NEW DIGS: New York's Museum of Modern Art will have to vacate
its home for a few years while its massive renovation is ongoing.
So it has unveiled a site in Queens for its temporary home during
the interim. "How long the museum will display its artworks
at the provisional site, a former Swingline stapler factory, depends
on how long it takes to finish its Midtown Manhattan renovation,
designed by the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi. That project,
which won unanimous approval yesterday from the City Planning
Commission, is scheduled to be completed in late 2004 or early
2005." New York Times 10/19/00
(one-time registration required for access)
- HOW
DO WE LOOK AT ART? A new show at London's National Gallery
is measurung the eye movements of viewers to see how we see. "The
results so far are not stunning. When people look at Albert Cuyp's
The Maas at Dordrecht in a Storm (1645-50), a painting of sail
boats being thrown about on a tempestuous sea off the Dutch shore,
they look first and longest at the boats. When they contemplate
Paul Delaroche's sentimental 19th-century history painting The
Execution of Lady Jane Grey (1833), their eyes tend to be drawn
to the central white-clad figure of the kneeling woman about to
have her head cut off." The Guardian
(London) 10/19/00
- RETURN
TO MAKER: For years the Canadian government's Art Bank bought
artwork so it could be rented out, collecting some 18,000 works
of art. Now the bank wants to clear out work that is rarely rented.
Artists will be offered a chance to buy back their work; any remaining
unwanted art will be deaccessioned. Critics "say the Art
Bank's 'revitalization' is going to hurt artists and the art market
by transforming a government agency into a pseudo-corporation
more intent on competing with the private sector than in advancing
Canadian art." Ottawa Citizen
10/19/00
- ONE
OF THOSE THINGS THAT DEFINES A CAREER (FOR BETTER AND WORSE):
Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial in Washington was so controversial
that "when it was over, I wanted to pretend it never happened.
I went back to school and tried to forget it. I refused to talk
about the memorial or do another one." Now she's out with a new
book about her career. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
10/19/00
- FIRST
GLIMMERS OF AMERICA: The Library of Congress is rushing to
raise $14 million to try and buy a map made in 1507 that "represents
the very first symbolization of America in any kind of medium.
It also represents the first document that truly understands,
at least from a European perspective, the way the world is constructed."
Washington Post 10/19/00
Wednesday
October 18
- DESIGNING MEMORY: Vienna’s Holocaust Memorial, designed
by sculptor Rachel Whiteread, has courted controversy since its
inception and will finally be unveiled next week. "It is
a library, but it looks like a bunker. I was thinking of brutalist
architecture, but I tried to make something sombre and poetic."
The Guardian (London) 10/17/00
- IN
SEARCH OF WYETH: The White House is looking for a painting
by NC Wyeth depicting George Washington standing in front of a
partially completed White House. The painting, worth as much as
$1 million, has gone missing. Philadelphia
Inquirer 10/18/00
- GLOWWORM:
A genetically-altered French bunny named Alba that glows green
in the dark is at the center of an international controversy."
Eduardo Kac--an intense, cutting-edge artist at the School of
the Art Institute of Chicago--claims he conceived of Alba and
spurred scientists to create her for the sake of art. He wanted
to use her living being as a canvas, if you will, to generate
debate about the future of genetic engineering. Art?! you exclaim.
Greening a living thing as art?!" Washington
Post 10/18/00
- ACTIVE
CRITIC: A retired teacher who defaced a painting at last year's
controversial "Sensation" show at the Brooklyn Museum
says it was his constitiutional right to do so. "It was his response
to an obscenity against his beloved Virgin Mary. He was offended
by the nature of that painting, and that's what the museum wanted."
New York Daily News 10/18/00
Tuesday
October 17
-
PHILANTHROPIST
DEMANDS ARTWORK BACK: Ottawa's National Gallery of Canada
recently landed a $20 million private collection of Chinese
and Mid-Eastern antiquities, and the donation was seen as quite
a coup. But now, after giving the some 1,800 objects to the
museum, the donor has abruptly demanded them back. "They
couldn't meet the conditions that I imposed. They weren't able
to meet it, so we said, screw it." The museum has been
under ongoing financial difficulties.
