ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Making A Case For Art (It Takes More Than A Village)

You don’t know it’s art by looking at it. You know it’s art because galleries want to show it, dealers want to sell it, collectors want to buy it, museums want to exhibit it, and critics can explain it. When the parts are in synch, you have a market. - The New Yorker

Documenta Was Going Great Until The Organizers Forgot To Account For Fascism

Or, at the very least, someone should have clocked the antisemitic imagery in one artist's piece. Then there's the question of Palestinian artists and Germany's pro-Israel stance. "In this combustible climate, some vigilance might have been expected. But from whom?" - The New York Times

Dora Maar’s Photos Show An Artist Who Knew Her Worth Before She Met Picasso

It's unfortunate (in the extreme) that writers and artists let their relationship overshadow her own work, which not only documents the Surrealists but also captured the economic crisis of the Great Depression in the UK and Spain. - The Guardian (UK)

Why The Inventor Of The Shopping Mall Denounced His Design

Victor Gruen "set his sights on bringing a dose of Viennese urbanity to what he saw as the car-dominated 'avenues of horror' of American commercial strips. He imagined Southdale as the centre of a new high-density, mixed-use district." Developers had other plans. - The Guardian (UK)

FBI Seizes Disputed Basquiat Works From Orlando Show

"Orlando Museum of Art spokeswoman Emilia Bourmas-Fry said in a statement that they were complying with a warrant from the FBI for access to the ‘Heroes and Monsters’ exhibit, which is now in the government's possession." - ABC News (AP)

Want To Have A Nervous Breakdown?

Designing an exhibition is "truly a collaborative process, drawing upon content specialists, community representatives, professional designers, donors, partner institutions and others. It really does take a village. ... But designing and developing a museum exhibition is also a white-knuckle, nerve-racking experience." - Inside Higher Ed

British Columbia Premier Suspends $800 Million Plan To Rebuild Museum

Horgan explained that British Columbians were unwilling to accept an $800-million price tag for the project while the province faces a doctor shortage, an increasing cost of living and other critical issues coming out of the pandemic. - CBC

How James Turrell Was Inspired By Quaker Meetinghouses

"The artist recalls asking his grandmother what they were meant to do inside the meetinghouse, to which she replied: 'We're going inside to greet the light.'" - Artnet

Eight Men Convicted In Paris Of Stealing Banksy’s Bataclan ArtWork

British street artist Banksy painted his “sad girl” work on the door of the Bataclan in memory of the 90 people killed in worst of the 13 November 2015 jihadist attacks that hit several sites around the city. - The Guardian

Smithsonian Picks Four Potential Sites For New Women’s History and Latino Museums

The historical Arts and Industries Building, on Jefferson Drive SW next to the Smithsonian administration building known as the Castle, is the sole site with a structure and the only one under the control of the Smithsonian. - Washington Post

Librarians Find A Dürer Just Sitting There In An Old Book On Their Shelves

"During a recent inventory audit, researchers at the Oldenburg State Library (in Germany) found on the title page of the book (the) small drawing. ... Measuring just 16.5 by 6 centimeters (6.5 by 2.4 inches), the illustration depicts a pair of cherubs perched atop fantastical sea creatures." - Artnet

What The Toppling Of Public Monuments Says About Our Time

While the recent destruction of statues in the contemporary West ostensibly relates to a racial reckoning, it nonetheless stands in a long lineage of iconoclasm, and one can understand its meaning only when viewed alongside its predecessors. - American Affairs Journal

Apocalypse Not: The American Mall Cannot Be Killed

Since the 1978 movie Dawn of the Dead, we have been using “the apocalyptic scale, the language and imagery of civilizational collapse” to describe malls. And yet: a 2021 study found that last year, the number of mall visitors was actually 5 percent higher than before the pandemic. - The Atlantic

The Cheech Is A Big Step Forward

The Chicano generation of artists and activists that emerged in the late 1960s knew that self-empowerment requires historical knowledge. The same goes for art, which propagates and adapts from other art. Systematic study of usable, relevant Chicano art history is now underway in Riverside. - Los Angeles Times

Another Call, This Time From Sudan, For Britain To Return Looted Art Objects

"Museum officials from Sudan are calling for the repatriation of cultural artifacts and human remains that were stolen by British soldiers and other colonizers in the late 19th century.  Many of the items in question were taken as trophies after the Battle of Omdurman in 1898." - Artnet

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