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How Architects Are Returning To The Earth

Today, as architects seek to improve the sustainability of a sector that is responsible for more than a third of global carbon emissions, the concept of using rammed earth sourced from, or near, the grounds of a proposed building site is attracting attention. - The Guardian

Large Software Analysis Says Turin And Philly Paintings Aren’t Actually By Van Eyck

The AI-supported “findings supported scholars who had suggested that both versions were studio paintings – produced in the artist’s workshop but not necessarily by him,” but surprised some art historians, who now wonder whether an original exists somewhere. - The Guardian (UK)

It’s Not Easy Being The One Charged With Creating New Stained Glass Windows For Notre Dame

Tabouret: “It’s not very French to change stuff, so I thought that interesting as well as brave and fresh. They specifically wanted figurative painting, which also isn’t very French.” But church authorities eventually gave her a lot of artistic freedom. - The Guardian (UK)

What Happens When Artists Lose Their Archives

“It was the loss of authorship, sequencing, and context. Works that were never meant to exist independently were broken apart and reintroduced to the world as aesthetic fragments. My archive had become modular in the most violent sense. Not by choice, but by necessity and market indifference.” - Hyperallergic

The Comic Artists Responding To The Moment With Art

One comic “states: ‘Someday you’ll know that there were so many people thinking and worrying about you even though you don’t know us.’ Other artworks include cartoons of Liam in the bunny hat himself — riding a dragon, or surrounded by a group of bunnies in the snow.” - Minnesota Public Radio

Maybe We’ve Been Getting Bosch All Wrong

“We are supposed to read triptychs from left to right: Adam and Eve → sexy fruit playground of jubilant behavior → decay and hell. ... But the middle panel, where the temptation is happening, is so fun and funny.” - Paris Review

The Louvre Will Restore The Crown Of Empress Eugenie And Put It Back On Display

It was, of course, badly damaged when thieves dropped it in October. - ARTnews

Buffalo AKG Art Museum Gave Its Director A Low-Interest $335K Loan For A House. It Hasn’t Been Repaid.

“Janne Sirén, director … since 2013, used a museum loan to help finance a $710,000 home — more than half of which remains unpaid, including accrued interest, according to a state review.” - ARTnews

Washington Post Lays Off Art Critic Sebastian Smee And Entire Photography Staff

All eight of the paper’s in-house photographers have lost their jobs, as has the Pulitzer Prize winner Smee, who has been with the Post for eight years. His colleague Philip Kennicott (another Pulitzer laureate) will remain on staff. - Hyperallergic

Crypto Investors Pay $300K To Create Gold Trump Statue

At 15 feet tall, the statue of President Trump, mounted on its 7,000-pound pedestal, is about the height of a two-story building — a giant effigy cast in bronze and finished with a thick layer of gold leaf. - The New York Times

Critics Hate Proposed Plans For British Museum Spruce-Up

New security buildings in the grounds of the British Museum would look "too flashy" and resemble "a shop and wine bar", opponents to the plans have said. - BBC

Michelangelo And Titian: A Contemporary Odd Couple

The two men couldn’t have been more different. Titian was a painter while Michelangelo, though renowned both as a painter and a sculptor, saw himself exclusively as the latter. They lived hundreds of miles apart—the former in Venice, the latter in Florence and Rome—and inhabited vastly different aesthetic universes. - The Wall Street Journal

Philadelphia Museum Of Art Reverses Its Disastrous Rebrand

The decision, it said, reflects “the recommendations of an interdisciplinary task force of museum trustees and staff, which examined the process and rollout of the rebrand, and commissioned surveys of museum staff, trustees, members, and the Philadelphia-area public.” - ARTnews

Judge Stops More Changes To Displays At George Washington’s Philadelphia House

It orders “no further removal and/or destruction” of the site “until further order of the court.” That would appear to cover other parts of the memorial that include mentions of slavery and civil rights, including a stone wall with the names of nine enslaved people who served Washington’s household. - The New York Times

New Exhibitions Are Upending The Ways We Look At Indigenous Art

Somehow, modernist aping of Indigenous models got told as a story of increasing originality, while Indigenous adaptation of Western models was seen in terms of decreasing authenticity. The logic was clear enough: The proper job of Western art was forever to point to the future; that of Indigenous art was forever to repeat the past. - The Atlantic

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