Ottawa Citizen 10/17/00
-
MAYAN
PUZZLE FILLING IN: Why did Mayan culture collapse centuries
ago? New large archeological finds in Central America are filling
in the puzzle. "Some estimates put the Maya population
in the lowland jungles at a staggering 500 people per square
mile, roughly twice the current density in Florida. Just before
the collapse there are more Maya around then ever before, and
they're packed into cities that are larger, more numerous, and
more closely spaced. The slightest added stress could have precipitated
a catastrophic spiral of collapse. A drought, war, or crop failure
could have pushed the society over the edge."
Chronicle of Higher Education 10/16/00
-
LOST
CITY: An enormous Etruscan city dating from the 5th Century
BC has been unearthed under a plain in Tuscany. Workers were
excavating for a new truck yard.
Discovery.com 10/16/00
-
BYE
BYE TO THE LYRICAL PENGUIN: Australian artist John
Perceval, a member of the group of Melbourne artists known in
the 1940s as the "Angry Penguins," has died at the
age of 77. The group developed modern painting techniques generally
unfamiliar to Australia at the time.
Sydney Morning Herald 10/17/00
Monday
October 16
-
IS
COLLECTING ELITIST? Some British museums are having difficulty
convincing their governing boards that adding to their collections
is an important thing to do. "A fashionable theory that
objects are less important than visitors' experiences, and that
collecting is little more than elitist hoarding, is now in vogue
among some museum governing bodies."
The Telegraph (London) 10/16/00
-
HOW
WE SEE ART: Over the next few months scientists will be
tracking the
eye movements of thousands of visitors to an exhibition at the
National Gallery in London. "It will be the biggest investigation
ever carried out into how humans absorb images and how artists'
use of colour and texture affects the way a painting 'works'."
The
Independent (London) 10/15/00
Sunday
October 15
-
LIVING
AROUND ART: Design is hot right now - it has a grip on the
popular imagination in a way it hasn't since the 1960s. What
does it mean for the way we think about the things around us?
"As expressions of The New, these products have inherited
the myth of progress, modernity's defining legend. This is not
the first time design has embodied that myth...
New York Times
10/15/00 (one-time registration
required for entry)
-
"CULTURAL
ASSETS RELOCATED DUE TO WAR": Germany has long suspected
that many of the artworks taken by the Soviets from Germany
at the end of World War II and listed as 'lost' were in fact
living in Russian museums. "After 55 Years, German officials
get to take a brief look at looted art from Berlin's Museum
of East Asian Art. Important works categorized as "irreplaceable"
and once believed to be lost forever were among the treasures."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10/15/00
-
WHAT'S
WITH ALL THIS TEPID NEW PUBLIC ART? "The distinctions
that have been made between art in architecture, art as decoration,
outdoor sculpture and public art still have not fully entered
the consciousness of the visual-art community. Many find it
easier to blame local authorities for their highly compromised,
so-called public art schemes, but perhaps it is time to point
the finger closer to home." Sunday
Times (London) 10/15/00
Friday
October 13
- SEATTLE
ART MUSEUM SETTLES CLAIMS: The Seattle Art Museum has settled
with New York's Knoedler Gallery over a Matisse stolen by the
Nazis, and sold by Knoedler to collectors who later donated it
to the museum (follow all that?). The Seattle Museum sued Knoedler
after returning the painting to heirs of the original owner. "We
can't specify a dollar amount but we are being reimbursed for
our legal fees, research and travel costs as well as the loss
of the painting." That will include the museum choosing a piece
of artwork from Knoedler's collection.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer 10/13/00
- SHOULD
ALL ARTWORK BE RETURNED? At a time when returning cultural
artifacts to their countries of origin has become a goal, "the
most distinguished specialist on Nigerian antiquities is now urging
that looted and stolen artefacts should no longer be returned
to Nigeria, because of endemic corruption in the country."
