ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

VISUAL

“Unprecedented”: Ancient Phoenician Burial Complex Discovered In Andalusia

"Archaeologists exploring the site – which was discovered amid the Roman ruins in the town of Osuna, 55 miles (90km) east of Seville – say the Phoenician-Carthaginian cemetery dates back to the fourth or fifth century BC." - The Guardian

Three New Buildings Shake Up Boston Architecture

“Once a decade or two, Boston’s architectural establishment breaks out of its inherent conservative aesthetic comforts and heeds a call for some inventiveness.”  - Bloomberg

The Native American Artist Who Insisted That Indians Get To Define Indian Art

The furious response that Yanktonai Dakota artist Oscar Howe wrote when rejected for the 1958 Philbrook Indian Annual competition because the abstract painting he submitted was "a fine painting, but not Indian" still resonates today, while Howe himself went on to produce a very impressive body of work. - Smithsonian Magazine

Farmer At Work Digs Up 4,500-Year-Old Sculpture

A late Bronze Age stone head depicting Anat, the ancient Canaanite goddess of love and war (and the sister of Baal), was discovered by a farmer in the southern Gaza Strip. - BBC

Archaeologists Find Enormous Underground City In Turkey

The newly unearthed Midyat city dwarfs Derinkuyu in comparison. It could hold at least 60–70,000 people. - ARTnews

Inquest Into Harassment At Paris Museums Ordered By Mayor

A report by the French daily Libération uncovered serious allegations of racial and sexual harassment, and even assault, at six of the 14 museums run by the municipal government. Mayor Anne Hidalgo has ordered that all cases be handled expeditiously and that preventive measures be implemented. - Apollo

Italy’s “Monuments Men”-Style Task Force Has A New Deal With UNESCO

"The first heritage task force of its kind, the Blue Helmets includes officers from Italy's specialist police force for art crime, and ... art historians and restorers. Its main tasks include assessing damage to heritage, planning conservation, and preventing looting and trafficking after terrorist attacks or natural disasters." - The Art Newspaper

As Developers Swoop Into South London, Can Planning Offices Reject Ugly Schemes?

Yikes, says Rowan Moore: "The proposed building is, not to put too fine a point on it, a brute. ... It is out of scale with its surroundings and disconnected from them." - The Guardian UK)

The Fight To Get Family Images Back From Harvard

Tamara Lanier is fighting "to reclaim the daguerreotypes of her ancestors from the Peabody Museum at Harvard University," where they'd been since Louis Agassiz commissioned the photos in the 19th century "to 'prove' his white supremacist ideas about race." - Hyperallergic

Reclaiming Heritage Styles Means A Fresh Fashion Start In Much Of The African Continent

Yes, the reclaiming started in the 1960s. But "today's new cohort of designers is going a step further – not just questioning western dress forms, but searching for and breathing new life into lost aesthetics, craft and processes." - The Observer (UK)

The Black Artists Left In Limbo At The Super Bowl Stadium

Yeah, never a good sign: "The city gave up its customary percent for art ordinance as part of its contract with the property’s developer, Hollywood Park." And now, as the developer seems to refuse to move forward with artists' projects? There's little recourse. - Los Angeles Times

British Artist Sonia Boyce Wins Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion

Boyce is the first Black woman to represent the UK at the Biennale. The jury "commended Boyce for raising 'important questions of rehearsal' as opposed to perfectly tuned music" in her piece Feeling Her Way, which combines music, sculpture, collage, and video. - The Guardian (UK)

The Artists Of Ukraine Deal With The War In A Variety Of Ways

Kinder Album says, "Now I need to draw, I don’t have time to think, I need to express the feelings of the moment, because tomorrow something else will happen. Before the war, I had a lot of time. Now I don’t." - The Guardian (UK)

A Russian-less Venice Biennale Is Different

While the cool contemporary art crowd strolled among the exhibits, Ukraine was being pummeled by missiles, and there was hardly a Russian in sight. But curators, collectors, dealers and artists were staging plenty of events to support Ukraine, and a passionate personal address by Ukraine’s president. - The New York Times

When They Dug Up The Cobblestone Streets, They Found Beautifully Preserved Roman Mosaics

"A group of ancient Roman mosaics dating from the second century CE were hidden under the city streets of Stari Grad, on the idyllic Hvar Island in Croatia. Archaeologists discovered the stunning mosaic floors in February, before the city began construction on sewage and water pipes." - Hyperallergic

Our Free Newsletter

Join our 30,000 subscribers

Latest

Don't Miss

function my_excerpt_length($length){ return 200; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'my_excerpt_length');