ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

VISUAL

Is AI Going To Change The Field Of Art History?

"AI is already curating museum shows and biennials. Could it change how we approach, study, or regard art of the past, too? When it comes to AI and art history, it’s important to remember that, for many, this is not just a technological question, but an urgent ideological one too." - ARTnews

About 96 Percent Of NFTs Are “Dead”: Study

After examining over 5,000 NFT collections and collecting 5 million transactions from NFTScan, researchers found that the overwhelming majority are dead (zero trading volume or social media activity), 43% of NFT holders have lost money on them, and the average loss is 44.5%. - NFTevening

Why Did Canada’s Top Museum Push Out A Visionary Curator?

For many, Nanibush’s departure was a catastrophe. Prior to her arrival, the AGO, like many museums, tended to treat Indigenous culture as something ossified and static. Nanibush changed that completely. - The Walrus

What Happens When You Put Contemporary Art In A Small Conservative Austrian Village

The contemporary art influx is a colour blast of creativity in an area that usually attracts tourists interested in historic villas, mountains and high-end lederhosen. - The Guardian

Auctioneer Stumbles On Ten Signed Dalí Prints In Someone’s Garage

Chris Kirkham, associate director of Hansons Richmond auction house in London: "I was invited to assess some antiques at a client’s home. During the visit the vendor took me to his garage and, lo and behold, out came this treasure trove of Surrealist lithographs." - CNN

Hapless Four-Year-Old Boy Breaks 3,500-Year-Old Jar

"The Hecht Museum in Haifa (said) the crockery dated back to the Bronze Age between 2200 and 1500BC — and was a rare artefact because it was intact. It had been on display ... without glass, as the museum believes there is 'special charm' in showing archaeological finds 'without obstructions'." - BBC

London’s National Portrait Gallery Appoints Its First Woman Director

In 2012, Victoria Siddall rose to prominence after launching Frieze Masters, going on to become global director of the contemporary art fair, which takes place in London every October, and has offshoots in New York and Los Angeles. - The Guardian

How Do You Solve A Problem Like The Unloved Brutalist Behemoths Of D.C.?

A few architects share ideas for cheering up forbidding concrete hulks like the FBI headquarters, Hubert Humphrey Building, and Hirshhorn Museum. Others, however, like them just as they are. It took only some white paint on a few slabs in subway stations for a campaign to arise demanding, "Keep Metro Bleak!" - Smithsonian Magazine

Spotting AI Fakes: Can Art Historians Help?

One issue is that every image is worth scrutinizing as a cultural object that conveys values—but only if we can be certain about its origins. How can we interpret a photograph of an event from 1924 if the photograph was digitally fabricated in 2024? - Art in America

How ChatGPT Is Transforming Blind People’s Relationship With Visual Art

Be My AI noted that DALL-E does not “‘see’ in the human sense; it processes data and identifies patterns within that data.” I countered, “But the human brain also does not see. The eyes feed signals to it for interpretation. AI and human perception do not seem so dissimilar to me.” - ARTnews

Wrestling With Graffiti As An Artistic Intervention

This devotional, graphomaniac, filibustering dimension of graffiti haunts me. It suggests tagging as a version of call-and-response, within a city whose cacophony of advertising, decay, and squabbling vernacular voices begs reply. - LitHub

LACMA, MOCA, And Hammer Museum To Jointly Own Collection Given By Former CEO Of NPR

"The collection — consisting entirely of works by L.A.-based artists — has been accumulated by (Jarl and Pamela Mohn) over the last two decades and is being called the Mohn Art Collective: Hammer, LACMA, MOCA, or MAC3. The gift is accompanied by a $15-million to $20-million endowment." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Newfields-Indianapolis Museum of Art Appoints Third CEO In Four Years

Le Monte G. Booker, currently CFO of Chicago's Field Museum, follows Charles Venable, who resigned in 2021 after controversy over one astoundingly ill-chosen word in the job description for the museum director, and Colette Pierce Burnette, who was hired to succeed Venable and abruptly resigned last November after 15 months. - Mirror Indy

We Don’t Know Why You’d Want To Smell The Pre-Raphaelites, But This Gallery Is Going For It

“The scents will be released by individual visitors when they press a button on a nearby diffuser. Those who prefer just to look at pictures, relying on the artist’s ingenuity to stimulate senses and imaginations, will not smell a thing.” - The Observer (UK)

Is This Ancient Stone Carving In Turkey The World’s Oldest Calendar?

“Sweatman believes illustrations of snakes coming out of the bodies of birds and foxes on the pillars represent a meteor shower.” - Hyperallergic

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