The Art Newspaper 10/12/00
- RUSSIAN
BUILDINGS IN DANGER: "Russia boasts a staggering 90,000
official architectural landmarks, including churches and palaces
from every era in its history, according to the Culture Ministry
- and many are in danger of extinction. New-York based World Monuments
Watch named seven Russian sites in this year's list of the world's
100 most endangered landmarks - more than any other country."
CNN.com (AP) 10/12/00
- SEA
BOUNTY: New technologies make exploring the deep oceans easier
and bring thousands of previously inaccessible shipwrecks within
the reach of explorers. "While various nations have taken
steps to protect, preserve and manage historic shipwrecks within
their territorial waters, the same has not been the case for shipwrecks
in international waters where there is no comprehensive legal
regime that protects underwater sites and little or no sovereign
jurisdiction." The Art Newspaper
10/12/00
Thursday
October 12
- A
TRUST BETRAYED? When Rev. William Wolcott died in 1911 he
donated his art collection - including a Monet and two Pissarros
- to Boston's Museum of Fine Art. Though three of the paintings
have been on continuous display in the museum ever since, much
of the rest of the collection has lived in storage. So the trustees
of Wolcott's trust sued the museum to get the paintings back so
they could sell them and establish education projects in Wolcott's
home town. Yesterday a judge said no. Boston
Herald 10/12/00
- UNCOVERING
STOLEN ART: Australia's museums have come under criticism
for not doing enough to return art in their collections that may
have been stolen by the Nazis in World War II. Now the National
Gallery of Victoria will list 24 works from its collection on
the internet to see if anyone comes forward to claim them.
The Age (Melbourne) 10/12/00
- SHOCK
OF THE SAME OLD SAME OLD: A new book charges that the contemporary
art world has become far too narrow-minded. "Shock art is
the safest kind of art that an artist can go into the business
of making today. The real mavericks of our time have been working
quietly and carefully for years in their studios producing wonderful
work few people have seen. And that even though the NEA is not
the cause of the various ills we've seen, it is to a great degree
an embodiment of the problem." Salon
10/12/00
- LIFE-SIZE
CRITIC: Artists create a life-size wax statue of London Evening
Standard art critic Brian Sewell and put it in a show. Sewell
is depicted staring at a wall label which explains what the artwork
is. Sewell is not amused. "I can tell you that they have been
desperately trying to get me there to do the boring thing of photographing
us together. It means I shall not be going to the exhibition."
London Evening Standard 10/12/00
- PROMOTION
IN NUMBERS: Artists in Edinburgh were having trouble getting
their work out, promoted and seen. So a group of about 20 artists
got together and combined their resources to work and promote
their work. "As individuals we couldn’t afford a campaign like
this, but together we can." The Scotsman
10/12/00
- VERSAILLES
ON-LINE: The palace at Versailles is in need of help to repair
after a damaging New Year's storm. Now an opulently illustrated
(and fun) website about the palace has been set up www.chateauversailles.fr
full of everything you ever wanted to know about Versailles. The
hope is to spur international donations to the restoration efforts.
New York Times 10/12/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
Wednesday
October 11
- MICHELANGELO DRAWING DISCOVERED: A previously unknown 500-year-old
Michelangelo drawing, a study of a mourning woman valued at up
to £8 million, was discovered by a Sotheby’s agent during
a routine insurance visit to an estate in North Yorkshire. The
ink drawing was pasted into an otherwise unremarkable scrapbook.
"It is the most significant Michelangelo work to be discovered
in living memory." The Telegraph (London)
10/11/00
- HOW
I SNOOKERED SOTHEBY'S: Michel Van Rijn, infamous art dealer,
smuggler, and author is full of stories about his dealings with
the auction house, including a claim he faked artwork that Sotheby's
then sold. Are the stories true? Who knows, but they're entertaining
reading. ARTNewsroom.com 10/11/00
- THE
WRITING ON THE WALL: Two New York graffiti artists getting
ready to open a gallery show of their work are arrested. "These
individuals have been long known to the police department, and
they have a history of damaging property. It has nothing to do
with the show." Nando Times (AP) 10/10/00
Tuesday
October 10
-
MAJORITY
RULES: Canada's Ontario government is attempting to force
the McMichael Gallery to return to its roots. "In doing
so, the government is indirectly forcing the gallery to dispose
of thousands of works of art, jeopardizing its future, and repudiating
the collective wisdom of artists, curators and art critics."
