ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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After 50 Years, The Hirshhorn Museum Is Dealing With Something New: Popular Success

"Could the Hirshhorn be a major institution? These days, Director Melissa Chiu says it should assume its role as 'the national museum of modern and contemporary art.' The notion would have invited laughs in 1974." - The Washington Post (MSN)

Packing And Moving Museum Art Is One Of The Trickiest, Most Challenging, Most High-Stakes Jobs Out There

"Everyone who works (in the job) has stories about the expensive, delicate, sacred and impossibly large things they’ve had to pack into a crate and ship somewhere:" weird things such as an electric chair, and difficult things like a 3,000 pound pre-Columbian artifact amidst an ice storm. - The Washington Post (MSN)

In Pompeii, A Little House Full of Well-Preserved Frescoes Is Unearthed

"While the home is modest in size, researchers say that its decorations — including erotic scenes — are equal to those of much larger nearby residences. Found during recent excavations in the central district of the city, the painted dwelling also exemplifies a shift in Roman building styles." - Smithsonian Magazine

A Sculpture Of A Desk With Poop On It Appeared On The National Mall. Is It Really Art?

It is a figurative sculpture, rooted in realism, that shows an improbably large pile of human poop on the desk of Nancy Pelosi, then the highest ranking woman in the democratic system, who had to flee for her life while rioters besieged the building. - Washington Post

Report: Art Collectors Are Changing Their Buying Habits

What comes through overall is a sense that collectors’ behaviors are are starting to shift, and not just in relation to the current market climate. - Artnet

The Biggest Problem With Le Corbusier

"Le Corbusier’s dream was of vast blocks of buildings as 'machines for living.' His bare modernism took hold of architecture schools and town-planning departments” - and his acolytes nearly destroyed most of the cities in the UK. - The Guardian (UK)

Goodbye To Society, And Hello To Democracy

That’s the idea at the (former) New York Historical Society, now just New York Historical. The museum’s chief content officer knows the name isn’t perfectly grammatical, but he "likened it to the former Apple marketing campaign, 'Think different.’” - The New York Times

The Goth Phase Of Vincent Van Gogh

Curators figured out that "Gothic architecture and medieval painting influenced modern art, and began to conjecture which works, shown together, would best exemplify this trend’ - including a Van Gogh of a skeleton smoking a cigarette. - The New York Times

A German Artists’ Group Is Demanding A Prize-Winning Artist Apologize

The Iranian-German photographer called Israel a “Zionist apartheid state” and said “Free Palestine” in her minute-long award acceptance speech. - Hyperallergic

When A Museum Is Closed For Years, How Does It Keep Up Engagement And Public Interest?

Digital programming, online classes, offline pop-ups, and construction tours keep museums that are undergoing renovations in the eyes, and lives, of the easily distracted public. - The New York Times

Why Have A Poster On Your Dorm Wall When You Can Just Hang A Picasso?

At the University of Chicago, “students have about one week to peruse the collection and identify their favorites among the color lithographs by luminaries such as Joan Miró, Marc Chagall and Yves Tanguy, iconic prints by Gordon Parks and Jenny Holzer, and even a couple of Picassos.” - NPR

We Finally Have An Opening Date For LACMA

That’s April, 2026. “LACMA has likened Zumthor‘s design to a kind of living organism. Indeed, the raw concrete is already showing signs of weathering, with water stains and other irregularities.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Why Is The Art World Focusing On Photography Just As AI Images Are Becoming Harder To Detect?

Many of the largest and most powerful art dealers are dedicating significant attention and real estate to photography. It is part of a broader renaissance for the medium that is arriving, perhaps counterintuitively, just as images produced by artificial intelligence become virtually indistinguishable from real documentation. - The New York Times

Warsaw’s New Museum Of Modern Art Tries To Transcend Poland’s Communist Legacy

The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw sits like a bright white box on a major city street. Inside, a monumental staircase with geometric lines rises to upper floors, where large windows flood the gallery rooms with light. - AP

Stepping Inside A Painting (And Into History)

The Night Revels blasts through that flimsy structure of history to show us a work of detailed authentication that is nearly 1200 years old. This painting may be the first documentary in history: We know who these people are; we know their names, their professions and their relation to each other. - Brooks Riley

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