For market participants who entered the game after 2020, all this turbulence may come as a surprise. Auction prices for some young artists have crashed as much as 90 percent since the peak of demand in 2021. Auction houses’ revenues are down significantly. - Cultured Magazine
“The most difficult products are the ones that have a human face, because getting skin tones and the shadows and all that stuff can be challenging. Once the paint is figured out, we make sure it functions the way we originally intended it to.” - Slate
A new exhibition shows how local architects in Ghana and India took the British idea of tropical modernism and turned it into a symbol of postcolonial self-determination and self-rule. - Hyperallergic
In 2022, a commander told Gamlet Zinkivsky to put down his guns and start painting because “the power of his art is much stronger than him taking a machine gun and assaulting or defending trenches. His art could empower the people defending the city.” - The New York Times
The current state of our knowledge on aesthetics, and specifically what we consider beautiful, is a mosaic of empirical discoveries. For over 150 years, psychologists have run carefully controlled experiments to determine whether an attribute, such as a particular colour, shape or melody is beautiful. - The Conversation
"The Arch of Constantine, a giant ancient Roman arch next to the Colosseum, was damaged (by a lightning strike) after a violent storm hit Rome, conservation authorities said on Tuesday. … The triumphal arch was built in the 4th century AD to celebrate the victory of Constantine ... over his rival, Maxentius." - Reuters
Las Vegas is the largest city in the US without a major art museum; casino magnate Elaine Wynn and LACMA director Michael Govan intend to change that. The Las Vegas Museum of Art won't start out with a collection; artworks, curation, and exhibitions will come from Los Angeles. - The New York Times
“Our program needs about three days to learn the characteristics from around 700 training images, and less than five minutes to calculate the probability of the authenticity of an artwork.” - ARTnews
With the layoff of all three curatorial staffers plus one patron-facing worker and the resignation of three more employees (one a senior manager), NAM has lost half its staff since August 1. The museum in the wealthy Rhode Island seaside town has had only one year without a deficit since 2011. - Hyperallergic
"Nearly seven months after launching an emergency fundraising campaign to stave off a 'dire' financial crisis, the Bellevue Arts Museum is closing its doors indefinitely, museum officials announced Wednesday afternoon. … It is unclear at this time whether the closure is permanent. The museum has filed for receivership." - The Seattle Times
She is the fifth director of Tefaf in four years and arrives after a period of controversy at the fair brand. Her direct successor, Bart Drenth, stepped down in June 2023 less than six months into the role after controversial tweets, aimed at “leftists”, “Muslims” and “the woke”. - The Art Newspaper
The Boy Scouts of America is auctioning off the entirety of its 321-piece art collection, which includes works by Norman Rockwell, Walt Disney, and J.C. Leyendecker, and is valued at around $59 million. - ARTnews
Like her older colleagues Diébédo Francis Kéré (a Pritzker Prize winner) of Burkina Faso and Yasmeen Lari of Pakistan, Mariam Issoufou Kamara focuses on how traditional architecture is adapted to climate conditions, and her designs use materials abundant locally and made by local craftspeople. - The Guardian
"Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters have reportedly looted the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum and smuggled some of its artifacts across the country’s southern border. Backed by the United Arab Emirates, the paramilitary RSF has been at war with Sudanese Armed Forces since April last year." - Middle East Eye