Is this the result of 'majority rule' politics?
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 10/10/00
-
STOLEN
PAINTINGS IN SYDNEY: Last year thieves stole four paintings
from the Australia's National Gallery of Victoria. Now police
have reason to believe that the thieves are trying to sell the
artwork in Sydney. The
Age (Melbourne) 10/10/00
-
POMPEII
LIGHTS UP: After 2000 years, the lights are back on in Pompeii.
"The $5 million lighting project sponsored by the Culture
Ministry means that the ruins, one of Italy's biggest tourist
draws, will eventually be open at night. It also means the city's
stone amphitheaters will once again host performances."
Discovery 10/09/00
-
PICASSOS
RECOVERED IN TURKEY? Paintings recovered by police in Turkey
are believed to be by Picasso. "Police and cultural officials
speculate that the works were plundered 10 years ago from the
palaces and museums of Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion that
led to the Persian Gulf war." But others believe the art
is fake.
New York Times 10/10/00 (one-time
registration required for entry)
Monday
October 9
-
MELBOURNE'S
NEW ART MUSEUM: The about-to-open Melbourne Art Museum,
with its sleek contemporary architecture, is a bit of a shock
at first encounter. "Sitting alongside the beautiful Royal
Exhibition Building, with its majestic Florentine-inspired cupola,
the new building will be viewed as an extreme contrast of what
museums have been and where they are going.
The
Age (Melbourne) 10/09/00
-
FRENCH
FEAR SCARY AUCTION FUTURE: French art auctioneers have had
the French art market to themselves for 450 years. But that
monopoly is due to be phased out after British Prime Minister
Tony Blair intervened with the French government. Now the French
auctioneers are fretting over the future.
The Telegraph (London) 10/09/00
-
COLLECTION
BY COURT ORDER: Ontario's McMichael Gallery is about to
be forced to return control of its collection over to the original
founders. The Ontario government is convinced that the gallery
has lost its way from its original mission. But what would the
Group of Seven - the artists whose work forms the core of the
collection - think of all this intervention? Not much, thinks
one art historian.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 10/09/00
Sunday
October 8
-
A
PLAN FOR BUILDINGS THAT MATTER: British Prime Minister Tony
Blair called a meeting last week to talk turkey about English
architecture. By moving design center stage, he was making the
"implicit promise of a new generation of social security
offices, barracks, embassies and primary schools that would
make Britain a byword for great architecture. It would, so Blair
and his advisers blithely promised, have the effect not just
of producing good buildings, but also of saving money and producing
a healthier, happier society." The
Observer 10/08/00
-
THE
TATE'S TROUBLED BRIT: The Tate Britain museums has not been
having a good year. Despite a handsome remodel, the Brit has
been thoroughly overshadowed by the Tate Modern. Attendance
has been spotty, and now comes word that new Tate Britain galleries
at Millbank won't be ready for another year, after a basement
flood last spring slowed construction.
London Evening Standard 10/08/00
-
THEMATICALLY
SPEAKING... Earlier this year the Tate (Modern and Britain)
arranged the artwork in their galleries thematically rather
than in the more traditional chronological order. Curators and
critics have been debating the trend of showing art this way,
even as more museums adopt the idea. Does it increase understanding
or muddy the conversation?
The
Telegraph (London) 10/08/00
Friday
October 6
- MOMA'S
POST-MODERNIST AGENDA? The final installment of the Museum
of Modern Art's reimagining art of the 20th Century has opened.
