ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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Fans File BBB Complaints Over Confusion in Multiple “Immersive” Van Gogh Shows

Nearly 200 complaints have been filed on the BBB site against Fever, the ticketing company for the event, with at least two dozen about this specific exhibit. Customers have cited their frustration over mistaking Fever’s version for a similar exhibit from a different company, called “Immersive Van Gogh” and wanting a refund, but not being able to get one...

The Queen Of England’s Houses Cannot Be Searched For Looted Cultural Artifacts

Wait, are palaces like Sandringham likely to host stolen cultural artifacts? We'll never know - at least not from the police, who are barred by a 2017 law from searching the royal residences. - The Guardian (UK)

An Online Museum Brings Home The Sights And Sounds Of War Letters

The Museum of American War Letters is offering not just glimpses of the letters, but audio of tapes and other communications sent back home by soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Right now, it's mostly focused on Vietnam, but it plans to expand, and it's open to anyone who wants to visit, virtually. "The institution has no street address —...

Tunisian Police Target A Feminist, Queer Artist

Rania Andouni was targeted for her gender expression - and when she went to the police station to file a complaint, the police not only harassed her further, but charged her. A Tunisian "sentenced Amdouni to six months in prison on the charge of 'insulting a public officer during the performance of his duty,' which is punishable by up to one year...

Fake News From Assyria, 2700 Years Ago

It all comes down to the earring. "The arresting piece of jewellery, which bursts from the borders of itself with piercing radiance like a celestial orb, transforms the static action from a callous chronicle of recurring cruelty, however impeccably wrought, to something more sympathetically mythic: a meditation on the interconnectedness of all things" - and the supposed godlike powers...

The Pandemic Was, For Some, An Inadvertent Artist Residency

The fact that freelancers could (finally) tap into unemployment through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance programs changed, well, everything. Sarah Rose Sharp: "In my experience, the best conditions for making art involve getting paid to make art where I’ve already built the infrastructure that enables me to make art. Since March of 2020, that’s what I’ve done, and it’s been...

The Boom And Bust Of The TikTok Artist Life

The app is garnering millions of views, and some artists earn thousands (or more) for each short video they post. Some young artists are even "bypassing art schools and student loans, quitting their survival jobs and pursuing careers as full-time artists on TikTok. But the app’s insatiable demand for content is also bending their aesthetics in unexpected ways. What...

Leon Black Won’t Run For Re-Election As Chair For, But Will Remain On, MoMA’s Board

Black, who is also stepping down both as CEO and chair of his private equity firm the Apollo Group, was facing "mounting pressure from prominent artists and activists about his financial ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein." - The New York Times

Cancel Philip Johnson? MoMA Tries

Opened 27 February and running through to the end of May, a new exhibition, Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, challenges and seeks to dismiss the legacy of Philip Johnson, the modernist master who did so much to start and cultivate MoMA. Presented in a gallery dedicated to Johnson’s memory, the participants’ introductory manifesto obliterates an inscription in his...

More Fun With NFTs: Virtual House Sells For $500k

Mars House—which is staged on Mars in the promotional video—was designed in May 2020 using what is called “Meditative Design” principles. Jeff Schroeder, guitarist for The Smashing Pumpkins, partnered with Krista Kim to provide a prog-rock-inspired and suitably space-y accompanying soundtrack. - The Architect's Newspaper

Restored Ghent Altarpiece Is Finally Back Home — In A $6 Million Bulletproof Display Case

The van Eyck masterpiece is the most stolen individual artwork we know of (one panel is still missing after 87 years), and its Flemish custodians have given it a €5 million, 20-feet-tall, meticulously climate-controlled, bulletproof display case as part of a €30 million installation at St. Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent. - The Guardian

Germany Tries To Figure Out How To Go About Returning Benin Bronzes

"On the heels of a German state visit to Benin City, … the culture ministry and museums are now playing catch-up. … Culture minister Monika Grütters has called a meeting with relevant state culture ministers and museum directors in April to try to find a national strategy to address the handling of objects and art that were looted from...

China’s Architects Turn Attention To Ailing Villages

After a couple of decades of enormous urban growth led to thousands of emptied-out villages, both Chinese government policy and the mood of ordinary people there have turned toward the countryside and its revitalization. Architects are joining the effort, using traditional building methods and materials to create less expensive structures that are easy and cheap to maintain. - The...

How Architecture Reinforces Racism

“The logic of the ghetto is to limit you. It says you cannot go here, or do this. If freedom is about that ability to move, then a protest machine that is mobile is important.” - Bloomberg

3,000-Year-Old Bronze Bull Unearthed By Rainstorms At Site Of Ancient Olympic Games

An archaeologist working at Olympia noticed what turned out to be one of the horns of the bull figurine sticking up out of the mud following a heavy downpour. The bronze is estimated to date from about 900 to 700 BC; because it has burn marks, scientists believe it was part of an offering to Zeus, to whom there...

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