ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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A Big, Multicolored Outdoor Artwork Near San Francisco Bay Has Vanished

"A colorful collection of wooden slats woven into a fence along the Richmond Parkway near the Chevron refinery, titled 'Fencelines: A Collective Monument to Resilience,' 'has been completely disappeared,' the sponsors announced in a statement." - MSN (San Francisco Chronicle)

Design Unveiled For Planned Holocaust Museum In Boston

"The Boston-based Holocaust Legacy Foundation has unveiled renderings of its proposed Holocaust Museum Boston, to be located along the Freedom Trail, by the intersection of Tremont and Park Streets." - MSN (The Boston Globe)

Putin Moves Russia’s Most Famous (And Fragile) Icon From Its Museum To The Church, Despite Pleas From Conservators

The 15th-century icon of the Trinity by Andrei Rublev, Russia's most revered icon painter, was moved from Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery into Christ the Savior Cathedral, and the Moscow Patriarchate's possession, on Putin's personal orders, against conservators' warnings that the work is too fragile to move. - AP

The Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer Exhibition Broke Records (Of Course It Did)

"The Rijksmuseum said the exhibition that drew on collections around the world to bring together 28 of the 37 paintings generally ascribed to Vermeer attracted 650,000 visitors from 113 countries during its 16-week run that started in early February." - AP

Photographer Who Won The Warhol Copyright Case Goes After Another Artist

“You did not ask for my permission to copy my photo and I am ‘not laughing.’ Please do not force me to ask Instagram to delete,” Goldsmith in a direct message on Instagram, asking him to remove the post. - Artnet

The Problem With A Picasso Show That’s Problematic

So far as it has an argument it goes like this: Pablo Picasso was an important artist. He was also something of a jerk around women. And women are more than “goddesses or doormats,” as Picasso brutally had it; women, too, have stories to tell. - The New York Times

The Story Of The Benin Bronzes Just Added A Strange New Chapter

Plans were underway to give them back, and a Ghanaian architect was designing a great new building. Then "Nigeria’s outgoing president announced he had transferred ownership of the looted items to a direct descendant of the ruler they had been stolen from." Uh, wait. - The New York Times

The Case For Multilingual Museums

"One of the biggest challenges with incorporating Spanish and English text is planning for the display of double the amount of text which would otherwise be included. In addition to affecting the layout, this additional text can increase the show’s production time and the budget." - Glasstire

Old-School Romanian Pottery Has Suddenly Become A Hot Commodity

A Romanian-born owner of a London design store says "the décor industry is fond of artisanal work right now, adding that if it’s 'obscure' — she used air quotes — that was even better." So that's great for Horezu. - The New York Times

In The UK, A Statue Of A Black Woman Was Painted White By A Vandal

But the artist invited the entire seaside community of Bexhill to help fix the damage and restore the statue. "More than 300 volunteers ... queued along the promenade to help restore the bronze sculpture." - The Observer (UK)

Warning The National Art Museum of China, Xi Jinping Uses The Phrase “Politically Correct” With No Irony Whatsoever

In a letter last month on the institution's 60th anniversary, the Chinese president said NAMOC should "be persistent in upholding a politically correct direction, putting people first, and practicing the core values of socialism … in order to … promote self-strengthening of cultural confidence, and new glory of the socialist culture." - Artnet

How The Smithsonian Has Helped Rebuild Mosul’s Cultural Museum, Wrecked By ISIS

Dr. Richard Kurin, founder of the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, writes about how the Washington museum complex, along with the Louvre, the World Monuments Fund and the ALIPH Foundation, have helped Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage restore the ravaged institution. - Smithsonian Magazine

Sotheby’s Buys Whitney Museum’s Breuer Building

Designed by Bauhaus-trained architect Marcel Breuer, the building has had its share of occupants since it was erected. It was first the third home to the Whitney from 1966 until 2014, before the museum moved into its current residence in the Meatpacking District in May 2015. - Hyperallergic

Istanbul’s Priceless Historic Buildings Are Not Ready For Another Earthquake

The massive earthquake that struck near the Syrian border in February killed more than 50,000 people and wrecked half a million homes. Nearly 2,000 historical sites, from a medieval mosque to a Bronze Age settlement, were damaged or destroyed. - The Art Newspaper

Figuring Out The Rules Underlying Conceptual Art, Which Was Invented To Get Rid Of The Rulebook

"There's an underlying logic and set of constraints that constitute specific choices as meaningful. While the materiality of these works is all over the place, they're bolstered by an immaterial scaffold: a set of rules that point us toward what the artist is up to and what really matters." - Aeon

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