"It brings to completion a project very dear to the hearts
and minds of the museum’s current curatorial cadre: the de-aestheticization
of the museum’s policies and programs. Aesthetic judgments have
now been abandoned in favor of sociological classification at
MoMA, and to assist in this transformation the museum has established
a department of Writing Services, which may or may not account
for the unfortunate Open Ends title itself, already a subject
of much ribald humor." New York
Observer 10/04/00
- CHRISTIE'S/SOTHEBY'S
DEAL PUT ON HOLD: A judge puts a hold on the $512 million
settlement reached late last month by the boards of both Christie's
and Sotheby's, saying that not all the plaintiffs have had a chance
to sign off on the agreement. CNN
10/05/00
- RESTORING
CALCUTTA: The Calcutta government has asked the British to
help restore Calcutta's British colonial architecture. "The
Marxist government sees the conservation-led regeneration of the
city’s neglected colonial past as part of a larger scheme for
social and economic revival by promoting it as a business and
tourist attraction. It feels the need to alter the city’s image
from what Kipling described as the 'city of dreadful night' —
summoning up the Black Hole and the slums where Mother Teresa
worked—to 'The gifted city', as it will be promoted, emphasising
its rich cultural and architectural traditions." The
Art Newspaper 10/06/00
- PRECIOUS
SALES: Just what can explain the popularity of Jeff Koons?
"Koons has had an impressive run at auction. Starting in
November 1999, records for Koons weren't just set, they were obliterated.
Several of his exquisitely crafted porcelain sculptures came up
and easily cruised through the million-dollar barrier. Suddenly,
Jeff Koons prices were in Andy Warhol territory." Who's buying
this stuff? Artnet.com 10/05/00
Thursday
October 5
- OPEN SECRETS: The
U.S. and Russia reached a breakthrough agreement Wednesday at
an international conference on the restitution of Holocaust-era
art to open their archives to help recover Nazi-looted treasures.
Access to Russian archives has been ofcrucial concern to Jewish
groups pressing for restitution. Yahoo! News (Reuters) 10/04/00
- FOR HER EYES ONLY:
Britain's Royal Collection of artwork, housed among the country's
various royal palaces, will go on view to the public in new galleries
in Edinburgh and at Buckingham Palace over the next two years.
But why isn't the impressive collection (including the world's
most significant archive of drawings by Leonardo) on permanent,
accessible display? "The only way the Queen can do justice to
the Royal Collection is to give it to us." The Guardian (London) 10/05/00
- ANDY AND THE AYATOLLAH:
"Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979,
a priceless collection of modern art, bought by the Shah of Iran's
wife and ranging from Picasso and Van Gogh to Bacon and Pollock,
has been lost to the viewing world, buried in the vaults of a
museum in Teheran. But as the Iranian government has cautiously
begun the process of liberalisation during the past two years,
some of the paintings have gone on display. The response has been
extraordinary, and some of the images produced by the crowds even
more extraordinary: women in chadors gazing intently at Andy Warhol's
Marilyn and brown-robed mullahs appraising a Roy Lichtenstein."
The
Telegraph (London) 10/05/00
- ARTIST ON THE ATTACK:
The Melbourne Art Fair got underway this
week amid well-publicized criticism by Chilean painter Juan Davila
that the Australian art world is "ruthlessly mercantile" and expresses
a "bankrupt cultural scenario." "His comments were intended to
highlight the 'serfdom' to which artists were reduced in the art
market because their dealers took 40 to 50 percent of the sale
of a painting." The
Age (Melbourne) 10/05/00
- BEAGLE INVASION: Much
like the fiberglass cow craze that swept other cities earlier
this year, downtown St. Paul, Minnesota has been overrun by 101
statues of Snoopy which were commissioned to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of St. Paul native Charles Schultz's "Peanuts" strip.
NPR 10/05/00
[Real audio file]
- KID'S
PLAY: Children's museums are on the increase. "The Association
of Youth Museums (AYM) reports that 100 new children's museums
are in the planning phase, eager to join the approximately 200
that attracted more than 32 million visitors last year."
Christian Science Monitor 10/04/00
- IMAGINE THIS: The
world's first John Lennon Museum opens this week, and it's not
in Liverpool, London, or New York. It's in a Japanese town 30
km north of Tokyo. Why there? "Could have something to do with
money. Construction company Taisei Corp. reached an agreement
with Yoko Ono last year to build the museum on two floors of the
spanking-new Saitama Super Arena."
