Sebastian Smee: "No painting by Titian or Raphael has ever fetched as much as “Everydays.” So of course this is big news. But it’s also just one more riotous example of high-roller groupthink, market manipulation and the seemingly unstoppable human urge to commodify everything. - Washington Post
It turns out the NFT craze has many parallels to the art world. After even a few short days in the aftermath of the sale, we can already see that NFTs are creating effects that are hilariously and tragically the opposite of the utopian fantasies so many have placed upon them. - ARTnews
Once data is “on-chain,” it cannot be deleted, and it can be reviewed forevermore by anyone with access privileges and enough technological know-how. This means each NFT’s scarcity and provenance are secure, which in turn amplifies demand, which in turn builds a more confident, more robust market than we’re used to seeing for digital artworks without blockchain backing. -...
"Boris Johnson has used his first interview with a European newspaper since becoming the UK's prime minister to issue a point-blank rejection of the Parthenon marbles being returned to Greece. insisted that the sculptures, removed from the monument by Lord Elgin in circumstances that have since spurred one of the world's most famous cultural rows, would remain in...
Justin Davidson: "No memorial, no matter how grand or artful, can encompass the infinite varieties of pain, or comfort everyone who experienced a global pandemic. So we at New York and Curbed have taken a stab at reducing an event of unimaginable magnitude to a series of local and communal yet personal markers. At our request, and in a...
Some healthcare workers created dances to deal with the losses and tragedies - and stresses of people not believing in the virus' toll - and some painted. Some silkscreened; some embroidered on old bedsheets when fabric became less available. But all of the healthcare workers used art to cope. One physician: "The suffering we have seen with COVID-19 is...
So much not fans that they've sued the artist making the images. Hergé's heirs specifically said of Xavier Marabout's images that "it was not funny to take advantage of Tintin by putting him in an erotic universe, especially as Hergé had chosen not to caricature women." - The Guardian (UK)
When museum staff are preparing for a show, they need maquettes, like an actor's stand-in, to represent the works themselves. But they can't be replicas. They're "'really just trying to evoke the salient features, the sculptural qualities' of the original pieces. Their utility stems from their simplicity." - The New York Times
It is an investment in the future. We have been stepping up our education programs for kids and youth quite a lot. We continued doing that throughout the lockdown and I think that this differentiates us from many other museums that cut down on those departments, and especially on educational freelancers who were supposed to be giving seminars and...
Why would anyone buy a piece of art just to burn it? Understanding the answer requires us to delve into the tricky world of blockchain or “NFT” art. It blends the niche subculture of cryptocurrencies with long running philosophical questions about the nature of art. No wonder people have difficulty explaining it all. - The Conversation
At first glance, the notion that controversial statues should be explained and contextualised seems like a step in the right direction. However, for many activists and museum workers, this new law might feel like a step backwards. The emphasis of this law is clearly on the museum’s “duty to the nation to conserve and preserve our heritage,” but with...
The inscription has always been visible to the naked eye, but the infrared images helped to more clearly distinguish the writing from its background. Comparing it with the artist’s handwriting then clearly proved Munch’s authorship. - Scientific American
"Officials unveiled the mosaic at the Museum of Roman Ships, which was built in the 1930s specifically to house the treasures of two huge ceremonial ships Caligula commissioned in around AD 40. … Details emerged about the lucky break in the investigation that got it there." - AP
"The Detroit Institute of Arts is taking steps to improve its workplace culture following a critical review by outside investigators who said they had fielded employee complaints of retaliation by the director whose autocratic leadership style, they said, had fostered an environment that led a disproportionate number of women on staff to leave. … The museum said Monday that...
The price was a new high for an artwork that exists only digitally, beating auction records for physical paintings by museum-valorized greats like J.M.W. Turner, Georges Seurat and Francisco Goya. Bidding at the two-week Beeple sale, consisting of just one lot, began at $100. - The New York Times
