ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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One Of The World’s Most Notorious Art Forgers Is Releasing His Own NFT Collection

"Fittingly, the artist (Wolfgang Beltracchi) — infamous for his uncanny ability to mimic the work of others — is making 4,608 versions of Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi, in a variety of different artistic styles." Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Pop Art … - Artnet

The Real Problem Of Instagram

The platform’s erasure of certain kinds of work has the net effect of discouraging the making and exhibiting of that work. It erases art that is confrontational, that expresses points of view outside of the mainstream, while promoting art that is decorative and/or unchallenging. - ARTnews

The Curator Who Can’t Live Without Sculpture

Claire Lilley, who placed 18 sculptures for the London Frieze Sculpture show this year: "I love how we as humans occupy the same space as sculpture. I’ve seen people press their entire bodies against sculptures and hug them." - The New York Times

Cuban Artist Tania Bruguera Left The Island In Exchange For The Release Of Political Prisoners

The activist artist says she accepted a position at Harvard after telling the regime, "Look, you want me to leave, well now you have an opportunity. ... But I’ll leave on the condition that you release , and I handed a list of several people." - Hyperallergic

The Theatre Performance That Turned Actor Karen Lee Into A Visual Artist

It was a particularly bad evening for the actor who had recently been diagnosed with epilepsy: "I was onstage, and I forgot my lines, I forgot where I was, and I thought, I can’t do this anymore." - Irish Times

How Did The Pandemic Affect The Indian Art Market?

Some things went better, including a lot of pivoting to digital, but "Before the pandemic hit India, the annual India Art Fair took place in Delhi. 'We were at an all-time high,' said its director, Jaya Asokan. ... Just weeks later, everything ground to a halt." - The New York Times

A Portrait Of Chopin Bought At A Flea Market Turns Out To Be From The 19th Century

The portrait was peeling with age, and it hung for three decades in a private home in Poland after that consequential flea market find. "Only the artist's first name, Alfred, is preserved." - ABC News (AP)

So How Did the Elgin Marbles End Up At The British Museum In The First Place?

The short answer is that Lord Elgin simply took them from the Parthenon and shipped them home to London. True as such, but, as this backgrounder explains, Elgin had reason to believe that he was doing the right thing and had legal permission to do it. - ARTnews

Capturing The Movement Of Starlings As Art

Kathryn Cooper first films the starlings in 4K resolution. Then, working with clips that range in length from less than a second to more than a minute, she designs algorithms that help her select and splice together a compelling set of frames. - Nautilus

Holocaust Museum LA Plans To Transform Itself With Major Expansion

When it moved into its current location in 2010, the museum expected 15,000 visitors a year; by 2020, it was getting 65,000. Now, with an additional building by Belzberg Architects due to start construction next year, the museum plans to draw 500,000 annually by 2030. - MSN (Los Angeles Times)

A Wave Of Unionizing At US Museums, With Baltimore The Most Recent

"Workers at the Baltimore Museum of Art have announced plans to form a union, making the employees the latest in a nationwide push for better working conditions and higher pay at art museums, a field that suffers from drastic inequities." - Artnet

Gotta Love How This Year’s Documenta Artists Were Announced

In Germany on Friday, October 1, you might have picked up a copy of Asphalt—a publication that is sold to benefit poor and people struggling with homelessness. Within its pages, the art collective ruangrupa announced their artist list for the 2022 edition of Documenta. - Artnet

What’s Up With The Movie Museum’s Giant Orb? (Death Star?)

A big glass-and-steel ball is not vanishing into the mist. It sits there and it’s shiny and hard and you have to pay to get in. Doesn’t it also defy the whole point of a museum of movies, which is to take this vaporous art and give it substance and permanence? - Curbed

Veteran New York Antiquities Dealer Pleads Guilty To Trafficking In Looted Objects

"Nancy Wiener, 66, whose mother had also been a well-known expert in the field, acknowledged Thursday that she had taken possession of items that showed possible signs of looting … and presented them for sale with false statements of provenance." - The New York Times

Two Of Shanghai’s Major Museums Close Without Explanation

Last week the Long Museum West Bund shut for "facility maintenance," though it reopened two days later. Then the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum announced, with no reason given, that it would close indefinitely starting October 1, normally the start of a busy holiday week. - The Art Newspaper

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