Daily Yomiuri (Japan) 10/05/00
- NEW
SAN JOSE MUSEUM DIRECTOR: The San Jose Museum of Art has named
Daniel T. Keegan as its new director. "Keegan, 51, comes
to the San Jose museum from the Kemper Museum of Contemporary
Art in Kansas City, Mo., after three years as director there."
San Francisco Chronicle 10/05/00
Wednesday
October 4
- SIZE MATTERS: The opening of Tate Modern has
coincided with a sudden fever in the art world for colossal work.
Damien Hirst, Mona Hatoum, Jeff Koons, and now Spanish sculptor
Juan Muñoz all work in a size and distorted scale that dwarfs
everything around them. "One day this museum will have to
face the implications of its own architecture. Bigness is an aesthetic
value, and as the popularity of Tate Modern demonstrates, we all
like to feel small sometimes." The Guardian (London) 10/04/00
- THE
V&A's PROBLEMS: London's Victoria and Albert Museum is
in disarray. Attendance is down, raising money is tough, and the
museum's leadership is feuding amongst themselves. "There
is a feeling among some of the trustees that the V&A doesn’t know
where it is going. Having a director and chairman at odds only
adds to the problems, and decisions on many key issues are now
being postponed." The Art Newspaper
10/03/00
- A
MIXED YEAR IN CANBERRA: Canberra's National Gallery has had
a mized year. First, it canceled the tour stop of the controversial
"Sensation" show when it got too hot in Brooklyn. Then
the museum's controversial curator of Australian art resigned
after less than a year on the job. On the other hand, attendance
is up 50 percent, and the museum's director is upbeat.
The Age (Melbourne) 10/04/00
Tuesday
October 3
- BOARD
MEMBERS TURN BACK SALARIES: In August, supporters of Dallas's
Kimbell Museum were surprised to find out that two of the museum's
directors were receiving salaries of $500,000 a year for services
that were traditionally considered voluntary. Now the salaries
will be discontinued. "After careful consideration, we have decided
that it is no longer in the best interest of the Kimbell Art Foundation
and the Kimbell Art Museum for Ben and me to receive compensation
for the work we perform for the foundation and the museum." Dallas
Morning News 10/03/00
- WHAT
BECOMES AN ART DEALER? New York art dealer Larry Gagosian
is "not a discoverer of artists, but rather a cultivator
of those on the rise and a seducer of collectors. It is not all
about the big deal, he says. It's fun to sell a big painting,
it's also profitable, I won't deny that, and I spend a lot of
time and energy doing that. But my relationship with the artist
is probably the most rewarding, the most difficult part of my
profession." The Telegraph (London)
10/03/00
- ANCIENT
CITY SAVED: In the past three months in Turkey, the ancient
city of Zeugma, "a key transit point across the Euphrates
River believed to have been more than three times the size of
the Roman city of Pompeii", was threatened by flooding. A
team of 250 international archeologists and other specialists
fought to rescue elaborate mosaics and other ancient Greek and
Roman remains. The Globe and Mail
(AP) (Toronto) 10/03/00
- CHEAP
BUT GOOD LOOKING: Who says that buildings that don't cost
a lot have to be architecturally uninteresting? "Samuel Mockbee
creates homes for the poor that are cheap, practical - and unconventionally
beautiful. 'Architecture is a social art. It has to function in
an ethical, moral way to help people'." Time
Magazine 10/02/00
- I'LL
TRADE YOU TWO HOCKNEYS FOR A BASQUIAT: Artist trading cards
are a growing phenomenon internationally. The cards are traded
like Pokemon or baseball cards, but feature different artists.
"Like the Dada movement of the early 20th century, trading
cards are a way of breaking down the hierarchy of the art world.
CBC 10/02/00
- A
NEW KIND OF ART CONSORTIUM: Seattle art dealer Linda Farris
closed up her gallery a few years ago and took a trip. When she
came back she re-invented, putting together a group of Seattle
tech high-rollers in an art consortium. Farris finds the on-the-edge
international artwork, the group shares it amongst themselves.
And after a few years...it goes on public display and the members
of the group consider giving it to a museum.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer 10/03/00
- MELBOURNE
ART BIENNIAL OPENS: Sixy-eight galleries, 800 Australian and
international artists and 20,000 people expected for this year's
Melbourne Biennial Art Fair. The Age
(Melbourne) 10/03/00
Monday
October 2
- MASTER
FORGER SENTENCED: Last week, after a remarkable trial a French
judge sentenced a man called by French police "the most sophisticated
and prolific master-forger in the history of European art" to
one year in prison. "The extraordinary progress of the 57-year-old
Geert Jan Jansen from the School of Fine Art in Amsterdam to a
small-town courtroom 50 miles from Paris, is a story of two false
names, seven fake bank accounts and up to 1,500 fake works of
art." The Age (Telegraph) (Melbourne)
10/02/00
- EATEN
ALIVE: Floods and water aren't the only menace to Venice's
art. The woodworm has struck in a serious way. "The nuisance,
attributed to warm, humid weather, is devouring not only ancient
books and precious paintings but also the beams and panels of
some of the city's most beautiful churches, local officials said
yesterday." The Times (London)
10/02/00
- THE
POLITICS OF PROTEST ART: "Much as most people in the
art world are loath to admit it, their activities are strongly
influenced by the state of the economy. In boom times, there tends
to be a revival of painting and other decorative media, and a
proliferation of vacuous or ideologically rebarbative objects
meant to hang or sit in the living rooms of patrons. All large
exhibitions - and even the rearrangement of works in public collections
- now require sponsors, which means that art that is not attractive
to sponsors is rarely seen." New
Statesman 10/02/00
- NEW
TWIST ON THE OLD: "Many classical architects give the
impression that the world stopped in 1830, or that it should have
done. So the rotunda that Lord Sainsbury has just completed at
his home at Preston Candover in Hampshire is something of a surprise."
The Telegraph (London) 10/02/00
- CLICKS
AND MORTAR ART: Online art auctions are making a play for
a piece of lucrative business. "What’s for sale online? You
can find everything from landscape paintings by little known contemporary
artists for $1,000 or less, to a $50,000 Tiffany lamp or a $3.5
million oil painting by French painter Maurice De Vlaminck."
MSNBC 10/01/00
- CHEESEY
ART SCAM: Three mobsters planning to pass off fake Picassos
and Chagalls were caught be police. "Prosecutors said the
defendants planned to sell the fakes through an upscale Manhattan
gallery for $32 million. Federal agents, using wiretaps and an
informant, disrupted the alleged scheme and no paintings were
sold." CNN 09/30/00
Sunday
October 1
- JACKSON
POLLOCK, ARTIST: Most movies about artists are high on the
corn factor, with few capturing the sense of the person or the
understanding of their work. Ed Harris' new movie of Jackson Pollock
is different. "What we're witnessing isn't a succession of
exploding cars, but an utterly convincing release of pure feeling
deployed with the concentration and discipline of a natural athlete
executing an unparalleled feat after years of preparation. There's
also an added element of magic, of conjuring, as something emerges
out of nothing, and the blank canvas at Pollock's feet is transformed
into a thickening, swirling, emotionally charged tangle of color."
New York Times 09/30/00
(one-time registration required for entry)
- BUT
IT'S OUR MUSEUM: Daniel Terra's jingoistic promotion of American
art was difficult to take. And the reputation of his small museum
of American art suffered in the museum world for his antics and
boasts. But now that his widow wants to take the museum out of
town (Chicagoans don't appreciate it enough, she says) a feeling
of community pride wells up in those who want it to stay.
Chicago Tribune 10/01/00
- NEVER
THE TWAIN SHALL MEET: It's fashion week in London. "Fashion,
the cuckoo of popular culture, has been using an assortment of
modern galleries and London museums as venues for the drunken
wastages of resources that are known as fashion launches. A few
artists have gone to some of these parties. This is all the evidence
it takes for a shower of journalistic Sloane-brains to put one
and one together, and arrive at three. But art and fashion are
not growing closer together." Sunday
Times (London) 10/01/00
|
|
 |
 |
|
